Food storage methods

[Britesea]

I like to can up some meat- chicken or beef most often, with onions, carrots and celery. How many dishes start out with that trio? I can just open it and heat it for a simple soup, or add potatoes or noodles or barley etc for a different kind of soup. Thicken it with flour and put a crust on it for a pie, or top with mashed potatoes for cottage pie. Mix with more pasta to make a casserole. and on and on. We could have a different meal every day of the week just using these.

 

[sumi]

My mouth is watering, @Beekissed That looks very nice!

 

[Beekissed]

Truly, it's like eating summer in a jar!

I do the same as Britesea with canning chicken or deer...first we use it in a soup, then we use the leftovers in a pot pie or casserole. It just gets more flavorful with each consecutive dish. Tender right out of the jar, it requires no further cooking so you can get into soup real quick and in a hurry.

 

[tortoise]

How can I preserve zucchini?

 

[goatgurl]

@tortoise, i can it mixed with some tomatoes and onions. grate it, put it in freezer bags and use it in zucchini bread or cake. I've never dehydrated it but i know you can.

 

[sumi]

@tortoise You can make candies with it. Peel and remove seed from LARGE heavy walled zucchini. Cut into 1 inch cubes. Simmer cubes in 4 -5 cups water with 3 packets Kool-Aid and 2 - 2 1/2 C sugar or sweetener to equal. simmer until cubes begin to get translucent. Drain and spread on dehydrator trays. Set at 125 degrees and dry about 16 hours until no longer sticky. Shake cooled candy in powdered sugar and store in sealed container.

I make a dish using about a pound of the stuff, creamed sweetcorn, cheese and loads of eggs, so I grate and freeze pound bags of zuchs when I have a glut. But I want to try the above candies next year when I'll hopefully have a dehydrator and a bit of a vegetable patch

Which reminds me… for some odd reason the Irish do not "do" creamed sweetcorn and the tinned whole kernel corn we buy here is a bit chewy and not very nice. Anyone have any suggestions for home-made creamed sweetcorn? Either from fresh corn or tinned whole kernel.

 

[Beekissed]

I can get you to the sweet, crisp and flavorful home canned corn but I've never creamed any of our corn, so can't take you any further. The reason the corn in the store is so tasteless and chewy is that it's been cooked to death in a pressure canning situation.

We have canned our corn in a boiling water bath method for almost 40 yrs and when you open that jar it taste like you just cut it off the cob, it's that fresh and sweet, crisp in texture. Back when we first started canning corn Mom did it in the pressure canner as recommended but it rendered a discolored, rubbery/mushy and tasteless result in the jar, so she asked the older ladies at church how to correct this and they told her of the following method.

Cut the corn off the cob~no blanching needed....

... place in the jar, a tsp or tbs of salt(your preference)...

Cover the corn with water(doesn't need to be hot), then place a thick slice of green tomato on the top to add acid to your jar...

Cap it and use a boiling water bath or steam canner for 45 min. (for the steam canner, you start that timer when the steam plumes are 10 in. high or higher)...

When opening the jar for use, just remove the green tomato and use the corn as per normal. We find our canned corn to be far superior in flavor and texture to any frozen corn we've done, so we don't bother to freeze corn any longer.

 

[sumi]

Thank you @Beekissed Your instructions and the pics are wonderful. I saw some people grow corn around here (DH said the climate is not right), so I'm going to grow some next year and give this a shot. I adore sweetcorn, but the stuff they sell in the shops here are not "right"

 

[sumi]

Talking about shop bought stuff… I bought some eggs today The hens that produced them certainly did NOT free range. They were disgusting!

 

[Britesea]

Please don't try this recipe... it would be like playing Russian Roulette! You could do this for years or even decades with no problem, but it only takes one time. If there are any spores of clostridium botulinum present on the corn when you start processing, 1 piece of green tomato is not going to add enough acid to allow you to safely water bath corn. It needs to be 4.5 ph or lower to be acid enough.

You would be better off freezing your corn if you don't want to pressure can it.

This looked like an interesting take on creamed corn that you could try:
Best Ever Slow Cooker Creamed Corn

SERVES 8 | ACTIVE TIME 5 Min | TOTAL TIME 4 Hours 5 Minutes


8 oz cream cheese, cut into pieces
1 cup 2% milk
1/2 cup heavy cream
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter
3 tablespoons granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 pounds frozen corn

Combine ingredients in slow cooker. Stir to combine. Cover and cook on low for 4 hours. At about 3 hours it will completely come together. Allow to cook for the full 4 hours for the best results.

Serve and enjoy.

COOK'S NOTE: Creamed corn will thicken as it sits, you may wish to add a little milk if you would like it to stay in the slow cooker longer.
Recipe developed by Donna Elick - The Slow Roasted Italian