Reddit mentions: The best canning & preserving books

> Where do you suggest learning this? What do you think of my idea of hiring a culinary student to give me private lessons?

In nearly 10 years of professional cooking I have never met a culinary student with hands. Unfortunately, I cannot explain it more than having the right attitude, with there "always being room for improvement" and "oh he's asian." My first chef and cooking job told me I had "heritage knife skills." You are on the right track with Shun and simply wanting it. I can post some demo videos eventually, when I sober up and have more in my pantry than onions (I work ~80 a week between two kitchens, I don't eat much at home).

> I don't have any friends who work in the food industry, where would you suggest meeting such a person (similar question as above)? I would buy a whetstone, but I have no idea how to use it properly. Also, most of my knives are from Shun, and I know they have a service where you can send them off to get them sharpened for free. I haven't done this yet (knife set is pretty new). Would you suggest this?

Shun is good people, but I resharpen my knifes everyday for use in a professional kitchen, with volume ranging from cutting three bunches of celery to 100 lbs of onions on top of service--I don't like to play with dull knives. And it is a skill you never really lose, though I wore a hole in my finger the last time I sharpened knives, but I sharpened knives for the entire staff and was fairly drunk at the time--maybe you shouldn't be friends with us, unless you like waking up to a pile of dishes and beer cans in the morning... Once again, I would be willing to sharpening technique on youtube, but I'm certain there are videos of it there, "Japanese knife sharpening."

> I enjoy cooking and I absolutely find it cathartic and meditative. However, I have time constraints. I have a job, hobbies, chores, occasional medical problems that sap my energy, and I have to cook ALL my meals. I feel like I spend too long prepping vegetables as it is now. I realize for some recipes that getting perfect cuts is important, but 90% of the time, I would like to just go faster. Do you have any tips for this?

For me, speed come with knife sharpness and monopolizing a single cut. So if you have to julienne a ton of onions, do not try to do one at a time, cut them in half, clean/peel them all, then focus on the julienne so you are repeating the same motions over and over vs attempting different angles and having to move finished product into a container or off the cutting board.

> One major thing I have going for me is that I have great resources in terms of grocery and kitchen options.

>I'm not sure if you are familiar with the Seattle area, but we have an amazing variety of grocery stores/markets here. There is a farmers market every day, Pike Place market, Amazon Fresh (delivery), multiple organic co-ops, Costco, multiple Asian grocery stores, specialty international food stores, Cost Plus World Market, Whole Foods, upscale grocery stores, regular grocery stores, etc. etc. I can get pretty much any ingredient. The problem with most of the produce is that it might be sprayed with the pesticide that I am allergic to. CSAs only work if the produce comes exclusively from certain farmers that don't use this pesticide. When that stuff is in season, I buy huge quantities directly from the farmer and load up my chest freezer.

This makes me happy, but I was happy anyways since I had a few after work. In terms of recommended reading, I suggest looking into pickling assuming you are not allergic to citrus, even so you can probably still use refined vitamin C. Here are three pickling Amazon links: Balls. Can. Ferment, sorry, couldn't resist the urge.

Something else I borrowed off one of my ECs: On food and cooking, Harold McGee.

Another to add to your library: Food lover's Companion

Food is great in that it is a kinesthetic science, a lot of great cooks are also great "scientists" they just don't know it, they are just doing it by "feel, taste and smell." This is where organization and precision come in--know your objective/hypothesis and continue with experiment procedure from there, speed is a measurement: how long, how fast, etc, etc. "If you don't measure you cannot improve." I feel like recipes are more or less, just successful lab reports.

Since you mentioned vegetarianism I feel like I can discuss my on and off relationship with veganity. I do try to build muscle from time to time and so it is hard for me to ignore the nutrient/protein density of tasty decaying animal flesh. But generally in terms of vegetables and fruit there are few exceptions to them having more benefits apart from them being consumed raw: namely Goitrogens.

So this may lead you, as well as it lead me for a time to a "raw/vegan" diet. I dunno though, I get stuck between it and "Paleo" and sometimes just eating raw meat--I cannot tell if I am just becoming lazier as a cook or if I am making strides my personal health.

Back onto topic of sorts:

> My kitchen is already pretty good. I have a nice gas stove, which I feel makes a big difference. We are planning a remodel to enlarge the kitchen.

Hrmm, I am at odds with enlarging for the sake of "bettering," I feel like you can get away with great results with little space and a little ingenuity, but with great precision. I have a portable induction cook-top, a juicer, a blender and a shitty built-in electric range/stove, just missing a dehydrator, PID temperature controlled water bath, a blow torch, vacuum sealer and I wouldn't be too far from a NY test kitchen--I feel like I could feed a hundred people, no problem without using the electric ranges: it comes down to organization. You are one person, trying to feed yourself and your family at any given time, make prep easier for yourself by doing much of it at once or at least eliminating a step or two, prep for half the week or prep for the next step, for example: celery--strip all of it away from the root, throw it in water and save it for later, this keeps it springy and passively washes it; I was taught a long time ago to not drain root vegetables but rather pull them from a bath of water, in that the dirt sinks and stays at the bottom rather than being agitated and back on the vegetables after straining; then you can come back to cut it in any variety you wish. I've kind of made a habit out of bathing veggies vs spraying/rinsing, of course there are exceptions, things that you will peel anyways, that spot of dirt that needs scrubbed and that we need "RIGHT NOW."

The problem I have with recipes is the objectivity in creating "the dish," most of the time, my creations or "specials" come from leftovers or something that is on the verge of being completely useless. Simplicity is king. At my one restaurant we had some black beans that were starting to smell fruity (which is normal, but no one had a planned use for them), a few onions and peppers, some spices, a quick roast then blend with some lemon juice/vinegar and we had a black bean salsa, which I tried to pair with some fish and roasted tomatoes but everyone just wanted the salsa with chips--whatever, I'm Asian, I don't know.

So rather than filling your refrigerator with a dozen half eaten dishes, fill your refrigerator with an endless possibility of dishes: prepped greens for salads; portioned meats for cooking; pickled items for accoutrements, garnishments or just adding that extra acidity; gutted/peeled veggies or fruit--you picking up what I'm laying down?

From there you can experiment with single servings: a celery leaf salad--balsamic vinegar, pickled radish, mustard greens, olive oil, crushed red, salt, julienned carrots, diced red onion and toss in a soft boiled duck egg if you feel the urge. Professional cooking is just a hodgepodge of "stone soup" that everyone has grown to like and accept, everyone has something to add and or learn from.

Restaurant dishes are designed to sell. Try to keep in mind the overt commercialization and not take the small successes you have in just enjoying a simple salad with some boiled eggs, while not getting sick, for granted. Good health tastes great, don't let anyone tell you hard boiled eggs and some celery sticks isn't a meal--"It is until I eat again!"

Speed is just an increase in efficiency in carrying out the procedure. You'll get it, just know what you want and are doing first, then be deliberate. I'll help out best I can.

TL;DR: pear butter recipe and canning instructions, and equipment list.

Make pear sauce. Basically cut the pears up, have a pan going to heat them up until they're soft and use an immersion blender or blender or food processor to pulverize it. You can use most of the pear, cut out the rotten stuff, and anything else that's nasty.

Fill your crockpot up with water, measure how much it takes to fill it up. Now, take a 1 cup measuring cup and measure with a ruler what the water level is after removing each cup. That's the technical way to do it, it can take a while to do it. Why you're doing this is because you're cooking your butter down to half it's volume. So if you start out with 14 cups of pear sauce, you'll want to end up with 7 cups of pear butter. If you know what the different levels are, it makes it a lot easier. Crock-Pot walls aren't straight, that's why you use the water to measure it.

Stir 2 tsp cinnamon and 1/2 tsp ginger (I usually double or triple, or more, the cinnamon and ginger) into some sugar (like 1/4 or 1/3 cup), then mix it into the pearsauce. Using the sugar keeps the spices from sticking together in clumps when added to the fruit. Start with the crock on LOW if it will be going overnight, or on HIGH if you are starting in the morning and will be around to stir the sauce. Remember, you DON'T USE THE LID on the crock pot. Depending on your pears, you might need to add more sugar, but usually not. I think this normally is what I put in about 20ish cups of sauce.. I honestly can't remember. I just put "enough" in, and I've never had to much. It's a taste thing, I like stronger cinnamon and ginger flavor.


Pull out enough foil to go completely around the crockpot, plus enough to join the two ends together by folding them over together a few times. The bottom of this collar will be crimped around the rim of the crock so the rest of it sticks up about 10" above the crock, which should give enough protection from splatting that will happen later as the sauce thickens into butter. When the sauce is first cooking, I often put some creases in the collar to make the hole at the top somewhat smaller to keep more heat in, maybe a 5-6" opening. Just open it up when you need to stir & scrape edge, then close it up a bit. The longer the sauce cooks, the more often you will need to scrape the sides & stir. I usually just stir the thickened stuff from around the rim back into the rest, unless it goes too long & smells scorched. If you scorch it, just be careful not to scrape it off into the butter.


The total time will depend on 3 things: the juiciness of your pears, how long you cook on LOW vs HIGH, and how thick you like your pear butter. As a rule of thumb, plan on cooking the sauce down to about half of the starting amount, but check the consistency before that & stop when you like it. You can put a tablespoon full on a saucer and put it in the freezer for a few minutes to chill it, as it thickens up somewhat when cooled.


I usually plan  on 12 to 18 hours total cooking time, with maybe 8 of that on LOW. If you are doing it only in the daytime & have it on HIGH the whole time, it could be faster.         IF you get it cooked down to the right consistency but can't can it immediately, you can take the collar off, stir well, put the LID ON and set on LOW or KEEP WARM till you are ready.


Water bath canning is the way to go, processing for 10 minutes for either pints or half-pints. Headroom on the jars should be 1/2".


This is the same recipe I use for Apple butter, sometimes you need to add some more sugar. It depends on what kind of apples you use. Also, the pear butter will get very brown by the end, that's ok.


For the water bath canning. It's super easy. Get a water bath canner. It's basically a big pot with a rack in it. Walmart should have it, Amazon, garage sales, or little hardware stores (like ace, do it best, etc). It should be about $20 if you buy it new.

For fruit butters, pint jars are best, but it's a preference thing. If you want to give them away as gifts, maybe use the 6oz jelly jars. It's up to you. Ball is the gold standard. Again, Walmart, Amazon, the same hardware stores as the canner. They're usually significantly cheaper at garage sales. The jars and rings are reusable, lids are not.

Fill your water-bath with enough water to cover your jars by about an inch. Submerge the empty jars and heat up the water. I like to use hot water to fill the canner, cause it takes a little less time to get it to boil. Once it's boiling set a timer for 10 minutes and keep it boiling. Do the same for your lids, but in a small saucepan.

Once it's boiling, remove your jars and dump out the water that's in them. Put the jars on the counter, I put a towel down, and a wire cooling wrack on top of that. There's a few tools that you can get that help with this. )I'll post Amazon links at the bottom of this.) Fill the jars with the hot pear butter with 1/2" headspace (this means 1/2" from the rim). Minimize air bubbles, you can use a clean spoon to stir the air bubbles out out. Take a damp paper towel and wipe any butter off the rim Place a sterilized lid on each jar, put a ring on, hand tight. Place filled jars back into water bath.

Bring water back back up to boil and let boil for 10 minutes. Remove jars from canner and place back onto the cooling wrack. Once they're cool, check to make sure they're all sealed by seeing if the lids pop. This is the button, like on pickle jars, when they're unsealed it sounds like a clicker, when they're sealed, they're pulled down. They may seal right when you take them out of the canner, you'll hear them pop, some may take a few minutes though. If they're sealed, you can take the rings off, and they are shelf stable (we've had stuff still good over a year later). If any aren't sealed, just put them in the fridge once cooled off and eat it first.


It's not that hard to do, I'm just trying to be detailed.


Now for the promised links.

Ball Blue Book Guide To Preserving, 37Th Edition https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00OEJZSNW/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_905HDbGDP5GWY

This is basically a canning Bible, it's a good resource if you're wanting to learn more about canning. Lots of recipes. It's important to get your recipes from official sources, usually you don't want to get recipes from random strangers off the internet until you know what is normal. You don't want to put yourself into a situation where you process something in an unsafe manner. I can tell you that the Apple/pear butter recipe I gave you is safe, and can be compared to other official ones if you want to independently verify it.


Tools:
Granite Ware Enamel-on-Steel Canning Kit, 9-Piece https://www.amazon.com/dp/B002KHN602/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_945HDb278TD1T

Ball 40801 Golden Harvest Mason Regular Mouth 8oz Jelly Jar 12PK 'Vintage Fruit Design', RM 8 Oz, Clear https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00YCX4SJ0/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_I55HDbM3YGXNN

Norpro Canning Essentials Boxed Set, 6 Piece Set https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0000DDVMH/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_d65HDbNK2VGJX

Out of the "essentials kit" really the funnel and jar grabber tongs is the only thing that you'll need.



If you have any other questions, feel free to pm me or ask on this post. My wife and I have taught a lot of people how to can a lot of different things, it's a skill we really enjoy passing on.

Also, if you buy jars new, they usually come with rings and lids. If you do this again next year and are buying new lids, just make sure you are paying attention to whether or not your jars are "wide mouth" or "regular mouth" those are the two standard lid sizes.

I never get tired of explaining dairy products. :)

Let's start with what milk is: a mixture of water, sugars (lactose), fats (milkfat), and proteins. It's baby food for cows.

As it comes out of the teat, this stuff is all mixed up together. This is great if you just want to drink it right away, or that same day. However, this is not so great if you happen to be a pre-industrial agrarian type person with no access to refrigeration, and would like to keep all that good milk around for longer.

The problem is the water. It takes up lots of space, it's heavy, it leaks through clay pots, et cetera. If only there were some way to get rid of the water, while keeping the good parts!

As it turns out, it's the proteins in the milk that are the key. Proteins are big, complex molecules whose biological function is often related to their shape. And the shape a protein takes turns out to be dependent on what acidity level is around it.

The proteins found in milk have this property that if the acidity level rises, the proteins "denature" (chemist-talk for "lose their normal shape") in such a way that they get all tangled up with one another. In doing so, they turn the liquid milk into a gel. Milk jello, basically. Well, tangy milk jello, because of the acidity necessary to make this happen.

This is great, because in cross-linking into a huge matrix, the proteins also trap those nice, yummy, calorie-rich fats.

The question then becomes "how do we get the acidity level of the milk to rise just enough to denature the proteins, but not so much as to make it all unpalatable?"

The answer: friendly bacteria.

Inoculate the milk with pretty much any bacteria, and those little bugs will reproduce like mad, consuming the sugars (lactose) in the milk and excreting acids as a waste product. It's a tradeoff: you're sacrificing the natural sugars in the milk, in exchange for getting the proteins to coagulate in a helpful way (see below).

The right bugs will do this while also being harmless to humans. That is, they're bugs that won't also make you sick if you eat them, and don't happen to also produce any other toxic byproducts as they go about their business. The wrong bacteria may do either or both of those things.

So anyway, dose the milk with the right bugs (after bringing it to a high temperature first to kill any bad bugs that might have gotten in there), then sit back to wait for them to work their magic.

How long this takes depends on the bacteria, the ambient temperature, et cetera. Usually it's just a few hours, though.

When they're done, you have your milk jello. Which still, unfortunately, has all that water in it. But now, because the proteins are all cross-linked together, it's possible to separate the watery stuff (which is called "whey") from the protein matrix (curds).

And in fact, this begins to happen naturally all on its own. If you just let it sit all on its own for a while, you'll see a layer of yellowish, clear liquid, the whey, building up on top of the container as the curds begin to settle under their own weight.

If you're making ordinary yogurt, and you cultured the milk with a yogurt bacteria, you're done. You can eat it as is. Or add sugar, fruit, et cetera to make the yogurt more palatable.

If you're making Greek-style yogurt or cheese, you gotta get as much whey out of there as possible.

Usually, you do this by breaking up the mass of curd into smaller bits, and transferring it to some kind of container where it can drain. Such as a colander lined with fine cloth.

Now let it sit some more. The whey pretty much falls right out, and after not very long you're left with a much denser curd. You can play with the amount of time you drain it to control the firmness of the resulting product. Either way, what you have now is a fresh (a.k.a. "green", as in un-ripened) cheese.

Typically, this is when you'd add salt and any other flavorings (spices, usually) that you're interested in.

Most regular cheeses--cheddar, et cetera--still want to be drier. Water, at this point, is the enemy. Water allows for bacterial growth. The name of the game at this stage is to transform what is essentially high-grade bacteria food into something bacteria can't live in. The easiest way to do that (again, especially if you're a pre-industrial type person) is to make it salty and dry.

So after adding salt and stuff, the curds are usually packed into round forms and pressed into wheels. Could be any shape, really, but historically cheese forms were usually round. A cylindrical basket, say, that you could line with cloth. Dump in the curds, cap it with a wooden board, and pile heavy rocks on it or whatever. Squeeze all the whey out you possibly can.

Once this is done, you have a more or less shelf-stable food product that can last a long time even unrefrigerated. You've thrown away the water, kept the calorie-rich and nutritious proteins and fats, and packed them into a nice dense and delicious brick.

Congratulations! You have made cheese!

From there, the possibilities are pretty endless. The cheese will age and develop richer flavors the longer you leave it sitting around. You might protect it from mold by coating it in wax until you're ready to get into it. You might specifically inoculate it with mold (again, only the right kinds!) to produce strong-flavored blue cheeses.

The whole infinite variety of cheeses across the world come from differences along this whole process: what kind of milk? What kind of bacterial culture? To what degree was the whey expressed? How much salt and/or spices were added to the curds? How were the curds further pressed and shaped? Under what conditions, and for how long, was the cheese aged afterwards?

So that's cheese (and yogurt, too, pretty much). And it's kind of mind-blowing to me that all of this stuff was pretty much determined by trial and error over history.

Edits: Thanks for the gold, somebody! If y'all are into this kind of thing, there's some pretty good cheese love on YouTube: Channel Cheese TV

Also: holy cow, I totally forgot to even mention rennet! Rennet, whether traditionally produced or modern, is an alternative to acid-based curdling. It uses an enzyme to fiddle with the protein structures, but to basically the same ultimate purpose. I've never used rennet myself, so I can't really say much more about it than that.

And finally: anybody interested in trying their own hand at cheese making, I would recommend you to this book, which is a very approachable and practical guide for the home cheese-making newbie.

I'd recommend, as would most other sausage makers, to start with the simplest sausage - the Saucisson Sec

Solid recipe and method.

Thing's you'll need - a meat grinder with either the fine or medium plate to get a good grind size. A sausage stuffer - many stand mixers have a meat grind/stuffer attachment that works quite well. I used the hand cranked giant tube stuffer at work. The process is pretty much the same.
Curing Salt and sugars - aka pink salt or Insta Cure and dextrose
Natural Casings.
Butchers twine
A needle of some sort
Time

So to start, you'd want to buy a pork butt/shoulder, and freeze it for a few days. This is the general procedure to stave off any sort of possible malady that could be lurking in the meat. When you're ready to make the sausage, just let it thaw somewhat in the fridge overnight.

You'll want to cut down your butt, fat and all, into chunks just small enough to fit into your meat grinder. Your hands will be freezing in this process, it sucks, but it's necessary. Once you chop it all up, put it in a big ass bowl and add your seasonings to the large chopped pieces. Mix it all up to try and coat all the meat, and then you're either off to the grinder or off to the fridge. Keeping the meat cold during the process is important, so if it starts to get warm from being handled, put it back in the fridge for a while.

Grinding - the day before you make your sausage, it's ideal to put as much of your meat grinder in the freezer as possible - the screw drive, hopper, plates, etc. This keeps them cold during the process and again prevents the meat from warming up too much. So once everythings attached, turn the thing on or get to hand cranking. Throw your meat in, and watch as it becomes ground perfection. Once its all ground, put it back in the fridge while you clean your grinder out, and prepare the casings.

Casings - they come packed in salt, so you want to first soak them in a large vessel of cool water. Then, you want to give the insides a rinse. What I do is just take out one casing, wrap it around the sink's nozzle (like a water balloon) and then flush it for a minute or two with cool water. This does 2 things - it lets you clean the inside, and it will also help you spot any holes. You can pinch off a segment towards the bottom, and let the casing fill with water for a moment. If it holds, there are no holes. If there are holes, you'll want to cut the casing where the hole is so its not in the middle of your sausage.

Stuffing - there's plenty of youtube videos of this processs, it's pretty simple. Just go slow, and keep your hands wet. You'll want to wet down the nozzle that the casing slides over so it slides off easily while its being stuffed. Tie a knot inthe casing hanging off the end, pull it tight against the opening (gently - casings are pretty strong and also extremely fragile at the same time), and slowly start stuffing. Let the pressure of the crank or machine fill the casing and feed the casing. If you notice an air bubble forming (its obvious) just take a knife and tap the casing on the nozzle, it will create a small enough hole to let the air out but not let a bunch of sausage ooze out. Make them as long or as short as you'd like. Twist them off to form links - for a home cure, i'd just do 2 links with an extra bit of casing between them so you can use the casing as a natural hanger.

Once you're done stuffing, you'll want to poke a bunch of teeny tiny holes in the sausages, especially around any airy spots that may not have stuffed perfectly against the casing. I used a 20 gauge needle for this, but a safety pin or sewing needle works just fine. Poke a fuck ton of holes all over the sausage. This lets out any air created by the fermentation process, allowing the casing to hug the meat inside. Air bubbles trapped between the casing and the meat are your enemy, they prevent good drying, and harbor bad bacteria.

Now its time to hang em!

If you've got a garage, or other cool spot (a closet in a room that's got the heat turned off?), just make up a coat hanger type deal to hang them, and let em be. Winter is a great time to cure since the humidity is high and temp is cool.

Check on them every now and then, and if you're noticing any white powdery stuff, leave it be. That's good. Blue fuzzy stuff is what you want to look out for - but in all honesty i'm not even sure if that's something to be afraid of. There's a lot of discussion on the topic of beneficial vs harmful molds, and there's really no telling who's right and wrong. A spray bottle of vinegar can help you keep them clean if you don't like the look of the white mold. Just spritz and wipe them off.

After about a month (if even) the sausages should be hard to the touch, the casings should be desicated, and if you squeeze, it shouldn't give much, ie it should be firm. Depending on your ratio of fat to lean muscle, the higher the fat, the softer the end product will be. So I recommend your first go with a leaner ratio to help you get a good feel for when it's done.

When its done, just package it how you see fit and store it in the fridge, or vacuum seal it and leave it out. It's a cured meat, it's meant to keep for a long time.

online resource

Another good resource - a really informative book detailing EVERYTHING you'd need to know from start to finish, including twine tying methods LINKY

Their other {book](https://www.amazon.com/Salumi-Craft-Italian-Dry-Curing/dp/0393068595/ref=pd_sim_14_1?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=XPHS6GG2XTCHV35FCGBE)
Goes a little more in depth for dry cured stuff, and might be more appropriate.

And then the man/myth/legend's own Blog

I have a collection of 'vintage' kitchen booklets and pamphlets, and if you search eBay or Etsy for something like 'vintage freezer guide' you will find a bunch of booklets from the 40s-60s that came free with chest freezers, and came from -- best I can tell -- a very different time, home-freezing-wise. And it's fascinating stuff.

I don't have a specific recommendation (sorry!) but there are a lot out there with really detailed instructions on HOW to freeze pretty much anything that one eats. Totally worth finding one (or more, so you can see what was popular and what had a general consensus when it came to will it freeze well? and how do I freeze it?). Putting Food By is also a good read. You can learn to freeze stuff you never would have thought of.

Easiest meal freezing here: pasta dishes, soups, quiches, Indian dishes, bean dishes, burritos, enchiladas, veg stews, rice dishes, baked goods (quality deteriorates quickly if not well wrapped -- but I found a year old loaf of good bread I'd wrapped well a little while ago and we were amazed at how good it still was)

I also freeze a lot of ingredients: pesto, cooked beans, cooked rice, lemon and lime juice, wine, caramelized onions, cheeses, sofrito, mirepoix, syrups and other whatnot made from fresh fruit

If you can find it in the supermarket commercially frozen, you can freeze it yourself -- deep-fried stuff, for example, is a thing people don't seem to think of making at home and freezing much, but it works well.

I use silicone muffin trays for stuff I want in portions -- it's easy to pop the little pucks of frozen whatever out. I have a vacuum sealer; they are cheap second-hand and there are economical sources for the bags.

Do experiment. I had a grilled cheese party a while back and had a lot of leftover paninis, first-rate cheeses, and a zillion add-ins. I assembled it all, wrapped it in wax paper and foil, and froze them. Defrosted and put in a panini press, they were delicious, and delicious even with a smattering of ingredients you wouldn't think would work -- thin slices of plum tomato, some arugula -- a tomato-lettuce sandwich obviously wouldn't come out of the freezer well, but since the paninis were being cooked in the press, it was fine.

A month is a short time in my freezer; I've eaten two-year-old pasta primavera and found little if any degradation in quality. This was from the bottom of a chest freezer, though. Good packaging and good freezing makes a difference -- stuff piled loosely in a loosely tied bag in a freezer that gets opened a lot is not going to last two years.

Do experiment with stuff like xanthan gum to tweak recipes to improve them for freezing -- xanthan helps with things that more or less freeze well except for going a bit watery.

I'd highly recommend a canning book from a reputable source, for instance the Ball Blue Book or Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving are some very, very good places to start. I'd also recommend starting with water bath canning, and after you're comfortable with the mechanics venturing into pressure canning if you feel like it. Until you are very confident, don't deviate from the recipes at all. No extra ingredients, no halving or doubling recipes (especially jam, pectin's a finicky thing), and no subbing different sized jars. Once you get the hang of it, you can start to fudge a little bit, but at first I'd definitely play it safe and stick straight to the recipe; this is more fussy than regular cooking. Water bath canning is only for high-acid foods, and even tomato sauce recipes for canning require extra lemon juice, so definitely follow your recipe.

As far as equipment, technically all you really need are a pot to hold the jars as they boil, something to pull the hot jars out of the water with, and some kind of rack to keep them off the bottom of the pot (extra canning rings placed along the bottom, a cake rack, whatever works). Nothing else is technically needed, though I tried this method with just the extra rings and with spring-loaded tongs and made quite a mess, then immediately sprung for some toys.

I'd recommend this kit, the polypropolene basket doesn't melt even during long canning sessions and it's small enough to use in an eight or ten quart pot, which a lot of people already have at home. To make sure your pot's big enough, put a jar in the pot and make sure it could be covered with at least an inch or two of water. Taller pots are obviously more helpful than lower, wider ones. The kit comes with three jars, which is okay, and the recipe book it comes with scales down a lot of their most popular recipes so you can just make a few jars to test them out.

I'd also recommend a canning funnel, and a jar lifter. Something to measure headspace is also handy, there's a little plastic doohickey for that (looks like this) but if you don't mind keeping a plastic ruler around, it's not required. A set like this would definitely cover all your bases.

Keep in mind that while the jars and rings are reusable, the lids with the sealing compounds are not. If you feel a canning binge come on, be sure to buy an extra little box of just the lids because you'll be upset if you run out!

Good luck!! I'm still a novice canner myself, and I've only ever done water bath canning, but I've already got taco sauce, jams, jellies, pickles and canned fruit (I love canning pears!) under my belt so I've got at least a little bit of a clue!

I also do sauerkraut first thing in the morning but also before bed. Sauerkraut/fermented foods is the fucking king for achieving a healthy gut IMO. I don't recall the source or even if it was a good study but it mentioned how raw sauerkraut is in the Trillions of organisms where supplements are in the Billions, a whole order of magnitude greater, so to be honest, I'm surprised that the probiotic supplement industry even exists seeing how easy it is to make your own (salt, cabbage, jar). Which is both frugal and a fun hobby :) I haven't read the book that some one commented but I got started with http://www.amazon.com/Wild-Fermentation-Flavor-Nutrition-Live-Culture/dp/1931498237, and the author, Sandor Katz, is very dedicated and has put out over 10 books on the subject.

I am also a big fan of chia seeds (soluble fiber) and supplemented glutamine (ie. 50g/day for week one, 10g/day sustaining) for achieving a healthy gut. Prebiotics (aka vegetables) are very important and probably number one but I know a lot of Paleo friends who still struggled to take regular happy poops despite living the paleo lifestyle until they incorporated a 1/4 - 1 cup of chia seeds a day.

If you still find that your belly is unhappy after all this, fasting for a 24-48 hrs (ie. weekends) every two weeks, can give the digestive system a break from its daily role to allow the organisms inside to figure things out for themselves. I personally like to fast one weekend per month which has a host of other benefits too.

This is a slow process, assuming you've kept a consistent diet through your life, those little guys have had a home for a long time fighting for their spot and they will not want to leave. Gods speed in your quest for the ghost wipe.

I would be interested to see what comes out without pitching any additional yeast. Wild yeast can make some great cider, but being wild it will be unpredictable. If you do plan on just using the wild yeast make sure you add some yeast nutrients. Apple juice is very poor in nutrients that yeast needs to thrive. I recommend Wyeast brand nutriants but any nutriants made for wine will work well with cider. For wild yeast add 24 hours after pressing or if your pitching you want to add it 24 hours prior.

You also want to make sure you are monitoring your free SO2 levels. You can buy test kits online. Accuvin is pretty accurate and a kit will run you $35. Keeping SO2 levels will discourage any bad bacteria from infecting your cider and give your yeast a good chance at achieving an optimal fermentation.

Once your cider goes dry, rack it into a sterile vessel. Make sure you fill it to the top to keep oxygen off of the cider. This will discourage acetic acid bacteria from turning your cider to vinegar. Stopper the vessel with an air trap. I like to fill traps with a little white spirts as it's sterile vs. tap water. Give it a taste and if it's tasting good, give it a few months to mature. Rack as needed it you see a build up of particulates on the bottom.

If you need more technical information there is a great book called the New Cidermakers Handbook that covers the art and science of making great cider.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1603584730?pc_redir=1411309332&robot_redir=1

I hope it works out! Make sure to report back on how it tastes.

I really like Putting Food By for preservation guidance.

If you are looking for less how to, Barbara Kingsolver's book, Animal Vegetable Miracle is a wonderful read.

This isn't so much of a homesteading book, but Sara Stein's Noah's Garden is one of my favorites. It's about rethinking the way we garden so that we are doing it in harmony with ecology and nature.

I've been a fan of Ben Falk for a long time and he put out his first book not that long ago, The Resilient Farm and Homestead which is awesome particulary if you live in a colder climate. I have a feeling he will be putting out a new edition though soon given how he wrote the first one so you might want to wait on a purchase of that one.

Again, if you are a cold climate person, almost anything by Elliot Coleman is really great. He does a lot of extending the season kind of stuff that is good for shorter season growers.

Edible Landscaping is more for people with yards (as opposed to acreage I guess....) but I think the book is brilliant and well written and very inspirational with lots of resources.

The sub r/mealprepsunday has some great suggestions for (usually) healthy foods that you can make ahead of your week, and (usually) gives you a breakdown of how much each meal costs per serving.

I have been using this book for a while now and I really like it. I tweak some recipes but it’s a great way to plan.

Buying grains and stuff in bulk is good because you can get them cheap and they last a while. Obviously avoid processed sugars and stuff if you are trying to buy pre made stuff.

I also like making smoothies and shakes. There’s a book my fiancée has, I think it’s called “Blender Girl” that has a lot of very simple and healthy smoothie recipes. They taste great and you can make them in about 5 minutes the night before, blend them the next day, and take them to work.

Remember to try and eat your heart out with vegetables, and drink lots of water. I lost a lot of weight by cutting carbs and replacing them with veggies, and drinking water when I started getting “snacky”. Also, check out “intermittent fasting,” it’s a great way to cut a bit of weight without making huge lifestyle changes.

Good luck and have fun with it!

There are a lot of good books out there.

This is a really good one.

There are a lot of rules to make sure that you don't make yourself or others very ill, though. Make sure to know these rules and only use approved recipes that follow USDA and NCHFP guidelines. These are both great free resources to help you get started.

The biggest thing is that only high-acid foods (like fruit, pickles, and jams) can be safely canned in a water bath canner. Low-acid foods (like vegetables, broth, meat, beans, and soups) must be processed in a pressure canner (not a pressure cooker - they are different). Additionally, not all recipes are appropriate or safe for home canning.

That being said, it's a very rewarding hobby, and, done right and depending on your existing eating habits, can save you money on your monthly grocery bill.

Check out /r/canning for more. It's easy to get started, and you really don't need a lot of extra equipment to get started with water-bath canning. :)

EDIT: This book is also currently free on Amazon. I haven't read it yet, so I can't confirm the content. However, in combination with the other resources that I mentioned, this could be another good one.

Absolutely! We got ours from Amazon after a bunch of research. I can't recommend the one we got more. They are not cheap, but this is a tool that you will buy once and it will be inherited by your next generation.

Called All American pressure cooker. We got the 21 1/2 pint unit. Was just under $250.00 Again, they are not cheap, but this is a unit you will buy once.

I just opened a can of salmon that I had on the shelf for 4.5 years, and it was as good as the day I made it. Pressure cooking for canning and long term storage is the way to go, and something that our grandparents used to do. It is really neat to see it coming back into the public eye again.

I also highly recommend the Ball Complete Book of Home Canning. This is the bible on how to preserve all kinds of foods. It is my one and only go-to book for knowing how to get things done right.

Hope you get into it! I scour thrift stores and yard sales for canning jars you can never have enough glass. And the glass is reusable! I have jars that were handed down to me that are from the 70s, and still are great.

Once you get into canning and preserving you will never go back and wonder "why didn't I do this sooner?"

Best of luck, let me know how it goes. I love sharing the information and insight.

PS: I would not go under the 21 1/2 pint size pressure cooker. Pressure cooking takes time (the fish I do takes 90 minutes per batch at 10LB of pressure), so you want to do as many cans as you can at one time. If you can go bigger, do! You can never have too much space to can in, but it is easy to not have enough. But bang-for-buck I found the 21 is really the best overall size and deal going.

You're gonna love it. I've never tried the gizmo to which you link, but it looks interesting. I do my fermentations the easy way, with one of these crocks. I have never worried about an airlock (for this anyway, homebrew beer is another story...).

I would recommend two books to get you started. Between the two, they've probably got a recipe for everything fermented you could ever want. Wild Fermentation and Nourishing Traditions. My local library had the Nourishing Traditions one.

I've made a couple of batches of sauerkraut and a batch of kim-chi. The sauerkraut I am enjoying this week with home-corned beef. YUM! Here's my sauerkraut "recipe":

Chop/shred about 5 heads of cabbage. Discard cores, or put 'em in the crock to ferment with the rest, your choice. As you chop a cabbage, start putting it in the crock, with a little bit of salt. Once you get a decent amount of cabbage built up in the crock, start pounding it with a mallet or your hands. Keep adding cabbage and a bit of salt as you go. Feel free to add any spices you want- suggestions include dill seeds and/or caraway seeds. As you continue adding cabbage, salt, and pounding it, liquid will be released from the cabbage. Once you've got all the cabbage in the crock that you are going to add, weigh the cabbage down somehow to keep it below the level of the brine. You can do this with a plate, but I prefer a ziploc bag full of salt-water (the salt-water is in case it leaks into your sauerkraut). More liquid will be released for the first day or two as active fermentation begins, and your crock may overflow, so plan for that. Capture the overflow if possible, and add it back in to the crock (the volume will reduce as the cabbage ferments). Check it as often as you want, sample as you go. It's ready when it tastes like sauerkraut. In my last batch, 5 heads of cabbage were packed into a 1 gallon crock, final volume of sauerkraut was about 1/2 gallon. Enjoy!

I just got into real brewing (started with a Mr. Beer 4 years ago and it has taken me this many years to start up again after that nightmare).

The basic equipment is cheap. I spent $89 for a proper starter + add-on kit.

I made a wort chiller for $7 and bought an additional carboy so I can have multiple batches going.

I spent $20 on hops rhizomes (Cascades) and those went crazy this summer.

10 days ago I did a honey wheat (having a friend walk me through the process - and he did most of the work).

He set it up for a 2nd fermentation on Saturday ( since it was so nasty out I wasn't able to get to his place) and I'll bottle it next weekend.

This past Saturday I made a Stout and a Nut Brown Ale. And that is the problem with brewing. I like dark beers that usually take weeks before bottling (looking at 4 weeks to bottling for the last 2 and then another 2 weeks in the bottles).

I really need to start drinking Pilsners. That way I can drink them 7-10 days later.

The point I'm trying to make is that it's cheap and it really is easy but the waiting game sucks.

If you want someone to help you with your first batch just let me know and you can come over and we'll make a couple. I'm going to try to brew 5 gallons a week for a while so I can always have some homebrew ready to drink.

I'd recommend getting a copy of The Complete Joy of Home Brewing

It has everything in it that you need to know and has a bunch of recipes from beginner to advanced.

I also just picked up Clone Brews which has a lot of popular beers in it and how to make them yourself.

And as they say at Midwest Supplies , you really should do 5 or 10 batches from their brew kits to learn the full process and how different ingredients affect the flavor of your beer.

Just my two-cents.

I also started r/TCBrewers but no one has used it yet.

There was some talk of a Brew Party (As Midwest_Product pointed out) that was going to be Nov. 20th but I haven't heard anything about it in quite a while.

Anyhow, it seems there is a lot of interest in a Brew Party so if no one else steps up I could always have it at my place but it would probably have to be outside in turkey fryers. I have a nice bonfire pit so that would be our source of warmth.

I'd take no more than half a normal glass (1dl) of vinegary stuff and a peel a half-centimeter thick scoby for the new batch. Save the rest, liquid and scobies as well! You can use it in case of mold on your production scobies, can make kombucha candy from extra scobies, use the liquid as vinegar for salads and if there's no sugar left, it makes a great cleaning fluid.

edit: candy recipe: http://epistlepublishingblog.mymiddleearth.com/2013/03/23/kombucha-ginger-candy/
I originally found the idea in "The Art of Fermentation: An In-Depth Exploration of Essential Concepts and Processes from Around the World" by Sandor Ellix Katz , here's an excerpt:

"Nata is a candy made in the Philippines from the thick layer of cellulose that develops on the surface during vinegar fermentation of coconut water (nata de coco) or a pineapple juice infusion (nata de pina). I’ve used the nata method with a kombucha mother, and the result was a sweet, squishy candy, barely sour, with a hint of tea flavor, which almost everyone who tried it, kids included, liked. The process is extremely simple. A jun mother or mother-of-vinegar could be used with exactly the same process.


Take a kombucha mother, at least ½ inch/1 cm thick, rinse it, and cut it with a sharp knife into small bite-size pieces. Soak the kombucha pieces in cold water for 10 minutes. Drain, rinse, and soak again. Then transfer the kombucha pieces to a pot, cover with water, and boil for 10 minutes. Drain, rinse, and boil again for 10 more minutes. The reason for the repeated soaking and boiling is to remove as much acidity as possible from the kombucha mother. You may find that you prefer it more acidic, with fewer rinses and boilings. My friend Billy tried it after tasting mine and omitted the rinsing and boiling altogether. He preferred the flavor with the acidity intact. It reminded him of apple pie. “It’s my new favorite way to enjoy the kombucha!” he announced. “It’s better than drinking it.”






The nata method of candying the kombucha pieces is to cover them with sugar, roughly as much sugar as kombucha cubes. Then heat this mixture and boil the kombucha pieces in the syrup that forms, for about 15 minutes, then remove from the heat, and allow to slowly cool. After cooling, drain off any remaining syrup, crisp up in the oven for a few minutes or air-dry, and enjoy kombucha candy.


Billy loved it so much he invented his own method, without de-acidifying the kombucha and without cooking it, except at the end to dry it out. (For a live-culture kombucha candy you could air-dry, or use a dehydrator instead.) In a bowl, he alternated layers of sugar and still-acidified kombucha, then poured a cooled sugar syrup (also with butter and vanilla) over them and left it marinating overnight. In the morning he dried them, along with the extra sugar syrup, in a low oven. Finally, he sprinkled the crystallized sugar syrup on top “for a caramel flavor.”"

(the book: http://www.amazon.com/Art-Fermentation-Depth-Exploration-Essential/dp/160358286X )

If you are interested in that stuff you should check out the book The Art of Fermentation by Sandor Katz if you haven't. It's got a lot of good info in it.

I too love what people like Beyond Meat are doing, and I think it's definitely a critical part of food in the future. I'm working on my masters and just doing consulting gigs in the mean time, but I would love to work for a company doing stuff like that.

In terms of software in the food space I think that there is going to be a lot of application in food processing automation. It's something that is a difficult problem to solve, especially when taking manual dexterity of robotics into account, plus cost. Software wise I think it would be really cool to apply image recognition to every day items that need to be processed (take a potato for example) and be able to properly assess size and shape and create instructions for cutting (diced, sliced etc.) for an automated system. Basically just a more human eye for an automated kitchen worker.

In that kind of respect I think we are much further ahead software wise than we are hardware wise, but I feel like that is going to change rapidly over the next 5-10 years as more quick service restaurants push towards cutting costs, of which labor is almost always the highest.

I recently got Tartine #3 when it was posted here for 5$ a few weeks ago. In it there is a recipe for Oat Porridge bread, this website has the recipe basically. I also have Sandor Katz' The Art of Fermentation, and it in it is a technique for making a fermented oatmeal, where you basically just do a 2:1 ratio (or more if you like a thinner porridge) of rolled oats to water and let it sit out over night or longer. Its good, you get a tangy taste to the oats and I find it to get a really creamy texture. So what I did was combine the two. I took the suggested amount of oats and water for the porridge bread in Tartine, then just left it out for a week, stirring once a day. By the time I did the bread it smelled reallllly great, very yeasty and sour. I blackslopped some of it into the initial dough of the bread, then cooked and incorporated it as per instructions.


Came out well, but I used a little bit more water than suggested in the porridge and so I probably should have added a bit more flour into the dough. As I said, it stuck to the banneton and deflated a lot, so it ended up more of a disk than a boule, but even so, I got a good bit of oven spring. Taste wise, the bread was very good. Well soured, and very hearty with all the oats in it. As they mention in the recipe, the crumb is super tender, and this bread holds up very well, I was eating it 5 days later and it still felt just as fresh as when I first made it, barring a bit if dryness where the cut was. Really an excellent loaf, just kind of hard to work with and very easy to over hydrate if you aren't careful.

Depends on the food item and your infrastructure.

Drying is good for a lot of fruits and for herbs and such.

Cold storage. We have multiple freezers. A stand up 23 cu ft, a 19 cu ft chest plus the regular fridge freezer and the freezer on the back/beer fridge in basement. We have been buying half pigs and half or 1/4 cows for the freezers and we freeze a lot of vegetables. Sweet corn does really well frozen, so do a lot of the squashes and green beans.

Canning. Canning does quite a lot of foods. There are two types, pressure canning and water bath canning. The water bath canning is for high acid, high sugar, low risk foods like jellies and most tomato sauces if prepared correctly. Pickling is also usually water bath. All the low acid, higher risk stuff goes in a pressure canning systems.


Root cellar storage. Cool/cold room storage. If you have access to the right conditions, this is a great way to store lots of stuff like potatoes, carrots, beets, etc.

Some sources to get you started:
The starter book that is indispensable for canners: Ball blue book

The more advanced Ball full book
You can find either one at a book store, online, or at most used book stores.

USDA site has a lot of info. You want tried and tested recipes and methods. Botulism sucks. https://nchfp.uga.edu/publications/publications_usda.html


Purdue University has a really good set of links and add ons to the USDA guides as well. https://www.extension.purdue.edu/usdacanning/

You can also search the (food item, canning, extension) and there is probably a state agricultural extension that has some guide for it.

NDSU has a good guide for freezing stuff. It will get you started. Each food item will have specifics to getting a good freeze. Some things need blanched and some don't. Some need to be pre-frozen spread out on cookie sheets then dumped in a bag and some don't, etc.


Interesting root cellar idea that can be done fairly cheap. https://www.motherearthnews.com/real-food/root-cellaring/a-precast-septic-tank-root-cellar-zbcz1503

Root cellar list of what to store and what conditions. https://extension2.missouri.edu/mp562

Best way to get started: get a big ass boiler and a couple of dozens of pint mason jars and a couple of dozens of 1/2 pint mason jars. Start with a couple of batches of different pickles/pickled vegetables. Make a batch or two of jams and jellies. If you get a couple dozen wide mouth jars you can practice a little freezing as well. The idea is to build up your equipment.

For a full canning rig you need all kinds of stuff and if you really get into it usually large stuff. Like the ginormous pressure cooker that holds a goodly number of quarts or two full courses of pint jars in it. something like this guy. But you can start with whatever you have available. If you do the water bath stuff and start to get into it and want to get into pressure canning you should get a larger pressure canner that will do at least 6 quarts at a time. We have a medium one that we can do a limited batch of stuff in, or one round of jars and then a huge one like I linked to. Just slowly build up your equipment as you can and get the best quality you can when you buy stuff. If you try and do the I will buy the cheap one, and see if I like it, it costs you more. Usually the cheap one is crappy and wont do a good job. And you will either decide it is not worth the trouble or will eventually realize the quality one is worth the money and buy it anyway.

Get a good set of tools. You can can without them, but shouldn't. Decent set with the basic pieces.

I also find that a pair of the latex coated gloves are helpful. We have one person pull jars form the hiow water bath (keeping them sterile) and the second person will put the funnel in and spoon the food into the jar. You have to wipe the top of the jar and place a heated lid on it and screw the top onto the jar. The jar will be close to 200F. I will be the jar person and wear the heavy latex coated glove on my left hand to hold the jar stable and to screw the lid on so I don't get burned. Never have seen anyone give the tip before, but it works really well and I have less burnt fingers and fewer spills or dropped jars that way. Something like this.

>There is sauerkraut in the fridge

Heating up sauerkraut kills all bacteria, so if what you have in the fridge was previously canned, pasteurized, or heated past a certain temperature, then it's not going to have the probiotic benefits that you're looking for. I mention this because the vast majority of store bought sauerkraut is sterilized of all probiotic properties. That's why a lot of people have started making their own sauerkraut these days because it's cheaper and healthier than whatever the supermarket is selling.

Anyways, I strongly recommend these two cookbooks (borrow from the library if you need to):

• Fermented Vegetables: Creative Recipes for Fermenting 64 Vegetables & Herbs in Krauts, Kimchis, Brined Pickles, Chutneys, Relishes & Pastes
  
  
• Wild Fermentation
  
  Both cookbooks offer great advice on how to ferment food, add your own flavor twists, and how to incorporate them in your diet. I went on a huge fermentation kick last year and found those two books to be the most helpful. If that's too daunting, though, there are free fermenting tutorials online and on Youtube.
  
  As for how I eat ferments, I just have a little of whatever I'm fermenting at the moment on the side of every meal. I consider it medicine more than sustenance, so I don't go out my way to try to create a meal around it.
  
  Hope that helps.
  

This is my latest favorite recipe book. You also can't go wrong getting the good ol' Ball Blue Book of Canning, whatever the latest version is. As for the spices, I honestly feel like just using fresh herbs from the garden is best. I grow dill specifically for canning, and in my pickles I put simply whole black pepper, fresh dill, and two garlic cloves. You can do that basic seasoning with any veggie (carrots, beets, green beans..). You don't really need fancy seasonings! Unless you've got money to burn. I use a pressure canner (you pretty much HAVE to use that for canning veggies) which also came with a little booklet on the basics of preserving/pickling and a few good recipes in it as well.

I'm late to this party, but let me chime in with what I've learned over the years of being a fermentation fan. Now, I don't know what they do in labs, but growing cultures in labs is a fairly modern development anyway.

But, outside of the lab, how do you maintain a consistent strain? Generally, you don't. ;)

Because it doesn't matter if the English Ale Yeast we have today is genetically equivalent to what was used 100 years ago, as long as it's a strain of yeast that makes something that tastes like English Ale, right? The point is the product, not the particular strain of microbe.

Generally, people are receiving their cultures from others who are already producing it; those who know what the product is supposed to BE. Smell, taste, texture/mouthfeel can be very precise tools. If a particular culture comes up different, they either toss it or propagate it based on what they view as the ideal product.

Studies have shown that the particular makeup of sourdough cultures, for instance, can depend on the ambient temperature and "rhythm" of feeding, the flour used, the water used, etc.

So, the consistency comes down to human tradition. One thing people can do is attempt to control all aspects of the fermentation. The same ingredients, from the same sources, used in the same processes, in the same environment, made in the same rhythm. This can't stop random mutations, but it provides consistent selection pressure and can provide a better baseline to notice when things have changed.

Anyone who's attempted to maintain a culture long term "in the wild" has had a batch go off. You learn to keep backups frozen, dried, or multiple concurrent batches to account for that.

If you'd like more reading on the topic, Sandor Katz has an entire section in The Art of Fermentation titled "Fermentation as a Coevolutionary Force" that's more or less related. The book as a whole is a fantastic resource for fermentation enthusiasts.

Hi! The easiest way to get started canning is to read over the National Center for Home Food Preservation's site (they even offer a self-study program you can do at home!) or the Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving . It's VERY important to know what you are doing when you are canning, as while canning is easy, you can also improperly can items, which can lead to botulism, which can make you very sick and can kill you.

Water bath canning is a great for getting your feet wet in the canning world (ha ha! Feet wet. Water bath. I slay me). Water baths are for items like fruit and tomato products. All you need for this is a pot tall enough to cover the canning jars that sit on a towel or some kind of rack with 2 inches of water and a lid for the pot. I use a stock pot, and when I went to buy it I took along a jar and measured it in the pot to make sure I was getting the right size. Then you need jars, lids, and rings. If you get the jars new in a box, they come with the lids and rings.

If your budget can swing it, or if someone else would like to go in on it with you, a canning kit is really nice to have. It makes canning a lot easier and less frustrating.

When your sister has gotten the swing of water bath canning, and if she wants to try canning meat or vegetables, your family might be interested in getting her a pressure canner for the holidays. The nice thing about a pressure canner is that it can also be used as a water bath canner.

If you get her the Presto canner linked above, get the three piece weight to replace the mushroom looking weight. This way she won't have to relay on the dial gauge (which can be unreliable), all she has to do is listen for the steam escaping and the rocking.

Okay, so I'm reporting back. No picture because I'm lazy. But I have general success to report. I made the g/f angel food cake, following it exactly EXCEPT for two variations:

1. I used Bravetart's caramelized granulated sugar from a recent post on SE. I "toasted" 4 lbs of granulated sugar at 300 F for about 3 hours during the week, and it got a nice ivory with a bit more gold toward the pan's edges. I used this sugar in the recipe.
   
   
2. I did use tapioca and corn starch at the recommended weights, but did not use white rice and coconut flour. Rather, I used the same total weight (70 g) of Bob's Red Mill 1 to 1 GF flour blend, which is what I use for all my general baking. I like its performance and the price I can get on Amazon Prime
   
   So I followed the recipe, and actually went for a run while it was baking. My sous-chef, a house cat, monitored things. After 45 minutes, it was only about 185 F according to my thermometer, so I left it in the oven for ultimately another 15-18 minutes to reach 206 F. It actually rose over the top of the pan!
   
   I did leave it for 2+ hours to cool, inverted on an empty mezcal bottle, and used a slim spatula to free it. By the time it had cooled, it had shrunk down to about 1/4" above the rim - perfect. Upon removing it, I found that there was a considerable air bubble on one side, but nothing that being a little more careful couldn't have resolved. The flavor is right on.
   
   --
   
   And what did I do with a dozen yolks? Well, I've started curing them in a 50:50 mix by weight of kosher salt and the caramelized granulated sugar. They'll be a week in the dredge, then another 5-7 days hanging. Used as a garnish. Got the recipe from Charcuteria.

This is a great book. I would definitely pick that up.

http://www.butcher-packer.com/ is also another good resource for buying supplies like stuffing tubes and casings.

There's also some free resources on the web you can checkout if you don't want to spend a lot of money at first.

Plus, make sure to post any other questions you have here, we'll be happy to help!

As far as I know, there aren't any mini-fridges specifically designed for curing meats. The closest I have found is a digitally controllable wine fridge. The downside is that it only goes up to 65ºF, but I ferment my salami at 70ºF. I've written a blog post about modifying my fridge for curing.

As for meat grinding, if you already have a kitchen-aid, the best thing to start with is the meat grinder attachment. Don't bother getting the stuffer attachment because it's terrible. It's really worth the money to buy a dedicated stuffer. I use this one, but I'm considering upgrading to the 15lb stuffer.

As for books, I like The Art of Making Fermented Sausages and Charcuterie. But note that The Art of Making Fermented Sausages uses T-SPX bacteria in it's recipes where Charcuterie uses F-RM-52. Curing with T-SPX takes around 30 days, where F-RM-52 is around 2 weeks (IIRC). I haven't tried curing with F-RM-52 yet. The Art of Making Fermented Sausages is very "food science" based, so it contains charts and graphs about pH levels and how they related to humidity and temp, etc. Charcuterie has more recipes than just Salami, and is more similar to a recipe book.

Good luck!

Sorry for the delayed response!

• The Art of Fermentation by Sandor Katz is the backbone of any book collection on the topic of fermentation, and has inspired many other others.
  
• Fermented Vegetables by Christopher Shockey is my favorite book for most of my ferments. It's a super-practical recipe book for a ton of awesome krauts, kimchees, etc.
  
• The Art of Natural Cheesemaking by David Asher opened me up to a whole new world of making my own yoghurts, cheeses, etc., and more importantly, to kefir.
  
  Kefir has been the most wonderful source of probiotics for me. My lactose-intolerant wife has been able to drink it without problem. I've actually even heard of people being able to cure their lactose intolerance with the stuff. If I drink as little as a cup of homemade kefir every day, I have zero G.I. tract problems. I've noticed that if I stop using it for long periods of time, they frequently return. If I were to select one thing to try, it'd be kefir. The best source of information on kefir came from a series of webpages (1, 2, 3)from a guy named Dom. He has a ridiculously crazy sense of humor, but he's done more experimentation with kefir than I've seen anywhere else. I'd encourage you to buy some kefir grains off of Craigslist for $5 and experiment with it for a while.
  
  I hope this helps. Please feel free to PM me if you have any other questions.

If you're interested in learning more about fermenting, Sandor "Sandorkraut" Katz is a name you should search. He's kind of "the" guy for fermenting.

His Website

His most recent book

The books is a great resource and one of my favorites. Very inspiring to try new stuff. I'm actually going to see him at a workshop he's doing in Rhode Island late this month. Should be awesome.

Good luck!

Hi, welcome!
I recommend a little reading, your local library should have these books, https://gianacliscaldwell.com/books/ https://www.amazon.com/Home-Cheese-Making-Recipes-Homemade/dp/1580174647 , both are good to start with.
Gavin Webber's YouTube channel is excellent and shows many useful techniques.
If a local cheesmaker does day courses, they are really good for getting a feel for things, nothing like hands on ;)
Have fun!

The Art of Fermentation: An In-Depth Exploration of Essential Concepts and Processes from around the World is pretty good if you're interested in learning how to make your own yogurt, kimchi, sauerkraut and the like. Save you a couple bucks and impress your friends and the ladies/men with your earthly hobby.

The FDA states that inversion canning is not safe and should not be practiced. I get the appeal of not having to water bath process jars because it is a pain, but personally I would never do it, why risk it? If you don't want to fully process your jars you can do refrigerator recipes, most will last in the frig for several weeks. Please practice safe and approved canning methods!

If you need help with proper canning and approved recipes, this book is fantastic!

https://www.amazon.com/Ball-Complete-Book-Home-Preserving/dp/0778801314/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&qid=1537971010&sr=8-6&keywords=ball+canning

My favourite book is:
https://www.amazon.com/Ball-Complete-Book-Home-Preserving/dp/0778801314
I initially just borrowed it from our local library then went out and bought it for myself since I used so many of the recipes! :)

When I first started I spent a lot of time on YouTube watching other people canning. Some good stations to check out would be:
Linda's Pantry,
our half acre homestead,
living traditions homestead,
homesteading family....and lots of others really.

I would usually decide what I wanted to try canning and search for that...I'd watch a few different videos to give me the confidence to try it.

A website I like is: https://www.healthycanning.com/
I find the material is written in a really approachable format. I really appreciate their explanations in what is safe and what isn't...and some of the reasons behind it.

Sometimes it's hard to trust website recipes, so I tried to stick with safer, known sources rather than some blogger with a great looking product but no info into the safety.

Anyhow, welcome to club!! It can be a lot of work but I find it oh so rewarding!!

Homebrew is a 1 gallon version of the Saison Dupont recipe from this book.

The Foolproof is from a new local brewery started by a friend of a friend. They currently only have distribution in RI and MA, but the brewmaster there has been around for a while at a few places and makes some great beers. The Collette and Hennepin are great as well. Haven't yet tried the Stillwater Cellar Door.

I'll second this and additionally suggest learning how to ferment foods yourself, cause it's stupidly easy and super cheap. The Art Of Fermentation is a great book to help you get started if you want to understand how it works, but it's not necessary.

Usually I just make my own probiotic drinks by fermenting random fruits/herbs + ginger using probiotic pills (like S. Boulardii) as starter cultures, and 'feeding' it some soluble fibers. Not quite as simple as just taking a pill, but more likely to work effectively given there'll be a higher bacterial count in a glass of liquid than in a pill, and liquid helps the bacteria survive your stomach acid a bit more easily as well.

This is really awesome and inspiring. One of my most influential books back in the late 90s was a book called Clonebrews which taught amateur homebrewers how to make homebrew-sized version of their favorite commercial styles. It was really well-researched and put together, and even included partial mash and all-grain versions for those who did not have the complete setup.

I'm really interested to see how the industry evolves with the next wave of innovative homebrewers...

So, this is a super late reply because I rarely check this sub, but I have to make a recommendation. I own all of the books in this thread and was taught butchery at the CIA according to that text, so they are definitely solid recommendations, but there is a much better series out there for you if you are still looking out for good instructional texts. Adam Danforth has authored a series of books entitled "Butchering: The comprehensive photographic guide to humane slaughtering and butchering". There is one for beef, and one for poultry, rabbit, lamb, goat, and pork. They are instructional, in-depth, and exactly what you want.

Since no one's commented in a day, I just wanted to say this book just came out a couple months ago, so likely not many have looked at it yet. But he's chef of a couple excellent restaurants, and looking through the recipes, he has a decidedly world-wide cuisine, taking inspiration from Europe, Southeast Asia, Mexico and many other places. He even has a recipe for New Jersey style pork roll (Taylor ham), beloved breakfast sandwich meat. So there's plenty in there to delight even an experienced cook.

The indispensable book remains Ruhlman's Charcuterie. If your friend already has that, I recommend Fatted Calf's In the Charcuterie.

I would never say it's complicated but it is more involved. First off all jellies are made using the boiling water bath method (which can be as simple as having a pot large enough to have at least 1" of water covering the top of your jars at all times). Where the science comes in is when to determine if pectin is needed, what ratio of fruit to sugar is needed, and what jar sizes are safe (you can always process in a smaller jar but never a larger jar). If you have yet to purchase a Ball book of canning I strongly recommend it.
The first two books I bought were (http://amzn.to/2uyqAYA) and (http://amzn.to/2uIsZ33) however Ball just released a brand new Basics book (http://amzn.to/2tfdw6l) that discusses jams, jellies, butters and pickles.
I know this may not have been the answer you were looking for but I would gladly help you walk through the process of making a jam

As others have mentioned jam, canned and wine are great. You can also dry or freeze. Here's a great book for preserving : putting food by. I've never made wine from purple plums, only golden. But I'm sure it would be yummy. Enjoy!

As a culture, we're just beginning to feel around the edges of the hugely important role that gut flora/our microbiome plays in our health. It seems like almost every day some new and exciting information is coming out regarding this area of knowledge.

At our house, we do a lot of ferments. We've done kombucha, milk and water kefir, lacto-pickles, sourdough culture and homebrewed beer. We also have a friend that has started a local business making amazing sauerkrauts.

If anybody is interested in this stuff, I'd highly recommend Wild Fermentation and The Art of Fermentation by Sandor Katz. Both excellent books with background info and recipes.

Fermentation can seem unsafe/intimidating, but I've been surprised at how simple it is to do, and how few issues there are in regards to food safety (the whole reason people started fermenting food in the first place was to keep it from spoiling, after all).

My recommendations depend on what you consider "pickling."

There's the notion of canning-type pickling, where you put the vegetable (typically) in a brine, often flavored with spices, and preserve them by canning; sterilizing the jars and contents so that it's shelf-stable. Most "pickles" you buy in the store fall under this definition. Additionally, these recipes are pretty standard, and have gone through exhaustive formulating and testing to ensure safety. I personally would not trust online resources for canning unless you are 100% certain of their validity. (Whereas my next distinction is far more forgiving and open to experimentation.)
For this, I can think of no better book than the Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving.

On the other hand, most non-Western cultures, including ours until the Cold War or so, consider pickling to involve some sort of preserving involving selecting and managing bacteria to preserve the food. Usually via some form of fermentation, though not exclusively so. Think kimchi or (non-canned) sauerkraut. Cucumber pickles are a paradox, common and popular in both canned and fermented categories. A common non-fermented, non-canned preserved item would be preserved lemons, say. Or honey-preserved garlic.
The best book for fermentation (and other non-canned preservations) is Sandor Ellix-Katz's The Art of Fermentation.

Agreed. Get them to cold place (outside?) and open/drink them ASAP. If you had a hydrometer you would be able to know how much has continued to ferment since bottling and calculate the volumes of pressure and know if you're safe or not with the bottle you used. Buy a good quality hydrometer.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/ALLA-CIDER-HYDROMETER-/380567137311?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item589b91ac1f

Hint: In the future use high quality champagne bottles (you can cap with a crown) to allow more pressure / sparkling more safely.

Hint 2: This book is the only book you'll need to make great cider. http://www.amazon.com/New-Cider-Makers-Handbook-Comprehensive/dp/1603584730/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1420595963&sr=8-1&keywords=cider

That USDA bulletin is great! I'm definitely giving that a read through. Yeah it's really is hard finding info on any type of koji other than for Sake or Miso. I wound up using a combination of shoyu and soy koji recipes in Sandor Katz' "The Art of Fermentation" book and the directions that came with the shoyu koji-kin I bought from GEM Cultures.

http://gemcultures.com/soy_cultures.htm

https://www.amazon.com/Art-Fermentation-Depth-Exploration-Essential/dp/160358286X/

I have drawn on some ideas from Joseph Needham's "Science and Civilization in China Vol 6-5: Biology and Biotechnology Part 5 - Fermentations and Food Science." It's a treasure trove of information about the history of fermentation technology in China and other East Asian cultures. The book has recipes and techniques though they have to be interpreted using modern methods and measurements which can be tricky.

https://monoskop.org/images/f/f1/Needham_Joseph_Science_and_Civilisation_in_China_Vol_6-5_Biology_and_Biological_Technology_Fermentations_and_Food_Science.pdf

Good luck on the peanuts! Looks like they successfully used them in the USDA booklet so it should work in theory.

Yeah the immersion circulator works great and koji is usually ready in about 40 hours but I am frustrated by having to use an 8x11 baking dish which limits me to about 2 lbs of koji at a time. I'm guessing from your pictures you have a cabinet setup with rows of wooden trays for incubation? Can you share some pics of what that looks like?

I was thinking about doing this cooler + aquarium heater setup but have also been intrigued about building a wood cabinet with trays.

http://fermup.com/incubators/

Charcuterie: The Craft of Salting, Smoking, and Curing (Revised and Updated) https://www.amazon.com/dp/0393240053/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_9JbiDb82S780M


This book is amazing, i have a 15lb ham hanging in my dining room drying. I used their basic dry cure, pulsed about 5 ancho Chiles in a magic bullet until they were powder put the cure on the belly flipped every other day for 5-7 days pulled it out of the bags, cut a piece rinsed and fried it to check my salt level(at this point you can let it cure longer they say up to 10 days but it gets super salty. After you’re happy with your salt level rinse thoroughly and pat dry let sit in fridge(or the garage if it’s cold out, hence why i like doing it in January/February) over night suspended and uncovered. Then cold smoke for about 16 hours on applewood(I’m a big fat cheater and use the masterbuilt cold smoking attachment about $50 on amazon and cut a hole in a 55gallon drum absolutely perfect setup) if you’re afraid it’s gonna get too warm keep a tub of ice in the bottom.

The type of jar you used is not recommended for canning by some authorities. If you're worried about food poisoning, keep the pickles in the fridge and consume soon, rather than allowing them to sit on a shelf somewhere until you are ready to consume them. Most of the cooperative extension agencies in the United States have particularly good information about safe canning practices. Also, the Ball Blue Book and the Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving provide an excellent guide for safe canning practices, as well as wonderful recipes for someone new to canning.

If anyone is interested I’d try pigs and sheep first. It’s an interesting hobby. A whole pig in the 100 pound range should run you about $250-$300 and is a lot of meat once you break it down. Lambs are much more expensive but are fun to break down too. This is a excellent book and there is a companion just on beef. I got my copy used in hard cover.

https://www.amazon.com/Butchering-Poultry-Rabbit-Lamb-Goat/dp/1612121829

Also there are other videos in this series by BA including tuna processing for restaurant use. Good videos.

Food scale

Electric pressure cooker ($$, though I got mine used on FB marketplace) but as a second much more affordable choice is a slow cooker.

Cookbooks

The Healthy Meal Prep Cookbook: Easy and Wholesome Meals to Cook, Prep, Grab, and Go https://www.amazon.com/dp/162315944X/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_dGUeAbB8DZPFZ

Sheet Pan: Delicious Recipes for Hands-Off Meals https://www.amazon.com/dp/1681881373/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_sHUeAb5XA7288

Fix-It and Forget-It Healthy Slow Cooker Cookbook: 150 Whole Food Recipes https://www.amazon.com/dp/1680992104/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_PIUeAb59505DQ

I bought a healthy meal planning cookbook last year to get some ideas for things to meal prep, and this one is great because it not only shows you recipes but it also shows you exactly what you'll need to have on hand in order to make the meals each week. I agree with /u/MotherFuckingCupcake though, eventually you get a sense of ingredients to have on hand and foods you can make in order to use whatever's left over.

I've had rave reviews using the Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving and the recipes in there for salsa. I don't have it on hand, but I gotta say, everything in there is a winner. To be fair, I also boost the cilantro, and sub half the white vinegar for cider vinegar. That gives is a very unique sort of bite.

Also, there's Cowboy Candy that was recommended in another thread?

I have made pounds and pounds of bacon following Ruhlman's Charcuterie book and it has always worked great. I typically change up the wood I'm smoking the belly with to vary the flavor, but the base is amazing (smoked with cherry wood has been the best I've made yet).

I learn best by seeing and doing, so I found a friend to teach me and another friend for the first time. Another friend taught herself with Youtube videos and the classic [Ball Book] (https://www.amazon.com/Ball-Blue-Book-Guide-Preserving/dp/B00OEJZSNW). (Note: my friends and I can't NOT call it the Blue Ball Book. Sigh... We will never grow up!)

I personally reccomend starting with applesauce and/or apple butter. I fucking love having homemade applesauce for pork chops. Can't stand the storebought shit anymore! I tried it once and decided I'd rather eat my porkchops plain. :( The only other bad thing about making those is one, a food mill is really important to getting good texture (Kris drove 75 miles to borrow mine after our lesson!), and two, you will wind up having to make a ton of apple butter every year for presents!

Edit: u/serene_Ansley , you got anything to add?

Ruhlman is ok but not the best by far. If you want a good comprehensive book then grab Home Production of Quality Meats and Sausages by the Marianskis. It's not a flashy overproduced book so will cost less then Ruhlman, and it's a lot of theory with few full recipes but that's the point, if you understand the theory the recipes don't matter. Following a recipe blind is a great way to screw up since there's so many horrible and inconsistent recipes available with the internet, it's better imo to learn what you are doing and devise your own recipes, or at very least have the ability to proofread recipes you find online and be able to correct them if need be.

Thank you for the shoutout.

/u/StanMikitasDonuts should start out with some light reading. Get yourself Charcuterie, by Ruhlman and Polcyn, In the Charcuterie by Boetticher and Miller, and maybe a simple recipe book like Cured by Charles Wekselbaum. That will give you a really strong foundation of recipes to work with.

Most people will start off making Duck Breast Prosciutto (Prosciutto D'Anatra) because it requires only duck breast, salt, and 7-10 days of waiting... and does not require a curing chamber. Beyond that, bacon is a popular and fairly foolproof early project. Fresh and hot-smoked sausages are a good foray into charcuterie as well.

Once you get into whole muscle curing (like OP's pork loin idea) and fermented sausages like salamis, et al, you start needing to account for more ingredients, more processes, and more equipment. A curing chamber is essential for anything that is going to hang for long periods of time. You'll need lacto cultures and mold starters. None of it is difficult or particularly expensive (especially compared to buying these products retail)... but it does become a more immersive hobby once you've got appliances dedicated to making meat logs.

you can can the sauce as well, there's quite a few recipes out there for doing so, I just used one from [Balls Blue Book] (https://www.amazon.com/Ball-Blue-Book-Guide-Preserving/dp/B00OEJZSNW/ref=pd_lpo_sbs_14_t_2/135-1629025-6155009?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=HTC8BMJJJS5Y54P966A3) that turned out quite well.

However, I agree canned whole/crushed tomatoes are much more versatile in the kitchen. I just like having a quick sauce ready to go sometimes, makes dinner planning easier, and you can customize the sauce ahead of time utilizing your preferred spices as well

Yes this....Please be very cautious about using random recipes from the internet. There is no guarantee they are safe to can. Another good source for great, safe recipes is this book:

http://www.amazon.com/Ball-Complete-Book-Home-Preserving/dp/0778801314/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1407688157&sr=8-1&keywords=book+of+canning

The New Cider Maker's Handbook is an amazing resource. It may be overkill if you are just starting out. It covers the cider making process but also covers apple growing as well.

My wife and I purchased an orchard last year and hope to start a small cidery in the future. This book has been an incredible amount of help. It is basically a textbook for cider making.

To get her started, I would get her a book like this one, and depending on her stove top a water bath canner for gas/electric or flat top, also this set, and don't forget the jars. There are probably other stores than Amazon to buy these things, I usually get great deals at Ace hardware. There are some other great books out there, and depending on what she is interested in, a pressure canner is a big one too.

I'm just going to copy-and-paste my reply to another, similar comment below. I'll add this: saying I should share the recipe with you because you're not going to buy the book is like saying the store should let you steal a candy bar because you weren't going to buy it anyway. Also, people have been doing lots of things for thousands of years, building on or borrowing from folks that came before. And yet, people still pay good money to go to college so they can learn those things.

> I agree with you given my experience with most cookbooks, especially vegetarian ones. Sometimes even the damned pictures are the same. And I'll agree they didn't "invent" New York deli-style pickles.
>
> That said, Fermented Vegetables isn't really a cookbook. Consider it an instruction manual. It covers everything you need to know to get started fermenting, troubleshoot when things go wrong, and also provides a few fermentation recipes for 64 different vegetables. I have a fair number of books on fermentation, and this one continues to be my go-to (it, and their second book Fiery Ferments). I also can't say I've seen a lot of overlap between it and the others.
>
> As for copyrighting recipes, I have mixed feelings. Certainly no one can claim to have invented most recipes—at best, they've given them their own spin. And if all they're doing is collecting easily-found recipes into a book and hitting the proverbial publish button, they probably don't deserve much in the way of credit. However, if someone took copious amounts of time to research and collect a bunch of knowledge of any type (i.e., not just recipes), they should probably be somehow compensated for it. So while the recipe in question may be common knowledge, it came from a well-researched book full of information that ranges from everyday to obscure. If I share this recipe, where do I stop? Should I share their very specific recipe for eggplant pickles (which were terrible, in case you're wondering :D) as well? I don't know. So my stance is to simply not share any recipes from any cookbook unless the authors have already done so, or the book itself is out of print or obviously comes from a copy mill. YMMV.

What growing zone are you? Slovenia ranges from 6b-9a + probably has microclimates. This is the same as England but perhaps with more sun and less rain?

Buy:
The New Cider Maker's Handbook: A Comprehensive Guide for Craft Producers

https://www.amazon.com/New-Cider-Makers-Handbook-Comprehensive/dp/1603584730/ref=mp_s_a_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1541706360&sr=8-3&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_QL65&keywords=cider+makers&dpPl=1&dpID=61Zf0oSwl-L&ref=plSrch

There is an excellent section on apple choices.

If you want faster production buy pre-grafted, well feathered bare root trees on the rootstock of your choice. This is usually hard to find.

If you can lose 3 years then but the rootstock of your choice and buy the scion wood/bud wood of the varieties you want and graft them yourself.

Focus on the bitter-sweets and the bitter-sharps. You can probably buy the sweets and sharps locally and then just blend.

Wild Fermentation is a pretty good book to get started with. The guy is a bit of a hippie and sometimes it's a bit out there, but I think it has some things you might be interested in and some good info as well.

That looks wonderful. A charcuterie trip to Spain is definitely on my bucket list. What got me thinking about it was reading this book Charcuteria: The Soul of Spain. It's a truly wonderful read if you're into this kind of thing.

Hangon that's BS, some fermenting foods are exactly what we evolved to love - the overripe fruit contains shedloads of sugars that are great. Some forms of fermentation greatly increase the bioavailability of certain nutrients. That's all vague and hand-wavy, so I'll recommend Sandor Ellix Katz' book The Art of Fermentation as it is exceedingly well-cited, bloody interesting, and tells me to drink beer. I think...

Another way you can naturally start your own yogurt culture is by using chili peppers, which is actually how they start yogurt in India.

Check out that link for some basics, if you're curious about some other ways, I definitely recommend checking out Sandor Katz's The Art of Fermentation. Probably the best book I've read on fermentation techniques, ideas, and recipes.

I really like this one, https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/160342539X/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1518634793&sr=8-1&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_FMwebp_QL65&keywords=clone+brews

It's got a lot of popular beer recipes, full grain and extract recipes for each and good appendices for when you want to get creative and start making your own recipes

I have these. It's really not much more than how the nipple works on a baby bottle:

6-Pack Waterless Airlock Fermentation Lids for Wide Mouth Mason Jars, Mold Free, Food-Grade Silicone Easy Fermenting Lids for Sauerkraut, Kimchi, Pick https://www.amazon.com/dp/B079NSKRHQ/ref=cm_sw_r_em_apap_PJsAkbk1UN3Cd

I did buy the knockoffs. Masontops makes another version, but I had a hard time with the price for a silicone mold.

I'd referenced that Noma book. There's also the gold standard of the Art of Fermentation although there's no shortage of recipes and ideas on the web: https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/sitb/B0083JQCF2?sib_dp_aw_kd_udp

Tremendously thoughtful gift. Nicely done.

There is this sub which I'm sure is a good source for recipes and instructions. I use the recipe in this book. Good luck! I fermented a little over three pounds of Orange Habaneros last year and got three and a half jars of pepper paste out of it. Supposedly it will last for several years.

I've seen Brew Chem 101: The Basics of Homebrewing Chemistry in stores, but I haven't read it. It seems very sciencey.

Otherwise, I recommend Designing Great Beers.

Palmer's How To Brew is essentially mandatory reading if you want to be able to get consistent results (that aren't consistently bad at least). If you've got a good handle on that, and want to get into the meat and potatoes of how the bugs do their work and what does what in a beer, Janson's Brew Chem 101 is another good resource if you've got a good handle on high school level chemistry.

Well, I think that also includes the cost of overnight delivery of perishable items. That said, I've had several that retail for 29.99/lb and they are actually amazing enough for that price.

Cheese of the Month is a good splurge to get you exposure to new and different types of cheeses (think of it as an educational expense). Once you know what you like, you can try to find it locally. Or make your own varieties.

The Art of Fermentation

http://www.amazon.com/Art-Fermentation-Depth-Exploration-Essential/dp/160358286X

I live in the heart of the south and have access to an amazing amount of fresh produce. I'm always experimenting.

I've not tried dry-cured meats, but here's a stuffer for $40US. I just use my grinder to stuff the sausages I make (bratwurst, andouille, boudin) and it works just fine. The piston press stuffer really shines for emulsified sausages like bologna and franks.

As for recipes, I have this book and this one and they are fairly comprehensive. Read the Ruhlman first for the broad strokes, then the Marianski for some more in-depth theory and practice, along with what seems like a thousand recipes.

Bacon is the easiest place to start, since it doesn't involve as much work or special equipment as sausages — you just add a curing salt mix to a pork belly, stick it in the fridge for 7 - 10 days, flipping it daily to redistribute the cure. Of course there are a few variations on this, and you can smoke it at the end, but that's the gist of it. Recipes are easy to find online.

If you really want to get into fermented sausages, you're looking at a much more involved undertaking, since this generally requires a curing chamber with controlled temperature and humidity for a period of weeks (in addition to the meat grinder and sausage stuffer you'd need for other sausages).

Check out the Charcuterie Resources Master List in the sidebar for a master list of charcuterie resources. Another book that is not listed there (I believe it came out after the list was compiled) is Salumi by Michael Ruhlman and Brian Polcyn, which is primarily concerned with dry curing and does get into fermented cured meats as well.

Absolutely, if you are a complete beginner this book is great to start with. As you progress this other book will be a good next step. The salt cured pig blog on Facebook has a ton of info on it for home curing. So I’d start with the first book and go from there, you can hit me up with any questions!

I recommend sauerkraut, sourdough starter (I add a tsp of honey to mine starter), kombucha, rejuvelac, pickles, and / or kimchi.

Also Wild Fermentation by Sandor Ellix Katz, this is a great book full of a great store of fermentation wisdom.

I don't have my shelf in front of me right now, but the one I can remember that I really like is Butchering.

Also, it's not purely butchering or farming, but Steve Rinella's two book series on hunting, butchering, storing, and preparing small to large game is a fantastic resource. Book 1. Book 2.

For anyone interested in going further with fermentation experiments, I would humbly like to recommend Sandor Katz's The Art of Fermentation. Both his recipes and the philosophy behind what he does are excellent. When the zombie apocalypse comes and there's no more refrigeration and community relationships are twisted and desperate, you'll be glad you own this book.

Do yourself a favor and buy this book. The first half of the book is all about food science related to meat drying and curing. The recipes are based on mass of ingredients and is really the only way to go. I have several books on charcuterie, but the Marianski brothers' books are the absolute best.

Also, get a decent scale that will measure to 0.1 gram and you will be fine.

I've made kimchi like this several times without issue and I've never read anywhere to rinse the cabbage out prior to stuffing the container. I've followed the basic outline for most of my cabbage based ferments from this book .

It's never come out ultra salty either ... keep in mind this is for a gallon sized ferment. So those 4-6 tablespoons aren't over much.

Also, salt is not bad for me. Sodium is very needed and I get enough potassium in my diet. I used to use cheesecloth instead of a lid but now I just burp it ever 2-3 days the first week or so.

Your link is interesting, but honestly that's a lot of work that I probably won't want to ever do!

The only thing I wish my little Presto had was a pressure gauge. Make sure it can hit 15 psi, since that's what most recipes are calibrated for. Everyone raves about the All Americans, so I'm sure you're making a good choice there. I don't know how cooking times are affected by trying to do large quantities of meat at once. I'd think it'd be basically the same as long as you're at pressure/temperature.

My 8 qt Presto is sufficient for an 8 lb bone-in butt. I could probably get a little more in there but I don't feel like playing fast and loose with it, and that's a lot of food for me and my roommate.

Some resources:

/r/canning

/r/pressurecooking

I've been getting a lot of cooking times for things from Fagor's website.

Kenji at Serious Eats (a great cooking website) has been doing a lot of pressure cooking stuff. The ragu bolognese is insanely good.

The Ball book is basically the canning Bible. The USDA also has a canning guide.

Start with a whole muscle cure, like a Coppa. The tricky part is finding the right environment to dry it properly. We have drying chambers that have humidity and temperature conditions that are ideal for slowly air drying cured products.
The best book for really learning the how's and why's is...
https://www.amazon.com/Home-Production-Quality-Meats-Sausages/dp/0982426739

I had a few other books prior, but I was finally able to quit googling everything after I purchased 366 delicious ways to cook rice, beans, and grains.

I've recently bought wild fermentation - I don't know your feelings on sauerkraut or other fermented foods, but this book (I also took a class) has really opened me up to some amazing, ridiculous things.

I agree completely. My favorite resources and recommendations are:

Living Traditions YouTube Channel meat rabbit series

Slightly Red Necked YouTube Channel meat rabbit series

Storey's Guide to Raising Meat Rabbits

Butchering Poultry, Rabbit, Lamb, Goat, and Pork: The Comprehensive Photographic Guide to Humane Slaughtering and Butchering

That last one is (to my mind) a vital resource.

1. Dig pit
   
   
2. Mash fresh yams and sugar cane. Grow them yourself, because the kind in the supermarket will have most of the natural yeasts washed or irradiated away. Alternatively, you could add yeast.
   
   
3. Put mash in pit
   
   
4. Cover. Look at it every day. When it stops bubbling, you're ready to get drunk on paste!
   
   But actually, if you're interested in this sort of thing I highly recommend the book The Art of Fermentation. It's super cool, the author explains things in a very simple, straightforward way, but doesn't neglect to explain the science behind it either.

Here on Amazon

I love this book, and the pickled carrots are awesome

If you are smart and what to learn the reason why you do everything you do - https://www.amazon.com/Home-Production-Quality-Meats-Sausages/dp/0982426739/ref=sr_1_1?s=lawn-garden&ie=UTF8&qid=1487389744&sr=8-1&keywords=Marianski


Maybe my Favorite Sausage Recipe - http://honest-food.net/sweet-italian-sausage-recipe/

If you want a good recipe book - https://www.amazon.com/Great-Sausage-Recipes-Meat-Curing/dp/0025668609/ref=pd_sim_14_3?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=N71RD112GDYKRZQMXN9G

According to the Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving you don't need to pressure can tomatillo salsa, just water bath can it with enough vinegar for acidity. If you wanted to pressure can it you certainly can, but it just isn't necessary for safety.

Recipe is on p. 212, makes about four half pint jars or two pint jars:

> 5.5 c chopped cored husked tomatillos

> 1 c chopped onion

> 1 c chopped seeded green chili peppers

> 0.5 c white vinegar

> 4 tbsp lime juice

> 4 cloves garlic, finely chopped

> 1 tbsp finely chopped cilantro

> 2 tsp ground cumin

> 0.5 tsp salt

> 0.5 tsp hot pepper flakes

If you don't have this book I would HIGHLY recommend picking it up :) It's about $13 on Amazon.

OP's book/media suggestions, formatted with links:

• People start with Ruhlman's Charcuterie, but quickly learn it's heavy on salt.
  
• For some slightly more esoteric recipes, check out In the Charcuterie by Taylor Boetticher and Levonia Miller. I absolutely "butchered" those names, btw.
  
• Also, get a book called Pig Perfect by Peter Kaminski... Not a lot of recipes, but it will enamor you with all things pig.
  
• Show... There's a series on BBC called <Time Period> Farm]... Edwardian, Victorian, Jacobean, etc... Where a group of historians run a farm for a year by the standards of the time period. It's cool and they do some pig stuff.

Check out the book Clone Brews for some dark beers. There are beers in there from all over the world so I am sure that you could acquire some in Australia. For me, this book gives me a nice starting point when trying new styles because it has commercial examples so I know what to buy to compare my homebrew to. Honestly Guinness is pretty world wide and a dark beer. I would start with that one.

I don't know that baking soda would do anything. I use an ultrasonic humidifier connected to this thermohygrostat. I plug my fridge into the thermo side. It's quite an easy, simple set-up if you have a spare fridge. (Or, if you're me, you find that your refrigeration needs are satisfied by your old dorm fridge.)

The range that tends to be recommended is 55-60 deg F (~13C) and 75-80% relative humidity. If you're doing anything larger than a 2-3 in. diameter, I'd really recommend a dedicated chamber that stays consistently in this range.

Jason Molinari's blog is really one of the best online introductions to the craft, including treatises on the necessary equipment. Also The Marianski's book on fermented sausage is A NECESSITY for salami / dry cured sausage. Their other books come highly recommended, especially on smoking.

This is a hobby you really need to do your own reading and research into. You could make people sick and possibly kill them if you fuck up. Botulism is not a fun way to die.

And if you're on facebook, join Sausage Debauchery which is one of the most active forums I've found for this hobby, although they don't pull punches on safety.

Both if you can. Chickens as they are omnivores and will eat almost everything. For plants you can pick and choose what will do best for you. In the case you are presenting I would suggest getting plants that people in dryer or hotter climates grow. Start growing them now along with other plants for diversity.

Some books I suggest

• The Whole Seed Catalog 2019 Great seeds from across the world and for sale. Also includes guides on how they taste and some info on growing them.
  
• Four-Season Harvest
  
• Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving Along with this I suggest learning how to pressure can food. I am not aware of a good book to teach this.

You need to read a real book about cheesemaking before you go any further. A lot of people consider Rikki Carroll's "Home Cheese Making" to be a bible for starting out in the process, and it's pretty simple to understand.

Here is the reality: incompetent cheesemaking can make you very, very sick. It requires holding milk at temperatures where pathogenic bacteria thrive and they can cause serious foodborne illness or, in certain circumstances, death. Especially since you are interested in aged cheeses, it is very important that you gain a basic understanding of how the process works chemically so that you can monitor your critical control points to prevent yourself getting sick. (You absolutely don't have to be a scientist or understand everything down on the molecular level, but you do need some basics.)

It is exciting to start out, but as a matter of safety and as a matter of you being able to make successful cheese, you should not be considering making any kind of ripened cheese yet if you don't even understand what the differences between rennet and culture are. You also want to get at least a minimal understanding of how you control specific bacteria, yeast and mold to influence your aging process, and what to look for when things go wrong. Dairy aging is not to be fucked with if you like your gastrointestinal system exactly the way it currently functions.

Grab a book and learn about how all the factors work together, and in the meantime try something low risk, such as a recipe for quark or queso fresco, that you will be eating the same day you make it.

The Art Of Fermentation should be on everybody's shelves.

Nice article, btw. Some great stuff in there on fermentation in a warm, humid climate, where it seems (from a Northern perspective) that foods ferment way too quickly.

I would recommend reading The Art of Fermentation The other recommendation would to consume yogurt the way Elaine Gottschall describes in Breaking the Vicious Cycle.

My posting history has good information about how I reduce symptoms with diet. Good luck to you, and by all means experiment.

From what I've read and fermented myself, the rule is "Submerge in brine and all will be fine."

This book is amazing for exact recipes and creativity, highly recommended!

Lots of good info here: https://nchfp.uga.edu

And this is my favorite canning book (has approved recipes)
Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving https://www.amazon.com/dp/0778801314/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_tS-BDb6WYXYMM

Mozzarella is actually a great one to first attempt. If you mess up, you likely end up with ricotta.

This is a pretty good book:
http://www.amazon.com/Home-Cheese-Making-Recipes-Delicious/dp/1580174647

The Blue Book is a great start! I got my Mennonite mother http://www.amazon.com/Canning-New-Generation-Flavors-Modern/dp/1584798645/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1369176135&sr=1-1&keywords=canning+recipes this book for Christmas and she loved some of the more modern recipes.

One thing, definetly don't can a ton of the same recipe IF YOU HATE THAT PARTICULAR FOOD. My first year in college I was so proud of myself for canning 20 jars of spaghetti sauce...then realized I hardly ever eat pasta and would have been way better off making salsa or green tomato jam or stewed tomatoes, even. ;)

How to Brew - John Palmer

Designing Great Beers - Ray Daniels

Brewing Classic Styles - Jamil Zainasheff and John Palmer

Brew Like a Monk - Stan Hieronymus

Clone Brews - Tess and Mark Szamatulski

Yeast - Jamil Zainasheff and Chris White

Beer Captured - Tess and Mark Szamatulski

Radical Brewing - Randy Mosher

Brewer's Association Guide to Starting Your Own Brewery - Randy Mosher

I've mostly been making corned beef, bacon and sausage. Even if things don't turn out perfectly, it's hard to make things that are actually bad as long as you're careful to keep everything clean and use the right ratios of salt, sugar and nitrites. I haven't moved to air drying or smoking meats yet because I don't have the space or equipment. For what I'm doing, I just need to be able to save space in my fridge for a week or so at a time.

This book is a great resource for anyone who is interested in learning more about the craft.

A note on making cheese- my husband cannot cook worth a damn, basically boxed macaroni and cheese is as advanced as he gets EXCEPT for cheese. He bought the book Home Cheese Making and started with the 30 minute mozzarella. He now makes cheese almost every week. Its fantastic and I think anyone can do it, especially with a fresh milk source.

I like Canning for a New Generation. But I also have the Ball book, Putting Food By, and The Blue Chair Jam Cookbook, which is a million pages of good sweet stuff.

What are Missouri Wonders?

In terms of canning books, you should get the Ball Blue Book or Ball Complete Book of Preserving to start. Canning is pretty much an exact science and can have serious not-good results if done without following exact recipes.

There are tons of websites out there, and Canning Across America has a great resource list on their site.

I am such a sucker for books on canning. I highly recommend "So Easy to Preserve by National Center for Home Food Preservation you can buy the bound book OR get the PDF for free. The recipes are all scientifically tested. Another one with tested recipes is Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving. I also like these...Preserving in Today's Kitchen, The Glass Pantry, The Complete Book of Small Batch Canning and Mes Confitures: The Jams and Jellies of Christine Ferber. Check out /r/canning too.

Alright, /u/dahby and I are new to the homebrewing world. We recently bottled our third batch ever, a Lagunitas IPA clone we got from This book. It's a extract/partial mash recipe. Something I've noticed in all three of our batches is that the beer tastes watered down. What is a cause for this, and how can I fix it? This last batch we lost a ton of water to during our boil, and had to top off with roughly 3 gallons to get it back up to the 5 gallon mark. Any help would be awesome.

This one:

https://smile.amazon.com/Fermented-Vegetables-Creative-Fermenting-Chutneys/dp/1612124259/

Got it for Christmas a couple years back, it's a really great resource with some good recipes. If you're into spicy foods, the same authors also wrote this:

https://smile.amazon.com/Fiery-Ferments-Stimulating-Fermented-Condiments/dp/1612127282/

Probably the best resource. http://www.amazon.com/The-Art-Fermentation-Exploration-Essential/dp/160358286X
Very little emphasis on equipment, which should also be helpful.

You will need a meat thermometer. Something like that. Your task will be twofold: first - to bring the internal temperature to 155F and second - to give your meat some smoke. Normal smoker temperature range is between 150F and 275F. You will have to decide what temperature to use depending on thickness of your meat. If sausages are too thin you will reach 155F internal very fast (you don't want to go over 160F as it will overcook your meat). That would be a problem as you need 2-3 hours of reasonably heavy smoke to give your meat smoky flavor. In this case you will need to keep your smoker temperature as low as you can (150F for example). Smoke your sausages for 2.5 hours, than raise temp to 175F and finish the cooking. If you are smoking the whole ham, it can take 6 to 7 hours to cook it through in a 250F smoker. I would recommend to smoke it for 3-4 hours max and then finish cooking without smoking. You can smoke it for 7 hours but it can be too much. Depends on your preferences.

Edit: The book I'd recommend to anybody who wants to cure and smoke meats. It's like the sausage making bible.

If you're new to sausage making I'd recommend this book, it's got good sausage recipes and lots of tips. Only deviation I make is I only use maybe a quarter of the ice cold water they recommend putting in the sausage, otherwise it comes out a bit crumbly I find.

I cant tell you where to hunt because I have not learned that myself.

​

The Meateater guides to "hunting, butchering and cooking wild game" are great for learning how to chop one up.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/081299406X/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_U_FmoyCb34ESAMT

​

Meateater also has videos on how to butcher a deer in the field, a pig is basically the exact same process.

https://youtu.be/vJtMpbJUXzE

​

Once you have it gutted and skinned, this book is nice for breaking down pig.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1612121829/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i0

I do not have experience with the two books you mentioned, however I own “Charcuterie” which does go in depth with sausage making, and has some great recipes. I highly recommend it.
Charcuterie: The Craft of Salting, Smoking, and Curing (Revised and Updated) https://www.amazon.com/dp/0393240053/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_QevPDbWDMND63

OP, as a New Orleans native, I highly recommend these two:

http://www.nolacuisine.com/2006/03/19/dragos-style-charbroiled-oyster-recipe/

http://www.gumbopages.com/food/seafood/bbq-shrimp.html

So good it'll put you into a food coma or get you laid.

EDIT: Rhulman's book has a recipe in it for a sausage that's seafood based. If you have a meat grinder, it might be worth attempting because it can be done on the cheaper side.

I used the recipe out of Charcuterie by Michael Ruhlman & Brian Polcyn. I let it cure for a few days longer than the recipe due to an unexpectedly busy weekend. The end result was too salty but as per the recipe it's fixable by blanching slices right before you fry them and it worked like a charm.

So, no, it's not yeast but it is fermentation. Sandor Katz whose recipe /u/project-MKULTRA is using, from Wild Fermentation website has, quite literally written the book on fermentation. The Art if Fermentation: An In-Depth Exploration of Essential Concepts and Processes from around the World is a great read. What /u/Project-MKULTRA is doing is safe, proper fermentation. Why the hostility?

Edit: proper link formatting

Charcuterie is a great book for learning how to make sausages and cured meats of all kinds, with a nice hot dog recipe. The batch I made took a while (grinding, stuffing, smoking) but they were damn good. The recipe uses beef short ribs if you're curious.

Brew Chem 101 by Lee Janson
Even if you didn't pay attention in high school chemistry you should be able to grasp this read. Very well explained, and mostly thorough. Best thing is that it's well-referenced, so that when you finish you can get some more in-depth texts.
http://www.amazon.com/Brew-Chem-101-Homebrewing-Chemistry/dp/0882669400

Maybe try a book on charcuterie?

I haven't read that one in particular, but that kind of book is quite fascinating in general.

Get a canning book/guide. Much better to have a reference on hand to thumb back through rather than reading a web site and trying to remember everything at first.

Ball Complete Canning Guide

Ball Blue Book

Maltose Express
http://www.maltoseexpress.net/
800.MALTOSE (Out of State) or 203.452.7332 (In CT)
info@maltoseexpress.net
Maltose Express 246 Main St. Monroe, CT 06468

These guys know their stuff and have published several books on clone brews. You may actually know these books:
http://www.amazon.com/CloneBrews-2nd-Edition-Recipes-Brand-Name/dp/160342539X
http://www.amazon.com/Beer-Captured-Tess-Szamatulski/dp/0970344252/ref=pd_sim_b_5?ie=UTF8&refRID=14C3HFXM59KRNKJJN266

Plenty of kits ready to go and can you help you with any type of beer your trying to brew. Highly recommended.

Pretty neat book - http://amzn.com/160342539X

>I know we've got a lot of hobbyists here. Anyone skilled in curing these types of meats? Where do you find curing nitrates and when do you find the best time to cure the meats? Especially interested in your opinion if you're from KZN, the Eastern Cape and other parts of the country that aren't dry

I've built a drying cabinet that's large enough for me to stand inside and I'd suggest anyone who's serious about Charcuterie to do the same, but a biltong box and your refrigerator will be fine for smaller batches.

As far as ingredients and supplies, I buy everything online, and for my recipes, I use Michael Ruhlman's Charcuterie, which is more or less the bible of meat curing.

The Maybard Books:

Secrets of a Bacon Curer (Good storys/recipes by one of the best)

The Adventures of a Bacon Curer (more)

Manual of a Traditional Bacon Curer (Smoked/Cured hams, Sausages, Salamis and other recipes/guides in this book)

also:

Great Sausage Recipes and Meat Curing (for me, this is the "bible" of sausage making and meat curing)

Charcutería: The Soul of Spain is an astounding book.

I recommend the Ball Home Preserving book. It gave me a lot of ideas I hadn't thought of before, and it has really useful trouble shooting sections, that really saved a couple of batches of pickles for me.

Edit: And apparently they're releasing a new spiral bound version. I may need to get that...

>Even in the sea level zone, every plain vegetable except tomatoes, every meat, every seafood that is canned at home--and almost every mixture containing these--MUST BE CANNED IN A PRESSURE CANNER.

pg.54 of putting food by

now, i'm sure someone will dust off the old chestnut of "but my mom/aunt/grandmother/neighbor cans everything en plen air using nothing but an open boiling water pot and they're just fine!"

you could buy some pH strips and test your soup and maybe the pH will be below 4.6, which would fall into the USDA category of 'high acid', not requiring a pressure caner, but i'd personally recommend spending the money for a pressure canner or borrowing a friends.

Sandor Katz has a book called The Art of Fermentation. In it he describes several different kinds of fermented meat and fish

He also argues in general about the benefits of fermented food through consumption of the bacterial loads thus induced.

Book here. I have it and it is pretty good.

Wild Fermentation (Sandor Ellix Katz) has a pretty good section on kombucha.

> Any help would be appreciated, even a book or website with information.

The sidebar...

As for a book, The New Cider Maker's Handbook

A great starting place is Rhulman's Charcuterie. It breaks down equipment and technique and has some really solid recipes.

I cure in a wine cooler.

in addition to the video if you have a few bucks to throw around this book is excellent and shares a lot of practical knowledge about fermentation in general.

Sure! I got my recipes from the Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving

The syrup and blueberry butter recipes you make from the same set of blueberries. It is called "Blueberry Bonanza" and luckily, it's been copied word-for-word online here.

The blueberry-lime jam is also available online here. I included 2 oz. of orange liqueur (I used Cointreau) which I stirred in just after removing the jam from the heat.

I would highly recommend The Art of Fermentation by Sandor Katz.

He dives deeply into just about all types of fermentation. It’s a really interesting read and my go-to reference.

about 5 years ago, I was given a copy of the Art of Fermentation because I gave the author permission to use one of my photos. I've sort of been interested in fermentation ever since, but besides the odd batch of pickles and sauerkraut, hadn't done anything else. I decided to try my hand at making miso. I used Japanese soybeans, American made Koji, and Korean sea salt. Ended up with about 1 liter of miso packed away in a corner of my pantry. I'll see what it's like in 3 months.

Me and my brew partner are using a recipe from the first edition of this publication. Here's the recipe my buddy scanned for me: two hearted. We're adding a lot more than the specified hops for dry hopping... because why not?

Edit: not sure of the legality of posting their recipe, hopefully it just encourages sales in their latest edition.

No offense to Drew, but IMO the absolute best book on cidermaking ever written:

https://www.amazon.com/New-Cider-Makers-Handbook-Comprehensive/dp/1603584730/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=cider+book&qid=1557872381&s=gateway&sr=8-1

You can't go wrong with Michael Ruhlman, here's a revised version that has excellent recipes and everything you need to know.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0393240053/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0393240053&linkCode=as2&tag=primalcajun-20&linkId=36e3d3f53527c4493068a33f323534a0

Well - the trick is you need to have a proper ratio of nitrate (pink salt) to ensure that botulism can't form. Pink salt isn't the same as a brine. I highly recommend you get this book, and a scale as the measurements need to be fairly precise.

https://www.amazon.com/Charcuterie-Salting-Smoking-Revised-Updated-ebook/dp/B00CF2MBB2

But honestly cold smoking is much more dangerous than people realize unless you are cold smoking cheese/nuts. Doing meats requires them to be cured properly or bad things could happen.

Stay safe!

The ferment veg book says it works better using dried mushrooms. We're yours fresh?

Frank and Beans!

I have a whole wish list dedicated to books so you can choose from there, or get me this one which would make me so happy I would dance like Dick Van Dyke.

)

I'm an Adidas girl

I'm trying to eat healthy

I wish I would have had some good sneakers on today. I've been on my feet too much today in flip flops. But I got some lunches prepared for this week.

I think it's too niche to have something like How to Brew... I've heard good things about The New Cider Maker's Handbook though.

I've been on a pastrami quest as of late. One of the resources I've used is the book "Home Production of Quality Meats and Sausage". The book has an entire chapter on canning. I haven't tried it since I'm vacu-sealing and freezing what I don't immediately eat.

I can't copy and past the whole chapter, but I do strongly endorse the book.

You said you know the process, but for others interested...

• Cured Beef (in water using both regular salt and curing salt) is Corned Beef
  
• Corned Beef that's been Boiled is Cooked Corn Beef
  
• Corned Beef that's been Smoked and (optionally) Boiled is Pastrami
  

https://www.amazon.com/Charcuterie-Salting-Smoking-Revised-Updated/dp/0393240053

I really enjoyed this book and learned enough from it to adjust recipes more to my taste. I hear it recommended all the time and my chef buddy said every chef he worked for owned this book.

Michael Ruhlman's books are the best I know of: Charcuterie and Salumi

I love these two books.

Ball Blue Book Guide To Preserving, 37Th Edition https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00OEJZSNW/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_tai_1-9JBbQN2ECKT

Putting Food By: Fifth Edition https://www.amazon.com/dp/0452296226/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_tai_F.9JBb1D8E5JE

Check out this blog:

http://curedmeats.blogspot.com/ - especially the posts about setting up a curing chamber.

Buy these books:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0982426712/ref=redir_mdp_mobile/175-9483040-3085932

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0393058298/ref=redir_mdp_mobile

Buy supplies from this site:

http://www.sausagemaker.com/


This should get you started. The two books have plenty of recipes and knowledge to keep you busy for a lifetime. Learn about the process and practice. Ask specific questions you may have. The recipes are the easy part and widely available, figuring out how to adjust the recipe to your liking is the hard part.

Check out the sidebar, it has all kinds of info! This is the go to website for all things canning, I only trust tested recipes (meaning I don't do some mashed potato recipe I found on someone's blog).

I have only water bath canned before, but I have heard that All Americans are the way to go for pressure canners though there are cheaper options depending on how much you plan to do.



There are a couple things I always suggest for people who show an interest in canning.

Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving

A small tool set

Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving https://www.amazon.com/dp/0778801314/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_Gg5bzbXZHQGP2
This is a great book for getting started canning. My mom bought it for me when I started. It gives very detailed instructions and lots of recipes.

the ball blue book is great, so is this one: Canning For a New Generation


edited because balls

This is a great book that I use...
http://www.amazon.com/Wild-Fermentation-Flavor-Nutrition-Live-Culture/dp/1931498237/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1323788466&sr=8-1

This is pretty much all you need, on top of an american canner.

https://www.amazon.com/Complete-Preservation-delicious-creative-recipes/dp/B000GXBVMM

https://www.amazon.com/Ball-Blue-Book-Guide-Preserving/dp/B00OEJZSNW

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01EMDH23I

I actually still have a nice slab of his backfat vacuum packed in my freezer and was thinking about making some lardo with it. As soon as we got the piglet, I bought Ruhlman's Salumi. I have only scratched the surface, but I still have much of my shoulder portion left too, and I'm excited to do some dry cured stuff with it.

I wouldn't say too many but I have a lot of cookbooks. :)

Edit: fixed typos

BrewChem 101 (http://www.amazon.com/Brew-Chem-101-Homebrewing-Chemistry/dp/0882669400) suggests keeping the lid open about a quarter's width. This allows all the stuff you want to burn off to burn off, but also allows a good drip back into the beer. He does also say to keep the lid on for about 5 minutes after hop additions, and after you turn off the burner.

Definitely not. Get #2. Dry curing meat is not something you should mess around with unless you have a solid understanding of what exactly is going on. I highly recommend you read this book before attempting to make your own:

https://www.amazon.com/Art-Making-Fermented-Sausages/dp/0982426712/ref=sr_1_2?crid=CVNVBNWTJHH3&keywords=fermented+sausage+book&qid=1573243675&sprefix=fermented+saus%2Caps%2C157&sr=8-2

http://www.ciderworkshop.com/links.html

https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/cider-workshop

and the book, or should I say The Book https://www.amazon.com/New-Cider-Makers-Handbook-Comprehensive/dp/1603584730 by Claude Jolicoeur

The book written by Andrew Lew is also worth mentioning
https://www.amazon.com/Craft-Cider-Making-Andrew-Lea/dp/1785000152/ref=pd_sim_14_3?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=CVG59HK1FJPH45NP3A6N

Both guys are active at mentioned google forum.

Haven't tried it out but this one looks good.

Whats the beer?

It depends really, but Clone Brews is a good resource.

This book is excellent: http://www.amazon.ca/Salumi-Craft-Italian-Dry-Curing/dp/0393068595/ref=sr_1_10?ie=UTF8&qid=1426269223&sr=8-10&keywords=ruhlman

There are a few hot sauce recipes in the Ball Complete Guide to Home Preserving. I haven't tried them myself so I can't vouch personally for them, but at least you know they've been professionally vetted for safety.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0778801314

This one seems to be fairly popular.

The Art of Fermentation: An In-Depth Exploration of Essential Concepts and Processes from around the World https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0083JQCF2/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_ZkX5Bb67HJ1CK