Re: pickling and fermenting recipes

[Guest guest]

In a message dated 5/5/2002 1:44:55 PM Central Daylight Time,

heidis@... writes:

> I'm experimenting with making sausage (I can't eat most of the packaged

> stuff either: most has lots of MSG, and all of it has nitrates). Mine is

> just straight out of a meat grinder and into some casings (or not, with

> liver sausage). I cooked some for a long time at a low temp trying to get a

>

> " jerky " effect so I could have an easily-transportable snack with lots of

> protein (so far I don't like the taste of pemmican). Came out pretty good.

>

Making sausage is not all that hard. All you have to do is grind up the meat,

usually pork, and add some spices. Then either stuff it in casings or make

patties. ly I think baking a cake is more difficult. <G>

Belinda

[Guest guest]

At 11:29 AM 5/5/2002 -0500, you wrote:

>And Heidi, if you would share how you pickle fish I would appreciate it.

>All the

>recipes I've seen use vinegar.

>

>Rondi

My version of " pickling " fish is just a simple seviche. You chop up some

fish or peel some shrimp, add salt, red pepper, garlic, onion, tomatoes,

celery, or any vegies you have handy. Then add juice of a fresh lime or two

(bottled lemon or lime juice will do in a pinch), and coconut milk (fresh

if you want to make it is supposed to be great: I haven't tried that yet).

Then you let it sit for an hour or so, til the fish or shrimp turn white,

and eat it. There are tons of recipes, and most people like it. I don't

have a " recipe " myself, I just use whatever is handy.

All the " canned " type pickled fish do seem to call for vinegar, but I'm not

really interested in keeping it for a long time (the freezer works fine).

I don't know personally how to ferment sausage: I saw a few " professional "

(teaching cooks) kind of sites when I searched on " Salami " . I think they

use a kind of starter that has the " right " molds etc (as for cheese: the

ones in your area might be ok, might not). Salami is basically hung up to

" age " , and the mold on the outside is part of the process. It looks like

one of those things where you have to know what you are doing, so I'm still

looking for good instructions.

I'm experimenting with making sausage (I can't eat most of the packaged

stuff either: most has lots of MSG, and all of it has nitrates). Mine is

just straight out of a meat grinder and into some casings (or not, with

liver sausage). I cooked some for a long time at a low temp trying to get a

" jerky " effect so I could have an easily-transportable snack with lots of

protein (so far I don't like the taste of pemmican). Came out pretty good.

My Mom is cleaning out her house and has been sending me old-time

cookbooks, which have been very helpful. " The Savory Sausage " by

Merinoff has been good (1987), none of those sausages is lacto-fermented,

but they don't have preservatives either. " Housekeeping in Old Virginia " is

great (1879, but it was reprinted in the '40s or '60s, I think, I don't

read Roman: MCMLXV). It doesn't have sausage, but it has some old-time

pickling recipes (most of them call for vinegar). " Keeping Food Fresh " is a

newer book, but it has the methods used by the French farmers for ages. I'm

looking for others.

As for lacto-fermenting meat, I don't have good ideas at this point. The

lady I got the kimchi recipe from said that they usually put squid in the

jar too, and the online recipes often call for fish of some kind (generally

salted and dried, looks like), so it may be possible to put some meat in

the jar while it is fermenting and it would be fermented along with the

cabbage. The Napa cabbage ferments REALLY fast and easily.

I'm going to start with dried shrimp, which sounds like a safe bet. She

also said she uses a bit of vinegar (or any acid, I think) to start the

process, and my Mom said her grandmother did the same with pickles: it

acidifies the water enough to hinder the " bad " bacteria. (Kind of like

rainwater and clabber!). Probably lemon juice would work as well. Is there

something wrong with vinegar that I'm missing?

I also stuck a hard-boiled egg in some juice from some nicely-spiced

lacto-fermented pickles, which I'm betting will make a great pickled egg.

You could probably do that with meat or fish quite easily. The " pickle

juice " TASTES about like vinegar, but since it's not from cider or wine it

likely has a completely different chemical composition (lactic acid vs.

acetic acid?). Again, I'm not clear about vinegar: It makes my

officemates shoulders hurt if it is cooked, but otherwise I thought cider

vinegar at least was supposed to be pretty good for you?

Heidi Schuppenhauer

Trillium Custom Software Inc.

heidis@...