Holiday fun time!!

Happy Holidays people!!! As you can now see we are getting ready for Christmas Time!! YAAY ;) We changed our blog into some fun Christmas colors! Here are some cookies, just because we want to show you some, but we ain't making any! Have fun with your lives folks!

Week 2

Hello again, this is our second weekly update post about the preserved foods projects! We are glad that you sticked to our blog to see how the foods have changed in the past week. We noticed some changes in the salted meat, the candied fruit, and in the vegetables submerged in oil and vinegar that have happened in the past week. Described observations and analyzations will be included in the next paragraphs; they include changes in odor, texture, appearance, flavor, and color . This is a very fun part because we get to observe the foods like we were scientists! Pictures of the preserved foods will be definitely be included into the blog. All of you, pay attention to the things we will be writing about the food’s changes. Stick around because there will be more update posts! And we have a surprise for you, we are currently making a sourdough bread recipe that includes making yeast with grapes! Delicious! We will be adding that post later but for now enjoy this new update post!!!

Let's start with the pineapple! If you don't remember, the preservation method used for this fruit was candying. After one week since our last update post about the fruit, the pineapple is still edible, thank God!! Right now, the fruit has achieved two weeks of being preserved. The fruit’s texture is the same as it was at the beginning, it has a rough and hard texture and composition. The texture still has the pieces of sugar all around the pineapple. More pieces of sugar and candied layer have fallen off, meaning that the pieces of pineapple have been getting smaller. The odor of the preserved fruit is the same, it still smells like pineapple. It also still smells like candy, and very sugary. The biggest change that the preserved fruit has gone through, is that it has gotten darker. At the beginning the color was yellow, then last week it got brownish. This week it is more brownish. For example, one small piece of the fruit is totally brown. Despite this change, the fruit is still edible. Let's just say that Granny would be very proud (we are actually managing to achieve Granny's recipe!!).

Second is the meat, and the preservation method we used for this one is salting! Since last week the meat's color has become darker, now it is almost completely brown instead of redish brown. The color is still the same, it smells terrible. This is a warning folks, if you have a sensitive sense of smell, don't even come within one meter of the meat. It has a very spicy and concentrated smell!! Right now the meat can't be cooked, but we hope that when we do it can actually be edible. The texture is the same as before, it is loafy, but it isn't freezed, it is actually flexible. Hope it doesn't make any splits!! Also, more of the spices have come off, but it still feels as salty as before, since the meat has absorbed some of the spices. Last we checked, there was almost no juices from the meat left in the bag, meaning that it is already dry. Another small tip, beware of the stickiness!! If you take the meat in your own hands you will feel all sticky and dirty. Ew!!!

Last but not least is the vegetable! FYI we used the submersion in oil and vinegar preservation method for this one. We were very surprised when we saw the mushrooms! The color has changed, before the mushrooms were a dark brown, but right now they look black in some places. Also, the size changed, they have shrunk! We hope they don't become the size of a pea! The oil that covered them disappeared completely, and the container's base has frozen. They smell as terrible as ever! Cover your noses people, we can smell them a mile away! We hope they taste better than they smell!

Well, in conclusion our three foods have changed, some have changed drastically and others have barely changed at all. For the pineapple, there was a change in the texture since some layers of candy have fallen of, and the color has darkened to brown. The meat is a little bit smellier but the amount of meat juices in the bag has reduced; also some more spices have fallen off as well. The mushrooms smell impossibly worse, and have had a huge change in color, since right now they are darker. The oil that covered them has also disappeared. There will be more update posts next week, though not many, since we will be concentrating on making the sourdough bread. We are very happy that our preserved food has survived until today, and we certainly hope that it lasts longer. And of course, we hope it is edible!! Keep in touch, we urge you to keep checking our blog for new updates each week, and if you tried one of our recipes out and want to tell us how it went, comment!! THANK YOU!!

Week 1

This part of the project is all about analysing and observing how the preserved foods have changed. This will be our first post! Pictures will be included with the observations so you can all understand it better. The foods are hopefully still edible, and have stayed the same thanks to the preservation methods. Hopefully none will be spoiled or contaminated, but be careful! We checked our fruit, meat and vegetable for any changes in texture, flavor, color, odor, or appearance that may have occurred, so keep your eyes wide open! The objective of this part is to see if the preserved foods are able to last more than one month preserved, and if they are edible after this. This updates will be done for some weeks more to show at the end which foods or food is still edible, and if the preservation methods we used worked. So keep yourself posted, and stick to our blog!!

Let's start with the pineapple!! After one week of preserving the pineapple in the process of candying, the changes were not major. The pineapple is still hard, and not easily broken, meaning that the fruit’s composition has not changed, it is still rough and hard. Therefore the candied layer is falling a little bit. The color is still the same, it is yellowish-brownish, it has not gotten any darker nor lighter. The odor has not changed because it still smells like pineapple and like sugar because of the candying process. This is good for the preserved pineapple because it is still eatable. We believe that it should last the whole month. By now it is digestible, and the same as the day it was preserved. Check weekly to show you how the preserved pineapple has changed. 

Next is the meat! The preservation method used for the meat was salting. The meat was put into the refrigerator and left there for a little more than a week. We have been checking it constantly, turning the bag to the other side on occasions. We have taken it out a few times and removed some of the meat's juice that was released after the meat was put into the bag. Right now, the meat has less spices covering it than before, and the color is a little bit darker, it lost some of its redish tint. Also, it has  a strong spicy odor (from the spices that have been covering it), and although it is not completely frozen it is a little bit hard, it doesn't has the same lumpy texture as before. Starting this friday we will take out the meat and continue with the smoking process. Hopefully by next week's post the meat will have gone through the process of smoking!!! (And not with a cigarette, mind you).

Finally, the mushrooms!! For the vegetable, or the mushrooms, whatever, we used the preservation method called submersion in oil and vinegar. It has been a week since we finished preserving the mushrooms, and guess what?! They have changed a lot!! At the beginning they smelled horrible, but right now they smell twice as bad. Mushrooms are terrible! Now they are smaller, more wrinkled, a little bit darker, and yes, they smell BAD folks, capital letter BAD. Believe us, if you smelled this you'd probably throw up. They are so disgusting that we actually advise you to try preserving another vegetable. Anyways, in resume the mushrooms are now mush dryer than they were before (remember all the water we were talking about in one of our earlier posts? Disgusting!) and are probably very tasty. Keep in touch, we will be doing more posts!

In resume, the fruit, vegetable and meat we preserved have changed somewhat during the last week. The pineapple had no major changes, it was still hard, and not easily broken, meaning that the fruit’s composition has not changed. The meat changed a little bit, now it has less spices covering it than before, and the color is a little bit darker, it also lost some of its redish tint. At last the mushrooms had a lot of changes, at the beginning they smelled horrible, but now they smell twice as bad. Also now they are smaller, more wrinkled, and darker. This is only our fist week checking out our preserved foods, but we will be posting new observations in the following days! Don't forget to keep in touch, and maybe try some of our amazing recipes!

Preservation Project Recipes

Introduction

On the second part of our blog, we are going to preserve a meat, a fruit and a vegetable using various processes. In our case we used submersion in oil and vinegar for the vegetable, which is when food is submerged into oil or vinegar (Duh). For the meat we used the salting process, which happens when salt is put into the food to eliminate its humidity. Candying, when the food is put into heated syrup, and then it is drained, was used for the fruit. But enough with the serious and boring facts. Let’s get started with the fun! It is time to cook, and take pictures! There was enough researching, now we are going to preserve the foods, share the recipes, and take pictures of the procedure. So lets get our cooking utensils ready, and start cooking!

http://pasglobalfoodproject.blogspot.com/2013/10/preserving-foods-fruit-candying.html

http://pasglobalfoodproject.blogspot.com/2013/10/preservation-meat-salting.html

http://pasglobalfoodproject.blogspot.com/2013/10/preservation-of-vegetables-submersion.html

Conclusion

Well, cooking was a lot of fun! We certainly enjoyed preparing all those recipes, and I do hope you did too. Remember, if you follow the steps correctly, everything will be alright. Going step by step might actually save you from having to clean up an explosion gone wrong in the kitchen. As always, we advise you to be very careful while cooking, especially when saucepans and ovens are hot, or when using sharp cooking utensils. We hope that now you know how to do this fun and useful recipes to preserve your food, since an occasion to preserve dinner will arrive someday, surely. And, hey, many cave men followed an approximation of these processes to preserve their food. So congratulations! Now you know how to preserve food and understand how cavemen survived in the past! For our next posts we will be describing the advance of our preserved foods. With some luck, they won't be rotten.

Preservation of vegetables-submersion in oil and vinegar

Before you start, read our introduction first!

http://pasglobalfoodproject.blogspot.com/2013/10/preservation-project-recipes.html

Italian Marinated Mushrooms

Instructions

•   13 small mushrooms

•   white vinegar

•   salt

•   oil

•   kitchen paper

Prep Time: 12- 24 hours.
Caution! The mushrooms will smell veery bad, so I recommend you to pin your nose tightly with something.

Method:

And now for the recipe! Kitchen party tiiiime!

1.Cut the mushrooms you need in half. I recommend putting some music on while cooking, it makes the process so much more fun! You can dance if you want to, too.

2. And for the salt! Put salt on top of kitchen paper and then place there the mushrooms. Then, sprinkle salt on top of them. Let it at a room temperature for 1 or 2 hours.

3. Put the mushrooms between 2 paper towels and gently squeeze them a bit to remove a little more water(water from the mushrooms). The view isn't too great, but believe me it's worth it. Make sure to squeeze them a little to remove some more water.

4. Boil the mushrooms in the vinegar for at least five minutes. Use something to submerge them, because they will try to float. Then take the mushrooms out, and then put them between paper towels and gently try to remove some of the vinegar(liquid).

This is were things might start getting a little bit smelly, so cover your nose !!

5. Change them to another paper towel, or plate. Let them dry a little. Then turn the mushrooms once or twice during 12-24 hours. Ugh, the process is a tiny winny bit long, but I'm sure you'll find something to do for the time being, maybe some of our other preservation recipes!

6. Here is were the submersion part starts! Put the mushrooms into a jar of glass. Then put oil, and make sure the mushrooms are totally submerged in the oil. The oil won't allow any bacteria or any other yucky germs we don't want to spoil the mushrooms.

7. Place the jar of glass in the refrigerator. To be able to eat you have to wait at least a week. Don't worry about the oil, it won't make the mushrooms taste bad, on the contrary I think it adds a quite delicious taste!

8. Enjoy!

*The mushrooms will keep in the fridge maximum for 6 months.

Bibliography:

“Hank Shaw,”Italian Marinated Mushrooms,” Honest Food Net.N.p.,n.d.Web.March 17 ,2012. http://honest-food.net/2012/03/17/italian-marinated-mushrooms/