Preserve us

[emeraldsedai]

Yesterday, Harriet taught me how to make sauerkraut and pickles without fear.

Harriet is the proprietor of Preserve, a school of food preservation that she runs out of her house and garden here in the 'hood. Yesterday's class was Fermentation and Pickling

Comments

[emeraldsedai]

You're right--botulism likes an anaerobic environment, but it can't live in an acidic one. Non-acidic foods need to be pressure-canned to be safe.

The beauty of pickling and fermenting is that they're both highly acid processes, so botulism isn't a problem to begin with.

Cooking for five minutes at around 180 degrees F will kill any botulism.

I'm about to embark on my first batch of sauerkraut. Whee!

[emeraldsedai]

Awww, Simon. Still have a couple of icons.

To my chagrin (emphasize the "grin"), I haven't outgrown my fannish squeeing at all. There's this whole massive trope in DS fandom about Fraser and Ray in the Northwest Territories, in the snow, which Fraser is used to, and which Ray is dangerously unprepared for.

So now I'm toying with icon ideas along the lines of "My freeze-Ray I will stop the world."

I am SUCH a geek.

[vchrusch]

Botulism Lady will probably meet a bad end when she's run over by a semi-trailer loaded with canned goods...

[emeraldsedai]

You have an evil mind.

I like that in my friends.

[vchrusch]

I've been told that by more than a few people. :)

[lamentables]

Mmmmm, I love sauerkraut. But I've never tried making it.

[emeraldsedai]

Me neither! In point of fact, I've never really liked it, but the stuff we tasted at Harriet's house was so different from anything my dad used to eat out of a jar with hit hot dogs.

It's an interesting journey of discovery, this food thing.

[lamentables]

I'm envious: I love all kinds of pickles and preserves.

[starfishchick]

How totally awesome! (Except for Botulism Lady.)

And you're going to learn to make cheese? EVEN MORE AWESOME. (I read about that in Animal, Vegetable, Miracle and really want to try it.)

[emeraldsedai]

That book is very much on my To Read list. I keep hearing about it.

I'm not sure I'll ever really be serious about making cheese. Yogurt, maybe. But it would be cool to know how it's done, and understand that whole world better since, like Wallace and Grommit, I love the stuff.

[starfishchick]

Oh, I loved it, it was one of the top five books I read last year.

[emeraldsedai]

Have you read The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan? I've heard that it covers some of the same ground as Animal Vegetable Miracle.

Since Omnivore was one of the very best books I've ever read, more like it would be a good thing!