Category Archives: Food Preservation

FERMENTED VEGETABLES, 2015, 12″x16″

Food preservation has become popular again with the urban gardening movement. There are only so many tomatoes and zucchini you can eat or give away, so why not preserve them and eat them later? Here is a summary of preservation techniques: freezing, fermenting, canning or jam making and dehydration.

Freezing

I presume everyone reading this has used a freezer before. While raw foods don’t always thaw well, (frozen lettuce? Ewww…) frozen spinach tastes a lot like fresh once it’s cooked. If you are freezing fresh produce, wash and dry fruits and vegetables, remove pits and cores, cut large items into 2” pieces and freeze in zip lock bags. Squeeze the bang gently to remove most of the air before you freeze it to reduce freezer burn and ice crystals. Raw meat, soups and wet cooked foods are also ideal for freezing. Write dates on your frozen foods and eat within 3 months for best results.

Fermentation

Before we had refrigerators and freezers, everybody ate fermented food. Without refrigeration, fermentation is inevitable. While some bacteria will make you sick, many strains are beneficial and can actually preserve your food. For example, if organic raw milk is left out, the good bacteria in the milk will make lactic acid, which dangerous bacteria can’t abide. This fermented milk is known as clabber, and it was more common than fresh milk back in the day.

Many popular foods are fermented. Some examples are sourdough bread, coffee, chocolate, salami, olives, yogurt, cheese, soy sauce, pickles, wine and vinegar. A starter culture of the desired bacteria may be added to the food to ensure it grows, and anti-microbial ingredients such as salt, acid, herbs and spices prevent unwanted strains from taking hold.

While the idea of making fermented food may be scary, it is an easy, delicious and useful way to preserve summer produce from the garden. Good bacteria live on the surface of fruits and vegetables, and the fermentation process encourages the growth of these strains.

I’m currently in love with preserved Meyer lemons. This Moroccan condiment is simply lemons that are cut in quarters and crammed into a jar with plenty of salt and allowed to ferment for a month. The resulting flavor is tart, salty and complex, and I love to rub it in on chicken before roasting it.

Sauerkraut and lacto-fermented pickles follow a similar process, and can include a wide variety of vegetables. Pickles are made from whole or large chunks of vegetables that are allowed to ferment in a salty or vinegar based brine. While most people associate pickles with cucumbers, I prefer firm vegetables such as carrots, radishes and cauliflower.

Sauerkraut making is very similar to pickling. Sauerkraut differs in that the vegetables are chopped finely, and is made exclusively with salt, not vinegar. Salt draws the juice out of the chopped vegetables, providing a wet environment for the good bacteria to grow. The good bacteria in salt pickles and sauerkraut protect the vegetables from pathogenic bacteria by producing lactic acid, much like the clabber I mentioned earlier. This acid lends a sour flavor that is familiar to those who enjoy pickles and sauerkraut. I teach sauerkraut classes every spring and fall at the Albany recreation center, so you can learn for yourself how easy and fun making fermentated vegetables can be. Check my events page for the next available class. If you wish to experiment with a wide range of fermentation techniques, I recommend the book, Wild Fermentation by Sandor Katz.

PICKLE INGREDIENTS, 2015, 12″x16″ $600

Canning and Jamming

Fruit preservation is an ancient process that was invented in the Middle East thousands of years ago, but modern canning techniques are only about two hundred years old. In the canning process, foods are initially boiled with acid, salt, or sugar to prevent the growth of dangerous bacteria, particularly clostridium botulinum. The food is then carefully stored in a hermetically sealed, sterile containers. While thousands of people have canned food at home safely, I am not a fan of this process for several reasons.

1. Most canned vegetables don’t taste very good.
2. It’s very easy and very dangerous to get it wrong. There are a lot of unsafe canning recipes on the internet.
3.  Botulism is lethally poisonous and canned foods which contain clostridium botulinum don’t smell or taste different from safe food.
4. Vitamin C, E and many important B vitamins are destroyed by the long cooking process and extended storage.

Freezing, fermenting and dehydration are easier, safer and more nutritious in my opinion.

That said, people do love jam and canned fruit. And it’s no wonder, since the main preservative in these foods is sugar. If you wish to lesson the amount of sugar in jam, add lemon juice to increase acidity, which kills bacteria. I recommend careful research and reliable recipes if you wish to attempt canning and jam making on your own. Here is a great article by Homegrown.org that offers tips for safe canning.

Dehydration

This preservation technique has been practiced since ancient times in arid climates. Bacteria need water to survive, and dehydration, especially with the addition of salt or sugar, is an easy and safe preservation method. Dried meat and fruit are the most common and traditional dried foods, but kale chips and dehydrated vegetable crackers are new and delicious ways to preserve and enjoy vegetables year round. The ingredients in dehydrated veggie crackers can be varied depending on which crops are in season. This is a boon if your garden is producing more food than you can eat. The most important thing to remember with dehydration is to dry the food a little more than seems necessary. Food that feels dry may still contain traces of moisture, especially if the pieces are soft or flexible. Even the smallest amount of moisture will allow bacteria to grow. The addition of salt, garlic and other anti-microbial herbs like thyme provides flavor and additional protection from bacteria.

It’s fascinating that people have been drying, fermenting food and making jam food centuries before Louis Pasteur, the microbiology pioneer, who began his studies in the mid-1800s. I hope this knowledge will give you courage to try some of these techniques yourself. The processes are simple if you follow the correct procedures. Take a class, read a book, test a recipe at home and the results will delight you.

FERMENTED VEGETABLES, 2015, 12″x16″

This simple condiment is North African, although salt pickled citrus are popular all over of south Asia as well. I love to add a spoon of chopped preserved lemon to soups, braises, pasta salads or rub on chicken or duck before roasting. The texture of preserved lemons is soft and the flavor is uniquely delicious. I recommend Meyer lemons if available, since the skins are softer and the flavor is sweeter than other varieties. Be very generous with the salt since it pulls juice from the lemons and protects them from bacteria and mold. It does take a whole month for the lemon peel to become soft and ready to eat, but it should be good for at least a year.

Ingredients

8-10 organic or pesticide-free lemons, washed

At least 1 cup of sea salt

Freshly squeezed lemon juice, as needed

2 cinnamon sticks, broken in half

10 peppercorns (optional) 

Tools

Cutting board

Shallow bowl

Sharp knife

Measuring cup

Measuring spoons

4 1-cup canning jars, sterilized (this can be done in the dishwasher)

Directions 

1. Trim stems off of the lemons.
2. Cut the lemon in quarters.
3. Remove the seeds with the tip of a pairing knife, holding the lemon quarters over a small bowl to catch any juice. You can also leave the seeds in and pick them out just before using the lemons.
4.  Place 1 tablespoon of salt in the jar. Place two lemon wedges in the jar and top with another tablespoon of salt.
5.  Place half a cinnamon stick in the jar and continue to place lemon wedges and spoonfuls of salt into the jar until the jar is full.
6.  Press the lemon wedges down into the jar with your fingers. This will release juice from the lemon and fill any air spaces.
7.  Add more lemon wedges and spoons of salt, pressing the lemons down until the jar is full. If you still see air pockets in the jar, squeeze some extra lemon juice into the jar. The jar should be very full, and the lemons completely submerged in juice.
8.  Add one more tablespoon of salt to the top of the filled jar before sealing the jar with a lid.
9.  Place the jars in a dark place at room temperature (65-75 F) for one month. Don’t worry if a white film develops on the surface of the lemon rinds, or if the white of the rind becomes slightly darker over time. Discard the lemons immediately if any other colors develop.

Variations:

• Try this recipe with other pesticide-free citrus, like limes or kumquats.
• Try other whole herbs or spices: a sprig of fresh rosemary, cloves, coriander seeds, or bay leaves.

Pickles are the easiest of the lacto-fermented vegetable recipes, so long as you choose firm vegetables like radishes, carrots and cauliflower. Cucumbers are tender and fermentation tends to make them mushy and unappealing. You can combat this by soak your cucumbers in cold water for a couple of hours before starting the pickling process and add a fresh grape leaf or two to the jar, but vinegar pickled cucumbers are still far superior. Stick with the firmer vegetables for reliable success.

Enjoy pickle vegetables with meat, beans, sandwiches or salads. I prefer pickles when they are fairly young, 1-3 months old. They keep better than some varieties of kraut, but they taste less “alive” when they’ve been sitting around for months.

You can experiment with alternative whole spices, such as caraway, cardamom pods, allspice and cinnamon sticks for different flavors.

Makes approximately 3 pints or 6 cups of pickles

Ingredients

1 pound of firm vegetables such cauliflower, icicle or Easter egg radishes, daikon chunks, carrots, baby beets or green beans

1 cabbage leaf for every two containers

12 cloves of garlic

1 tablespoon of one or more of the following: whole mustard seed, dill seed, peppercorns, coriander seeds

3 cups of freshly boiled filtered or spring water

3 teaspoons of sea salt

1 probiotic capsule or 2 tablespoons of brine from a previous batch of pickles

Tools

3 sterilized pint-sized canning jars

1 quart or liter sized glass container

1 quart sized bowl for peels and pits

1 large cutting board

1 large sharp knife

Measuring cup

Measuring spoons

Large metal or plastic mixing spoon

Directions

1. I recommend doing two things the day before pickling: 1. Mix salt with freshly boiled water in a quart sized container. Cover with a lid and shake the jar vigorously a few times to encourage the salt to dissolve completely. The salt should be completely dissolved and the water cool when you are ready to start pickling. 2. Before cleaning all the vegetables, let them soak in water overnight in the refrigerator. They will allow them absorb water and result in a crunchier pickle.
2. On day two, wash the vegetables and trim away stems, leaves and roots. Do not peel the vegetables unless they are really dirty since the skins provide some the beneficial bacteria we want to grow. Slice cauliflower and other large vegetables into 1-2” bite-sized pieces.
3. Place four cloves of garlic, a teaspoon each of mustard, dill seed and peppercorns in the bottom of each jar. Fit as many soaked vegetables as you can into each jar. You can get artistic with the colors and arrangement. If you squeeze the vegetables in tightly, they will hold each other in place.
4. Add probiotic powder or brine  in each jar.
5. Fill the remainder of the jar with salt water leaving a ½ inch from the top. The vegetables should be fully submerged in liquid.
6. Fold half a cabbage leaf and squeeze it in to the mouth of each jar, covering the vegetables.
7. Screw the lids on your jars and store them at a comfortable temperature out of direct sunlight (65-78 F) for one week.
8. To check on your pickles, open a jar over the sink in case it overflows. They should smell tart, salty and fizz a little. If they smell bland and don’t fizz, they aren’t ready yet.
9. Move your pickles to the refrigerator once you are happy with their level of fermentation. The cold will slow their development considerably. Eat them with green, pasta or bean salads, on sandwiches, or whenever you want a tangy snack.