Canning recipes, food preservation and food sales

[TheGrey]

Glad I could help, guys!

Two of my quart jars of chili beans didn't seal, dangit.

For any newbies- if your jars haven't sealed, just pop them into the refrigerator until you decide what to do with them (you can either eat them up over the next couple of days, or you can try reprocessing the food again if you have ore canning to do.) If you decide to reprocess, move your food into a clean jar, and use a new lid.

I've read differences of opinion as to how long you should wait to see if your jars will seal; I've seen some people suggest waiting overnight. I'm a little too paranoid for that. I wait until the jars have cooled down, and I test them by pressing my finger in the middle of the lid. It should not pop up or down. If it does, I wrap my hands around the jar- if it's still hot/warm, I wait until it cools and then put it into the fridge. Do NOT put food that is still warm into the fridge. Bacteria LOVE that.

Tomorrow, we're having Yardbird Chili, made with diced tomatoes, chili beans, chicken and caramelized onions- all of which I've canned!

We have lentils in reserve as well- I'm still learning how to cook them/how not to overcook them. I'll get there one day.

[rbeau30]

Albertsons has 2 pounds of Tillamook cheese for $6.99 with coupon in their flyer.

This cheese waxes well, and I have been storing this cheese like that for a year now with no issues, and rotating it through. It is a real good premium cheese to store.

[TheGrey]

Sam's club has entire pork loins for $1.88/lb. The total cost is usually under $20. About a year or so ago, the price skyrocketed to over $2.50/lb.

I usually buy one, chop off the ends for pulled pork in the crock pot, and slice pork chops out of the middle.

Otherwise, I chop the loin into chunks, add some dried onion and a little salt, and stuff it into jars and can it. No need to add water or broth; the meat will provide its own.

[TheGrey]

Albertsons has 2 pounds of Tillamook cheese for $6.99 with coupon in their flyer.

This cheese waxes well, and I have been storing this cheese like that for a year now with no issues, and rotating it through. It is a real good premium cheese to store.

Tillamook cheese is SO tasty.

[rbeau30]

King Soopers has the same cheese blocks for $6.99 without a coupon currently. I grab the Medium cheddar, chop it in half, and wax it. A year later it seems not all that much "sharper" in flavor. I have a double-boiler dedicated to cheese wax. When it is time to use a block of cheese, peel the wax off the block of cheese and put in fridge. Wash removed wax, air dry, and melt next time I wax more cheese blocks.

I store them in the basement pantry (66-70 degrees on average) on cookies sheets with parchment paper. Rotate them every few months to combat gravity.

Only problem I have ever had in the last year is a block came in contact with another block and the wax stuck to each other. When I tried separating them the wax cracked. And another block had an air bubble trapped and allowed a bit of mold to start under the wax. I un-waxed the cheese, and cut off the mold, and ate it. Yum.

[Irving]

Is waxing cheese as easy as it seems?

[rbeau30]

Is waxing cheese as easy as it seems?

I think so. However I have not waxed any cheese like Swiss with little holes in it. I purposely chose cheddar for its versatility and smooth surface. I also chose Tillamook, because it is a premium cheese and I am probably over-cautious, but I just trust it better than a store brand for example. (and like TheGrey just said, it is friggin' delicious!) If I was back where I grew up, I would be buying the cheese I store from the cheese factory where I know it is literally just cheese.

Get a double boiler from a thrift store or a super cheap one from walmart (had to seriously spend a day trying to find one). You will never use the top pot for anything else as wax is hard to clean out. I bought true cheese wax from my neighborhood home brewing store as paraffin is not flexible enough.

I didn't really bother with leaving the cheese out for a day to "sweat" the cheese. So far I haven't had negative results.

Once wax is melted, I grab the block of cheese and lower it (corner first!) into the wax just over half way (beware of displacement! you don't want wax flowing onto burner!) and set it on the parchment wax side up.

I dip the wax a total of 4 times. And store like I said above.

The purpose of waxing cheese is to get air away from the cheese. As long as there is no air, there is no mold!

[Irving]

The article I read about waxing cheese was talking about using a brush to apply the wax. You've already had cheese last at least a year with your technique?
Can you talk a little about wax temps? I know with candles, if you get the wax too hot, it goes into a thin liquid form that won't coat things (I was making fire starters) and will just soak into material. I imagine heating cheese wax is similar.

[rbeau30]

The article I read about waxing cheese was talking about using a brush to apply the wax. You've already had cheese last at least a year with your technique?
Can you talk a little about wax temps? I know with candles, if you get the wax too hot, it goes into a thin liquid form that won't coat things (I was making fire starters) and will just soak into material. I imagine heating cheese wax is similar.

Successfully ate and survived the 1 year old cheese. It actually tasted just like it did when I got it from the store. I bought Medium Cheddar and It may have been a little sharper, but I could not really tell. I also (as an experiment) waxed some Colby-Jack in the same first ever batch, and it turned out just fine as well.

The brush, folks use to get in the nooks and crannies of cheese with holes in it and waxing larger wheels, that you cannot fit in your pot to dunk in the wax. The trick with that from what I have read is to use a natural bristle brush. They should have them at kitchen stores.

I chop my 2 lb blocks in half so they fit in my double-boiler so all I have to do is just dunk them in there, and it leaves a air tight coating of wax. let cool for 30 seconds, flip over and coat the other side. let cool for 30 seconds, and coat the opposite side. 30 seconds and coat the last side. you can coat them more, and some folks dip them 4 to 6 times more.

Temperature is precisely why I use a double boiler, water boils at 210 degrees (203 degrees in Denver because of altitude) The wax will never get above that temperature unless you boil it dry. This is why you melt chocolate, temper eggs, etc in a double boiler because it is a much more gentle way of heating the material inside the pot. And prevents scorching like what you are describing. If the wax gets too hot it separates.

[Irving]

Seems like dunking is a waybetter method for cheese with holes. Do you find you can save money by purchasing in bulk then saving in dry storage?