From: Eric Newsgroups: rec.food.preserving,news.answers,rec.answers Approved: news-answers-request@mit.edu Subject: RFP mini FAQ Followup-To: rec.food.preserving Message-ID: <7tkv6us014j73slhiqlrh7bcul810m1qcv@4ax.com> X-Newsreader: Forte Agent 1.9/32.560 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Lines: 508 Date: Sun, 17 Feb 2002 11:39:22 -0500 NNTP-Posting-Host: 199.243.188.32 X-Complaints-To: abuse@sympatico.ca X-Trace: news20.bellglobal.com 1013963840 199.243.188.32 (Sun, 17 Feb 2002 11:37:20 EST) NNTP-Posting-Date: Sun, 17 Feb 2002 11:37:20 EST Organization: Bell Sympatico Path: senator-bedfellow.mit.edu!bloom-beacon.mit.edu!nycmny1-snh1.gtei.net!cpk-news-hub1.bbnplanet.com!news.gtei.net!newsfeed.cwix.com!torn!webster!nf1.bellglobal.com!nf2.bellglobal.com!news20.bellglobal.com.POSTED!not-for-mail Xref: senator-bedfellow.mit.edu rec.food.preserving:45228 news.answers:225139 rec.answers:71906 Archive-name: food/preserving Posting-Frequency: monthly (on or about 5th) Last-modified: 2002/02/12 Copyright: (c) 1999-2002 Eric Decker ( and others as specified within ) Maintainer: Eric Decker Rec.Food.Preserving MINI FAQ A SYNOPSIS of FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS (FAQ) AND TIPS FOR PARTICIPATION in the rec.food.preserving newsgroup. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Disclaimer: No author represented in this FAQ is qualified to establish scheduled processes nor is any author a competent processing authority in the sense of 21 CFR 113.83 et alia. Beware of anonymous posters who contravene known safety standards. Circa late 2001, early 2002, there is at least one poster active in RFP who has consistently repudiated long-standing food-preserving authorities. Little Red Riding Hood ... Beware of big bad wolves! You may not be eaten but your most valued asset - your brain - will be poisoned by garbage information. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- (C) Copyright 1999-2002 Eric Decker. All rights reserved. You may use and copy this file provided that the contributors' names, copyright attributes, this copyright and *all* disclaimers remain intact. While every effort has been made to be clear, concise and accurate, no warranties are implied. What you do with the information presented here is your business. The same caveat applies to any communication you may have with any person in rec.food.preserving or for that matter by e-mail. CHARTER Rec.food.preserving is a newsgroup devoted to the discussion of recipes, equipment, and techniques of food preservation. Current food preservation techniques that rightly should be discussed in this forum include canning, freezing, dehydration, pickling, smoking, salting and potting. Foodstuffs are defined as produce (both fruits and vegetables), meat, fish, dairy products, culinary and medicinal herbs. Discussions should be limited to home-grown or home-preserved foods. Addendum to the RFP CHARTER. "This newsgroup is for those who can, jar, and preserve foods for personal and family use. Due to liability and health concerns, we can not provide information here on methods of food packaging or preservation for products to be sold to the public. Please contact the agency or office in your area that handles such questions. Thank you for your interest!" *** The foregoing was written by Blanche Nonken. Kudos to Blanche for a neat summary of RFP regarding commercial purposes. --- Bob wrote: an excellent article outling the ramifications of commercial posts in RFP. It is deemed to be a street-wise amplification of Usenet rules, RFP Charter, the addendum to RFP Charter and as such deserves to be presented here. "I think the biggest issue here is product liability. Let's say hypothetically that you start selling your famous low-salt, no preservatives "Crispy Canned Carrots", that are still somewhat crisp cuz you just blanch them and put them in hot jars, top off with hot "honey broth", and seal without processing them. And you kill several families and maim a couple of others due to botulism poisoning. When the victims sue you, they are gonna try to extract millions of dollars from everyone even peripherally related to the defective product. If you obtained advice for your commercial product from someone on this newsgroup, *especially* if they were not qualified nor credentialed to give advice on commercial food preparation, they could get sucked into the lawsuit. Now, if you lied to us and said this was just home canning for your own use, then you obtained the information deceptively and against the charter of Usenet newsgroups in general and this group in particular. Whoever had given you the advice would then be insulated somewhat from liability. So in summary, it is inappropriate for you to ask questions here about commercial food preparation. If you ask anyway, don't tell us it is a commercial product. Otherwise you will generally be ignored and maybe asked to leave." --- rec.food.preserving has been a close-knit group since its inception. It has managed to stay that way but it has not been by accident. Over the years there has been a lot of effort expended by many RFPers into keeping the junk out of RFP. Those who have nothing good to say are invited to leave. We thank them for doing so. ************************************************************************************ Rembering: Susan Hattie Steinsapir - a dear, sweet friend of RFP who crossed over to the summerland Sunday (1/29-1/30/96) Rest in peace sweet princess. We cherish your memory always. ************************************************************************************** [Where can I get this rec.food.preserving Mini FAQ or the rec.food.preserving FAQ ?] One way only: From rec.food.preserving The MINI FAQ will be posted around the 5th of each month to rec.food.preserving only. The main RFP FAQ is posted around the 20th of each month. NOTE: rec.food.preserving will always have the most current or revised version - as will rtfm. [ see below ] Easiest way to get the RFP FAQ on browser equipped systems: Plug the following URL into your browser - "save as" *.txt. The format is viewable in Notepad and the like. On Windows 9x and NT systems, *.txt files are native to the Explorer interface. Click part1, use the Search menu to find your topic. ftp://rtfm.mit.edu/pub/usenet-by-hierarchy/rec/food/preserving/ This FAQ is also available via anonymous ftp from: rtfm.mit.edu/pub/usenet-by-hierarchy/rec/food/preserving/ You will need a text viewer like List.com on non-unix systems for viewing this output. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- RFP FAQ index goes as follows: Sections 1 through 1.2.5 are in Part1 Sections 1.2.6 through 3.3.3 are in part2 Sections 4 through 10.4 are in part3 Sections 11 through 12.6.2 are in part4 Sections 13 through 13.1.6 are in part5 Sections 14 through 17 are in part6 Download part1. It has the Index and Table of Contents which will guide you to the part you want should you wish to download only selected parts. ----------------------------------------------------- Some generic tips: Large jars -- > I would like to can in some larger jars. Everything I have has > pressures and times for 1/2 pint, pint, and quarts. How much > difference is half gallon jars. Or even gallon. There are no timetables for jars larger than a quart (liter?) anymore except for acidic fruit juices. But I love 1/2 gallon jars for making refrigerator pickles, or storing dry goods, or taking lemonade to a picnic. From: Zxcvbob ........................ Lime Pickles -- Here's my "famous" recipe: You will need about 7 or 8 pounds of medium cukes, enough to make 2 gallons when sliced. Place these sliced cukes in a non-reactive pot or crock or large food-grade plastic bucket. Make a solution of 1 cup pickling lie in 1 gallon of water and cover the sliced cukes with it, add a little more water if needed to cover. Allow to sit overnight. I like to weight them down with a plate to keep under the lime water The next day you will need to drain and rinse well. Let the cukes site in fresh water for several hour then drain and rinse again. I like to repeat this process a couple times. Then you make this brine: 9 cups sugar, 2 quarts vinegar, 2 1/2 Tbsp pickling salt, 1 Tbsp pickling spice (remove red peppers if they are in large pieces), 2 cinnamon sticks. Bring to heat to allow sugar to dissolve. Pour over cuckes and allow to sit overnight. The next day you put all in a large cooking pot and bring to a boil. Simmer until the cukes are somewhat transparent. You can add a few drops of food coloring if you like. Ladle into hot sterilized pint jars and seal. Process in BWB canner for 5 minutes. This recipe took the Steinfeld's 75th Anniversary Pickle at the Oregon State Fair a couple years back and has won the "Best of Category for Pickles" at the Multnomah County Oregon Fair several times as well as been judged the "Best Pickle in the County." From: Ma Pickle ................... Garlic turns blue -- The sulfur compounds in garlic (thiols or some type) can be broken up by active enzymes in the garlic allowing the sulfur to react with any copper in solution. This results in copper sulfides which is what you see as the "blue" discoloration. The enzymes can be denatured by high temperature processing. My understanding is that the enzymes are more abundant in immature garlic. The amount of copper required is tiny, but my further understanding is that ordinary table salt should not be used in preference to "canning salt". In any case the blue discoloration presents no hazard. The conventional wisdom for eliminating blue garlic seems to be: 1.) Use mature garlic (lower enzyme content) 2.) Process at high temperature (denature enzyme) 3.) Use "canning salt" (remove source of copper) An off topic note about thiols: These are the compounds that give skunks that "twang". Sulfur seems to be natures way of making things stink (either good or bad). From: Steve Kissel ........................... Garlic in oil -- >I had a great garlic harvest this year and would like to perserve some >garlic for longer than the dried garlic usually lasts. I have heard about >perserving whole or diced peeled garlic cloves in olive oil but can't >find much info about this. Can anyone help??? Don't do it. Here's a bit of information that I copied a few years ago from a now defunct food safety site: Regardless of its flavor potency, garlic is a low-acid vegetable. The pH of a clove of garlic typically ranges from 5.3 to 6.3. As with all low-acid vegetables, garlic will support the growth and subsequent toxin production of the bacterium Clostridium botulinum when given the right conditions. These conditions include improper home canning and improper preparation and storage of fresh herb and garlic-in-oil mixtures. Moisture, room temperature, lack of oxygen, and low-acid conditions all favor the growth of Clostridium botulinum. When growing, this bacterium produces an extremely potent toxin that causes the illness botulism. If untreated, death can result within a few days of consuming the toxic food. STORING GARLIC IN OIL Extreme care must be taken when preparing flavored oils with garlic or when storing garlic in oil. Peeled garlic cloves may be submerged in oil and stored in the freezer for several months. Do not store garlic in oil at room temperature. Garlic-in-oil mixtures stored at room temperature provide perfect conditions for producing botulism toxin (low acidity, no free oxygen in the oil, and warm temperatures). The same hazard exists for roasted garlic stored in oil. At least three outbreaks of botulism associated with garlic-in-oil mixtures have been reported in North America. From: Ross Reid .............. Dehydrating con-on-the cob >I wonder if it can be dehydrated on the cob and >then either stored that way, or shelled for storage as kernals? Yes. Remove husks, dry on the cob in your dehydrator or peel husks back, tie togethor and hang across the kitchen. From: Shawn Turner ............... Most every routine question that pops up in rec.food.preserving has been asked and answered before. Many if not all of those worthwhile discussions have been incorporated into the RFP FAQ. ------------------ The "Basic Resources" of RFP are: 1. The RecFoodPreserving FAQ, pay attention to the _version_. Old versions may be picked up by Internet search engines. Older versions contain outdated information. 2. The un-official archive at http://recipes.alastra.com/ choose "preserving" or "preserving meats" 3. Google. Plug in this URL http://groups.google.com/advanced_group_search?hl=en Enter your Keyword(s) and specify rec.food.preserving as the Forum. ------------------- Please be polite and expend some effort yourself. The very least you can do is research the Basic Resources. Nobody wishes to be treated like a doormat. If you give no indication of effort on your part it is quite likely your request will be ignored. Quite often the newbie is lacking in terminology. Reading the FAQ will help a beginner grasp the terms which are bandied about in the newsgroup. The FAQ is provided to you through the efforts of many participants in RFP. It is considered rude to ask for a recipe without doing the basic research of reading / checking the FAQ. If you have researched the FAQ and still need help - ask. You will be amazed at the outpouring of help. -------------------------------------------------- Where can I get a recipe for ....? Read the FAQ and/or goto http://recipes.alastra.com/ choose "preserving" or "preserving meats". Stephanie and Peter Da Silva has expended great efforts over many years in the archival of preserving recipes posted in rec.food.preserving. Please avail yourself of that altruism ... send her a note of thanks if you find what you seek. or goto www.google.com and do an advanced groups search for your subject matter. Specify rec.food.preserving as your target newsgroup. Ask your favourite geek for help if you don't know how to do a power search. -- Kansas State Extension Preserving web site http://129.130.75.14/ext_f&n/foodpreservation/welcome.htm -------------------------------------------------- Where do I find ....? Most probably it is mentioned in the FAQ. -------------------------------------------------- What book(s) are suggested? Numerous fine publications are mentioned in the FAQ. Practically everyone mentioned is known first-hand by a RFPer. It is in the FAQ because a person we know and trust has recommended it. Putting Food By, Ball Blue Book and Bernardin Homecanning Guide are perennial favourites. --------------------------------------------------- Where can I get equipment? [ besides Wal-mart ] Once again the FAQ has a long list of phone numbers, URLS and such. If you read the FAQ and still have a question, I assure you it will be very welcome in the newsgroup. --------------------------------------------------- Can you email recipe(s) to me? No thanks. If it is worth typing and is informative it is worth sharing with ALL. If you will not make the effort to read the newsgroup .. Pay for the service and then being your servant won't be so bad :-) -- A RFPer was saying recently: This is just my opinion, which is never humble, but subject to change with evidence to the contrary. I don't know if you'll get this or not, but here's the deal with me: Usenet is for sharing. I'll post all sorts of things here in response to Q's or of general interest (i.e., here's recipe I tried that came out well). And certainly will send a cc of a response to the group to the initial poster if I feel it's warranted. But you'll find very few people who will just send you recipes to your email. The nature of groups such as this is that we share among each other. If you want the recipes, you'll have to check in regularly and look for subject headings which interest you. -------- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- If you have any suggestions for revisions or additions to this FAQ, please send it to me. Happy Preserving Eric ---------------------- end of RFP MINI-FAQ ----------------------------- Eric Decker RFP FAQ Maintainer [Where can I get this faq?] Several ways. Get it from r.f.p when posted. Note: due to the size and maturity of the RFP FAQ at this time ( 2001) additions and /or revisions will be infrequent. Re-posting for the sake of posting will not be done as it is a nuisance to users and waste of system resources. Get the latest version of the RFP FAQ from www.google.com as they now have the former dejanews.com archive, however this will require a fair amount of work on your part as it is in 'nnn' parts / posts. There is a better way. NOTE: rec.food.preserving will always have the most current or revised version -as will rtfm. [ see below ] Easiest way to get the FAQ on browser equiped systems: http://www.faqs.org/faqs/by-newsgroup/rec/rec.food.preserving.html or plug the following URL into your browser - select the lastest version and part(s) that you want. The text will appear in your browser. Do a "-save as" giving the file an extension of TXT. The format is then viewable in Notepad, Wordpad and the like. ftp://rtfm.mit.edu/pub/usenet-by-hierarchy/rec/food/preserving/ This FAQ is also available in six parts (currently it is six) via anonymous ftp from: rtfm.mit.edu/pub/usenet-by-hierarchy/rec/food/preserving/ You will need a text viewer like List.com on non-unix systems for viewing this this output. CHARTER Rec.food.preserving is a newsgroup devoted to the discussion of recipes, equipment, and techniques of food preservation. Current food preservation techniques that rightly should be discussed in this forum include canning, freezing, dehydration, pickling, smoking, salting and potting. Foodstuffs are defined as produce (both fruits and vegetables), meat, fish, dairy products, culinary and medicinal herbs. Discussions should be limited to home-grown or home-preserved foods. addendum: This newsgroup is for those who can, jar, and preserve foods for personal and family use. Due to liability and health concerns, we can not provide information here on methods of food packaging or preservation for products to be sold to the public. Please contact the agency or office in your area that handles such questions. Thank you for your interest!