In a jam, pickled, frozen, well preserved and other culinary triumphs

[Former-Member]

Both you @Smc and @Former-Member have helped me remember some pleasant times from the past, and I thank each of you for that.  (I'd been having trouble remembering any good times)

It was good to recall the times when I had the giant stockpot on the back of the permanently fired up combustion stove, or more accurately, stoves as I lived in a few places where that was the type of stove fitted. 

Mostly, the perpetual stock was more western-ish flavoured, but whatever was available pretty much, went in there to make the most flavoursome dishes out of ordinary items. I'd forgotten about it, and forgotten about doing it too. 

I learned how to make the stock, and most of my other cooking strategies, while living in the central desert area of the country. One of the station cooks took me under her wing teaching me on my infrequent visits, her tricks of the trade.

I will be forever thankful for her guidance, because I think it was from her, and the subsequent CWA ladies in the outback, that I learned so many self sufficiency type skills. 

I miss my combustion stoves, but not the heat that had to be endured during the summer months, or the cutting of wood to keep them going. 

Usually I have lots of stock produce in the freezer, but had to reduce supplies for the recent move, and have not yet restocked. I'm going to plan a restock for a Chinese style stock! 

[Smc]

@Former-Member That's one of those things that more or less disappeared with the combustion stoves. I almost always use left over bones to make stock, and have more recently tried boiling them to make bone broth- when you cook them until the minerals are leaching out of the bones, and they start breaking up. I then add the bone broth to the Master Stock when I need extra volume, or I freeze it to use in soups that need something less intensely flavoured.

We've got a combustion stove, but only fire it up in cold weather. It's lovely having the constantly available kettle on the simmer, ready to bring to full boil. Our stove has a small fire box, so usually goes out overnight and needs to be re-lit the next day, but small firebox has the advantage of being able to use smaller branches that would disappear in no time flat in a bigger firebox. So we get all the scrappy stuff that would otherwise be tossed on a farm bonfire, and don't need to buy wood.

I'd imagine station cooks and CWA would be excellent teachers. When you can't just pop to the supermarket for a missing ingredient, you need to know how to use what you have to best advantage. 🙂

I know the feeling of having trouble remembering good times. Sometimes they slip too far into the distant past, and it's good having a way of reconnecting with them.

[Former-Member]

A quick catchup @Smc re bone broth. I too used to throw the bones into the ongoing stock pot ... adds so much flavour.

I recently began using the electric pressure cooker to compress the bones for bone broth, it works a treat! 

Lucky you with the combustion stove! So many good things about them as well as the work they require, but still.  

[Former-Member]

@Smc @Former-Member just wanted to quickly pop in to tell you I have ordered the cookbook 'Sally Wise: Complete Preserves', it has both 'A Year in a Bottle' and 'Out of  the Bottle' in it. 

I'm thrilled to have a new cookbook coming and to have gotten it at a big discount so quickly after learning about her. 

Hope your days and nights are going well and your cooking adventures are full of tasty goodness! 

[Former-Member]

I do hope you enjoy the cookbook and get good use out of it @Former-Member, bonus that you were able to get two books in one and cheap too. I have not read 'out of a bottle' but have my mums apricot roll dessert (a fanily fave) which was always made with apricots preserved in her trusty fowlers vacola bottling kit (stove top, then electric). Now her preserving days are over she uses bought tinned apricots.

I doubt my pantry will ever be as good as yours and @Smc's but can dream.

I have made icecream using can condensed milk + 600 ml cream, this recipe is an adaptation of that and can be made without the salt for an unsalted version. I am hoping to give this one a go when I next need to contribute to a shared lunch as we are only having fruit for dessert at present.

https://bakerschoice.nestle.com.au/recipe/salted-caramel-ice-cream

[Former-Member]

Thank you for that link @Former-Member, I can't find my usual go-to for my icecream machine - the link is dead, but I should be able to find something similar. It uses evaporated milk with cream and is really smooth and delicious. 

I had wondered if the ready made caramel would work, so now I know that I shall have to get some next shopping order and do some experimenting.  YUM

I've not used a Fowler's Vacola for bottling, ma had one and it always seemed so dangerous and volatile that it truly turned me off them. That was a very, very long time ago though, and I was a kid. 

I'd love to hear how your ice cream adventure goes when you try it out. 

[Former-Member]

@Former-Member

I hoping to make the icecream Monday week when we have a 'bring a plate' tea that I could take it to, you may even beat me to it yet, but will give you a full report.

I have used the electric fowlers unit with great success - from memory you have it on for an hour for all but Christmas puds. No fussing with temps and variable times.

D

[Smc]

Hi @Former-Member@Former-Member

I've always found the Fowlers kit very low hassle. I'm using an electric one too, but also have a stovetop one available.
My preserves pantry is a "fits and starts" thing. When I'm having a good stretch and the fruit or vegs are there, I might get quite a lot done, but other times there may not be much happening at all. The good thing is that most preserves have a very long shelf life, so I have some things that I made a few years ago that are still not quite used up. I also have a couple of jars of sour plums from quite a few years ago that are.... ummm.... lurking is probably the right word?  They're so sour that they're hard to eat. They are OK to cook with, but opening a bottle means I'm committed to using them all before they go off, so the bottles sit there for a bit longer... and then a bit longer still... Meanwhile my bottles of apples and peaches are few in number but very delicious, so I try to ration them out.

There's a lot of jams and jellies in there, and a fair bit of chutney. I've somewhat overproduced those, so this year I've tried to aim to bottle more fruit, since that's where the pantry "deficit" is. Jellies in particular can be made from "scraps", so it does make sense to use whole fruit for bottling instead. Some of my nicest jellies are made from apple peels and cores, mandarin or orange peels, feijoa skins, and foraged fruit like rosehips and hawthorn berries.

Have made icecream, usually fruit versions. My recipe uses whipped cream, beaten egg whites, pureed fruit (fresh or stewed) and the egg yolks are stirred into the fruit for extra creaminess. And a touch of sugar of course, but not too much.

[Former-Member]

Well, now I know the electric Vacola is a good one to use, I may look at it again, but, given I don't have the garden, or the access to the cheap and prolific market garden produce I once did, it might not be so wise for me to do. and space, I don't have much kitchen space here. But, you never know.... thank you both @Smc @Former-Member for sharing your experiences. 

Sour plums are a bit like sour cherries in how hard they are to use aren't they. The last lot of very sour cherries ended up being made into an adapted plum crumble. The topping balanced out the sourness and cream smoothed it out to be much more enjoyable than I thought possible. I use rolled oats, half the amount of flour to oats, not much sugar, and enough butter - mixed to blend the butter, but not break up the oats too much, for the crumble topping. 

For this move, I had to give away quite a lot of my bottled pickles and jams as I just didn't want to carry them and risk breakage and spoilage in the heat we were experiencing then. Although I miss having pickles and relishes at the ready, I'm not as sorry as I thought I might be. And I get to start again when I find inexpensive produce. 

I have not yet been brave enough to try the egg recipe for icecream - I shall have to get myself organised to try it. I remembered my ice cream recipe had honey in it, had to be honey without glucose  added though. 

I keep thinking about making an egg custard mix for ice cream, going to have to get the ice cream machine out soon and make sure all is well! 

Thank you all for sharing your experiences, it's really helpful to hear how others do what they do, and gives me something to think about and plan for. 

Hope your day is being kind to you! 

[Former-Member]

@Former-Member  I remember seeing a bought custard icecream recipe  that may have only had 2 ingredients - had a quick squiz on the internet and could not find one - but came across this:

http://www.bestrecipes.com.au/recipe/custard-ice-cream-L17758.html