Addicted to Canning!

Category: basic principles

  • Eating seasonally

    in the developed world we have the unparalleled privilege of being able to eat pretty much any fruit or vegetable irrespective of season. The downside to this is that the out-of-season produce has to be shipped to us from halfway around the world at great financial and fossil fuel cost. We, the developed world, need…

  • Unitaskers

    What is a “unitasker”? It is a gadget that does only one thing. That they are generally only advertised in late night infomercials should give you a hint as to how useless they usually are. While I generally agree with Alton Brown that the only unitasker in your kitchen should be the fire extinguisher (which…

  • Build in flavour

    While making a turkey pot pie with the last of my Christmas leftovers, I realised an important point. Dishes like pot pies rely on building in flavour at every step of the recipe – you simmer the chicken (or turkey carcass in this case), then use the broth to cook the veggies. This builds flavour…

  • leftovers

    Ah, Thanksgiving. One of the leading causes of leftovers along with Christmas! But leftovers is where the home canner can really shine. The turkey carcass? Boil it up to make a bone stock and put the squeeze on it. Same with the leftover veggies, you can put them up for later use. You could add…

  • Vinegar, the unsung hero

    Why do I call vinegar the unsung hero? Because of its many uses… Cleaner White vinegar (also called distilled vinegar, also called acetic acid) in a 1:1 mix with tap water is a very effective cleaner and steriliser. Use instead of bleach to clean stove tops, windows, bathrooms, and so on.  Be careful with tiling…

  • Fast food is cheaper – right?

    Well… no. Not at all. I recently bought a 9.5lb ham for about $10 including tax. I simmered it for 4 hours, making it literally fall-off-the-bone tender. I stripped the meat off the bone, dropped the bone back in the pot, added a little white vinegar, and simmered the result for 2 hours. I pressure-canned…

  • An open letter to the Alabama Legislature

    Honourable members of the Alabama Legislature, There are bills before the House and Senate to remove the 4% state tax from groceries. Sadly the definition of groceries in this bill includes sodas, chips, cookies, candy, and other such items usually referred to as “junk food”. You have an opportunity to change our state for the…

  • Frugal living

    This post was inspired by a comment I made on twitter about frugality. The other name I was seriously considering for this blog was “your grandma was right”. Our grandparents lived incredibly frugally – meals were centered on fresh, seasonal, local produce; meat was a once or twice a week special thing; nothing went to…

  • Kitchen Failures

    It’s something no-one likes to admit to. When you follow the recipe and… you fail. I was looking forward to some nice tangerine and lime marmalade and, instead, I have lime/tangerine soup. Or maybe a marinade or glaze… but not something you can spread on toast, or crumpets, or whatever. I even tried opening up…

  • British food

    I would like to deal with an ongoing perception that British food is bad food. This perception seems to be largely based on the state of British food seen by GIs during World War 2, when rationing was in effect. Food supplies were erratic, quality and freshness were erratic and sub-optimal, and this lead to…