I’m so far behind on this challenge it’s not even funny. We’re in week four right now – preserving in booze - and I just completed the second task: preserving in fat. I could say that I preserved two different things using the first method, but that’s a pathetic excuse for an excuse. (Sour pickles and sauerkraut, btw.)
Preserving In Fat
I know, it doesn’t sound great, but we actually eat things that have been preserved in fat all the time. Have you ever used a pepper out of one of those olive oil jars with peppers floating in them? Or eaten artichoke hearts canned in oil? That’s what preserving in fat is, not to mention apple butter, garlic butter, or pretty much any other fresh ingredient you could picture combining with butter.
For this week’s challenge, I decided to preserve artichokes in olive oil. We had a bunch of baby artichokes left from our CSA share. I love them steamed with sauces for dipping, but find them to be fairly rich and filling prepared that way. I also have a hard time disengaging from the, “Artichokes are a luxury” mentality. The idea of eating three in a week… I just couldn’t do it.
Artichokes In Oil
A little bit of searching the internet turned up many recipes for artichokes in oil. Unfortunately, most of them required sealing which a) I don’t know how to do yet and b) isn’t a part of this challenge. I was about to give up when I stumbled on a Google Books page view of a recipe for artichokes in oil, taken from Preserving Food without Freezing or Canning
This recipe was easy. It only took me about 30 minutes, and 20 of that was cooking time where I worked on other kitchen projects. The one thing I might do differently next time is to trim the artichokes before I cook them. They were hot and mushy and a little bit hard to handle once they were cooked. I’m definitely looking forward to eating them on pizza some time this winter!
Root Cellars
The one thing I really wish we had is a root cellar. I’ve actually never had a root cellar. But my fridge is filling up with jars of pickles and artichokes and I’m running out of space.
Before we all had home theaters, extra bedrooms, and miscellaneous junk in our basements, everyone had root cellars. I have gone from thinking they were useless, bug-filled and kind of creepy to wanting one desperately. I’ve actually been pondering how I might build one in our yard. I doubt I’ll be able to pull that one off – our basement isn’t below ground and digging up the yard probably isn’t an option at this point. It makes me kind of sad, because it’s just another example of what we’ve forgotten and how much of what was sensible, common knowledge a few generations ago seems foreign to us now.
Did anyone else try an interesting new trick for preserving food this summer? How did it turn out?
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Question: when you eat thing stored in oil/fat does the food retain that taste? I’m always hesitant to eat things stored in oil because I don’t really care of the taste of oil – I don’t want my food tainted with it.
I’m not sure about the oil thing, but I would imagine they are going to taste a little bit like olive oil. I’m not planning on eating them plain though, and on pizza I don’t think I’ll even notice it. Same with butter. Apple butter, mushroom butter, etc. all definitely taste like butter.
I would think if you really don’t like the oil taste, preserving things in oil would probably not be for you (except maybe herbs and spices: salad dressing).
Artichokes are delicious…but unfortunately not grown around my parts! If I had access I would can them as well! Never tried anything in oil. I was wondering the same as the above poster..does the oil change the flavor?
I was surprised to find them in my CSA share. I wasn’t sure they’d be able to grow here, although thistles do and artichokes are in the thistle family.
As to the oil question, I’m not positive on that. I think that some vegetables take the flavor of some of the oil, because several recipes I read said to use a light oil. I used a mild olive oil and included the other spices as well, so we’ll see how they come out in a couple months. Since I’m eating them on pizza, olive oil taste would be okay, but for other purposes it might not be any good.
Artichoke pizza…yum! Keep us posted when you crack them open and try them!
You need that book! It’s one of my favorites and has a whole chapter devoted to how to build a makeshift root cellar in a garage or outside.
I actually just use my garage now but you could get a plastic storage tub with lid and fill it with damp sand for the carrots. I store potatoes in boxes, squashes in boxes, apples, onions, shallots in boxes, hang the garlic by the rafters and can the beets. This along with kale in the yard, kimchee, saurkraut, vit (mache) and overwintered broccoli, cabbage and cauliflower get us through till spring. That book is awesome.
Oh awesome! Talk about perfect timing for my whine. Our garage isn’t an option – it’s filled to the brim – but we have a big yard, so I’d imagine I could totally build one outside. Off to order it right now
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