Food preserving techniques & recipes

[MHSC]

Re: Food preserving techniques & recipes

I don't have sources, but I have a recipe.

Melt butter slowly until it comes to a boil, reduce heat, cover and simmer for 5 minutes. Pour melted butter into heated canning jars, wiping rim and cover with canning lid and ring. Optional: shake jars a few times during cooling to prevent separation. Place in cool place until butter hardens. After hardening, butter will store for 3 years.

[MHSC]

Re: Food preserving techniques & recipes

I didn't have a bacon recipe, but I found one

this is not a USDA approved method, can bacon at your own risk.

You will need:

1 Pound of bacon for each quart jar
Parchment paper
Roasting pan or other pan for the oven
Quart jars, lids, rings and Pressure Cooker Procedure:

Boil jars, lids and rings for 10 minutes, keep simmering.
Get water in Pressure Cooker boiling
Trim long sheets of parchment paper so that they will fit, rolled up in a quart jar. The paper should not be any wider than the jars are tall from their bottom to their necks.
Lay strips of bacon on a baking pan or roasting pan and pre-cook in a 350* F oven until they are about 2/3 their original length, but do not cook them until they are crisp. If they are crisp when they are placed in the jars, they will crumble.
After pre-cooking, place the strips of bacon, still limp, on a sheet of trimmed parchment parchment paper. Roll the paper and bacon up and insert this roll into a hot, sterilized quart jar. Wiping rim with damp cloth.
Pour the grease from the bacon into the jar, do not fill more than 2/3 full of grease.
Process at 10 pounds pressure for 1 1/2 hours. Higher elevations should use 11 pounds pressure.
To cook: Open sealed jar, unroll paper and remove bacon. Cook bacon in a skillet until crisp.

[Jonesie]

Re: Food preserving techniques & recipes

Have any of you had any experience in salting fish?

I live on the edge of Morecambe bay in NW England and there are plenty if flounders (a flat fish much like plaice) which I can easily catch by walking in the shallows at low tide and trap under my feet and then pick up. On a good day I can catch several pounds of fish in half an hour and plan to use this free food if things get bad. Unfortunately the catch can be very variable so some way of preserving them would be good.

I have tried brining and smoking, as I do for salmon, but they were disgusting and would not have kept for long. If you have seen the film Babette's Feast the fishermen are drying flat fish on a 'washing line' and I have not been able to find instructions for this but would like to give it a try.

For those readers who want dried fish, shrimp, and calamari, and don't have access to shallows at low tide, I did see a huge variety of dried seafood being sold at Asian Import Markets. In cellophane bags. (All sorts of dried seaweed too.)

I would not know what to do with dried seafood, as I don't think I could tolerate eating fish stew, but some of you may love it. The smell would drive me out of the house!

But I might just go buy some dried shrimps and see if I could soak them overnight and put them into a stir fry.
Has anyone done this?

I did talk to a Korean woman at the store. She says in the Orient, the people eat the tiny dried fish and shrimp as is, right from the bag. Like we would eat potato chips. They like the crunch and saltiness.

Myself, I don't think I would want to eat raw dried seafood.

[runninghorses]

Re: Food preserving techniques & recipes

I would not know what to do with dried seafood, as I don't think I could tolerate eating fish stew, but some of you may love it. The smell would drive me out of the house!

I have plucked up the courage to buy some dried shrimps, but alas the bag remains unopened after a year.
Believe me the smell is M-I-G-H-T-Y powerful! It will take desperate times for such desperate measures.

[Jonesie]

Re: Food preserving techniques & recipes

I have plucked up the courage to buy some dried shrimps, but alas the bag remains unopened after a year.
Believe me the smell is M-I-G-H-T-Y powerful! It will take desperate times for such desperate measures.

I know how bad it smells.
(But the aroma would be heavenly for those who like this food)
I once bred tropical fish. I ran dried shrimp and minnows from the Asian stores through my coffee bean grinder. The powder I fed to the tiny fry..snails also. They grew really fast and were very healthy.
It was the best food there was. Nothing commercial could match it.
But I had to wear a mask when I poured it out of the grinder. And I stunk up the house with it.
If someone can eat this type of food, it would be a really good source of nutrients and protein.
There are 2' long dried fish sold at these markets too. Whole and fillets.

[susieM]

Re: Food preserving techniques & recipes

I don't have sources, but I have a recipe.

Melt butter slowly until it comes to a boil, reduce heat, cover and simmer for 5 minutes. Pour melted butter into heated canning jars, wiping rim and cover with canning lid and ring. Optional: shake jars a few times during cooling to prevent separation. Place in cool place until butter hardens. After hardening, butter will store for 3 years.

I strain mine as I pour it into the jars, and I also give the jars a ten minute boiling-water bath.

[susieM]

Re: Food preserving techniques & recipes

Those little tiny dried fish that look like minnows are very good fried with shoyu and vinegar and served over hot rice...Mmmm! Makes my mouth water, just thinking about them.

I buy packets of frozen mixed seafood cocktail...shrimp, calamari, squid, mussels...fry them gently til the liquid is gone and then dehydrate them. With some rice, spice, vegetables, canned chorizo and dried chicken, it makes perfect paella.

[gjs47]

Re: Food preserving techniques & recipes

Does anyone remember where the article is on how to vacuum seal grains, etc. in the oven? Someone wrote about how to put the jars in the oven for 20 or so minutes on a low temperature to create a vacuum for long term storage. Thanx!

[Amish Country]

Re: Food preserving techniques & recipes

Putting glass jars in an oven even on a low temperature (say 200 F) will weaken the glass and cause it to "run". Distortions will appear in the sides of the jar which look like the glass in some very old window panes. Glass is more of a rigid liquid than a solid. You would not want to keep them in there too long.