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preserving & pickling

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Re: preserving & pickling

Postby halfateabag » Tue Apr 21, 2020 12:43 pm

We went to that salt mine in Polska, I bought one of their small rock salt lamps. Every now and again I give it a lick ! Saw the same ones on sale here - more than double the price. :shock: It sits on a small natural table made from a coffee root and another hardwood. It has a nice warm light as it is slightly pinkish and just lights the corridor from old to new build.

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Re: preserving & pickling

Postby Earthmaiden » Tue Apr 21, 2020 1:45 pm

Salt lamps are so pretty, but Halfateabag, you have to be careful with them if you have cats, they shouldn't lick them.

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Re: preserving & pickling

Postby Sakkarin » Tue Apr 21, 2020 7:29 pm

Made a batch of KK's pineapple chutney, which a little taste seems promising, but it would not thicken, even after 40 minutes of fairly aggressive cooking. I used half the quantities in the recipe.

I have to say that trying a bit before I cooked it, it was possibly the most disappointing pineapple I've ever tasted, very flavourless - maybe it didn't have enough pectin to thicken the liquid, if it was supposed to be jammy :-(

Maybe it will thicken as it cools, I'll keep an eye on it. Either way I can't see myself waiting a month!

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Re: preserving & pickling

Postby karadekoolaid » Wed Apr 22, 2020 4:39 am

Every time I´ve made the chutney, there´s always too much liquid at the end.
I tried reducing the vinegar and the result was bland.
I tried boiling it fiercely - no difference. The final flavour (with all the liquid) has always been divine.
So my "solution" was to bottle as much "solid" as possible, and the liquid that was left over I kept in bottles and used it to cook pork or chicken for other recipes.
I´m sorry - I should have mentioned that when posting the recipe!

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Re: preserving & pickling

Postby Pepper Pig » Tue Apr 28, 2020 3:13 pm

From today’s online Guardian. The power of pickles.

https://www.theguardian.com/food/2020/a ... everything

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Re: preserving & pickling

Postby ZeroCook » Tue Apr 28, 2020 8:38 pm

karadekoolaid wrote:Every time I´ve made the chutney, there´s always too much liquid at the end.


I use pineapple quite a bit and it's one of those fruits that can do strange and unwanted things to and with other ingredients unless prepped imo. For chutney I sprinkle half the sugar over the pineapple in the saucepan, stir and allow to sit and dissolve. Boil it up for a few minutes to stop the liquid continuing to leak out and will concentrate the sugar to a thickish syrup. Remove the pineapple to boil and reduce syrup further if there's a huge amount of liquid so as not to overcook the pineapple, which will shrink anyway. Return the pineapple to the pot, add remaining sugar, vinegar to taste, etc as per, and simmer until thick and glossy.

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Re: preserving & pickling

Postby MariaK » Tue Apr 28, 2020 11:54 pm

Stokey Sue wrote: Stokey Sue » Tue Apr 21, 2020 11:35 am

Thing is, I had lovely pickled radishes in a restaurant, and none of my attempts were nearly as good but I didn’t try that one!

Salt is odd. You only really notice a significant difference between different salts if the crystal goes into the mouth whole and the taste is affected by the sensation of the crystal dissolving on your tongue. If you made a series of 5% solutions of the different salts you almost certainly wouldn’t be able to identify them by taste. Obviously if it has additives such as calcium silicate or sodium triphosphate to make it free running, or iodine, that can affect taste or pickling). But for brining pickles I can’t believe there’d be a noticeable difference between additive free salts - kosher, sea, or rock

Having visited the wonderful rock salt mine at Wielizcka I would expect any Polish cook to recommend rock salt - pure, local, no additives!


Sue,

I've only had the ones I made so no comparisons - hope you like this one. If not perhaps you could chat the chef up and get the recipe.

Agree, Wieliczka is well worth a visit. Although things are changing a lot of Poles still only use "table salt" for cooking and at the table. The friend who recommended rock salt for pickling has all sorts of sea salts, including Guerande, of course, as well various other French & Spanish ones we've given him as well as rock salts. I think rock salt is supposed to keep gherkins etc crisp for longer.

Gillthepainter wrote:Gillthepainter » Tue Apr 21, 2020 8:21 am

Guérande salt

Did you find this salt rather grey?
I bought a huge bag from our Organic shop, that has amazingly different products, at amazingly expensive prices.

It was strangely dull coloured, but absolutely fine to use.


The coarse cooking salt is greyish because of all the trace elements, minerals etc which are washed out in white industrial salts. So grey is good for you!!!
The white fleur de sel is gathered on the surface and should be kept damp as it's a finishing salt - sprinkle a bit over sliced tomatoes and watch it melt.

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Re: preserving & pickling

Postby Seatallan » Thu Apr 30, 2020 2:25 pm

Pepper Pig wrote:From today’s online Guardian. The power of pickles.

https://www.theguardian.com/food/2020/a ... everything


I saw that and my heart sank. I suppose there'll be a run on everything preserve-related now, in addition to everything baking-related. Just what I didn't need..... :lol:
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Re: preserving & pickling

Postby cherrytree » Thu Apr 30, 2020 3:56 pm

If it’s any comfort I don’t think the article was that good. It seemed tom me to be another desperate attempt to fill two pages of the paper. And there’s another today on lunches.

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Re: preserving & pickling

Postby karadekoolaid » Fri May 01, 2020 2:51 am

It probably was. A quick review of the press today revealed:
1) Coronavirus
2) Coronavirus
3) What to do if you have Coronavirus
4) What to do if you don´t have Coronavirus
5) Lots of stupid ideas regarding Coronavirus. Or not.

Preserving and pickling are in our blood; our ancestors probably discovered pretty quickly that keeping beetroot (for example) in vinegar, prolonged its life. I´d also add that preserving often doesn´t need a "recipe" from a "Superstar Chef" - the best option is probably to ask your granny. Once you´ve made your "recipe", it´s a case of checking it out. It´s too sweet; it´s not sweet enough; it lacks flavour; there´s too little/too much salt, etc.
Food - and in this case, preserving - is about TASTE. And when it comes down to it, it´s personal taste. So yes, a recipe will help - but you need to adjust it to your personal taste.

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Re: preserving & pickling

Postby Earthmaiden » Sat May 16, 2020 12:09 pm

https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.ft.com ... d0266d3922

Looks as though we should be stocking up on preserving sugar, brushing up our bottling skills and making freezer space ... there could be a good few gluts this year!

(the FT site is a bit temperamental unless you sign up - I saw the article online without signing up). It is about the expected glut in strawberries due to seasonal events such as Wimbledon being cancelled.

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Re: preserving & pickling

Postby spangle » Sat May 16, 2020 1:38 pm

Talking of salt, I've found an unlikely source of speciality salt at reasonable prices - TK Maxx.

Don't think they're open at the moment, but the branches I've been in have a small and strange but interesting food section tucked away somewhere. Usually several shelves of different brands of Himalayan pink salt and a few other types, plus tea, coffee, jars of pesto, speciality crisps/snacks and other gift/weird things. I like having a browse in there.

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Re: preserving & pickling

Postby Stokey Sue » Sat May 16, 2020 3:51 pm

spangle wrote:Talking of salt, I've found an unlikely source of speciality salt at reasonable prices - TK Maxx.

Don't think they're open at the moment, but the branches I've been in have a small and strange but interesting food section tucked away somewhere. Usually several shelves of different brands of Himalayan pink salt and a few other types, plus tea, coffee, jars of pesto, speciality crisps/snacks and other gift/weird things. I like having a browse in there.

Snap! I got a kilogram drum of coarse grey sel de Guérande and a pretty bottle of very good white balsamic condiment earlier this year, saved a fiver

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Re: preserving & pickling

Postby Lokelani » Sat May 16, 2020 4:08 pm

I rather fancy trying that pickled radish recipe. I tried one a few years ago tempted by the jar of pretty pink liquid from a Waitrose recipe. They were really unpleasant, mouth puckeringly bitter & sour I seem to remember. Looking back at the recipe it had a lot of vinegar & lemon juice, but no sugar or anything sweet. Probably why. They did look pretty in the jars though! :lol:

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Re: preserving & pickling

Postby ZeroCook » Sat May 16, 2020 7:57 pm

Picked up a few turnips a couple of days ago on a shop as we are out of pickled veg. No radishes but turnips are fine sliced thick and quartered skins on same as radishes. Not a fan of batons.

Put into jar with a few whole cloves of garlic, added a smidgeon of dried beetroot for clolour, added my go-to salt brine and weighted down.

It's all chemistry and works for all veg - you want to around 7% salt by weight. So 1 L water and about 70g salt.

Use all saltwater for proper lacto-fermented pickles - my preference as the it's the lactic acid from fermentation that creates the sourness. Or replace 25% of the water with any vinegar (except dark malt) which is also very good - tangy and sour but not tear inducing.

Leave all-saltwater brine jars in cool place to ferment and bubble away for at least 5 days or until the brine is the sourness you like, then fridge.

For brine with vinegar, ferment for 5 days and then into fridge. Having said that I've left out for much longer with good results.

Not a fan of very high vinegar pickles.

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Re: preserving & pickling

Postby Seatallan » Sun May 17, 2020 2:33 pm

spangle wrote:Talking of salt, I've found an unlikely source of speciality salt at reasonable prices - TK Maxx.

Don't think they're open at the moment, but the branches I've been in have a small and strange but interesting food section tucked away somewhere. Usually several shelves of different brands of Himalayan pink salt and a few other types, plus tea, coffee, jars of pesto, speciality crisps/snacks and other gift/weird things. I like having a browse in there.


If you have a Homesense nearby once the lockdown ends (the home & garden version of TK Maxx) there's even more of a selection (they have a 'gormet foods' section). We had one when we lived in Reading and it was out the other side of fabulous. Our nearest one now is Newcastle.
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Re: preserving & pickling

Postby karadekoolaid » Sun May 17, 2020 2:42 pm

Wow, Zerocook - some very useful advice there. Thanks for that - I love turnip pickles made like that, although I put whole slices of beetroot between the turnips.
Yesterday I started off a sauerkraut. I´ve honestly never made it before, but I had about 3 kgs of white cabbage in the fridge and simply wanted to use some of it up. Three weeks is supposedly how long it will take.
Then in the afternoon I made some tamarind chutney. At the start of lockdown, a friend had given me a whole sack of fresh tamarinds, which I peeled, soaked and froze. Now´s the moment to start some chutney, I thought, so two pots came out of the freezer. I used a recipe I found on the internet which includes black salt, asafoetida and fennel seeds!

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Re: preserving & pickling

Postby ZeroCook » Mon May 18, 2020 9:06 am

I'd kill for a sack of tamarind, Clive. Lucky you. I love all things tamarind especially chutney.

Gillthepainter wrote:I've got courgettes in the fridge that I won't be able to use.
And will be making courgette pickle this morning to preserve them. Should be rather nice with poached salmon some time at a later date:
https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/cru ... tte-pickle


I think I'm going to try that one, Gill - r given several large courgettes that need using. How did your pickle turn out?

Have a couple of sides of wild Alaskan salmon stashed in the freezer one of which will come out soon for a good dinner I think. Need to get my cooking mojo back.

My turnips are coming along as are the giant cucumber pickles. Bubbling away in their jars.

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Re: preserving & pickling

Postby Gillthepainter » Mon May 18, 2020 9:24 am

I didn't try it in the end, as Seatallan posted the Mamta one & I was swayed by its use of panch pooran.
Which I really liked in there in the end result.

But the BBC one you are asking about, I still think looks right. Although I haven't tested it, no.

My turnips are coming along as are the giant cucumber pickles. Bubbling away in their jars.


Lovely!

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Re: preserving & pickling

Postby ZeroCook » Mon May 18, 2020 10:28 am

Right - knew you'd made Mamta's, Gill - thought you might have made the other as well.

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