keeping it fresh

Where to begin this month?? How about with a thank you! Not only to everyone who takes the time to read this blog but especially to those who donated to this months theme. Or what I should say, is thank you to everyone for all the wonderful birthday gifts, cards and cash! Although the art of preserving foods in meant to help save money it was a bit of an investment to acquire the equipment necessary to get myself started. I also decided to take no chances with this theme. The severity of the consequences of improper preservation is not something I want to play with. When shopping for ways to burn my birthday cash I started with the experts, Ball. Who's Ball you ask? Ball is probably the oldest (or at least most well known) maker of preserving and canning supplies. Not only did I buy their jars but I bought their beginners guide to canning and preserving. A hundred-something page paperback booklet with everything you need to know. And trust when I say I read it multiple times! When I said I don't intend to play with the consequences of a botched jar of jam I was serious. Mrs. Theary can tell you I constantly had my nose in my books as we worked. I have so much new information I can't help but share it with everyone. I hope I'm not disappointing anyone by making this a strictly informative blog, no recipes. (recipes will follow soon!).
The first thing I feel compelled to explain is the different types of preserving. There is canning and jarring, pickling, oil, freezing and dehydrating.

Canning and jarring is what you will mostly see in my posts this month. There are three ways to can food. You can use a water bath to seal the jars, a steam kettle or for certain fruits you can use a wax (pectin) to seal your product. The ingredent you choose will determine your method. The whole point of preserving is to keep produce safe to eat through out the year. To keep it safe you have to kill all the baterica and alter the environment to prevent new bacteria from growing. A water bath will kill the necessary bacteria in low PH foods, however boiling water would not get hot enough to kill certain elements found in high PH foods. You need pressurized steam for that. You can not do this with the basic set of pots and pans you have in your kitchen, specific equipment must be purchased. This is why I am living in my books this month, I want to make absolutely certain I keep my food safe. And since I am only a chef and not a food scientist I am not able to determine on my own, the exact PH levels of foods.

Pickling is a method of preserving that uses a brine usually made of salt and some form of vinegar. Obviously pickles are your best example of this method but it is easily applied to vegetables and some meats.

Oil is mainly used for preserving meats and fish. It is considered a short term method only lasting a few weeks at best. Oil is a oxygen free environment. So by completely submerging a product in oil you keep it from oxygen which is one of the main ingredients needed for bacteria growth.

I won't waste anyone time talking about freezing and dehydrating. They are so common they explain themselves.

Hopefully I haven't lost everyone by this point because I am about to answer some of mans oldest questions. Jam or Jelly? isn't that the same thing???
No!
A jam is made from crushed or partially crushed fruits. It will be slightly thicker than your other options and have bits and pieces of the fruit in it.
A Jelly is made from fruit juices. Smooth, sticky and free of 'chunks'.
A Butter (like apple butter) is made from the pulp of the fruit. Fruit pulp isn't the yucky stuff everyone wants left out of their orange juice. It is what is left over from cooked, processed fruits. (if you are still confused, stay tuned. I made a peach butter that I will blog about soon)
A preserve is whole or sliced fruit (and veggies) meant to be kept in it original form.

Well there you go. That is all the unnecessary information I'm going to bombard you with today. If you are disappointed with the lack of recipes today, let me know. I will get you a jar of jam to make up for it!