cpilgrim84's Profile
Why is there liquid on the top of my homemade, set jelly?
Wow! That was probably the most thoughtful and thorough response I have ever gotten on the Internet ever!! Thanks so much. I think I probably did overdo it on the acid. I am always so afraid that I am not using enough!! It was a jalapeño jam I was making, and the pectin was just ball brand liquid packets. The recipe is actually in the pectin instruction booklet in the box. I will remember this for next time and make sure to measure out just two cups of vinegar and no more!! Thanks again!! I find that I have so many questions about canning. I have been to the UGA site quite a few times but there's just so much information! Again, thanks!!
Why is there liquid on the top of my homemade, set jelly?
Hi all,
I canned some jelly today. The recipe called for 6 cups of sugar and 2 packets of liquid pectin (6 oz). The only liquid that is called for is cider vinegar (2 cups). I processed them for 15 minutes. I have used this recipe before and it has come out beautifully. However, this time, a few of the jars have some liquid on the top. The jars are nearly cool and the jam is set, but there is about a teaspoon of liquid on the top. What do you suppose this could be and do you think it is safe to eat? I am worried that maybe some water got into the jars when I was putting the lids on before I processed them-- I keep the lids and rings in water to sterilize and perhaps some water dropped into the jar as I was screwing the lids on? So, presuming it is water, is it safe to consume? I'm going to put them in the fridge for now just to make sure.
Does this seem like a reliable/safe recipe for home canning?
Also, if anyone knows of a place where all USDA approved canning recipes are located, let me know. As a DAWG myself, I am familiar with the UGA site and of course the Bell site, but their recipe searching is a little difficult.
Does this seem like a reliable/safe recipe for home canning?
Ugh, the travails of home canning! I've got more peppers than I know what to do with. I've already made more pepper jelly than I really can use/get rid of. So, I'm thinking....pepper relish? I haven't been able to find a recipe that is authorized, other than this one, from UF:
http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/he299
Whadya think? Does it sound safe? Lots of onions, but also lots of sugar and vinegar too, eh?
Yesterday I got halfway through a batch of homemade pepper mustard and then found out it was insufficient for home canning-- so now I've got a ton of that in the fridge....! This time I don't want to waste anything!
canning drama-- did they seal? Are they safe? Lids are plaguing me!!
Oh it is awesome! I did mess around a little bit with the recipe I used. started out with this recipe:
http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Jalapeno-Jelly/Detail.aspx
The recipe is really simple: jalapenos (it says 14, I put in about sixteen but mine are small), green pepper (it said 1 large but I used 1.5 because mine was medium-sized) cider vinegar, sugar, salt, and liquid pectin.
However, I read the comments under the recipe and actually modified it based off what people had said in the comment thread below the recipe. The original recipe says to cook and then strain the peppers, but people in the comments said to leave it unstrained so I did that. The recipe also says to use 4.5 cups of sugar, but the commenters suggested six. I decided to do six so that there would be more sugar to offset the fact that I didn't strain out the pepper pulp. Plus, the more sugar you use the more likely that the jelly will end up nice and solid and that it will preserve well. Also, the recipe said to add 4 fresh jalapenos, chopped, at the end, but I didn't do that because I had added the pepper pulp and wanted to keep it at a low roar heat-wise. However, you can just test it and see if you want to add the additional peppers, depending on your tastes. Finally, and this is really important, I decided to put six ounces of pectin in instead of the four that is suggested in the recipe. FYI-- pectin comes in 3 oz. packets, so measuring 4 oz. is a bit of a pain in the butt. What I did was add the first 3 oz. packet of pectin, take a cold spoon and spoon some of the jelly out, let it get cool, and then decide if it hardened as I wanted. It did not harden (as I suspected, since many in the comment had complained about their jelly being runny) so I brought the mixture back to a boil and added the next packet.
Now, if that all seems like modification after modification after modification, let me tell you, I opened up my Ball-brand pectin pack to put the pectin in after all this modification and re-modification, and lo and behold inside there is a recipe that followed my adapted recipe to a t: six cups sugar, unstrained peppers, and two packets of pectin. So if I had just opened my pectin before I started all that, I could have done it without all the modifications! So if you buy the Ball-brand pectin, just use that recipe :)
Some people do fancy stuff like add red bell peppers to give it a prettier color, or add food coloring or red pepper flakes for additional "flair." I also read someone added some blackberries to the mix as well, which I think would be amazing!
As far as the canning process goes, you may already be an adept canner and know this already, but I used the process outlined here:
http://www.pickyourown.org/pepper_jelly.htm
Even though on that site they are making more jelly than I did, they do a good job of outlining the process (including checking to make sure it is properly set, skimming the top and just the general waterbath stuff). However, the Ball-brand pectin pack had some good canning instructions along with the recipe that are as good as that website if you end up getting that brand of pectin.
Good luck! If you make it, you'll find a trillion uses for it!
canning drama-- did they seal? Are they safe? Lids are plaguing me!!
Thanks so much! Your answers are very thorough and put my mind to ease. I suspected they were ok but just wanted to make sure that my messing with them did not make them unsuitable. I eventually turned both the cans I messed with over to see if their seal stuck and it did (I figured I might as well check while they were still hot so I could reprocess if neecessary) ; I'll check up later on the seals once they are totally cool. It was a good lesson learned: don't mess with the seals until the contents are done cooling!
Now, pepper jelly, my oh my there are so many uses for it. The basic use is on crackers, usually with some cream cheese. But I like to use it like a BBQ sauce/glaze-- I can put it on grilled chicken or pork tenderloin (I wonder if it would be good on shrimp?). You can also put it on fish, or even use it to sweeten up a salad dressing. My favorite use it on a ham and swiss sandwich on nice, hard bread with a little mayo. I love the stuff! I used jalapenos from my garden to make them. It really worked nicely because the jalapenos in my garden are much hotter than the ones at the store (not sure why) so I have to find a way to use them all up--my husband isn't into very spicy foods so they often go bad before I use them all!
canning drama-- did they seal? Are they safe? Lids are plaguing me!!
Ok, I'm an idiot.
I made six jars of jalapeno jelly today, and processed them in boiling water. I have canned twice in the past (peaches). The last times I canned I had no trouble and heard the "ping" only a few minutes after I took the jars out of the hot water.
This time, about 4 jars sealed right up within 2 or 3 minutes of being out of the water. I didn't know (because I am an idiot) that I shouldn't mess with the lids for an hour or more (some say up to 24 hours), so I pushed in the seemingly unsealed lids to see if they had sealed. Immediately, they both popped and didn't come back up, thus appearing sealed. So, sealed?
Ok, next idiot move. I was worried about the jelly and whether it had set up nicely and whether the jalapeno pieces were nice and distributed in the jars, so I picked up one of the ones that had popped after I pushed it in and shook it around (the recipe I had said to do this if it seemed like the jalapenos clumped). I turned it upside down and pop! The top came unsealed.
PANIC! I'm not sure if the jar is just perennially unsealed or if my messing with it made it unseal. So, I re-processed that jar and took it out of the water. It popped a few seconds later.
My questions:
1. The two jars that did not seal until after I messed with the lids-- safe?
2. The jar (one of the two) that I reprocessed and then it popped-- safe?
3. Now I'm afraid that if I turn over all my jars they will come unsealed. Is this a legitimate concern? I am crazy I know.
Help! How much meat/beans for chili to feed 8 adults, 12 kids?
Now THIS sounds about perfect: a crowd-pleasing chili recipe. This will actually be at a church-sponsored charity event so I appreciate your saying that this is a good recipe for that sort of function. Love the idea for the dump cobbler! Love it, love it all!
Help! How much meat/beans for chili to feed 8 adults, 12 kids?
Hi all, I am making chili to feed about 20 people, 12 of which are kids (ages of the kids have not been disclosed). I've been looking online for a bulk recipe but haven't found anything that seems to fit how many people I'll be feeding. It is for a charity-type situation so I'm not sure they know how old the kids would be, of course knowing that would make it a lot easier to know how much chili to make.
Also if you have any ideas for fun kid-friendly desserts that can easily be made in bulk, let me know. I'd like to make something fun for the kids, but nothing too time-consuming since baking isn't my strong point. The food will have to travel so anything frozen is out.
And just in case someone says "chili doesn't have beans!!" Well, since this is supposed to be a crowd-pleasing, very filling chili, this one does ;)
Thanks!
ISO recipe for no bake cream cheese drumstick "cake"
Does this look like it?
http://www.recipezaar.com/recipe/Drumstick-Cake-126603
Looking for a recipe to replicate wedding cake
Hi all,
I am celebrating my wedding anniversary soon and want to make a cake that tastes like my wedding cake. My wedding cake was made by a relative so I can't order another one just like it or anything. Anyway, it was just a plain white cake, white with white frosting. But it is the texture that I want to replicate. For the cake, the texture was dry and sort of crumbly. I know, I know, it sounds terrible, but it wasn't! It was almost pound-cakey in texture....not spongey and moist like bakery birthday cakes, or box cakes that kinda smoosh in when you try to cut them. The icing also had a funny texture, it kinda got crunchy on the top since it was exposed to the air, and I don't think it was butter-based because it didn't have that sweet butter flavor, more of a sharper sweet sugar flavor. It was a bit grainy too. I am thinking it was maybe a shortening-based icing since it was pure pure white and didn't have that mellow butter flavor like a regular buttercream does.
Anyway, if you have any ideas please send them along!
The BEST low-cal baked sweet (esp. brownies!!) recipe you know of...
Yeah, yeah I know the internet is saturated with low-cal sweets recipes. But one thing I hate is trying a new recipe and it being a big waste when the item turns out dry, tasteless, etc., so I'm looking for something that's been tested by the gourmand tastebuds here at Chow. You may ask, why on earth does she want to bake low-cal treats? What's the point? Well, here's the deal-- I'm in a "season of joblessness" currently, but have always been too busy to bake because of my job/school obligations. Now I'm trying to learn how to bake in my copious spare time, but I am also on a diet. I've been making full-fat stuff for weeks now and giving it away for the most part, but I want to make something I can enjoy.
I can get pretty much any ingredient, although I prefer to use real sugar, (not because I don't value other sweeteners, but because it becomes expensive to have so many when I use them so rarely) but other sweetener-based recipes are welcome. I define low-cal as 200 or less cals a serving. I'm not an ascetic! If you have any suggestions, please let me know!
Taco Bar for Winter Shelter
Hi all,
I'm doing a taco bar for a winter shelter here in town, I need to serve 22 people. What quantities do you think I'll need of the following: meat (suggestions for meat are welcome as I'm totally stumped on how much/many I should offer), rice, beans, tortillas? And what toppings would you suggest for the tacos? Lettuce, salsa, cheese, of course, but other ideas? For dessert I think I'll just do something simple like brownies, so that's no big deal. Bigger deal to me to make sure there's plenty of the main dish to go around. Also: ideas for making this meal on the cheap are appreciated...I recently lost my job so I'm penny pinching somewhat these days!
Oh glorious day! Oh wonderful year! Oh lucky me! I finally, finally, finally get to host Thanksgiving. I banish thee jarred gravy (tell me about your single favorite dish)
Man, reading all this mess about rice and oysters (what are these things you speak of?) and sausage and tomatoes (tomatoes? At Tgiving? Where do you get them?) and parmesan (cheese? other than cheddar? At tgiving?) makes me glad to be from the south, where thanksgiving is blissfully consistent! There's no varying from the tried and true 'round here. My faves:
Cornbread dressing-- with a whole chicken and a gallon of stock inside, its a meal in and of itself. The mushier the better. I have to rely on my mother-in-law for this....my family is more of the dry, bready, stovetoppy variety. Terrible. They're always trying to add something stupid, like apples. NO. Ridiculous. Not dressing at all.
Sweet potato souffle-- There is nothing sophisticated or sensible about this, and if there were, it would be terrible. No hint of chipotle or any other flavor profile other than gratuitous, offensive SWEET. Just sweet potatoes mashed up with all sort of butter and pumpkin pie spices, put in a casserole and baked with marshmallows and pecans on top. I've seen this "sweet potato pie" so many speak of, and I understand it to be a tried and true tradition for my other Southern bretheren, but I'm not convinced that sweet potatoes can reveal their true potential without the addition of pecans.
Pecan Pie. Am I the first to mention this?
Green bean casserole. I'll admit. I'm a sucker for the condensed soup style and that's what my family makes. BUT I hosted my family dinner last year and made Alton Brown's trumped up casserole and it was absolute heaven. My mother-in-law, patron saint of all food tradition, ate about half of the dish by herself.
Macaroni and Cheese-- Delish. Its the only application of cheese that I'll accept for Tgiving. YES THIS MEANS YOU ASPARAGUS CASSEROLE-- ick. Hashbrown casserole, you get a bye because you're just so cute.
AND A HAM. Dang, y'all-- it simply isn't thanksgiving without a ham to steal the spotlight from the dry turkey! We need some respite from the bird! For the love of thanksgiving, please get yourself one.
Canned stock vs. bouillon cubes
You'll probably get a lot of push back from others on this, but I adore bouillon. I also love to make my own stock, and do so when I have the chance, but bouillon is such a great tool for the kitchen. I'm pretty poor, so I feel kinda bad using expensive Swanson for basic things, like cooking rice, or adding more liquid to a soup or something. I'm likely to try and use water rather than use stock in that case, and of course the food suffers. Plus I have a small pantry and stock take up a ton of room if you want to keep it as a pantry item. I'm sure that bouillon is less like real Chicken stock and more like "chicken-flavored broth" (the flavor is more like chicken ramen than chicken stock . But when applied in small doses, such as in a soup with lots of veggies, beans, etc., it really does the trick and you can't tell the difference. I guess if I were making something that really relied on the chicken flavor I'd go with stock, but really...if I were at home and wanted to make that recipe, and all I had was boullion? I may well just go with it. I have made risottos with that when I didn't have anything but arborio rice in the pantry and needed a side dish fast.
would you eat it: still shrink-wrapped turkey and pork bacon, left unrefrigerated for 2 hrs
cool, thanks! I'll ask as I did above-- would you be more or less or equally comfortable with the turkey bacon?
would you eat it: still shrink-wrapped turkey and pork bacon, left unrefrigerated for 2 hrs
cool-- would the fact that one package is turkey make anything different? i usually am ok eaiting stuff like this myself, because i must be half wolf, but freak out at the idea of feeding to others/feeling bad if they fell ill.
would you eat it: still shrink-wrapped turkey and pork bacon, left unrefrigerated for 2 hrs
Same old sob story. I was unloading the groceries and didn't know that another member of the household had put one of the bags on the couch. It included 2 packs of shrinkwrapped bacon: turkey and pork varieties. The packaging was still cold to the touch. My husband says its fine, but I'm a little skeptical. What say you?
emergency tailgating conundrum: what do I do with this novelty collegiate-themed baking pan?
mini bundt cake recipes! Great thinking! That's brilliant. And the Jiffy idea-- a girl after my own heart :) I mean, that stuff is like 80 cents A BOX! I love Jiffy corn bread, although it is universally maligned in my state for being "too sweet"-- pshaw. Let the purists have their bland bread. G-shaped cornbread fritters would be almost too darling with late fall chili tailgating. I don't know if I could reasonably be responsible for something so cute! I'll see if I can do it :)
emergency tailgating conundrum: what do I do with this novelty collegiate-themed baking pan?
ok so this would be waay too complicated for this weekend (ugh too much to do already with tailgate), but given what you are saying i got this idea that it would be awesome to make my own ding dongs/suzy q's with this thing! And they'd have the adorable G on both sides. Nice work goodhealth-- sad that a person with such a healthy monkier would get me thinking about snack cakes....
while on the subject: easy, heat-stable tailgate friendly appetizers (cheap is a plus!)
Ok, on the feet of my last question: I'm also looking for some cheap, heat-stable tailgate apps.
We're doing smoked ribs and chicken and hot dogs for the main food. And I'll be making some baked sweets (a la my last post). We'll also have breakfast covered (hello granola). But we need some snacky things, and frankly I am tired of chips and salsa. What I'm looking for is something that:
1. Is ok in heat. We won't have a lot of places for stuff to chill, so mayo-based dips and stuff are a little....eh. Plus things will probably sit out for a long time for people to much on throughout the day. We're getting there at 7 am and the game isn't until 7 pm, so stuff could be out for a while.
2. Can be EASY EASILY assembled at the place, or (better yet) pre-assembled. I wanna have fun at the tailgate and not be making dishes! We'll have a smoker and a small grill on which we could heat up foods, but I don't want it to be too complicated...our access to water is limited, and I don't want to have to clean up a big mess at the tailgate spot. I was thinking of jalapeno poppers, but UGH I'm not going to be cutting jalapenos and wrapping them in bacon in a crowd of 90,000! And if I made them ahead of time they would probably look wilty and gross by the time we cooked them off.
2. Cheap. Seems like the guest list keeps expanding, and I want there to be plenty for all without busting my budget. The main meat dishes are already expensive enough!
Let me know if you have any suggestions! I am "game" for anything! Take that terrible pun as a thanks-in-advance gift from me to you.
emergency tailgating conundrum: what do I do with this novelty collegiate-themed baking pan?
OK, so at christmas I get this novelty baking pan. It is silicone, and instead of muffin cups it has UGA G-shaped cups. Except they're not as deep as a muffin pan. Anyway, first home game is this weekend and I wanted to use it but I have no idea how to use it....my conundrum:
1. It is shallower than a muffn/cupcake pan, so it isn't really suitable for making cupcakes, plus you're supposed to present your baked good with the G facing upward, therefore doesn't make sense to make cupcakes or muffins where the G would be on the bottom.
2. Seems that brownies would be too gooey to keep the G shape.
3. Seems like the G cup (yes, that's the only phrase I can think of) would be too big for any sort of cookie dough. The cookies would cook unevenly and I don't know if they would show the G shape. However, they would be easiest to decorate (uh, if I cared that much).
So what in the heck can I do with it that would be suitable for an outdoor tailgate? The only thing I can think is peanut butter cookies, since I often make them in muffin tins already when I make brown-eyed suzies. Of course there's always jello shots...but these would be some honkin' jello shots and I'm not sure exactly how to store them (usually make jellies in the dixie cups and then keep them in the fridge). Here's a pic:
Unfortunately the only one I could find is of an AU logo, but you get the idea:
https://www.collegefootballart.com/auburn-university-logo-muffin-perfect-tailgating-storage-p-4644.html
Ten Most Favorite Sandwiches
I like the idea of defining the ten best sandwiches I've ever had. It seems like a fairly good way of summarizing my whole life. Here goes in no particular order. I live in GA so much of this is skewed south, but the fun will be in everyone adding their favorites from their various regions:
1. Ham and Angel Biscuits--these are pretty much at every wedding I've ever been to (ncluding my own), but the ones I recall the most were at my aunt's wedding-- tiny buttery biscuits with a slice of country ham. Perfect. Also good when filled with tomato and cheddar, with a sprinkle of salt and pepper. Or just eat the cheese with the tomato on top. Or just eat the tomato. Or the cheese? At that point it isn't really a sandwich anymore but still, it brings tears to my eyes.
2. Central Grocery's muffaletta. Eaten while honeymooning. I finally grew up and learned to love olives while eating this sandwich.
3. Slim No. 5 from Jimmy John's: just ham, capicola, and provolone. These got me through college! Sure, it's from a chain, but it allows me to relive memories of getting off work at midnight, starving, finding less than three dollars in the wallet, and then stopping by Jimmy John's on my way to some unadivsable and terrible all-night bender. When I was particularly poor I would stop by the chain to get their day-old bread, which they sold for a quarter. We ate the day old loaves while roadtripping to the graduate school I eventually chose.
4.. Fried green tomato, bacon, and cheddar sandwich (with homemade ranch), from some random restaurant in Charleston, South Carolina. Come on, that's just a brilliant setup right there. I would take the time to look up the restaurant but the reality is that this simple sandwich could be made just as easily at home-- there's really nothing much to frying something, frying another thing in the grease left by the first something, and then covering it with various forms of fat.
5. Mike Piazza from Stage Deli in NYC. Taught me that bologna had a place in my adult life. Had an egg cream on the side. I was aghast at the flavorful mixture of ham, bologna, and russian dressing. So simple, yet flavorful. What was with the weird pickles? As a country girl, my pickle tastes skewed bread-and-butter.
6. Random cafe outside of Versailles. Tomato and cheese on baguette with mustard and vinegar, salt and pepper. I was on a tour of Europe in high school, and my school had made scant arrangements to communicate my vegetarianism to our tour coordinators. As a result, the waitresses all hated me. Versailles was closed due to the-- get this-- muesum curators strike (how very euro!)-- so we walked (all 60 of us) in the rain to a cafe and the teachers begged them to feed us all. I don't know what I was supposed to have gotten, but I do remember a slightly annoyed waitress throwing a tomato and cheese sandwich in front of me. I have no idea what kind of cheese it was-- I was 15-- but I just remember that I liked the sensation of fighting with bread, and of bread crust literally bruising the inside of my mouth, it was so chewy. Needless to say that waitress has no idea that such an insipid sandwich was so delightful to me, but then again an inspid baguette sandwich in Paris is better than any one stateside. I've tried to replicate, but never could.
7. Achim's K-Bob in Athens, GA. Bastardized kebap sandwich that basically became my hangover cure while in college. Had a sign that said "100 million Germans can't be wrong." See-- local joints just don't have the money to spend on fancy PR consultants who could tell them just how awful that statement is. Precursor to many beer festivals.
8. Mamoun's Falafel in NYC. Living off a pathetic stipend in NYC these 2.00 falafels were amazing to me. Even better when you, a country girl raised in the smokies, is introduced to such delights by a NYC native bent on showing you all the sights the city has to offer. Best after you purchase one beer from a neighboring mini mart. NYC is the only place I've ever seen beers individually priced. Love it.
9. Po-Boy's from Johnny's in New Orleans. As newlyweds, unwilling to move too far from the hotel, we ate here every lunch during our honeymoon. On the one day I insisted that we go to Central Grocery, my husband got Johnny's to go. Shrimps as big as cat heads. The roast beef is insane.
10. Trying to dig out my favorite BBQ sandwich and drawing a blank currently, there are so many good but tiny places out there...most memorable was certainly Maurice's in Columbia, SC. He's an Abraham Lincoln hating neo-confederate, but his sandwich is good enough to attract the business of real, live African Americans (I saw them with my own two eyes!) so I suppose he must be doing something right. I prefer vinegar sauces, but as far as yellow sauce is concerned, I enjoyed this very much.
Bakers: Are chocolate/candy molds too tiny to make tasteworthy mini cakes?
check out bakerella.blogspot.com; she specializes in mini cakes and cake pops. I believe she bakes cakes, then pulverizes them with icing to make a sort of cake clay, then molds them. She has a ton of gorgeous ideas, though!
Father's Day roasted chicken pairing?
Hi all, looking for some creative pairings for a Father's Day meal. We'll be roasting some chickens with lemon and rosemary (maybe grilling them? We'll see how adventurous we get). We call this "recipe" (as if something so simple could be called a recipe) "Master's Chicken" because we usually prepare it while we watch the tournament in the spring. We'll probably end the meal with a peanut butter pie.
I am looking for ideas for creative side dishes that don't involve mashed potatoes or corn, since neither of those seem festive enough for a celebratory meal (if you can find a festive way to dress up either, let me know). Roasted vegetables, while pretty, don't scream "summer" to me the way the bright lemony chicken does. FIY my father's palate is pretty simple and one of the guests dislikes garlic. She'll tolerate garlic minced in or strained out of something like a sauce, but large visible pieces of garlic are a no-go for her.
Any suggestions, particularly ones with crunch? Cold suggestions are welcome since we may be eating outside (on a patio, so refrigeration is no problem).
This is my first time posting so I apologize if this is inappropo.
Hot dog options in Durham/Chapel Hill?
I believe the NC episode of Man vs Food featured a hot dog place...called The Roast Grill? Maybe in Raleigh, but might be worth the trip since it is so "famous"....
