There are more jars of condiments and pickles in my fridge at home than anything else. I have to get tough now and again when they are increasing to the point that there isn’t room for fresh food. I love pickles and have been making them for years. My supperclubs would often start with a smörgåsbord-style starter of cured meats, cheese, salads and pickles, all home-made of course. It is a good way to serve something effortlessly that can all be prepared in advance.
My love of pickles and preserves grew from there and now we are constantly re-arranging the shelves at Cook House to make room for more. I particularly love the Sweet Cucumber Pickle (page 295), the Orange and Rosemary Marmalade (page 286) and the Pickled Beetroot (page 295). It was very hard to narrow it down to a few favourites for this book, as we currently have about thirty different pickles and jams on our shelves: shallots, cherries, salted blood oranges, pine shoots, peaches, apricots, grapes, carrots.
Homemade dairy is a lovely Sunday project. I was so excited the first time I made butter and ricotta, and it was incredibly interesting and satisfying.
This chapter includes all the things that sit in the background of meals, but will make a huge different to a roast dinner, a sandwich or a cocktail, lifting it up to new levels of deliciousness. They are lovely projects when you have some time and they will keep for months to be brought out to acclaim.
For a lot of the recipes in this chapter you will need sterilized jars. It’s a stage I was sometimes lazy about, but just imagine you have spent half a day making marmalade and then the next week it is covered in mould before you get a chance to eat it! So now I am a very thorough sterilizer! It is particularly important with jams, as moulds will form much more readily on sugar-based preserves than on vinegar-based ones.
Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F/Gas 4. Simply wash your jars thoroughly, including the plastic seal, and then put them in the oven to dry for 5 minutes. Remove the jars carefully and stand on the side to cool until you are ready to fill them. Everything is then super clean and bacteria-free and your jams, pickles and preserves will keep much longer.