Have More In Winter, Too!
(Page 9 of 10)
Everybody knows about salting cabbage to make sauerkraut. I
put mine up in jars as I have found this even easier than
the crock method. It is also possible to salt away corn,
beans, cauliflower, turnips and peppers.
RELATED CONTENT
A Maine couple goes back to the land and makes a business of homemade foods and crafts....
PRESERVING VEGETABLE AND FRUITS August/September 1999 Issue # 175 - August/September 1999 This cha...
FALL PRESERVING TECHNIQUES October/November 2000
Root cellars, waterglass
...
One Person's Trash... April/May 2001 Your community's public works maintenance and surplus yard may...
The Grand Tetons September/October 1972 A couple of us MOTHER people were recently flown out to Gra...
Alternate layers of washed vegetables and salt are packed
into earthen crocks and weighted down. If enough brine
to.cover vegetables completely is not formed, a
concentrated brine made with boiling water may be added.
Use 3 1/4 cups of salt (common or coarse salt is better
than fine tablesalt) to 6 quarts of water. Keep in a cool
place - the vegetables are ready to use at any time.
To desalt for use, put salted vegetables in a big pan,
cover with cold water, heat to luke warm, stir and pour off
water. Repeat until vegetables are only slightly salty.
Then you can cook in regular manner.
Dehydration
During the early part of the war I read a lot of articles
telling how wonderfully easy it was to dry your vegetables
and fruits at home. Well - in our attempt to carry out
miniature farming in the easiest, most modern way, we
borrowed one of the very best home model dehydrators which
set back one of our neighbors about $40.
We soon found that proper dehydration is not so terribly
simple after all. It takes as much preparatory work as
canning and it is more difficult than freezing foods. We
think its worst feature is the long drawn out drying
process. It takes 10 hours just to dry the food
thoroughly; you can scarcely complete the project in one
day.
In our section of the country where there is much moisture
in the air, dehydrated food should be packed in tightly
sealed jars so it won't absorb water again until you use
it. And when you do, dried food takes pre-soaking to return
it to its normal state.
We do not believe home dehydration will ever be
widely used in America except where it is specifically
desirable for reasons of taste, geography or space.
Frankly, we couldn't stand the taste of the three things we
tried - snap beans, spinach and broccoli. But if your
family is extremely fond of dried beans and peas then it
would be worthwhile to dry them. Also, we all know that
certain fruits are splendid dried.
If you are interested in drying foods, we suggest you try
it out in your cooking oven first and see if you like the
idea. You'll get about the same results you'd get with a
special machine. Place oven door open and set the
temperature at 165°. You'll have to get the length of
time for drying your specific vegetable or fruit from an
instruction booklet. Then freshen up the dried samples,
cook them and see if you like them. If you do approve, you
can either buy or build a dehydrator.
Page:
<< Previous 1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
6 |
7 |
8 | 9 |
10 |
Next >>
