Pear Preserves

Posted on by October 4, 2017

All from the same tree

10/1/2017 – Using sand pears picked from the tree in the garden at the farm, Mary made preserves inspired by the blog post and advice here at the BlindPigAndTheAcorn web site. See the post about picking them here at SundownFarms.com.

The directions at the BlindPig site plus what she added are as follows.

  1. Pears were peeled, cored and soft places discarded. Then sliced, white sugar was shaken on and stirred with her hands. The bowl was covered and put into the refrigerator for two days, i.e. until Tuesday. We did not use as much sugar as the recipe called for.
  2. Went through the pears and sliced some of them thinner and cut some of them in half. We had already made a crisp from some of them and found that we should have sliced them thinner.
  3. They had not made much liquid so added water to barely cover them and simmered for about an hour or until the juices started to thicken. This took a while because these pears were not very ripe.
  4. At about half way I decided to add 2 tsps. of ground ginger along with the zest of 1 medium lemon and the juice from that lemon. Just thought it would be a good idea.
  5. All this time I had a pot of water boiling to submerge my ball jars and lids when it was just about time to fill them.
  6. Broke some longer pieces of cinnamon sticks in half and placed 2 pieces each in the bottom of the hot jars.
  7. Filled each hot jar with the hot pears and covered with the liquid.
  8. Immediately placed the hot lids on each jar and let them cool.
  9. Just happened to have a few that would not fit into the jars.  They are absolutely delicious.

Jalapenos Fermented

Posted on by October 15, 2017

9/10/2011 – Started 2 quart-size jars of sliced jalapeno rounds consisting of green and red peppers. Added about 3 large garlic cloves, cut in half, to each jar. Made one quart of Shockey’s Standard Brine* by adding 1/8th cup of pickling salt to 1 quart of water and poured it into the two filled jars. Had very little brine solution to discard. Put on the airlock lids and into the fermenting bathroom.

* Basic Brine on page 78 of Fermented Vegetables is 1 gal water plus 1/2 cup of salt.

9/17/2017 – They have stopped gassing. The red and green rings look fine but a very mushy. The green is a little spicy but the very soft mushiness is almost nasty.

10/14/17 – Calculated the percentage of salt using his volumes and it is 3.28%.

German Style Saurkraut

Posted on by July 7, 2020

9/3/2017 – Made our first spiced kraut and did it German style inspired by this recipe at the www.TheSpruce.com.  Had half of a large white cabbage from Honk Kong Market (991 gm) bought two weeks ago. Sliced half like cole slaw (forgot what I was making) and the rest into long thin slices.

Mixed in 14 gm pickling salt or 1.4%. It tasted a bit salty but not too much. Added:

  • 14 juniper berries
  • 1 rounded teaspoon caraway seeds
  • 1 rounded teaspoon yellow mustard seeds

Hammered down with the meat cleaver for maybe 5 minutes. Put the mix into the 2 qt. fermenting jar–the 991 gm plus spices filled it perfectly. Installed air lock and put into the dark guest bathroom. After several hours it still had not produced much brine. Perhaps, there is value in letting it sit salted in the bowl for several hours like the recipe called for.

9/4/2017 – only about 2/3 of the depth of cabbage was in a brine. Mixed 1.4% brine solution and added until the shreds were covered but still about 1″ head space.

9/5/2017 – A goodly number of gas bubbles are in the soon-to-be kraut.

8/15/2017 – First try and it was crunchy with a very mild taste. Almost no flavor

8/17/2017 – Still crunchy but little flavor. Cannot detect the mustard or juniper. Good but not what I expected.

10/1/2017 – Emptied the 2 qt jar to make the second batch and had about a pint of brine and some kraut. The kraut is crunchy but the large irregular pieces are a bit much. Looking forward to the second batch cut on the mandoline in which I added some of the brine from this batch.

 

Fast Steak Dinner

Posted on by September 2, 2017

9/2/2017 – Inspired by the recipe here but tweaked it to the process below. It turned out fine and worth doing again. Note the original process included advice on how to do a cheap steak.

Reverse-Seared Rib Eye or T-Bone.

* a 1.5- to 2-inch-thick rib eye steak
* Salt
* 3 tablespoons vegetable oil
* Pepper (optional)

1. Liberally season steak on all sides with salt and (optional) pepper. [The first try was 48 hours before cooking.] Place steak in fridge for 1 to 24 hours–[actually 48 hrs].
2. Preheat oven to 275°F.
3. Transfer steak to a wire rack on top of a baking sheet.
4. Bake for about 20–30 minutes, until the internal temperature reaches about 95°F for medium-are. Used the meat probe with ChefWorks.
5. Preheat cast-iron skillet with olive oi on high heat for 10–15 minutes.
6. Once oil starts to shimmer but before it starts to smoke, carefully place steak in pan.
7. Cook for about 1–2 minutes per side, or until the internal temperature is a few degrees below 135°F/57°C and a dark crust has formed.
8. Rest the steak on a cutting board or wire rack for about couple minutes.
9. Slice steak and serve!

Beef Shoulder Roast Smoked

Posted on by August 25, 2017

Small pieces on the right became dog food

8/20/2017 – This smoke turned out good. Smoked a beef shoulder roast that was vac packed and frozen in mid-January 2017. Thawed it in a cold water bath starting about 6 AM then trimmed silver skin and fat. It fell apart into two pieces that we seasoned with Jeff’s Texas rub about 11 AM (as we did the last time and it was great) and tied it. The large piece likely did not need tieing but the small one definitely did.

12:30 PM – Put them into the MES that was preheated to 260 on the third rack from the top. Smoke was from a mixture of ChefMasters blend pellets (~75%) and Treflager Hickory (~25%). Ambient Temp is 94 and humidity is 53%.

1:30 – MES has settled down at a setpoint of 250 with the grate temp in the 250’s.

3:30 PM

  • The two slots of pellets in the tray had burned out although for the past hour plus the smoke has been heavy like when two rows are burning.  It must have jumped but I let it go as the extra smoke is often good.
  • The MES has been showing a temp of 260+ and the grate temp has been 250-260 for the past couple of hours.
    • Pulled the meat and the IT was 248 in the large piece and 250-255 in the small piece. Wrapped in foil and put in the cold over to rest until dinner.

Korean Fried Chicken Sauce

Posted on by June 7, 2024

Inspired by Recipe by Chef John – We made this to go with his Korean fried boneless chicken thighs that turned out tasty and crunchy with the 3:2 cornstarch to flour. But, the very starchy, thick, crunchy crust must have turned quickly to sugar and Mary had an intense headache later that night. I also felt it when eating leftover chunks by themselves so deleted that recipe from this site. This sauce below was good and could work well with a fried chicken or pork that does not have the thick, high carb crust. Continue reading →