The Preserver's Year

ceridwen

This is all very new territory to me - and I'm learning as I go. After my exploits with guelder rose berries the other day and deciding that they look revolting (a very lurid deep pink colour - when made into a drink) and smell revolting (thats when raw) and a heck of a LOT more revolting when I'm thinking "gotta boil that drink up - even though the recipe doesnt mention it - as guelder rose berries can apparently only be eaten/drunk when cooked" - so that was that concoction down the drain.....

Today I have been reinforcing my view that I seem to have discovered how anyone stays still long enough to listen to a Radio 4 programme. I've been wondering that for some time - as I keep virtuously deciding to do so - but I just dont stay still long enough to listen to a radio programme right the way through. I think I now know the answer to that question - they are busy doing some food preserving. I've taken to listening to Classic FM whilst doing any food preserving - and treating the experience as a sorta "meditation" ("when you're cooking - just cook" - shades of Thich Nhat Hanh....) - as thats a way I can view it in a "positive light" - rather than resenting spending loadsa time for notta lotta actual food I can eat at the end of it. With that - I've come to regard food preserving sessions as something thats actually quite enjoyable and could be a new hobby for me. So - I reckon that I just need to time my preserving sessions for when a Radio 4 programme I would like to listen to comes on now...:D

Today's session must have taken hours one way and another so far - and right now I'm working on "apple sauce" from a book I have (apple puree in my terminology). I DO wish authors instructions were totally step-by-step precise at the level suitable for rank beginners like me:rolleyes: .

So - thats where I'm at right now. I've chopped up a load of apples (roughly the 2.5 lbs he says - after allowing for chopping out the cores and bad bits) and they are just finishing simmering in a saucepan - with the additions of bit of butter/powdered ginger/1 Tablespoon of sugar (couldnt manage the cloves - as I dont have any in). So - the next step according to him is to sieve this - once its all soft and mushy. So - queries here:
1. He says to sieve it - BUT I've chopped out those cores and bad bits (which is something he didnt do in his recipe). So - query is: I figure I dont need to sieve it. I think he must be sieving it because he DIDNT chop out those bits and needs to have them removed before canning them. Do I actually NEED to sieve it?

2. He says to "pour into warm glass jars or bottles". I guess I'm correct in interpreting this as literally "warm" - but they dont actually need to be sterilised (as there is a water bath process next in the method). I have, however, played safe and heated my kilner jars up in the oven at 140C for 10 minutes and am leaving them there till I require them. I am planning on pouring boiling water over both parts of the lids. Is that correct?

3. He says "heat in a water bath at 77C for 30 minutes". So - I'm interpreting that as "plonk in my jam preserving pan with water as far up the pan as to cover the lids by 1 inch/2 inches and plonk suitable jam thermometer I have bought into the water at the time I start boiling the pan up - so I dont give the thermomenter too much of a shock by dropping it straight into boiling water. What does that temperature actually LOOK like - is it a fast boil? Am I correct in putting the thermometer in the water at that point?

4. Did I actually NEED to add that sugar he includes in ingredients? Would it keep okay without it? - or could I at least use honey instead? I personally can happily eat cooking apples stewed up without any sweetening at all in them - as I have such a "dry/savoury tooth" - so I doubt sugar is necessary from the sweetness viewpoint (at least for me personally).

Does that sound about right?

Oooohh.....there is one big gap in the market for a British book about preserving food (with what equipment we have available in our shops) and written in absolute basic step-by-step guide for total beginners and from the viewpoint of people who actually dont WANT to be preserving food in the first place (we just want to throw it straight in the freezer, having done very little to it - AND want to keep it healthy/low-calorie so are hugely reluctant to put ANY sugar at all in it and want to find ways to avoid doing that) - so there mustnt be any steps in the method that arent strictly necessary - eg peeling apples. PLEASE someone anyone write a book like that for us.....please.....(where's a smilie of someone with pleading look on their face/kneeling down with hands up in prayer position when one needs one......?;)).

Chris25

ceridwen - here's an answer to one of your questions

and might he be sieving to also get rid of the skins?

ceridwen

Chris25 wrote: »

ceridwen - here's an answer to one of your questions


errr...thanks....I'm thinking you mighta given a link I can click on...but I'm missing this somewheres.......:D

Like the praying smilie...:D

ceridwen

UPDATE:

I've now got that apple puree in the jars and said jars in preserving pan of water boiling away.

Hmmm...more reservations about the inexactness of the recipe for this:

He says "heat in a water bath" after one has filled the jars:
- How far up the jars does the water need to come?
- He doesnt say how many jars/what size one needs for this 2.5 lb of apples
- He doesnt say how much of a gap between the top of the apple puree and the lid there needs to be/

So - I've had to guess a lot of the stuff.

I've used one litre kilner jars and I dont think a preserving pan really allows for the water coming up very far - so I've ended up with the water coming about two-thirds of the way up the jars.

Because he didnt say how many/what size jars one needs for this 2.5 lb of apples - I took a wild guess and have used 2 x one litre jars and find that the apple puree comes about two-thirds of the way up them. Guess he should have said to use 2?/3? x 500ml jars?

He specifies "heat in a water bath at 77C for 30 minutes". He doesnt say whether one has to take the water from cold when in the "water bath". He doesnt say how one gauges whether the water temperature is 77C. So - more wild guesses and I heated the water from cold (whilst feeling annoyed that maybe I could have started it off at just boiled from the kettle - but he doesnt say - so I dont know). He doesnt say how one gauges whether the water is 77C - so I plonked that jam thermometer in at the outset (ie cold water I started with) and have been boiling away with the thermomenter in situ in the jam preserving pan and took it out when temp. reached that 77C (visual appearance of 77C seems to be some bubbles boiling in the water - as opposed to "flat" water or bubbling furiously - why doesnt he say so? - not everyone will HAVE thermometers).

Goes away muttering again "where are the preserving books for those who cant cook/dont want to cook? - and DO insist on healthy/low-calorie food?....gap in market:mad: gap in market:mad:".

So - I've got that there preserving pan cooking away now and just hoping that it doesnt matter that the apple puree is only 2/3 way up the jars AND that it doesnt matter that the water the jars are stood in only comes about 2/3 of the way up the jars.....:rolleyes:

...hmmm....I'm prepared to take more time/trouble with cooking than a lot of people these days...and I am feeling distinctly frustrated at lack of clear instructions/authors who appreciate the healthy & low-calorie way of eating that many of us use these days. So - I feel sorry for those who dont have even that level of time and/or inclination if they try to go in for preserving foods.....as, at my level, I dont seem to be catered for in cookbooks - so I can see a problem there....

My usual definition of cooking is "do the preparation from nice clear/easy recipes and then go off and read a book/surf the Web whilst I wait for it to finish cooking and serve with either veg. steamed in my electric steamer or a salad" and I know thats more than many people will do.

I have no objection personally to spending hours doing food preserving and more hours surfing the Web to find the missing instructions from recipes that the author couldnt be bothered to make clear enough - but I dont often HAVE that amount of time available.....hmmm....

Back to the drawing board....and I'll go and see how this very unclear recipe from the author is doing.....goes off muttering cynical thoughts about authors who miss out half the instructions from their recipes....

HariboJunkie

Maybe a few results from google will help you ceridwen....


And THIS link will show you the basics of preserving.

Kaz2904

I first stumbled across this thread on Saturday night and have spent a few happy hours reading it and making a list of all the things I like the sound of. We are in the very enviable position of having been given free range of DH's bosses woodland garden so have picked rosehips, brambles and apples from there with glee! We have been given lots of pears by DH's brother too. So far we have made sloe and apple jelly (only 1 jar left!), rosehip and apple jelly (had to add lemons and then another 2lbs apples to achieve a set!), blackberry and apple jelly, 2 jars of plum jam (from plums we saw on a tree overhanging a road and managed to knock down 1lb of plums from!), 2 bottles of sloe gin, DH made elderberry jam today- it looks delicious.We now have loads of pears to sort out and still more apples. 3lbs of sloes in the freezer and a small bag of blackberries in the freezer. Oh and more elderberries too! Ah and a bag of plums.....I'm thinking of bottling the best pears and think I shall try to give apple and pear butter a go too. I think the apple supply is fairly limitless as they are sour so I may even try mincemeat (vile stuff!). It's a wonderful feeling opening the cupboard to see a vast array of jars jostling to be eaten, I think cereal may be off the menu for some time when it runs out! MiL gave us some redcurrant jelly which was nice with porridge so I will be trying this with our jams over the winter months. Have a small selection of bottles so will try some of the cordials, I like the sound of elderberry and clove for a winter warmer. I'm getting a bit desperate for jars with lids now though! I will keep popping back here to see what goodies are being made. Happy jamming all!

ceridwen

HariboJunkie wrote: »

Maybe a few results from google will help you ceridwen....

Make delicious low sugar jams and jellies

Low or no sugar in jams, jellies and preserves

New recipes for interesting and low cal preserves.

And THIS link will show you the basics of preserving.

Thanks for that. I've now checked them out. The first three seem to be focusing on those sugar substitutes - so I shall continue searching on that front - as I fancy sugar substitutes even less than sugar. Thinks....what were those health problems aspartame causes again?....goes off pondering....as I cant recall exactly what they were offhand...I've read about other types of pectin which might be useful in this context - but havent yet traced how to source that within Britain (I have the suspicion theres a reason for that - ie its probably not obtainable in this country).

But...I will be investigating that fourth link further. I see - from that - that fruit butter doesnt seem to last as long as I had envisaged and they talk about having to keep it in a fridge.....more investigations needed there then....as I'd thought fruit butters might be a way one could keep leftover fruit pulp (eaten on a "rationed" basis because of the sugar)....so I'll think on on that then. Keeping times are obviously one of the relevant factors in what to make - and I am looking to find ways of preserving foodstuffs whereby they will last for up to a year (ie till the following years harvest). I'll have a further look round that website to see what useful info it might hold generally.

I think THE single biggest obstacle there seems to be to preserving food is the sheer lack of space to store it in the average British home (including my tiny little house). I've got a book through on fermenting food and my "head hurts" at the thought of where to store all those jars of food fermenting away....

I have a feeling that my main method of preserving food is going to be drying it - and I'm waiting for some obscure American books on this to turn up now from Amazon - as the one I've had for many years is with a specific "raw food" and drying things naturally in the sun emphasis (sun - WHAT sun? - this is Britain we're talking about here.....)

HariboJunkie

Oops... The first link is a error. I won't allow aspartame in my house so I certainly wouldn't advocate it's use. The sections I was referring to in the second 2 links is about using pectin. I should have been more specific when I linked you to them.

Penelope_Penguin

HariboJunkie wrote: »

Oops... The first link is a error. I won't allow aspartame in my house so I certainly wouldn't advocate it's use. The sections I was referring to in the second 2 links is about using pectin. I should have been more specific when I linked you to them.

I'm fascinated by the idea that you can preserve apples, etc, at ambient temperature, without the use of sugar, for instance as a preservative. Can someone direct me to a recipe for this, please?

If I understand correctly, you can make a "gel" using pectin, and no sugar, but this has limited shelf life, so will need to be refridgerated or frozen.

Haribo - your second link - the recipes at the bottom all contain artificial sweeteners Am I missing someting

Penny. x

HariboJunkie

Penelope_Penguin wrote: »

I'm fascinated by the idea that you can preserve apples, etc, at ambient temperature, without the use of sugar, for instance as a preservative. Can someone direct me to a recipe for this, please?

If I understand correctly, you can make a "gel" using pectin, and no sugar, but this has limited shelf life, so will need to be refridgerated or frozen.

Haribo - your second link - the recipes at the bottom all contain artificial sweeteners Am I missing someting

Penny. x

Oh dear. Seems like I screwed up my links.:rolleyes: That will teach me to try helping when I'm exhausted from chicken run building.

Offending links removed.