Dave's Kitchen - Pickled Cranberries

 

 

 

 Pickled Cranberries

 

It has been brought to our attention that the recipe for pickled cranberries was inadvertently

not included in our book, "Preserving Fruits, Nuts, and Vegetables".

We will be updating the book file so that future purchases will include the recipe, but for those

of you that have already purchased the book, we are posting the recipe here.

And we welcome anyone else to save and try this recipe.

They're one of the best pickled foods you'll ever make!

 

Dave's Pickled Cranberries

 

The recipe is really simple, just use your favorite "Sweet Pickle" recipe and use cranberries instead of cucumbers.  This is the recipe I use, and that Susan can't seem to get enough of.  :)

 1. Make your liquid, mix 2 parts vinegar(I use white) to 1 part water and for each quart you make.  Add 4 cups sugar and bring it to a boil.

 

2. Slice or coarsely chop the cranberries.  They will not absorb the liquid and flavors whole.

 

This is where preference comes in.

 

3. Add your spices and/or other flavorings.  I use:

  2 Tablespoons "Pickling
  Spice(Mccormick)

  1 Tablespoon Mustard Seeds   

  2 Tablespoons
  Salt
  8-10 Whole Cloves

  1 Cinnamon Stick
  (Optional) Dill

  Garlic

  Sliced or Chopped Onion
  Jalapeno

  Pepper

 4. Add the "Flavorings" to the bottom of the jar (the above measurements are for a quart jar), fill to around 1/2 inch from the rim of the jar with the cranberries and pour in the boiling liquid (sugar-vinegar-water) leaving "NO" headspace. Make sure the jar rim is clean, put the lid on tight and set the jar aside until it cools enough to handle(but still hot).

5. When the jar cools, shake it thoroughly to make sure everything is mixed and any air bubbles rise to the top.

That's it.  The jars will seal as they cool.  No water bath canning needed.  They'll keep for months.  For longest shelf life store in a cool, dark place.

 

 

We're not making this post to try and sell books, but if you want to look at

the book on Amazon, or purchase a copy, click on the link below the picture. 

 

 

http://amzn.to/1qleBiP

 

 

Please leave comments or questions below, or email them to:

 

povertyprepping@yahoo.com

 

Thank you!

 

Dave

Susan

A visit with Dave...in person!

Earlier this month we went to Texas to meet with Dave and look things over and plan out our next book in the food preserving series and a few other projects we thought up.

 

A lot of the conversation was about our various food preserving experiments.  Dave's house is like a museum of food preserving and it's results.

 

Cooked, dehydrated, and vacuum-sealed sausage patties.  He sent some of these home with us and we munched on them in the car.  Delicious, and no one got sick.  I don't remember how old he said these were, but he'd eaten some that were older and never gotten sick.

Christmas pudding, which is essentially fruitcake. 

It's from last Christmas...almost a year ago.  It was tender and moist when we opened it and sampled it.  I just recently found out, while doing the "Beets" chapter in our upcoming book that some of the 'fruit' in here was actually beets!  They had been canned with sugar, then dehydrated a year later.

Homemade bread that Dave made. 

I think it had acorn meal in it, but it might have been the other

homemade bread we had while there.

Dehydrated slices of cheese.  This was an experiment I asked Dave to do last winter while we were working on the our book Preserving Meat, Dairy, and Eggs

Pound cake. 

It's interesting to me that it doesn't scorch on the outside against the jar. 

What a great way to have instant desserts!

Pickled cactus.

Texas is a cactus paradise.  If the world falls apart, they can eat off those cactus

that grow like weeds all through the woods and roadsides!  What a wonderful bounty of foraged food.

Watermelon syrup.

We wrote about this in our book, Preserving Fruits, Nuts, and Seeds

I never heard of watermelon preserves, watermelon syrup, or candied watermelon

until I met Dave.  He wastes nothing on a food he's working with.

Cream of Chicken soup

Can you imagine even thinking of dehydrating cream soups!  Brilliant! 

I'm a big fan of dehydrated foods because they take up less room and I don't have to worry about them freezing.  I should be opening cans and dehydrating things, one after the other, to eliminate the risk of losing food to freezing.  We heat our cabin here in NW Montana with firewood and the back rooms get pretty cold when it's below zero.  Dehydrating food is a great answer to the problem

of canned goods freezing.

This lid says "parsley" on it, and below that it says canned greens.

It's dried carrot tops that Dave sprinkles in soups and stuff like dried parsley.

Another one of those "Who would have thought?" moments!

Chili with beans

This really is chili.  Complete chili, cooked, put in a food processor, and dried. 

He cooked some for us, only he also added some cooked, dried beans to give it

some 'texture', even though there are beans in the chili in the jar.  It's not chili powder. 

It's powdered chili, the soup!

Leftover Spaghetti

Leftovers often get canned in Dave's house.  He has a refrigerator, but it's more likely to be used for food waiting to be preserved or ingredients for experiments.

Ginger juice

Dave makes this as a stomach ache remedy.  I can't remember how he said

he made it, so I'll check with him, then edit this post.

Canned velveeta

Dave's version of canned cheese.  Looks just like mine, only I use cheddar cheese. 

We have a post on this blog that gives directions for canning cheese

( canning cheese post, here )

and in our book ( Preserving Meat, Dairy, and Eggs )

Bacon Fat

When Dave gets enough of it, he cans it to preserve it.  Then it's handy when

 he needs it, without taking up space in the refrigerator.  He stores it where it's

dark and cool so it doesn't get a rancid flavor.

Watermelon preserves

Another one of the ways he uses watermelon.  His candied watermelon rinds are

excellent too but I don't have a picture of them.

Fresh acorns on the left, acorn meal on the right.

This is one of the processes we described in Preserving Fruits, Nuts, and Seeds .

I know I'm putting our book links in here a lot today.  We put a lot of free information on this blog, but we also spend months working on the books we publish.  You can continue to read whatever is on this blog for free, but some things are just in the books.  It's only fair to hope for some sales to compensate for all the hours of preserving, experimenting, taking pictures, and writing.  But no one is under any obligation to go buy the books.

Pickled Cranberries

This is the best of all!  I love Dave's pickled cranberries, better than the recipe I had!

He gave us this half-gallon jar and another one that was still half full.

I lived on those and the dehydrated sausage on the 3-day drive home!  Mmmm-mmm!

(They're in the Fruit/Nut/Seed book)

Chicken Nuggets

Say....WHAT????

My jaw dropped.  Dave canned chicken nuggets! 

He used the dry-canning technique for meat...and made canned chicken nuggets! 

 I am SO going to  try this!  What a great food to have on hand, especially if you don't have refrigerator.  Here on our off-grid homestead I can see these being

a huge treat when the grandkids visit!

 

 

I feel especially blessed to have a friend like Dave.  His hard-working and peaceful nature make him a pleasure to be around, and his knowledge of gardening, food, and food preservation is a wealth in itself.  We loved spending time with him and his family, who are every bit as wonderful as he is. 

We consider them family, and I hope you do too.  Thanks, Dave.

 

Please leave comments and questions below or at povertyprepping@yahoo.com

 

Susan

 

What?  You're asking if I took a picture of DAVE while I was there?

 

It depends.  Do you mean before, or after, midnight?

rotfl (rolling on the floor laughing!)