Archive for 'Food Preservation'
Homemade Mozzerella
Posted on November 8, 2011, under Food, Food Preservation, Goats, Homemade Cheese.
My family loves homemade mozzerella! We eat it on homemade pizza, cassaroles, marinated or just plain ol’ by itself. I am very thankful to have my small herd of dairy goats.. as I have a constant fresh supply of milk for things like making cheese 
Homemade Mozzerella from Raw Goat Milk
1 gallon fresh raw goat milk
1 1/2 tsp citric acid (this is what makes the cheese ‘stretchy’)
1/4 c. cold water
1/2 tsp. liquid rennet
cheese salt
Pour milk into thick bottomed sauce pan. Place your dairy thermometer into milk.
Turn the stove top burner onto a medium heat. Sprinkle the citric acid over the top of the milk. Stir the citric acid into the milk.
While milk is heating, measure the rennet and water... add rennet to the cold water (Very important! Never add rennet directly into milk, as it won't work.. I know from experience :-/ )
Heat milk to 86 degrees. Mix in water/rennet combo thoroughly. Once you have mixed it, discontinue mixing.
In pretty short order, you will see the curds seperating from the whey. I leave them alone (no stirring). Once your temperature reaches 105 degrees, remove pan from heat.
Scoop out curds into a microwave safe dish. I use a 8 cup pyrex glass measuring bowl. Continue to scoop until ALL curds are in the bowl.
Use the spoon (I use a large slotted spoon) that you scooped the curds, to hold them back and drain the excess whey back into the pan.
Microwave the curds for about 45 seconds. The time all depends on the microwave (how hot it heats items).
After the first microwaving, the cheese should start 'stretching' allowing it to be kneaded. As I knead the cheese, I continuously drain the whey back into the pan.
I microwave mine a total of 2-3 times each batch of cheese. I knead the cheese until no more whey comes out.
Sprinkle the hot, stretched (kneaded) cheese with cheese salt. I have never measured.. just sprinkle to taste. Knead the salt into the cheese - the cheese might need to be slightly reheated.
Place the cheese into desired mold (on in a bowl). The mold pictured has holes, so I lined it with plastic wrap. Cool in refridge and use within several days or freeze. Mozzerella freezes beautifully! I notice when the cheese is not used within several days of being refridged, the flavor heads south.
I started making marinated mozzerella this past summer. I cube the cheese, pour olive oil over the top and mix in fresh basil and salt to taste. YUMMMM!
Dill Pickles
Posted on August 31, 2011, under Food Preservation.
I LOVE canning season. One of my highlights of the season is pickles! This is the first of my ‘pickle’ series. I am starting with dill because in my opinion, they are the simplest to make… and I might add, the most popular among my household.
Materials needed – Wide mouth canning jars, lids and rings, 1 small sauce pan & 1 large.
Dill Pickles
Very clean, straight as possible pickling cucumbers
4 c. water
2 c. vinegar
1/2 c. pickling salt
Fresh dill
Garlic cloves
Place a sprig of fresh dill and a few thick slices of garlic in the bottom of the wide mouth quart jar.
Pack VERY clean (they need to be very, very clean!) cucumbers into jars. I line them up, finding the right cucumber to fit the jar perfectly. Once your jars are loaded with the cukes, place a sprig of dill and a few more chunks of garlic on top.
Once my jars are packed, I make the brine. My dill pickle recipe does NOT call for waterbathing..It is very important to make one batch of brine at a time.. to insure the brine is very HOT.
Measure the water, vinegar & salt into your medium sauce pan. Bring to a boil. This batch of brine will be enough to fill 3 of the jars.
While your brine is heating, place your canning lids into the small saucepan, cover with water and boil. They need to be good and hot (and steralized) to seal the pickles.
Once your brine is boiling and the lids are ready… fill your jars and seal quickly. I invert the jars for 5 minutes and then swiftly put them back upright again. This is not something you have to do.. I have found over the years it helps the lids to seal a bit more.
This is what your pickles will look like a few hours after canning them. The spots of bright green are totally normal and in a short time, all of the pickles will become the dull green color. Leave the jars alone for 24 hours. After a day, it is safe to move your jars to the shelf. MAKE SURE they are ALL sealed. If you find one not sealed, put it in the refridge. They will need to sit for approx 6 weeks to get the full 'dill pickle' flavor. I usually put a little sticker on top with two dates.. the date I canned them and the date they can be consumed
ENJOY!!
Apricot Raspberry Jam
Posted on August 3, 2011, under Food Preservation.
I have a few old (1960′s) canning books… Well, they are more of a ’booklet’ than a book. I have flipped through these books so many times over the years, that the pages are literally falling apart…lol.. As I was cruising through the Kerr booklet the other day, I stumbled across an Apricot Raspberry Jam recipe that I hadn’t paid much attention to before this. I HAD to make it!! As you can see, the recipe does not call for pectin, so I altered it to be ‘pectin’ friendly
Low sugar/no sugar pectin is what I use around my place. The jam is not as sweet as the regular sugar recipes.. but it works for us ;-)
Finely chop 4c. apricots and 2c. raspberries
Pour your fruit into a sauce pan. Measure out 4c. sugar and set aside. Each brand of pectin is a bit different in this next step. This particular brand (SureJell) had me mix 1/4 c. of the already measured sugar, into the pectin BEFORE I poured it into the saucepan that had the already prepared fruit. Once the pectin/sugar mixture is added.. stir into the fruit. Bring the mixture to a full boil (one that does not stop with stirring). Add the sugar. Bring the mixture back up to a full rolling boil (that does not stop when stirring) and hold it there for one minute.
Place your canning funnel on top of your already prepared jelly/jam jars and fill. Wipe each jar top with clean, damp dish cloth to remove any debris. Place the lid (which should be waiting for you in a little pan of boiling water) and ring onto the jar, secure firmly.
Place the jars into an already heated boiling water bath. Make sure the jars are covered with 1-2 inches of water. Cover, and boil for 10 minutes. Remove jars and do not disturb for 24 hrs. I do always check to make sure they all sealed after they have cooled down. If they do not seal, I put them in the fridge ASAP
The color of this jam is BEAUTIFUL!! And the flavor is so DELICIOUS! It has a bit of twang to it Enjoy!!
As a side note.. I will be entering this (and several other items) into our local county fair. I am hoping the judges like it as much as I do!!
Drying Banana’s
Posted on July 27, 2011, under Food Preservation.
When I come across a deal like this on banana’s…. I buy a large quantity and throw them in the food dehydrator. My family loves eating them AND they make a GREAT snack, as they are high in Vitamin B, Dietary Fiber, Vitamin C, Potassium, and Manganese. Simply put.. Delicious and Nutritious!!
Drying banana’s is very simple and only takes a wee bit of time. As a side not – your house will smell like you are baking banana bread for a day or two.. it’s delightful!!
You can dry them in a couple different ways -
Sliced banana's... which would be the same shape as the chips found in the grocery stores.
Or, you can take you thumb and run it up the bottom of a peeled banana. The nanner will naturally fall apart into three sections.
And will look like this when lined up on the drying rack. I prefer to dry them this way.. and the family prefers to eat the 'banana sticks' over the 'chips'
The length of time to dry the banana’s will depend on your dehydrator and how much heat it puts out. Mine will dry about 20 lbs. in 1.5 – 2 days.
Not only will your house smell like banana bread, the dried banana itself tastes exactly like banana bread.. without the added flour, sugar, etc.
The finished product
**Just as a side note.. the home dried banana’s taste nothing like the one’s in the store, and have a completely different texture. The chips in the store contain added sugar and preservatives… home dried nanners are just plain bananas**
Smoked Salmon
Posted on June 21, 2011, under Food, Food Preservation, Snacks.
A friend/coworker of my husband gave us a HUGE filet of salmon a few days ago. What a blessing! This act of kindness inspired me to pull our our Little Chief Smoker. Smoking fish (or pretty much anything) is simple. All you need is time
Wash your filet with cold water. Grab your sharpest knife and a cutting board/mat.
Prepare your 'brine'. Everyone has their own mixture. Mine happens to have just two ingredients - salt & sugar. Cut the fish into desirable pieces and roll/dip thoroughly in brine. Once all of your pieces have been covered, set them in a bowl for an allotted time (mine sits for about an hour).
While fish is soaking in it's brine. Prepare your smoker racks. I spray Pam on the to prevent sticking. About 15 minutes before the soak is finished, I start the wook chips in the smoker... I used cherry wood for this particular batch. If you are using a fire smoke house.. you should start your low heat fire at this time After the fish has soaked in the brine, rinse each piece thoroughly with cold water. Place each rinsed piece on the smoker racks.
Place your loaded racks into smoker.
Depending on how much smoke flavor you desire... is how many pans of wood chips you burn. Each pan burns for approx. 1/2 hour. I usually burn through 2-3 pans. You need to watch for the lack of smoke, which indicates a new pan is needed. Once you have burned through your allotted pans, you leave the fish in their to continue 'cooking' until done. This batch took about 10-11 hours.
The prize at the end! It is sooo good Refridge or freeze after cooled. Smoked salmon can be preserved by canning.. but that is for another blog
I’m Going Banana’s
Posted on November 2, 2009, under Food Preservation.
Have you ever had so many banana’s you didn’t know what to do? Well, I can’t say that has happened here ..lol.. I love to run into the red banded banana sales. These are the banana’s that are blemished and imperfect. A couple of days ago I ran into just one of those sales. There was two grocery carts overflowing with slightly imperfect nanners. These nanners were firm and still very edible. I asked the produce clerk for a box. I loaded that puppy up.. knowing I had my work cut out for me I am completely unable to pass up a good, nutritious bargain!
I have a large food dryer. Today, I loaded it up with banana’s. The kids love to eat them… Actually, we all love them They taste like banana bread.
What you do is peel them, put your finger up the bottom of each banana, splitting it in thirds. Lay them out on your racks and dry on high. Enjoy!
P.S. The rest of the banana’s (the one’s that did not fit on the racks) were put in the freezer for smoothies
Tomato’s Galore
Posted on September 9, 2009, under Food Preservation.
It seems like everyday recently I am preserving some sort of food Today was tomato’s. I have peeled and cooked down enough tomato’s for 17 quarts of sauce. I got some of the matoes from my moms garden and the rest came from our own garden. Up until a few days ago our garden was producing just enough for a meal at a time. Thankfully, the production has kicked it up a notch…
Once I can enough tomato sauce, I will start on salsa and soup. The kids and I were talking about pickling green tomatoes… has anyone ever heard of that before? Each year we have a lot of green tomato’s left… wondering what to do with them all. Seems like a waste to toss them to the chickens.
Freshly Peeled Tomato's Ready For Cooking Down
There’s Something Fishy Going On – Part 2
Posted on September 1, 2009, under Food Preservation.
Smoked Tuna, Fresh Off The Smoker Rack..
Not only does our house have a strong ‘fish’ smell after yesterday’s canning project… Today I smoked the remaining Tuna. Our little smoker holds a pretty good sized load of meat. I got up early this morning, rolled each piece of fish in the brine and let it sit for 1 – 1/2 hrs.
Tuna Setting In The Brine...
There’s Something Fishy Going On – Part 1
Posted on August 31, 2009, under Food Preservation.
Well after today’s fish project.. our house will have a ‘Fishy’ smell. I waded into my 41 pounds of tuna. I cut it all up and it went to 1 of 3 places… a jar for canned tuna, a bowl for a fish dinner or two… or a bowl for smoking (no, I’m not literally going to roll it up and smoke it…lol…). Tuna is a piece of cake to prepare for can. You just shove the raw tuna into jars, add a bit of salt and seal with your lid & ring.
Fresh Tuna Jarred, Salted & Ready To Seal.
Tuna That Has Finished Processing.. Ready To Go On The Shelf.
A ‘Pear’ to draw too…
Posted on August 28, 2009, under Food Preservation.
Each end of summer/fall we look forward to our own abundance of fruit and vegies + sharing others abundance also. We were blessed with getting to pick a neighbors pear tree. YUM! Fresh ripened pears are sweet and juicey.
The trick with picking bartlett pears is to pick them when they are green. You don’t want to pick to early and lose some important last minute growth…. a week makes a difference in the size your fruit will become. Don’t wait too long or your fruit will start to over ripen from the inside out (not to mention the fruit will start to fall from the tree and bruise one or more sides). With preservation, our family can eat pears throughout the upcoming year. I will blog as I put up the pears We have to wait for them to ripen…
P.S. After picking green pears, you should place them in a single layer on a flat surface (we used boxes). The picture below is right after we picked them, before I seperated them out.
