home preserved foods

[auntieannie]

Today, I made chutney for the first time in my new kitchen. Noticed the measuring jug was broken when I got the equipment out, but that won't be too big an expense.

Earlier in the week, I had noticed we were running out of chutney and found local pears on sale. So, I used my dad's home-made vinegar, and now we have a small batch of pear chutney, which will be ready to try in three weeks.

[Baz Faz]

I make pickled cucumber. I think it may be a Danish recipe and it is excellent. The recipe came, strangely, from the pompous chairman of my father's company.

[kuskiwi]

Lovely. I Used to make tomato relish, gerkins, jams and masses of jars of bottled fruit but not worth it now as I don't eat it and don't have hoards of workers or visitors but it certainly is psatisfying.

[sophie]

I love making chutney! This past year I made blueberry chutney and rhubarb chutney. Apricot chutney I still have from the season before (or was it peach chutney?) .. which is yummy. This past Christmas I made cranberry chutney as well as cranberry sauce; the chutney disappeared first!

[sophie]

I also have made salsa but these days it’s too much bother as my favourite recipe makes too much for the two of us. I can the salsa (rather used to) and we used to make 30 quarts or more of the stuff. I also can the chutney do it keeps for a year or more.

[slowcoach]

Every time a thread comes up about preserves I get a headache, nothing serious just annoying, and it is down to knowing that the one thing we didn't call it was "canning", which to me means canning as in cans, me tal things, and for certain no cans were involved

Well my head can rest more easily for I remember now that we called it bottling, which is equally odd as, for certain, no bottles were involved.

Yawn, soon be time to rest my head and hope for further joys of remembering.

---

ETA: Piccalilli (mustard seasoned) was favourite, and it was quite vicious, as were pickled eggs.

[kuskiwi]

Here we also bottled and there were bottles or jars involved. Tomatoe sauce went into half gallon beer bottles.

[auntieannie]

Used the food dehydrator for the first time in my home. I dehydrated mushrooms that I got on sale. They can be added to stews and sauces, or they can be eaten as a snack. Not sure I'll get to add them to stews or risotti or anything, as I was looking for snacks that don't add too much to my waistline.

[auntieannie]

I wanted to say that I made spiced apricot chutney yesterday. and realised that I hadn't told you that my first attempt at drying mushrooms here didn't work. the mushrooms went limp. They looked completely dehydrated when I put them in air tight jars, but they must not have been. Thankfully, I noticed very quickly otherwise it might have turned nasty.

[sophie]

Apricot chutney is so tasty.

[auntieannie]

sophie, I used fresh apricots, but in my recipe book, they suggest using dried apricots "as otherwise the taste is too weak". I wonder if it is because it is meant for the UK, where they may not have apricots like we have here. I anyway used a recipe for plum chutney as it is the recipe I use for all fruit and it works beautifully. will let you know in about a month how it tastes.

[wikki]

so far I made, cherry juice ( already gone) and compott, red currant juice and frozen red currant puree.

[auntieannie]

Took the last of the figs out of the dehydrator to quickly dry the lemon verbena leaves as the weather is turning sharply. once they are dry, I' put the mostly dehydrated figs in overnight and hopefully, they'll be ready tomorrow.

[mockchoc]

When I use to work at the deli I made an Indian eggplant pickle at home from the eggplant we grew and had too much of. Everyone went nuts and bought it all from me. I didn't even try to sell it! I would have given it to them.