What are you preserving by less common methods?

[ORChick]

We've got a canning thread, and one for dehydrating, and freezing, and fermenting. What else are you preserving, and how?

For example - several days ago I dismembered a duck (supermarket , don't have any other source), and used the breasts for dinner. I took the rest of the meaty pieces and rubbed some spices on, and dry marinated for a couple of days. Today they went in the crockpot with all the duck fat, and some rendered goose fat from earlier this year, and cooked slowly for duck confit. I packed the pieces into a small crock, and covered with the cooking fat. This should keep quite nicely in the 'fridge until we use it. (the back, etc. of the duck is in the freezer waiting till later to make duck soup)

A few months ago I made some Mexican carnitas/shredded pork. This has been in the freezer, but I took it out for dinner tonight, and realized that this too would keep well under fat, just like the duck. So the part that wasn't used was packed into a jar with some of my rendered lard, and is now in the 'fridge.

What do you do to keep the harvest that might be a little out of the ordinary?

ETA: a few words that I left out while typing too fast

 

[patandchickens]

I don't know as these really quite count, but

-- although I seldom do it myself anymore due to being the only person in the house who really seriously likes soup a lot, I grew up in a house where there was nearly always a pot of soup in progress. Each day, or nearly each day, it got boiled to be eaten from and then new leftovers added, and then kept in the fridge (or in the winter in the cold, screened patio) til the next day. Every ten days or so a new batch would be started, but having portions hang around from day to day with new stuff always added really gives it a flavor that cannot otherwise be imitated.

-- I sometimes make a chinese-style red-cooked chicken or pork, where you simmer it up in a bunch of slighly-diluted dark soy sauce and spices (lots of ginger, garlic, some star anise) and whatever else happens to fall into the pot. (This is not for the low sodium diet crew, mind you <g>). I find that it keeps much, much longer in the fridge than 'normal' simmered chicken parts in broth, especially while the fat layer on top is undisturbed but even if you break the fat layer to get some out and don't reheat/recool the whole thing. Sort of a distant cousin of confit?

Oh, does chucking a few garlic cloves and hot peppers into a jelly jar of sherry (for use in stirfry type sauces) count as preserving? Probably not I guess


Pat

 

[me&thegals]

ORC-Your description reminds me of the intricate and detailed preserving processes I've read about in French cookery books. I'm impressed!

I don't preserve anyway new or exciting, unless you count the extra cushion I put on during winter--That has been a VERY long-term food preserving process for me.

 

[Wifezilla]

I made yocheese a couple of weeks ago, rolled it in to balls and preserved it in olive oil. This is supposed to keep for years, but we will use it long before it can go bad...LOL

 

[miss_thenorth]

I made yocheese a couple of weeks ago, rolled it in to balls and preserved it in olive oil. This is supposed to keep for years, but we will use it long before it can go bad...LOL

Do you just drop the balls in a jar of olive oil? I've never heard of that before.

 

[miss_thenorth]

My grandmother used to have a huge crock in her kitchen where she preserved beans in salt. I don't know all the details, but mom says they sued todip into the crock for the beans and heat them up for suppers. I don't know how nutritious they would be, but mom said they ate them all winter.

 

[ORChick]

I don't know as these really quite count, but

-- although I seldom do it myself anymore due to being the only person in the house who really seriously likes soup a lot, I grew up in a house where there was nearly always a pot of soup in progress. Each day, or nearly each day, it got boiled to be eaten from and then new leftovers added, and then kept in the fridge (or in the winter in the cold, screened patio) til the next day. Every ten days or so a new batch would be started, but having portions hang around from day to day with new stuff always added really gives it a flavor that cannot otherwise be imitated.

-- I sometimes make a chinese-style red-cooked chicken or pork, where you simmer it up in a bunch of slighly-diluted dark soy sauce and spices (lots of ginger, garlic, some star anise) and whatever else happens to fall into the pot. (This is not for the low sodium diet crew, mind you <g>). I find that it keeps much, much longer in the fridge than 'normal' simmered chicken parts in broth, especially while the fat layer on top is undisturbed but even if you break the fat layer to get some out and don't reheat/recool the whole thing. Sort of a distant cousin of confit?

Oh, does chucking a few garlic cloves and hot peppers into a jelly jar of sherry (for use in stirfry type sauces) count as preserving? Probably not I guess


Pat

These definitely count! That soup sounds like something that might have been done back when the wood or coal fired stove was on all day - putting the soup pot "on the back burner", as it were .
I've done some red cooking in the past, but only enough for a single meal. Maybe I need to rethink that?
Garlic cloves and peppers in sherry sounds good; cousins to the ginger I buy in bulk (a pound or two at a time), and keep in vodka.

 

[ORChick]

ORC-Your description reminds me of the intricate and detailed preserving processes I've read about in French cookery books. I'm impressed!

I don't preserve anyway new or exciting, unless you count the extra cushion I put on during winter--That has been a VERY long-term food preserving process for me.

at the extra cushion! I use that preserving method too! Just think, while the thin ones are wailing that they are soooo hungry, we can just smile, and go on our way. It would be kind of nice though, I sometimes think, to able to "share the wealth" - just out of compassion, you know, for those hungry thin ones.

ETA: I wanted to add that the confit isn't at all complicated, especially with a crock pot. Sometimes I think the French just work at making things seem complicated

 

[ORChick]

I made yocheese a couple of weeks ago, rolled it in to balls and preserved it in olive oil. This is supposed to keep for years, but we will use it long before it can go bad...LOL

Do you just drop the balls in a jar of olive oil? I've never heard of that before.

This is also nice with fresh goat cheese. And is essentially the same as what you get if you buy feta cheese cubes in oil. I like to drop some dried herbs, and a dried red pepper or two in the jar as well. There is concern with botulism in the airless environment under the oil, so fresh garlic, herbs, peppers aren't recommended anymore - although I have read somewhere (can't quote, I'm afraid) that soaking the fresh things in vinegar for awhile (several hours?) before adding to the oil would acidify them enough for safety. I need to look through my preserving books again.

 

[me&thegals]

Now, I don't want to give the impression that I'm storing LOTS of food that way--just an extra 5 lb each winter, you know? Still have to be in tip-top shape for all the work that comes in spring!

As for the French, wow. I spend a lot of time in the kitchen and garden just like you all, and yet the descriptions of some French cookery just exhausted me. I mean, Julia Child could spend DAYS on a single dinner party! Like ALL day.