CHAPTER NINE
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Curing and Preserving
IT IS INCREDIBLE TO THINK that the common kitchen refrigerator has been around for less than a century. Prior to this there was a predecessor called an icebox, which was, literally, a lined cabinet that contained space for a solid block of ice (which had to be changed daily) and shelving around it to store things. But before that, throughout one million of years of evolution, where humans walked, talked and ate, we had to find other ways to stop our food from spoiling.
Preventing food from going bad would have been a major concern, as very few families had an appetite healthy enough to devour an entire animal such as a pig in one sitting, so ingenious ways were found to keep food edible. Yet what early preservers probably hadn’t anticipated was that not only did the food remain edible but the processes also subtly changed the flavours and textures and created delicacies we still adore to this day – things like ham, bacon and sausages, pickles, chutneys and jams.
In a book on self-sufficiency, it could be argued that this chapter is the jewel. Certainly this is the one that has the potential to widen the most eyes and drop the most jaws, as the mysteries of making great bacon and sausages, pickles and chutneys are explained – the biggest of which is how ridiculously easy it all is. Anyone can turn out excellent home-cured bacon and gammon using nothing more complicated than the standard salad tray fitted at the bottom of most fridges, or snazzy homemade sausages that not only taste better than anything you can buy in the shops but are much better for you too.
The craft of preserving
Although the craft of preserving has changed from one of necessity to one of preference, there is still much that can be taken from it by foodies and families looking to be creative, healthy with everyday favourites, and maybe even whizz up a super-cool dinner party. Preserving is fun, it’s cheap, and if you’ve been frightened away from some of your favourite foods by the commercial processes and additives, and would dearly love to create them at home, so you know exactly what everything contains, then this chapter is especially for you.
As the subject is so diverse, each of the following seven sections (Kitchen Charcuterie; Pickles, Chutneys and Sauces; Bottling; Smoking; Drying; Jam; and Freezing) begins with its own introduction, followed by (where possible) a breakdown of the equipment and ingredients needed. Where relevant, I offer a choice between shop-bought equipment and home-produced versions made up from knickknacks around the home and garage, which are a fun alternative and ideal if you are just starting out and want to see how things work out before you invest (though to be honest, very little specialist equipment is needed anyway). Don’t forget that most of these techniques were invented hundreds, if not thousands, of years ago, when ‘state of the art’ meant harnessing a donkey to a treadmill.
KITCHEN CHARCUTERIE
From the French for flesh (chair) and cooked (cuit), charcuterie is the art of preserving meat, primarily, though not exclusively, pork, by curing it to produce bacon, ham, sausages and gammon, the influence from which goes right the way back to classical Rome. But if the Romans invented it, the French perfected it. They added some flamboyance and a little chic, because the charcuterie shops that sprang up in every village across France needed to attract the customer by every sense, so the aromas, the texture, the look and the taste made it virtually impossible for any ‘foodie’ to walk past the charcuterie without popping in to see what was available.
Curing is simply mixing salt and sugar together and either rubbing the mixture dry into the meat, known as ‘dry curing’, or dissolving it in a bath of water and dropping the meat into it to soak, ‘wet curing’. As a general rule, most gammons are wet cured, and then either cooked by boiling and then baked as ham, or sliced and pan-fried straight off. Bacon, on the other hand, lends itself beautifully to dry curing, which gives it a taste and a smell that’s just incredible (most commercial bacon is wet cured, which is a shame because when you taste proper dry-cured bacon it’s a different level of stunning, like going from a jalopy to a Ferrari, or a glass of plonk to champagne). Of course, there are exceptions, most notably Parma-style ham, which is dry cured for 3–4 weeks and then air dried, but on the whole the wet- and dry-cured general rule works for most things produced in a home-kitchen environment.
EQUIPMENT
Large bowl
Large saucepan
For sausage-making: a method of stuffing the sausages (see the recipe on pages 257–8)
Basic ingredients
There are not many ingredients used in curing: just salt, pepper, sugar and possibly nitrates. The salt should be sea salt, as it contains a certain amount of natural nitrates and tastes so much better than table salt. The sugar will differ with different recipes, but granulated, Demerara and brown are all popular.
As for the nitrates, please excuse me for a second while I clamber up on this soap box. Right, that’s better. Okay, let this rant begin …
Have you noticed the Food Standards Agency’s subtle shift from, ‘avoid processed meat’ to the current ‘avoid processed food’. Know why? It’s because of potassium nitrate, also known as saltpetre, KNO3 or E252. It’s a food colourant and preservative, and in this country it goes in everything from a shop-bought quiche to a scotch egg, packets of ‘spag bog’ to rashers of bacon. Just about all processed food contains it. Yep, even healthy options. And organic. Sausages? The butcher’s best, made on the premises? Most butchers make sausages from packet mixes that include potassium nitrate. Vegetarian processed dishes? Vegan products? Many contain it too. Why is this bad? Because tests show potassium nitrate is highly carcinogenic to animals. The problem is that to take potassium nitrate out of the system would cost billions and billions, so they just push the problem to one side and kind of hint that, as consumers, we should really limit how much of it we eat, mainly because nobody knows quite what else to do.
The United States has limited the use of potassium nitrate to a maximum of 200 parts per million. In some EU countries other than the UK, it has been banned completely, but in the UK it is still commonly used, though reasonably difficult to get hold of for home use because it is also the primary ingredient in fireworks, gunpowder, it’s an additive to fertiliser, and it’s amazing for getting rid of old tree stumps as the powder will age the stump to the point of decay in as little as four weeks. Mm, mm, doesn’t that sound tasty?
The arguments for and against the use of nitrates go like this: in cured raw pork products such as chorizo and pancetta, use of nitrates is essential because they help to fight the risk of illnesses such as botulism and E. coli. Yet in cooked products, such as ham, bacon, gammon, pies, puds and sausages, all the food that will be (depending on how it is sold) cooked thoroughly before it is eaten, there is a strong argument that the dangers of using it far outweigh the benefits.
Personally, I don’t mind my bacon looking like meat, pink is such an odd colour for it anyway, and if I’m going to all the trouble of making something myself from scratch, I feel that using unnecessary additives is defeating the object, so while I do use nitrates in raw products, I don’t include them in anything that will be cooked. However, that is only my opinion, and anyone setting out to cure their own meat should be encouraged to draw their own conclusions, especially if you fall within a vulnerable group. For more information on the use of nitrates in meat, contact the Food Standards Agency, which is an independent watchdog, or go online at www.food.gov.uk.
Bacon
The simplest and most impressive of all the home-cured meats, homemade bacon is the one thing guaranteed to cause a sensation around the kitchen table. In the 11th century, a tiny English church declared that if any man could stand before the congregation and God, and swear that he had not had a cross word with his wife for a year and a day, he would be presented (if he were believed) with a whole side of bacon. Some people believe that this gave rise to the phrase, ‘bringing home the bacon’, meaning to earn a living for the family or to have success. This became a well-known tradition that is still practised today. Chaucer made reference to it in his Canterbury Tales, and so did many other writers.
Cuts
To make really great back bacon you will need a boneless loin of pork, and for streaky bacon you need a belly. However, if you tell your local butcher what you are going to do, he is bound to steer you in the right direction.
Dry-cured bacon
To dry cure at home you will need a mixture of two parts fine sea salt to one part sugar (white, Demerara or brown – or a mixture if you like). The salt is a preservative and the sugar keeps the meat soft and moist while also helping to counteract the saltiness. Use 150g/5½oz cure to each 1kg/2¼lb boned meat. Spread the cure all over the meat and rub it in thoroughly. Put the meat in a lidded plastic container (never metal, as metal reacts with the cure) and leave for 3 days for streaky bacon or 5 days for back bacon, turning the meat and pouring off the resulting liquid each day. This will give you perfect breakfast-style bacon.
For harder, pancetta-style, bacon, use 100g/3½oz cure to which you add an additional 50g/2oz fine sea salt to bring it up to the 150g/5½oz total amount you need for 1kg/2¼lb meat. Again, apply once and leave for 5–10 days depending how strong you want the cure to be. This bacon does not really lend itself to frying and eating, and is more for adding flavour to soups and stews, and will hot-smoke (see page 278) really well.
When the bacon has finished curing, wash it well, slice it and enjoy, remembering never to wrap it in aluminium foil or allow it to come into contact with metal. Before slicing the bacon, freeze it for 1 hour to firm up the meat, as this will give you much better rashers.
Wet-cured bacon
Make up a basic brine of 500g/1lb 2oz fine sea salt to about 6 litres/10½ pints/6½ quarts water, and add 3 tbsp sugar to keep the meat soft and prevent it firming up too much. For a variation, replace the sugar with honey or maple syrup.
This works really well for back bacon, and the perfect place to store it is in the salad tray at the bottom of most fridges. Simply clean it out, put your meat in and pour the brine over it, then forget about it for 3 days.
At the end of this time, simply rinse the bacon thoroughly in clean water, slice it and use it straight away, or wrap it and store it in the fridge, where it should last for up to 10 days.
Gammon and hams
There are dozens and dozens of different cures for hams and gammons that exist throughout the world, recipes that have been perfected right up to one’s great grandmother and then cast in stone in the firm belief that they could not possibly get any better. Some, mainly the dry-cured ones, are highly complex and involve lots of skill, effort and very precise atmospheric conditions. Easier by far are the wet-cured recipes, which are what we will explore here.
Cuts
The classic ham comes from a leg of pork. In Roman times this would have been a leg of wild boar, from which they produced the famous hams of Gaul. Today, wild boar can be very difficult to source. If you are lucky enough to be producing your own pigs, then you have your own supply to hand, but, if not, ask your butcher for a leg of pork from a rare breed (non-commercial), traditional free-range pig. The taste will be far superior, as will the texture, and you will be far happier with the result. You will also be promoting good animal husbandry.
An alternative to the leg of pork is the hock. Pig hocks are the bottom part of the leg; they are very cheap and packed full of flavour. But for something completely different, the texture of lamb works really well when gammoned, as does venison, or brisket of beef for homemade corned beef, which is far superior to anything found in a tin.
Wet-cured hams and gammon
All wet curing of hams and gammons is based on a basic brine solution, as shown on page 252 in ‘wet-cured bacon’. For a twist, replace the water with cider for a cider-cured ham or gammon, or with bitter and 900g/2lb black treacle (boiled together first with the salt, then cooled before being used) for a Wiltshire cure, but be warned: this is very strong and STINKS when you boil it! The sugar can be replaced with maple syrup in the normal brine cure, but, once again, you would have to boil and chill it before using. Note that if you are using alcohol as a base instead of water, more salt is needed to prevent the meat from spoiling, so for every 6 litres/10½ pints alcohol use 1kg/2¼lb fine sea salt.
For ham, once the curing is complete, remove the ham from the solution and rinse it well, then boil in water for 20 minutes per 450g/1lb plus 20 minutes, or according to your favourite recipe. Remove the ham from the heat and leave it to cool slightly in the pan for extra succulence, then rinse it and strip off the rind (leaving the fat) before scoring the top. Glaze with something like mustard powder and honey or brown sugar, and bake, uncovered, in a foil-lined roasting tin at 180°C/350°F/gas 4 for 15 minutes. Alternatively, soak overnight in water and bake without boiling first. Or for a really lovely flavour and a natural preserve, try smoking it (see page 276).
For gammon, soak overnight in water and cut into thick slices, which can be gently fried or grilled.
Sausages
The earliest-known mention of sausages was recorded in the epic poem The Odyssey by Homer, written at some point during the period 900–800 BC. Sausages, which were originally cured, were first used as a method to preserve and transport meat, but then sausages of both types – cured and fresh – soon became popular, and virtually every nation in the world developed their own variation, because the beauty of the sausage is that it is so versatile. It can be dry cured or fresh, plain or flavoured. It can contain pork, beef, chicken or any other meat you fancy, and if you’re not a meat eater, there’s still a sausage for you, with a vegetarian recipe made from tofu, or a Glamorgan sausage made from cheese, leeks and breadcrumbs. There are Madras sausages, marmalade sausages, even Marmite sausages. There are some packed with so much chilli your head could quite possibly explode, and at the other end of the spectrum there are flavours that are as delicate as lemon and thyme. Yet the best sausage ever made in the entire history of sausage-making will be the one you make yourself in your own kitchen.
A healthy dilemma
At their most basic, sausages are made by mincing meat, adding flavourings and piping the mixture into casings. In the days before we really understood about the dangers of fat in our diet, sausages would be made from 100 per cent meat, but half of that, 50 per cent, would have been fat to keep the sausage moist. Nowadays, I’m not sure many people would be comfortable eating a sausage that contained such a high level of fat, so we have devised other, healthier, ways of retaining moisture and preventing our sausages from drying out. One solution is to include a small amount of pinhead rusk (unleavened bread, also known as cereal) and water. In the recipes that follow, I have used this method. The results are wonderful, the sausages are guaranteed not to be dry, and health-wise they are far better for you; but if you want to include more meat, the choice is yours, of course.
Cuts
In ancient Greece around the time of Homer, sausages were a way of preserving the off-cuts of pork in neat little packages. Nearly 3,000 years later, we’re still doing exactly the same thing. If you are butchering your own pig, any scraps can and should be put in the sausage pile, but for the rest of us, the cuts of pork to use are belly and shoulder.
There are two kinds of sausages: cured ones, like salami and chorizo, and fresh sausages, for which I give a recipe here.
EQUIPMENT
Large bowl
You will need either a food mixer with a sausage-making attachment or a hand-cranked sausage-stuffer. Alternatively, if you don’t have either of these, you’ll have to go for the less specialist option of a large funnel and a wooden spoon
Ingredients
Aim for a 50/50 mix of coarsely minced pork belly and shoulder, that carries around 20 per cent fat.
Pinhead rusk (a gluten-free version is available)
Seasoning
Oil, for frying
Natural casings (sheep casings for chipolatas, hog casings for sausages – ask your butcher or search online), soaked for 12–24 hours depending on the casing in water to remove the salt they are packed in.
Seven steps to a perfect breakfast sausage
1. Put the mince in a large bowl and add 10 per cent pinhead rusk plus 10 per cent water (by weight, or use cider or wine), and mix by hand. Don’t worry about adding too much liquid, because any not absorbed as the sausage matures and increases in flavour will leach out overnight (a process butchers call ‘blooming’).
2. Season well with salt and pepper. This is the stage where you can leave the mixture plain for a good old traditional sausage, or add flavourings such as herbs and spices. Either way, start to knead your meat as you’re looking to stretch the proteins. This could take 2–3 minutes, after which you will feel the texture of the meat change. Cold hands for this are best.
3. Now for a taste test: heat a little oil in a frying pan and cook a little ball of the mixture. Taste it and adjust the seasoning and flavours as necessary, then keep cooking and tasting and adjusting until you’re happy.
4. Remove the casing from the soaking water, find one of the ends and slide it over your sausage-making attachment, followed by the rest of the casing until it’s all concertinaed down and the end is hanging lose, untied, by about 2.5cm/1in.
5. Turn on the food mixer or start cranking the sausage stuffer (or grab your wooden spoon if you’re doing it by hand), load with your sausage meat and begin filling, though don’t be tempted to pack the casing too tight or the sausages might burst during cooking.
6. Once your casing is filled, twist each sausage into length by simply pinching and twisting. Butchers twist sausages into bunches of three to hang and dry.
7. Leave in the fridge, loosely covered, overnight to bloom (especially if you are going to freeze them). That’s it: homemade sausages!
Filling a sausage: the spout, loaded with a casing ready to be filled
If the filling part seems to be a bit of a palaver, there is the option of making sausage meatballs or patties, which work almost as well, though for a little extra effort nothing excites quite like the real thing.
Flavourings
Once you have mastered the method of putting together a great sausage, then it’s time to experiment and play with some mouth-watering variations.
Bold flavours:
• Madras – turmeric, chilli, coriander, cumin and desiccated (dried shredded) coconut instead of rusk
• Cracked black pepper
• Garlic, red wine (instead of the water) and basil
• Chilli and sun-dried tomato
• Cider (instead of the water), apple and leek
Subtle flavours:
• Lemon and thyme
• Cranberry and rosemary – lovely Christmas variety
• Ground white pepper
Continental sausage
More an evening sausage than a morning one on account of the wine and garlic in the recipes, these gorgeous bangers pack a punch of flavour with a smell that will being people knocking from streets away, and they’re gluten-free, for a win–win–win.
The rule for continental sausages is: 1 tsp of salt and 1 tsp of sugar for every 1lb of meat. The sugar replaces the rusk and keeps the meat moist, although the meat will need to have a slightly higher fat content at around 30 per cent.
Toulouse
900g/2lb coarsely minced (ground) pork
2 tsp salt
2 tsp granulated sugar
100ml/3½fl oz/scant ½ cup dry white wine
2 garlic cloves, crushed
½ tsp ground white pepper
½ tsp finely grated nutmeg
Treat as above; mix, knead, fill.
Chorizo (fresh)
900g/2lb coarsely minced (ground) pork
2 tsp salt
2 tsp granulated sugar
100ml/3½fl oz/scant ½ cup red wine
2 garlic cloves, crushed
½ tsp ground white pepper
2 tsp smoked paprika
Treat as above.
PICKLES, CHUTNEYS AND SAUCES
It is no mistake that this section follows on after charcuterie, as the only thing that can possibly improve upon a homemade bacon or sausage sandwich is a spoonful of sensational tomato sauce, tangy marrow chutney or really good pickle.
Finding quick and easy ways to preserve the summer glut from the kitchen garden or the allotment is a big part of the self-sufficient life. When Mother Nature is in full swing, the produce harvested from even a moderate veg patch can threaten to take over the kitchen, not to mention mealtimes. No matter how sweet and delicious a new crop of runner beans is, you can only eat them so many times before they become a bit samey. The trick is to store them in a preservative, such as vinegar.
Vinegar
The vast majority of recipes for chutneys, sauces and pickles are based on vinegar, so it is essential to select a good-quality vinegar with an acetic acid content of at least 5 per cent. Malt vinegar works well and has a good flavour, and this is fine for chutneys, but for pickled vegetables the distilled version, which is clear, presents a crisp, cleaner-looking finished product. Flavoured vinegars such as cider and white wine vinegars, rice, fruit and honey vinegars are now widely available, though beware of wasting your money if you venture down this more exotic and expensive route, as the flavours can be quite subtle and will be lost in a robust chutney.
Recycled jars
Before you start making your chutneys, pickles and sauces, you will need to assemble a good selection of jars to put them all in. Obviously you will have the empties from last year’s jarred delights, and with luck friends and family will save their own empties for you so that you don’t actually have to buy any. There is a staggering array of jars around – from pretty, petite ones to downright ugly ones via chunky, wide ones and tall, thin, narrow ones – but they are all needed (maybe with the exception of the ugly ones), and it’s this lack of uniformity that makes everyone’s pantry or store cupboard unique and personal.
Before you use any jars, make certain they have been sterilized. If you have a dishwasher, a normal wash cycle will sterilize them for you. Alternatively, set them on an ovenproof tray and pop them in a preheated oven at 75°C/170°F for 10 minutes, then remove and leave to cool.
The vinegar in these types of preserves will react with any metal in the lids, so always cover the preserve with a cut-out round of grease-proof paper to create a barrier before screwing on the top, unless it has a plastic coating on the inside. Coffee jars have tops made entirely from plastic, which is why you see lots of chutneys and pickles stored in them – though their chunky lids mean that they never look the prettiest of containers.
Pickles
From the vibrant crimson of a beetroot to the tanned brown of an onion or the emerald green of a cucumber, only the best produce is reserved for pickling because of the tendency to keep the pieces whole or nicely chopped into chunks, as opposed to chutneys and relishes, which are all mushed up. Pickling is the process of storing summer fruits and vegetables in a preserving solution, normally either vinegar, brine (salt water) or a stock syrup, and soft fruits do particularly well in alcohol and sugar. Pickles add a little panache to any meal, no matter what the season.
In America the best-known pickle is cucumber, in Germany it is sauerkraut (sour cabbage) and in the UK pickled onions, but so many more fruits and vegetables can be pickled (ginger, garlic, chillies, pears, rhubarb, walnuts …) that it’s hard to know where to stop. In fact, if you have an idea to pickle something, no matter how way-out it might seem to be, the chances are you’re not going to be the first person to try it.
EQUIPMENT
Stainless-steel preserving pan or large stainless-steel saucepan
Wooden spoon
Non-metallic bowl
Non-metallic colander
450g-/1lb-capacity sterilized jars
Ingredients
Select only the freshest fruit and vegetables for your pickles. If you have your own vegetable plot, harvest quite early in the morning before the sun has a chance to wilt the produce, and make sure everything you pick is free from bruises and blemishes. If you are buying from a supermarket or greengrocer, look for fresh produce and avoid anything that has been coated in wax.
Brining
Hard vegetables, such as cauliflower and asparagus, have a fairly low water content, which makes them ideal for pickles. Some soft fruit and vegetables, however, such as cucumber, pears and melon, present a problem because not only will their high water content dilute the preserving vinegar, but the vinegar itself will also struggle to penetrate the fruit in the first place, so it may not preserve at all. The solution is to remove the water, and for this you need salt, which can be used in two different ways: dry brining, which is simply layering the ingredients on a tray and sprinkling with salt to draw out the moisture (as in the cucumber recipe below), or wet brining, which involves making up a salt-water bath in which to soak the ingredients.
Quick and easy pickled cucumber
Perfect in the summer, but even better in the winter, pickled cucumber is a great way to store a glut from the garden and keep you going all year long. Keep for 1 month before using and store for up to 1 year.
3 cucumbers, thinly sliced
4 large onions, peeled and diced
4 heaped tbsp coarse sea salt
570ml/1 pint/2½ cups white vinegar
175g/6oz/¾ cup plus 2 tbsp granulated sugar
1 tsp white mustard seeds
1 tsp black mustard seeds
Mix the cucumbers and onions in a large non-metallic bowl, sprinkle with the salt and leave to stand for 2–4 hours. Meanwhile, warm some large jars in a low oven. Rinse, drain and pat dry the vegetables with kitchen paper. Put the vinegar, sugar, mustard seeds and celery seeds in a saucepan and bring to the boil, then reduce the heat and simmer for 2–3 minutes. Spoon the cucumber and onions into the warm jars without packing them in too tightly, and cover with the spiced vinegar. Seal immediately.
Killer pickled onions
The trick of really great pickled onions is in the peeling. When you trim them, take off the barest bit of the root, as that’s the part that holds the onion together. If you take off too much, the onions will just fall apart. These pickled onions will be ready to eat in 2 months, but the longer you leave them for, the better. The chillies are for flavouring only, and not to be eaten; add as few or as many as you wish.
pickling or baby onions, peeled and trimmed
malt vinegar
1 bay leaf
mixed peppercorns
whole chillies of whatever strength you like
Pack the onions as tightly as possible into the jar(s) you intend to use and fill with vinegar to give you an idea of how much you need. Now drain the vinegar off into a stainless-steel saucepan, adding a little extra to allow for evaporation, then add the bay leaf, 1 tsp mixed peppercorns per 1.2 litres/2 pints/5 cups vinegar and some chillies. Bring to the boil, then remove from the heat and leave to cool thoroughly. Pour the spiced vinegar and chillies over the onions and seal tightly.
Sauerkraut
Traditionally served with sausages, this fermented cabbage is full of exciting flavours and is extremely good for your gut. For a self-sufficient twist, try adding thinly sliced carrot/beetroot/radish, as long as you work to 15g/½oz salt to every 500g/17½oz vegetable.
2kg/4½lb firm white/green/Chinese cabbage
3 tbsp coarse sea salt
1 tsp dill seeds
1 tsp celery seeds
1 tsp peppercorns
Sterilize a large bowl by pouring a kettle of boiling water over it. For your cabbages, remove any coarse outer leaves then quarter and core them. Shred the cabbage very thinly. Into the bowl add the cabbage and salt, taking time to rub the salt into the cabbage thoroughly for 2–3 minutes. Leave to relax, then repeat until you end up with shrunken cabbage sitting in a pool of its own brine. Add the spices, and mix well. Over the bowl place a sheet of cling film so that it droops down to touch the cabbage, that way excluding much of the air and allowing you to place a plate with a weight on it – a can of beans, something like that – on top of the cling film so it’s touching the cabbage and squashing it a little. Leave in a dark place at room temperature for a minimum of 5 days, checking the cabbage every day and giving it a little stir to release bubbles, at the same time removing any scum that may have formed. It should be ready after 5 days, but can be left for longer depending how sour your taste. Jar and keep refrigerated.
Kimchi
For a kimchi kick, add a teaspoon each of paprika, turmeric, coriander and chilli.
Mixed vegetable pickles
Arguably the most attractive and versatile jar of pickles is the mixed vegetable, with layers of different colours neatly packed one on top of another all in the same jar, for instance carrots above onions above green beans above red cabbage above cauliflower. Try to look out for not only different colours but also different shapes, so that you have round onions next to thin batons of carrot. Then, in the depths of winter when you’re feeling drab, you can use them to add fantastic colour to a winter salad, serve them with a dip to accompany dinner-party aperitifs or nibble as a treat on a cold, grey winter’s afternoon.
Chutneys
Sharp and sweet, aromatic, cool and tangy or hot and spicy, chutneys have become an indispensable partner to food such as cheese, meat, fish and, of course, curry. Thought to originate in India from the Hindu word chatni, meaning ‘highly or strongly spiced’, chutneys are the ideal way to use up and store any misshapen, bruised or imperfect fruit and vegetables – or at least that’s how it started. These days chutneys are a much more serious business, and it’s not at all frowned upon for people to dedicate whole sections of their vegetable and fruit gardens solely to produce for chutneys.
Although both pickles and chutneys use vinegar as their primary preserving agent, the main difference between them is the fact that the produce in chutneys is mushed as opposed to whole or sliced. The authentic way of mushing the ingredients down was using a pestle and mortar, though if you have a food processor you could use it on ‘pulse’ to give the texture and size of chunks you want. Not only will this method be faster and easier, but the end results will be far easier to replicate if you hit upon something that’s especially good.
The idea of a chutney is to mix concoctions of fruits and vegetables with vinegar, sugar and spices, and then cook them long and slow (except for the cheat versions that I’m all in favour of, which are quick, practical and deliciously tasty, but take a fraction of the time – see below). Apart from that, anything goes. If it’s edible and you can grow it or find it, you can make a chutney out of it, and a lot of the fun comes from mixing and matching combinations, because from a self-sufficient point of view, making chutney is all about using whatever is to hand. If you want to know if a combination is likely to work, take the primary ingredients, say a tomato and an apple, and cut a little from each, then pop them into your mouth at the same time and crunch into them while breathing in through your mouth (just in this case, it’s OK to eat with your mouth open). If the flavours work together at this stage, then they’re likely to work in a chutney. Note that chutneys are always left to cool before being covered, unlike jams, which are sealed when piping hot.
EQUIPMENT
Food processor with a pulse button, a hand mincer or a pestle and mortar (if you want to be authentic)
Stainless-steel preserving pan or large stainless-steel saucepan
Wooden spoon
Non-metallic colander
Ingredients
Any fruit and vegetables, or combinations of fruit and vegetables, that you want to use up, have bought cheap or just think will make a stunning chutney
Onions
Vinegar
Sugar
Spices, including turmeric – a truly incredible spice from the ginger family, which has many of the same healing and medicinal qualities as ginger, such as the ability to settle an upset stomach and even quell nausea, and can even be mixed with paint or lime wash for a natural colorant
Mustard powder
Seasoning
Cornflour (cornstarch) – for the quick version
Runner-bean chutney
This is the ideal way to use up the glut of runner beans that every grower ends up with at the end of the season. It can be eaten within weeks or will keep for years, and works perfectly with sausages, robust cheeses such as Cheddar or as an alternative to tomato sauce on the side of a good old fry-up.
4–5 onions, peeled and diced
900g/2lb runner beans, diced
680g/1½lb/scant 3½ cups granulated sugar
900ml/1½ pints/4 scant cups vinegar of your choice, for example malt or cider
1½ tbsp turmeric
1½ tbsp mustard powder
1½ tbsp cornflour (cornstarch)
Put the onions and beans in a stainless-steel pan of salted water and bring to the boil, then reduce the heat and simmer until tender. Strain through a non-metallic colander, allowing the mixture to drain well. Tip the mixture into a food processor and mince or pulse until it is chopped and mushed, but not a purée. Return to the pan and add the sugar and 720ml/1¼ pints/3 cups of the vinegar. Bring to the boil and boil for 15 minutes. Meanwhile, mix the turmeric, mustard powder and cornflour in the remaining vinegar and add gradually to the beans over a low heat, stirring until the mixture has thickened. Return to the boil for another 15 minutes, then leave to cool thoroughly before pouring into cold jars and sealing.
Spicy marrow chutney
This is a good self-sufficient alternative to mango chutney, which will work fantastically well with your favourite curry and poppadoms. It will be ready to eat in 2 months but will also sit happily maturing and improving for years.
1.3kg/3lb marrow, peeled, deseeded and cut into 1cm/½in cubes (about 900g/2lb prepared weight)
450g/1lb tomatoes, skinned and quartered
450g/1lb onions, peeled and chopped
1 garlic clove, crushed
50g/2oz/scant ⅓ cup sultanas (golden raisins)
1 tsp ground allspice
1 tsp salt
1 tsp ground black pepper
570ml/1 pint/2½ cups vinegar
680g/1½lb/scant 3½ cups light soft brown sugar
Put the marrow, tomatoes, onions, garlic, sultanas, allspice and seasoning in a large stainless-steel pan and stir in 425ml/¾ pint/scant 2 cups of the vinegar. Bring to the boil, then cover and simmer until the marrow is tender. Remove the lid and continue simmering to reduce the liquid until no liquid pools in a furrow made by dragging a wooden spoon through the mixture to the bottom of the pan. Stir in the remaining vinegar and the sugar and return to the boil, then simmer until the chutney is thick, stirring gently occasionally just to ease the mixture around without breaking up the marrow. Remove from the heat and cool thoroughly before spooning into cold jars and sealing.
Christmas chutney
This chutney needs to be made around late September/early October to give it enough time to mature and mellow, and my advice is to pick a day when you’re not likely to be interrupted, switch the phone off and put on a Christmas DVD, preferably Miracle on 34th Street (the version with Richard Attenborough as Father Christmas) or It’s a Wonderful Life, turn the volume up and enjoy while you prep and stir!
The beauty of this recipe is that most of the ingredients can be grown in the garden or allotment or bought reasonably cheaply at the greengrocer or supermarket, and it really does taste of Christmas.
225g/8oz each of 2 of the following: plums, pears, rhubarb,
greengage or quince, prepared as necessary, then chopped
2 cooking apples, peeled, cored and chopped
115g/4oz dried figs, chopped (optional)
225g/8oz onions, peeled and chopped
225g/8oz tomatoes, skinned and chopped
2 celery sticks, chopped
50g/2oz/scant ⅓ cup raisins
½ tbsp grated fresh root ginger
460ml/¾ pint/2 cups cider vinegar
1 tbsp pickling spice
225g/8oz/1 cup plus 2 tbsp granulated sugar
Put all the ingredients except for the vinegar, spice and sugar into a stainless-steel pan and pour in half of the vinegar. Put the pickling spice in a muslin bag and tie the end before dropping it into the mixture. Bring to the boil, then reduce the heat and simmer for about 2 hours until everything is soft, stirring occasionally to stop it catching on the bottom. Add the remaining vinegar and the sugar and return to the boil, stirring to dissolve the sugar and avoid sticking, then boil until the mixture is thick enough to form a furrow that doesn’t fill with liquid when a wooden spoon is dragged through it. Remove the muslin bag and leave the chutney to cool completely before spooning it into your best jars and sealing.
Sauces
What would life be like without tomato ketchup and brown sauce? What would happen to chips, hamburgers, egg sandwiches? The prospect is terrifying, but the solution (were it needed) is easy: make your own.
If pickling is for whole or chopped ingredients and chutneys for crushed or mushed ingredients, then sauces are the next step and should be blended until smooth and thick.
Red tomato ketchup
2 cans or 900g/2lb ripe red chopped tomatoes
150g/5½oz/¾ cup soft dark brown sugar
1 large garlic clove, crushed
1 tbsp English mustard powder
½ tsp ground coriander
¼ tsp ground cinnamon
250ml/9fl oz/1 cup red wine vinegar
2 tbsp tomato purée (paste)
4 drops of Tabasco sauce or the smallest pinch of chilli powder
1 tsp salt
2–3 tbsp cornflour (cornstarch)
Place all the ingredients, with the exception of the cornflour, in a large saucepan and bring to a gentle simmer, stirring continuously until all the sugar has dissolved. If using canned tomatoes, simmer for 2–3 minutes; if using fresh tomatoes, simmer for 15 minutes or until the tomatoes are soft and mushy. Remove from the heat, and blend until smooth. Return to the pan and bring back to a gentle simmer. Meanwhile, slake the cornflour in a jug with 3 tbsp water. Add the cornflour mixture to the bubbling tomato liquid, a little at a time while continuously stirring until the required thickness is achieved. Taste and season. While still hot, pour into sterilized bottles and seal immediately (see bottling section on page 274).
Brilliant brown sauce
The story goes that HP Sauce was so named because the person who invented it heard that it was being served to members in a restaurant in the Houses of Parliament. To this day, the label on a bottle of HP Sauce carries a picture of the Houses of Parliament. This recipe is not for HP Sauce, but it is for a very similar brown sauce that has all the main tangy, brown, rich attributes that a really great brown sauce should have.
1.8kg/4lb apples, peeled, cored and chopped
450g/1lb pitted prunes, chopped
2 large onions, peeled and chopped
1.7 litres/3 pints/7¼ cups malt vinegar
2 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
1 tsp allspice
1 tsp cayenne pepper
125g/4½oz/½ cup plus 2 tbsp table salt
900g/2lb/4½ cups granulated sugar
Put the apples, prunes and onions in a large stainless-steel pan and cover with water. Bring to the boil, then reduce the heat and simmer until tender. Pass the mixture through a non-metallic sieve and return it to the pan. Add the remaining ingredients and stir well. Bring to the boil, then reduce the heat and simmer until it has reduced to that lovely gloopy sauce consistency. Pour into jars and sterilize as for the tomato sauce above. Alternatively, it will keep in the fridge indefinitely.
BOTTLING
Preserving food is all about the battle between you and the billions and billions of micro-organisms in the shape of yeasts, enzymes, moulds and bacteria that are hell-bent on infiltrating and destroying your produce. One of the weapons at your disposal is heat. Known as bottling, this way of preserving tackles the micro-organisms by first heating the glass jar (Mason and Kilner jars are both designed for the process; any other jar should not be used as they are not designed to be heated to such high temperatures) and the produce inside to kill off any nasties, and then cooling them to make a vacuum of the lid, thus preventing anything else getting in.
If this sounds complicated, it’s not. If you made the tomato sauce or the brown sauce above, you have already done some bottling, as that’s exactly the method used to sterilize at the end there.
Acidity
There are two types of bottling and the difference between them depends on the acidity of the produce you want to preserve. All food has a pH ranging from 1 to 14. In chemistry, the neutral point in the pH scale is 7. In food, it’s 4.6. Anything with a pH of 4.6 and below is classed as a high-acid food, and anything above as a low-acid food, but pretty much all fruits, jams, vinegars, chutneys, etc. are high acid, and all vegetables, meats, fish and mushrooms are low acid. The reason it’s important to have a little working knowledge of high and low acidity is because different micro-organisms thrive in each of the two environments, and the process of getting rid of them differs.
High-acid foods such as the fruits in jams and chutneys (and our tomato and brown sauces) harbour nasties that can be destroyed at boiling point (100°C/212°F) and so can be safely processed in a water bath.
Water bath
Prepare your high-acid produce, fruit in syrup, or relish. Meanwhile, sterilize some Mason or Kilner jars in the dishwasher or oven. Bring your water bath up to the boil and put your hot produce into your hot jars, seal the lids and place them in the simmering water until they are completely submerged. Leave in the water bath for as long as the recipe you are using states or, if you are making the recipe up yourself, follow the links to the charts here: www.allotment-garden.org/recipe/bottling-canning/methods-of-home-bottling-canning.
Pressure canner
By contrast, the micro-organisms that prey on low-acid food, such as vegetables and so on, are much more resilient and need a higher temperature (116–130°C/240–266°F), and therefore require a specialized pressure canner – not to be confused with a pressure cooker: the two are not interchangeable.
In the introduction to this chapter I explained that, in the spirit of self-sufficiency, wherever possible I would include homemade alternatives to specialized equipment. Well this is one of those rare occasions where there is no alternative. Some of the micro-organisms that attack preserved food over a long period of time are really very nasty, and if you get it wrong the result can be life-threateningly dangerous. When it comes to the health of you, your family and your friends, it’s just not worth taking a risk, so I’m afraid it’s the proper kit or nothing at all. You may end up having to import one from the States, as they are very expensive in Britain. However, it’s worth checking out the auction sites like eBay, as well as car-boot sales or large high-street discount stores, to see if you can find one at reduced cost.
Prepare some low-acid food – things like Bolognese mince for a busy person’s quick-and-easy during-the-week spag bol, vegetables or even a curry all work well. Bottle as above and then follow the instructions on your pressure canner.
SMOKING
Arguably the oldest form of food preservation, smoking probably dates back to around the time humans first woke up to the idea of cooking meat and fish over an open fire. Anything not eaten straight away would have received a crude smoking, and we can guess that our forefathers recognized that the meat and fish that had spent time in the fire smoke lasted longer than food that hadn’t. But it’s for the flavour that we smoke food today. Chicken, ham, sausages, salmon, mackerel, garlic, cheese, oil … just about anything can be smoked by anyone with no more than a patio.
Home smoking is a complete hobby in itself, with enthusiasts ranging from fishermen to smallholders and homesteaders, from chefs to cooks, families and keen barbecuers to full- and part-time professionals selling to the trade and public at farmers’ markets.
One of the reasons why it is so popular is that it’s so incredibly creative. There’s a fire to build in the fire box, a slow and steady one that produces plenty of smoke. Most hardwoods are fine to use, but do avoid resinous softwood, as the resin can come through in the smoke and taint the food. Oak is a safe bet, as are ash, beech and elm. Without encouraging anyone into pyromania, playing with fire in this instance is embarrassingly good fun, and if you experiment close to the end of the smoking process by adding branches such as gorse, hawthorn, damson or similar to the fire, subtly unique flavours can be achieved that are as distinct and individual as a signature at the bottom of a canvas.
Then there is the issue of hot or cold smoking. Hot smoking will cook the food and impart a light smoky flavour, such as hot-smoked chicken, whereas cold smoking smokes without cooking (think of smoked salmon or smoked cheese – although if you hot-smoke a slab of Cheddar in an aluminium foil parcel just until it melts, and then treat it as a fondue, it is to die for!). Then there is the building of the smoker … and all this before you get anywhere near deciding what food you actually want to smoke.
EQUIPMENT
Commercial smokers are available from companies such as Bradley, which have stockists throughout Europe, America and Canada; they can easily be found online. Commercial smokers are typically cabinets about the size of a standard fridge. Inside they have metal plates that heat flavoured briquettes of compressed sawdust to produce the smoke. These units are ideal if you do not have the space to build a fire or have children and are concerned about the safety issue, or need to have guaranteed consistency in your smoked produce and prefer low-maintenance smoking. Smaller and cheaper alternatives are stove-top smokers and campfire smokers, which produce excellent results on a much smaller scale.
Homemade smokers vary in size and shape from something about as big as a double garage right down to just a wok on the hob. I use something in between these two extremes, namely converted filing cabinets, which are very effective. These work as follows:
• For the hot smoker, there is a fire box in the form of a tray with sides in the bottom drawer (with air vents on either side to allow it to draw) in which you build a slow-burning fire. From here the heat and smoke pass up through holes into the drawers above, the first of which (the one directly above the fire) contains a bowl of sand. Above this are more drawers, with mesh bottoms, containing whatever is to be smoked. At the top is a chimney with an adjustable cap.
• As for the cold smoker, the fire box, which is an enclosed box here, is outside the cabinet to reduce the heat, and a pipe conducts the smoke into the lowest drawer (no air vents are needed), above which are different foods on mesh layers (as for the hot smoker), and finally the chimney. For both smokers, you will need to keep tending the fires to ensure they keep burning.
• Whilst in the fun world of self-sufficiency homemade is what we all strive for, life doesn’t always allow the space or time, so as an alternative to the homemade cold smoker check out the ProQ, a small metal grid you fill with wood dust, smoulders for up to eight hours, and will sit comfortably in something as simple as a lidded barbeque. Ideal for use on a balcony or a small enclosed space, as it’s safe and flameless (lights with a tea light that you can blow out once the wood dust is smouldering).
Hot smoking
This is the process of cooking meat and fish in heat and smoke so they take on some of the smoky flavour. Meat is easier to hot smoke than fish, which can dry out and even shrivel if the temperature is not regulated closely enough. One trick for fish is to part cold smoke it first so it has a chance to take on the delicious taste and texture, and then finish it off by turning up the heat.
Poultry and game are particularly good hot smoked, and hot-smoked salmon is stunning, with a very different flavour to the cold-smoked version. Hot-smoked hams and gammons are fantastic, and of course you don’t need to cook them afterwards.
But a word of warning – hot smoking, which is very similar to cooking over a barbecue, can be deceptive because the smoke darkens the produce and makes it appear cooked when it actually may not be. Unless you are really experienced, never trust your eyes; instead buy a meat thermometer. They are invaluable, especially with chicken and game, which, if underdone, can give food poisoning. For meat to be cooked properly, the inside should reach 78°C/172°F.
A hot smoker made from an old ?ve-drawer steel filing cabinet
For a fun, quick-and-easy hot-smoked salmon dish that needs nothing more inventive than a wok on the hob, line your wok with foil and mix together some uncooked rice, brown sugar and a couple of split-open tea bags in the bottom (lapsang souchong works well because it already has a smoky flavour). Place a steaming grid across it so the food does not come into direct contact with the mixture, put the salmon on the grid, place the lid on top and cook. When the food is cooked, it’s done.
A homemade cold smoker using a metal dustbin as a fire box
Cold smoking
Now this is where it becomes an art. Cold smoking has nothing to do with cooking and everything to do with imparting flavour, and the reason it’s an art form is that you have to be able to make a fire that gives off very little, if any, heat, with temperatures no greater than 10–29°C/50–84°F, often with just a trickle of smoke rising into the produce, and maintain it for days.
The smoke and slight temperature dry out the produce and coat the surface of the food with particles of smoke. These particles have antiseptic qualities, which, when combined with the moisture loss and salt (see ‘Salt before smoking’, opposite), help to preserve the produce for weeks, if not months.
Cold smoking is more delicate than hot smoking. The flavours, although deep, are mild and almost creamy. Smoked salmon is the classic, and if you catch your own fish, smoking some of it is the natural progression, though anything you catch will benefit from smoking. Homemade cheese also takes on a fantastic new flavour, and hams and gammons, sausages and chicken, even eggs change completely when they’ve been smoked.
Salt before smoking
If you salt meat and fish (both of which have a high water content) before smoking, the salt will act as a dehydrator to draw out some of the liquid, leaving behind a residue of the cure along with any sugar (which helps to keep the meat soft) and spices you might have included in the cure. This means that the smoke will be able to penetrate much more easily now that much of the liquid has been removed, and it can linger for longer, which improves the flavour. Actually, very little of the salt penetrates the meat/fish at all, and most of it is rinsed off afterwards before the meat/fish is patted dry, ready for smoking.
There are two methods of salting, as for curing: dry salting or wet salting (soaking in a brine solution). It may seem strange to think of soaking fish that have spent their entire life living in the biggest brine solution there is (the sea) in a homemade brine solution with some brown sugar for 3–4 hours prior to smoking, but this will still lift the flavour of the fish way beyond its pre-salted state.
The longer you salt food for, the more into curing territory you encroach, so a leg of pork you want to turn into ham should sit in a brine of salt, sugar and spices for 2–4 days per 450g/1lb, which means leaving a 4.5kg/10lb ham salting for 20–40 days before smoking it. On the other hand, if you had only a couple of small pieces of fish, or a small cut of meat, you might salt for only 1 hour.
What to smoke
Now this is where we can really have some fun, and believe me this is far from an exhaustive list. But hopefully it will give you some pointers of what you can smoke, and which wood smoke goes particularly well with which item. If you don’t have access to different woods, they’re easy to find online, or flick over to the resource section on pages 336–7.
DRYING
By now you will have realized that the recurring theme of preserving food is to remove the moisture, because this is where bacteria breed. This means that the most natural, labour-saving and cheap form of preserving must surely be drying. The three types of food that work well when dried are: those that can be coaxed back from their shrivelled shell by immersing them in a bath of boiling water for a couple of minutes, such as mushrooms; those that can be used dried, such as herbs; and those that can be eaten as they are, like biltong (South African beef jerky).
EQUIPMENT
Long Caribbean days of glorious hot sunshine to sun dry the food would be perfect, but if this isn’t possible, the practical (though unimaginative) alternative is an airing cupboard or the bottom of a range cooker.
Drying mushrooms
String mushrooms on to a strong thread using a darning needle and hang the mushrooms in a warm room until they feel dry (usually about a couple of weeks). Once the mushrooms feel dry, pop them in a paper bag and sit them in an airing cupboard for up to 10 days. Then seal them in an airtight container, where they will last for years. To rehydrate, simply drop into boiling water for a couple of minutes, and they’re as good as new – perfect for soups, stews or pasta dishes.
Drying herbs
Just about any herb can be dried. Pick a bunch of fresh mint, thyme or basil, tie it together by the stalks and hang it upside down in the kitchen or somewhere equally warm with a good airflow (so not the airing cupboard) for a couple of weeks or until they sound crunchy when you touch them. Take a large sheet of paper and lay the herbs across it, then just pat them until all the leaves break off. Now fold the paper in half so all the herbs fall into the centre crease and carefully pour them into a container, and seal. Don’t forget to label the container, as there is nothing more annoying than sniffing your way through all the containers in your store cupboard for the mint while your roast lamb is waiting.
Biltong (South African jerky)
This South African snack is made of spicy dried beef, although it could be made of other red meats, such as lamb or venison. In South Africa they are lucky enough to have gorgeous weather, so air drying is easy. For the rest of us, it’s down to improvisation, such as this method of box drying, the results of which are stunning. In just 4 days you can produce your own jerky, perfect for a snack, or why not be adventurous and use it as a pizza topping?
Building a biltong box
Take a largish cardboard box and cut a 2.5cm/1in deep lateral slit towards the bottom of each side: 5cm/2in up from the base and 5cm/2in in from each corner. In the lid, cut three slits about 2.5cm/1in wide and two-thirds the length of the lid. Next you need to secure a lightbulb fitting on the bottom so the bulb faces up. The ideal is a bathroom light fitting, one of the ones with a round outer bowl, as the wide base of the fitting gives it plenty of stability when sitting in the box – but don’t forget to remove the bowl so the bulb is naked. Use a 50–75 watt bulb that gives off heat, so on this occasion not an LED bulb.
For the meat to hang, it needs something to hang from. Most of us have hanging files for a filing drawer or cabinet (and if not, they are easy to get hold of). Wrap an elastic band around each end of a file so the two metal strips are clamped together, and with a pair of scissors cut away the cardboard file. Push the metal strips through the sides of the box, so that the ends poke out and the strips are suspended across the box. To hang the meat, unfold a paper clip and wrap one end around the strips, and use the other end to form a hook on which to hang a strip of meat. Add as many hooks as you want and fashion as many hangers in this way as you need.
A homemade biltong box
Homemade jerky
Jerky (basically, cured and dried meat) is simple to make. Select a cut of meat that will lend itself to thin slicing, such as rump, silverside or porterhouse, and slice it thinly but not wafer thin. As an alternative to curing, the jerky can be smoked.
350g/12oz rump, silverside or porterhouse steak, thinly sliced
sea salt and white pepper
80ml/2½fl oz/5½ tbsp malt vinegar
80ml/2½fl oz/5½ tbsp distilled malt vinegar
115g/4oz/heaped ½ cup raw cane sugar
2 tsp soy sauce
2 tsp Worcestershire sauce
1 tsp garlic powder
½ tsp ground black pepper
1 tsp onion powder
Rub both sides of the steak liberally with sea salt and white pepper. Meanwhile, in a bowl mix the malt and distilled malt vinegars together. Add the sugar and stir to dissolve as much of it into the mixture as you can without having a residue on the bottom. Add the soy sauce and Worcestershire sauce, garlic powder, black pepper and onion powder and mix well. Sit the steaks in the cure so they all receive a coating, then cover with cling film and put in the fridge for a day. Drain and pat dry.
At this point you have the option of leaving the jerky plain or of making up a powdered coating for it, such as cracked black peppercorns, coriander, Cajun seasoning and cayenne pepper, and rolling the strips in it. Hang the jerky in the biltong box (see opposite) for 4–5 days. Remove and store in the fridge in a lidded container and eat within 2 days.
JAM
The beauty of jam – and its close cousins jellies, preserves and conserves – is that it answers ‘yes’ to many of the self-sufficient questions, such as: Is it cheap or free? Can I process it without buying any expensive equipment? Is it quick and easy to do? When it’s done, will it last? And, of course, it will eliminate the other self-sufficient problem of what to do with excess fruit, because you can make all these types of preserves (in the wider sense of the word) from anything. Whether you have a glut of gooseberries or strawberries in the garden, a gift of apples or find a particularly full blackberry bush in the hedgerow, the answer to all the questions of what to do with them is ‘jam’.
As to what the difference is between jams, jellies, preserves and conserves, they really are just variations on a theme:
• Jams are thick spreads made from crushed fruit and sugar.
• Jellies are typically clear and made with fruit juice, but are thicker than jam.
• Preserves are whole or sliced pieces of fruit in a clear syrup.
• Conserves are similar to jam but may contain mixed fruit and sometimes nuts and raisins.
The processes of producing them are all very similar, and consist of combining fresh fruit, sugar and water, and heating them until they reach a setting point. The setting point is reached when pectin, which is found in the cells of fruit, and in acid, is released and reacts with the sugar to produce a gel-like consistency. Without the pectin and acid, jam would just be runny juice.
All fruit has pectin, but in varying quantities. Fruits high in pectin, which give a really good set, include apples, blackcurrants and redcurrants, gooseberries and damsons, lemons and lime. Fruits with a medium set include raspberries and apricots, greengages and plums. Fruits that are low in pectin, and therefore require a little extra pectin to help them set (often by adding lemon juice, as it helps to enhance the flavour without becoming dominant itself), include strawberries, rhubarb, cherries and pears.
EQUIPMENT
Preserving pan or a large saucepan
Jam funnel – not essential until you have used one, then you will never want to fill jam jars again without one
Jam jars
Waxed discs
Cellophane tops
Jams
There are numerous different jam recipes, but the following are really good for self-sufficiency because they use up the standard things that are in the garden already. They are also a good introduction to jam-making because they give you a run through of the basic method involved. Once you understand the principles, simply substitute the fruit in the recipe with whatever you have available, though it will need to be in the same pectin ‘group’ for you to be assured of success.
Basic jam-making hints and tips
• Warm and sterilize jam jars as you would for chutney, but always fill warm jars with hot jam, never cold.
• If the recipe does not call for the fruit to be left in sugar overnight, then warm the sugar in the oven with the jam jars before adding it to the fruit, to give a better, faster-made jam.
• Add a knob of butter before boiling point is reached to reduce scum and virtually eliminate the need for skimming – less wasteful.
• Test for the setting point by spreading a little jam on an ice-cold plate (remove the pan from the heat while you do this). When the jam has cooled slightly, prod the edge of it with your finger. If it crinkles under the pressure, then the setting point has been reached and you can pour the jam into the jars; if it doesn’t crinkle, then return the pan to the heat and boil for a few minutes more before testing again.
• If you use a jam thermometer, make sure the thermometer is in the pan right from the start to avoid shattering – never put a thermometer into boiling jam.
• When jam has been transferred hot into jars, seal immediately with a waxed disc to exclude any air, then fit a damp cellophane top secured by an elastic band on top.
Rhubarb and ginger jam
rhubarb, trimmed and chopped to give about 1kg/2¼lb
1kg/2¼lb/5 cups preserving or granulated sugar
juice of 2 lemons
25g/1oz piece root ginger
Put the rhubarb, sugar and lemon juice in a large bowl and scrunch it all together with your hands. Cover and leave overnight. The next day, crush or bruise the piece of root ginger with a rolling pin or something heavy, and tie it in a square of muslin. Put the rhubarb mixture in a stainless-steel preserving pan or saucepan with the muslin bag. Bring to the boil and boil for about 15 minutes, then remove the muslin bag. Boil for another 5 minutes or until setting point has been reached (see tests above), then skim any scum from the surface with a slotted spoon. Pour the hot jam into warm sterilized jars (see page 261), seal with a waxed disc and cover in the usual way.
Gooseberry and orange jam
A good substitute for marmalade, this jam works because everyone can grow, barter for or buy gooseberries, thereby reducing the need to buy tons of Seville oranges, which makes it more cost-effective and self-sufficient than marmalade.
2 oranges
1.3kg/3lb gooseberries, topped and tailed
1.6kg/3lb 8oz/8 cups granulated sugar
Squeeze the juice out of the oranges and either slice the peel thinly or pulse it in a food processor. Put the orange juice and peel in a large saucepan with the gooseberries and 450ml/¾ pint water/scant 2 cups. Bring to the boil, then reduce the heat and simmer until the fruit is tender. Meanwhile, warm the sugar and the jam jars in a low oven. Add the warmed sugar to the pan and stir until it has dissolved – do not let the jam boil until all the sugar has dissolved. Bring to a rolling boil and retain this heat for about 10 minutes until setting point has been reached. Fill the warmed jars to the brim and cover with waxed discs immediately.
FREEZING
The rule of thumb in food preservation is, if all else fails or you have run out of time, freeze it!
Pretty much everyone who is interested in a self-sufficient lifestyle will have access to a freezer and will be well used to freezing both prepared and raw food. Of all the ways to preserve food, freezing is about the simplest, though there is a danger that it can be a little too convenient at times, which means that getting the door shut can involve all the tricks you would normally associate with closing the lid on a holiday suitcase.
Freezer bags are a great time and space saver, but one of the most underused bits of kit for freezing is the ice tray. This is perfect for freezing individual portions of things like stock or chopped fresh herbs: chop them fresh and half-fill each compartment in the ice tray, then top up with water and freeze. When they’re frozen, turn them out into a bag (don’t forget to label), and next time you need fresh herbs to top a dish like pasta or a curry, simply pop in an individual cube.
Freezing in portions also works well for eggs. Many people find that either their chickens are in full lay and they’re sinking under the weight of all the eggs, or they have no eggs at all. You can’t freeze them whole, as they just crack and spoil, but you can freeze them beaten.
If you have got a dozen eggs to freeze, line the cups of a 12-hole muffin tin with cling film. Beat each egg separately in a cup or ramekin, adding a pinch of sugar for sweet recipes (cakes, biscuits, pancakes, scones) or a pinch of salt for savoury recipes (Yorkshire puddings, scrambled eggs, omelettes, glazes), and pour them into the muffin cups, then you’ll know that each one holds one egg. Freeze them, and when they are frozen, bag them up. To use, take out however many eggs you need and defrost. If you have fewer than a dozen eggs to freeze, scale down the operation accordingly.