Cooking, Baking, Smoking Meat, Canning, Preserves, & Tips

[heavyhitterokra]

Since this is a Homesteading-Type-Topics, page, I thought it would be as good a place as any create a place to post things about cooking, baking, canning, etc.

Last week, I discovered that a new, 5 pound bag of flour that I bought had weevils in it.  I didn't know that it did until after I opened it to make a few extra pies for Thanksgiving.  (Now, I have contaminated my kitchen with someone else's pests).

Having had that experience made me realize that I need more than one air-tight canister in my summer kitchen to store more than one type of flour.  I have flour for baking breads and cakes, I have flour for making pizza dough, then, I have flour for making pie crusts or whipping up a batch of gravy.  Right there shows a need for at least three different 5 pound canisters, just for the different types of flour that I store.  Then, there's cornmeal (two types at least) white, and yellow.  Then, there's sugar; granulated, powdered, plus light & dark brown. 

Unfortunately, finding an efficiently sized set of canisters is right up there with licking your own elbow.  Plus, it's really tough to tell how big anything is by looking at a photo.  It seems most canister manufacturers put very little thought into practicality.  Most canister sets hold nowhere near a full bag of flour or sugar. 

That means you have to decant a small amount of flour or sugar into some cutesy little decorative container and store the rest of the opened sack somewhere in your pantry.  For that reason, I found some mismatched containers lying about my kitchen that I know will hold 5 pounds of flour and measured their volumes, just to establish a baseline for placing an online order. 

In hopes of saving somebody else that adventure, I thought I'd post my results below.

The following sizes of containers will easily hold 5 pounds of flour.  (Since the volume of flour varies by compaction rate , I posted both the sifted and unsifted volumes). I'd shoot for the sifted volume, just to stay on the safe side.

4 to 6 quarts

128 to 192 fluid ounces

18 to 20 cups

1 to 1.5 gallons

4 to 6 liters

[woodeye]

Years ago I invested in several of these containers for flour, sugar, garden seeds, etc. They were pricey back then, but now the price is somewhat ridiculous really. They work, I have not had any weevils or anything ever get into them, but I'm glad I don't have to buy any now at the prices they ask for them. This store usually has about the best price on the bigger sizes, but the shipping cost is horrendous...

www.webstaurantstore.com/3087/food-storage-containers.html



Sam's Club has 6 quart size only, but they are more reasonably priced, I have some these too. They come with the lid. I just wish that they stocked bigger sizes...

www.samsclub.com/p/cambro-6qt-round-translucent-container-2pk-w-lids/prod22321871?xid=plp_product_1

[FrostyTurnip]

I have one old plastic container, maybe couple gallons in volume.  This thread got me to thinking about that one.  Its lid is inset like these at the website you posted.  Not once have I ever had a bug issue with it.  Must be the inset lid!  I’m thinking that even at those prices listed, they’d be good to start collecting.

[chrysanthemum]

We tend to buy large bags of beans and rice, and we need to keep them in airtight containers. We use rolling pet food storage bins for holding the large sacks, and we use some smaller plastic containers for holding what we use for day-to-day use for rice or oatmeal and the like. A couple of my pet food containers are large enough that I store multiple types of bags in them—pinto beans, black beans, rice.

I agree with you, heavyhitterokra, that container manufacturers don’t seem to think about the sizes many products are sold in. Thanks for sharing your research.

[heavyhitterokra]

Wow!

I love this new thread! Lots of great input, and really quick too! Thanks, guys!

I still remember my grandma (born in 1898) sifting every cup of flour she ever touched, mostly to get a few of the weevils out of there before she baked them.   The sifter only works on the fat ones.  I don't think they'll really hurt anyone.  I'm sure I've eaten many a weevil in my day, I'd just rather not know they were in there.

Back in my prison days ... Working there, not living there, the beans and rice came in woven poly bags. The bugs went through those bags like they didn't exist. Every morning at 5:00 am, I'd see inmates busily picking little black bugs out of the already-cooked rice. I'd always wonder why they even bothered.  On bean day (which came about 6 days per week) we'd pick out the tiny, segmented, bean worm larvea and line them up on a napkin, beside the plate as we ate. Sometimes someone would have a little word for the dearly deperted larvea before folding their napkin and putting it in the trash.  That was one of our only forms of entertainment there.

While looking for a description of a pantry bean worm, I found this:

Pantry Pests

The most common bean pest is the bean weevil, which lays its eggs on beans. When the eggs hatch, the larvae burrow their way into the bean. They spend their larval and pupal phases inside the bean, emerging once they turn into adults. You can tell if your beans are infested by inspecting a small handful.

We just inspected our beans by eating them.  We didn't eat them by the small handful though, we used our spoons to do that.

[heavyhitterokra]

Nov 28, 2022 19:34:24 GMT -6 FrostyTurnip said:

 
Ron, I’m interested in your breakdown of the various white flours.  I’m familiar with bread flour but why the different cuts for pies and others?  

Frostyturnip,

I use 00 Pizza flour for pizza dough and homemade noodles.  I use self-rising flour to save time on a few recipes like biscuits, or banana bread, and I use all-purpose flour for making things like gravy, or pie dough.

[macmex]

Bean weevils lay their eggs in the immature seed, before the pods dry down. The offspring generally hatch out some time after the dried beans are stored for later use. To prevent them I make sure the beans are very dry as in I give them several weeks on a tray before stashing them in sealed containers. Then, I stash the sealed containers in the deep freeze for a minimum of two days, preferably for a week. After this treatment I've never had weevils appear in my dried beans, no matter how we store them.

We treat new bags of flour just like dried beans, wrapping in plastic bags and leaving them for a week in the freezer before stashing them. Some are simply left in the plastic bag and put on a shelf. Flour we intend to use sooner is placed in 5 gallon buckets with gamma seal lids. Flour we're using now is in a 1-2 gallon plastic container, on the kitchen counter.

Though I recognize that different flour types are good for special purposes we really only use regular white flour and corn meal. Occasionally we purchase some rye or whole wheat. 

We have wheat in grain form, which we've stored for years in buckets with no pest problems. I grind it as finely as I can and mix it with white flour when making English muffins and bread. I'm thinking I'm going to try doing a coarse grind and see what we might come up with in the line of a good hot cooked cereal.

Jerreth has dehydrated hot peppers and stored them in canning jars or 1 gallon pickle jars. After some years they are generally discolored (very dark) yet I've found they are still plenty good for cooking.

Jerreth's freeze dryer has been going nonstop for weeks now. She's delighting in turning everything into freeze dried food. Most fruits and veggies have BETTER flavor after freeze drying. Freeze dried tomatoes are better than any snack food we know of, from the store. (To bad we had a total bust on tomatoes this year.)

At work we had a potluck before Thanksgiving and I ended up bringing home several pounds of cooked turkey and ham, when we left for Thanksgiving break. Jerreth freeze dried most of it. It is absolutely TO DIE FOR, it's so GOOD! We don't even bother to reconstitute it.

The freeze dryer is expensive and requires dedication in order to make it worth the cost, but Jerreth is really making it work out. She and our middle daughter have severe food allergies and travel is difficult for them, due to the unreliability of food, purchased while on the road. Now, when we travel we just carry entire meals, like beef stew, mixed veggies and meat, all freeze dried. This food is delicious and has no additives. We feel satisfied after eating it and drinking some water. One does have to be careful not to over eat, as it's easy to consume more than is good for you. Best to eat a bit, drink and wait a few minutes before eating more.

A draw back with the freeze dryer is that the food requires special storage bags and desiccant packs to go in them, for long term storage. They're not cheap. 

[amyinowasso]

Our problem was pantry moths. They got into the supposedly air tight containers we were using. Tupperware has (had? I bought it a long time ago) a container that will hold a 10 pound bag of flour. Tupperware is now sold on line and is probably ridiculously priced. Everything has gone up ridiculously. Anyway, I vacuum sealed all the boxes like Mac n cheese (yes I like a Kraft style MnC) and cake mixes just in case they were contaminated. It seemed to protect new ones. We went to glass jars mostly, but my husband's poor hands don't work like they used to, I'm afraid he'll drop things. I like the restaurant supply place. Most larger cities will have a restaurant supply store, Tulsa has 2 or 3. They aren't cheap either, but usually quality and longer lasting.

[heavyhitterokra]

I just spent the last several hours smoking 60 pounds of pork for my daughter's wedding, using our little two-turkey-size smoker. I had 12 - 5-pound cuts of pork shoulders and Boston Butt roasts to smoke and only had room for 6 of them at a time, so it took two smoke cycles to get them all done. Later, I smoked 10 pounds more, just to make sure we had it covered.  The final cooked weight was about 35 pounds, so in general it takes about 2 pounds of raw meat to get 1 pound of pulled pork.

I only smoke any meat that I do for two hours to get the flavor we need without getting a bitter aftertaste. Then, I finish the meat to fall off the bone tender in the oven, using roasting pans, soy sauce, a little fajita seasoning, and homemade broth to baste them. I also use crock pots to achieve the same effect.

The oven or Crockpot part takes about 4 hours at 250°

Thank goodness I have a commercial stove and three crockpots. By 10:00 pm tonight, I had 60 pounds of fall off the bone, tender meat finisged. Now, all I gotta do is let it cool a bit, so I can start pulling it for pulled pork sandwiches.

While I've been busily smoking meat all day, my wife and daughter have been busily baking homemade lemon cakes with blueberry filling. This will be the last one of our four kids to marry off. The boys had their wedding catered, but this one is our baby girl, so mama wanted to do all the cooking in-house.

[FrostyTurnip]

Hold a fork. I’ll be right over. 

[FrostyTurnip]

Thank, heavyhitterokra  You had me craving, so I now have 16lb of brisket.  Not sure what to do with it just yet.

[heavyhitterokra]

If I had a 16-pound brisket, I'd cut it in half, so it would be easier to manage, or else I'd find one King Kong roasting pan to lay it in, where I would marinate it in about a cup of soy sauce for about an hour, while I was kindling an oak fire in the smoker. Then, just as the coals were beginning to get ready I'd add one stick of hickory and two sticks of pecan wood to the fire.

While the pecan wood and hickory were burning down to about half coal, half wood, I'd be busily poking little holes all over the top of the brisket and shoving freshly cut garlic slices in each one of them. After that, I'd season it all over with Fajita Seasoning, (basically just salt, pepper, onion powder, and garlic powder that someone else pre-mixed and sold to make my life easier).

I'd be looking for a cooking temperature between 200° and 250° with whispy, blueish/white colored smoke pouring from my smoke stack, no yellowish, oxygen-deprived colors. (No grass-fire looking smoke). You need a fairly clean burning fire to get good flavor, at least until most all the wood has turned to coals.

Then, I'd lay that beautiful cut of meat; pan, and all inside the meat chamber of the smoker if I had room, if not, I'd lay it straight onto the wire rack. (I only smoke my meat for two hours, regardless of the cut). That gives me a good, dark color with a little bark around the edges, plus it gives me a not-so-subtle smoked flavor without getting any overpowering bitter aftertaste.

(If using a roasting pan, add a little water, so it doesn't stick).

I turn the meat at least twice while smoking it, once to flip it over, once to swap ends, trying to get an even color across the entire thing.

After two hours in the smoker, I pre-heat my oven to 250°. As soon as the oven heats up, I transfer the meat from the smoker to the oven, placing it in an adequate size roasting pan. I add a little water, so it doesn't stick, and cover it with aluminum foil to retain moisture.

I roast my meat in the oven for anywhere from 2 to 5 hours, adding water to the juices as needed (about every 20 minutes) depending on the thickness of the meat. For brisket, plan on about 4 hours minimum, sometimes up to 6 hours. I'm just looking for fall-apart tender, so every cut of meat has a different oven-roasting time. Brisket is an all-day project.

During the last 15 minutes in the oven, I remove the aluminum foil and turn the oven temperature up to about 350° to 400° to allow the meat to take on a darker color. Basically, all you have to do at this point is burn off the 'sweat' that has accumulated under the foil.

If you like Bar-B-Que sauce that's baked on, baste your meat during these last 15 minutes. That will give the sauce time to congeal and crinkle a little bit without burning the sugar.

(I don't add BBQ sauce to my brisket, I only do that to pork ribs).

With brisket, during the last 30 minutes of baking time, I slice it, then I slather the top with plenty of mild-flavored minced onion. Onion like the Candy Onion, or Vidalia Onion varieties. Then, I use garden-grown, black-eyed pea pods about the thickness of wooden match sticks to create a 'shoelace' lattice as garnish and baste the whole thing in hot brisket juice. I bake that under aluminum foil until the garnish is tender, then remove the foil and bake it until I like the finished color.

Some people prefer their brisket to be pulled, or chopped, rather than sliced. Slicing just makes a better presentation. Chopping or pulling is way, way, easier than slicing. Slicing just makes it easier to portion your serving sizes if you have a big crowd.

(That's just what I'd do if I had a 16-pound brisket). You guys can do anything you like. 

[FrostyTurnip]

I wish I’d done half.  I only did 3rd.  Cooked it yesterday and it’s gone already.  Been a very long time since I had brisket and it was really good.  I slathered it with some soul seasoning and oven baked for about 4 hours in the turkey roaster.  The thicker portion made good slices with presentation.  Oh man.  I didn’t know how to make gravy the last time I cooked a brisket.  Makes really good gravy to put over mashed potatoes.  The rest was cut and shredded for the kids to fill taco shells and top nachos and then I stuffed enchiladas.  That dish was empty in six minutes!  Bill had the slices and mashed potatoes.  Very versatile! 

[heavyhitterokra]

Bon,

That's wonderful! A really well-executed brisket sure makes a house a home. They'll remember that for years to come.  

[FrostyTurnip]

Sir Teddy nudged me to the idea that I might make some really good fried chicken. Those bags of inferior chicken quarters are cheap so I’ve been frying them up for 20 years without thinking about it.  Eventually, I started partially deboning the thighs to avoid unnecessary energy costs.  Now, I roast up those hip bones after leaving some meat on them and feed them to Goober.  

2 times over the last months I’ve tried to measure my ingredients for a recipe and I tell ya, both times I messed up the batch.  Not badly, but they were not my best.  I can eye ball it jussss fine.  Weird isn’t it? 

I was watching this chicken fry video to see if I learn something new.  I did.  I learned that the touch of heat obtained by the old grocery store here had either tobasco or Louisiana sauce in the wet mix.  

He says that his oil is 370 degrees when he puts the chicken in because the cold chicken will reduce that temp ruining the initial crisp.  He’s RIGHT.  I do this.  Also check temp before you start a second bath.  The crumbs from the first batch conduct the heat faster than clean oil and it might get too hot. Or sometimes just lifting the chicken out of the oil stirs it up and reduces the temp.  Tricky stuff.  

That being said, I never use dairy in the wet mix.  Dairy provides a thicker crust (which some might prefer) but buttermilk is old news.  When people eat out for fried chicken, they’re looking for that thin whispy tender flaky crust.  

My wet mix is only water and egg.  I haven’t figured out that ratio yet, but it’s very wet, just enough egg to provide a gentle stick.  I double dredge to build up that crust and, unfortunately, I handle it a certain way which is hard to describe.  Don’t skimp on your flour mix. You need air and room for the fluff.

But that’s not the secret.  The secret is: Put potato flakes into your flour.  At least 1/4 cup potato flakes per 2 cups or so (or potato pearls work, too.  The fresher, the better.)  You can put more.  

Use whatever seasonings you like. My base seasoning is garlic, salt, cumin and cayenne.  The cumin and cayenne is important and I only use a touch, maybe 2 tsp for 2 cups of flour or so.  Otherwise, I recommend a pre mix by someone else. 

I cook about 12-15 minutes depending on the size of the chicken piece.  When I think it’s done, it’s probably not.  At 370?  It’s certainly done when the surface of the chicken beneath the breading starts to turn a touch reddish.  I’ve gotten to know when to pull it out just before that point.  
_______
Chicken nuggets:  Exactly the same, but use 1” pieces of chicken breast.  It cooks FAST so don’t walk away.  I’ve gotten to where I pull them out just before they are done and the center of the meat finishes up on the counter top.  Like, juicy perfect.  Cut your pieces in roughly equal volume for consistency. 


Nuggets make for happy co workers! I brew up 10lbs of nuggets and divvy them up into plastic containers and toss in random small bottles of hot sauce for his co-workers. 


It all started because we couldn’t afford to eat out.  

Video