Canning – Get Hard To Preserve Fast – Spring Pickles

In the course of a year, many things happen. It’s the seasonal fruits on your dining room table, the new house in town, the confidentially dressed waiters in your local restaurant, and the jolly laughter of the neighborhood kids as they make up their minds for the big day. And as this year is ending, one of the most impressive and impressive things a family can do is to put together a pot of hard-boiled eggs and a lidful of pickles. This will be a family favorite that will be easy to enjoy year after year. There’s nothing better than a home cooked meal during the holidays.

One of the questions being asked by our readers is, “Canning, Canning Can Be Done Safely?” The answer to that question is a resounding yes, but the more we discuss this topic, the more we challenge our reliance on one particular method of preserving food. We are led to believe that the issues relating to home canning are a bit older than we would like to think. At the very least, we were told that canning is a method of preserving food prepared by handling fermented food in ways other than the usual manner. In other words, home canning was not only safe, but could be done with equipment that was not generally seen as being accessible or familiar to the average person.

Although this is true, the safe handling of food when preserved with other methods has been questionable. The regularly prepared meat and poultry products that were sold over the counter, in supermarkets and mega stores was not always safe. These products came from animals that were treated with hormones and antibiotics, which added to the chance of food borne illness. Also, the regular methods of preparing these products were not always very sanitary. As a class of products, the one thing that was certain was that the foods were not bought in the least amount. Often, multiple steps must be followed to “wash and bake” the food. For example, eggs must be washed with two or more products, anti-bodies, and anti-biotics. Wallets must be washed with the same products as well. This is not always sufficient.

The recent trend of farm to table cooking has reintroduced the idea of home canning. The procedures for home canning have changed little since the earliest days of the church. The primary method of preserving food during the early centuries was freezing. The prior “style” of canning was to prevent spoilage of the food by preventing fermentation. This notion of preventing fermentation was not successful. The vegetables and fruits were allowed to ferment at room temperature. This led to some unexpected and ugly side effects. One of the less expected side effects was that the meat would bad in color. This was bad news because bad meat was not sold to the congregation.

The method of preventing fermentation was to prevent the fruit and vegetables from ripening. The slaughter of animals, like cattle and sheep, was a big source of meat. The church elders sometimes referred to these meat producers as ” unclean.” Most of these meat producers were quarantined due to the disease outbreaks and lack of refrigeration.

Food borne illness also meant that contaminated food could not be wasted. This made the choice of food somewhat less friendly, and recipes were modified to use less meat and seek other alternatives. The desire to avoid spoilage was a big theme in the early days of preserving food.

Today, we have come to understand that many food animals contribute to the problem of obesity as well as a host of other health issues. Meat produces 10 times the amount of calories per serving than vegetables and grains. The ultimate takeaway would be that we need to curb our desire to eat meat since it is not only unhealthy, it is also expensive. Avoiding meat also helps us avoid meat Additives since there is evidence that these additives screw up our health.

The movement to eat healthier has to be coupled with the discovery that some additives that we use on factory farms may be dangerous. We also need to educate ourselves about such additives and seek to alternatives. We may never go back to the era of our anytime-forced lunch because we are too aware of the consequences of forcing ourselves to eat an unhealthy diet for too long. We would also be wise to see that extensive study has been done elsewhere about the supposed health benefits of alternatives to our current food system.