44
votes
Accepted
How can oak leaves be made edible?
I cannot find any internet source that recommends eating oak leaves, however treated. The level of tannins in oak leaves isn't just bad-tasting; it's sufficiently strong to cause kidney or liver ...
- 61.4k
44
votes
How can oak leaves be made edible?
Take the oak leaves.
Feed to a goat. (mix in some other feedstuffs: hay or grass).
Eat the goat (or drink its milk)
Goats are browsers, and have a gut, kidneys and liver that can deal with oak ...
- 1,250
34
votes
Accepted
Garlic with the olives... what happened?
Garlic has an enzyme called alliinase that converts sulphur-containing compounds in the garlic into forms that your taste receptors recognise as hot or spicy (alliin > allicin & diallyl ...
- 5,381
31
votes
Accepted
What was this pickled vegetable which I was served at a middle eastern restaurant?
I suspect that these will be pickled almonds. Almonds are a favorite ingredient in many middle-Eastern dishes. The green color and fuzz give it away, most other fruits like apricots and plums lack ...
- 14k
17
votes
Accepted
Should I throw away a jar of olives that fizzed and bubbled upon opening?
Short answer:
Yes, throw it away.
Long answer:
Bubbling, fizzing, pressure etc. indicates some kind of microbiological activity that is unwanted for properly canned food - canning should eliminate ...
- 58.8k
13
votes
Accepted
If pickling destroys Vitamin C, how is Sauerkraut rich in Vitamin C?
Vitamin C is destroyed by heat and light. If you use a preservation method that relies on heating the sauerkraut at any stage (hot pickling liquid, water bath or pressure canning the jars) then some ...
- 10.6k
12
votes
Accepted
Are accidentally fermented foods safe to eat
Do.
Not.
Eat.
The assumption that it fermented enough to be safe because it fermented some is likely incorrect. Lacto fermented food recipes are specifically formulated to encourage the rapid and ...
- 3,063
12
votes
What was this pickled vegetable which I was served at a middle eastern restaurant?
It's probably green almonds like bob1 suggested. We eat them raw as a fruit or they can be pickled. They are called Oja in the Syrian region عوجا.
- 121
11
votes
How can oak leaves be made edible?
A good indicator of whether there is a way to make something edible is whether it was recorded as a famine food. (Wikipedia) There are records of people eating dried lichen, tree bark, books, and ...
- 221
8
votes
Accepted
Is it possible to Pickle meat at room temperature?
Pickling meat and fish was done for millennia before the advent of refrigeration.
Pickling and smoking or drying/curing were the only reliable ways to preserve meat before freezing and canning were ...
- 47.5k
7
votes
Accepted
Is pickled herring cooked?
No, it is not.
Traditionally it is first cured with salt to reduce the water content of the meat, then placed in a vinegar-based brine.
Recipes vary a bit, but for classic Bismarckhering 14% salt ...
- 58.8k
7
votes
How do I fix pickles that are too sour?
If you are going to do anything, do it when you are ready to put the pickles in the fridge again, not when canning - acid keeps the canned pickles safe.
So - leave them really sour as canned. When ...
- 16k
7
votes
Accepted
Do Morrocan-stye pickled lemons really need 5 to 10% salt?
As I understand it, you may be seeing some confusion between two very different processes. When making sauerkraut, you are fermenting cabbage in brine, and the fermentation gives sauerkraut its ...
- 11.8k
7
votes
Accepted
What's the role of bread in pickling cucumbers?
There's enormous amount of yeast and lactobacteria on the old bread (mostly sporulated, captured from the air). There's also the same tremendous amount of them readily available on fresh cucumbers.
...
- 350
7
votes
Accepted
What is the difference between kosher dill pickles and Polish dill pickles?
Those are two different processes. Unfortunately English language don't have two words for the outcome and they are both called "pickles".
Usually Polish pickles "kiszony" should be made with:
...
- 4,121
7
votes
Accepted
Is lactic acid a vinegar?
The answer to this depends on the brine in question. Both vinegar and a lactic brine solution are obviously acidic, but vinegar is sold at different concentrations. If you have a lot of leftover ...
- 5,204
5
votes
Should I throw away a jar of olives that fizzed and bubbled upon opening?
Not necessarily. It depends of whether it is expected or not. Some curing methods result in this. I was offered such olives once. They were kept in a big pressured plastic soda bottle.
They were ...
- 150
5
votes
Kimchi versus pickles: sterilized containers?
Sure. The containers should be clean, but because it's an active fermentation (very similar to sauerkraut, other than the ingredient lists typically differing) the salt suppresses the activity of ...
- 16k
5
votes
Why do home-made pickles float in the jar, but commercial pickles don't?
I've noticed in my experience if I cut the vegetables and put them in a bowl with salt water for a couple of hour in the fridge. Then remove and rinse for 3 to 5 minutes before canning, they don't ...
- 51
5
votes
Accepted
"Lime water" technique -- why use an excess of cal?
The supersaturation of cal seems to be the common instruction in most online sources, but no reason is given. The best reason seems to come from chemistry texts, which note:
Ca(OH)2 is only slightly ...
- 61.4k
5
votes
Accepted
Can I save my vinegar soaked caraway seeds?
Rinse them in a few changes of water and then dry them throughly in a warm/dry location; they should be fine. If you happen to have a standing pilot oven (old-fashioned these days) that works well for ...
- 16k
4
votes
Fermenting pickles - sun or shade?
In general, cooler temps mean slower fermentation, and, in my opinion, better flavor. I would go for a cool, dark place. Beyond that you'll want to make sure that you have the correct percentage of ...
- 73.8k
4
votes
Can I make pickled eggs that don't require refrigeration?
This is something asked very frequently on a canning site I am on and the answer is always a resounding NO. There is NO way to make pickled eggs shelf stable. To preserve eggs however I have heard ...
- 1,913
4
votes
Sour pickles with Calcium Chloride?
I have made fermented pickles for several years now. The resulting pickled vegetables, KimChee and even butter pickles are far superior in taste to boiling and brining, although true, we tend to ...
4
votes
Pickling green peaches: is the fuzz a must?
I wash mine vigorously with a 3M scrubby pad. There's still some fuzz, but not as much. Those scrubby shower gloves would probably be easier, but maybe less effective.
- 41
4
votes
Pickled Eggs with slightly gooey yolks?
I want to do the same thing.
Here's an article about acidification and its effect on pathogens in commercial egg pickling.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24215686/
It basically says that eggs must be ...
4
votes
Accepted
Preserved Lemons: is it ok if they are above the liquid
For the process to occur, the lemons should be covered by the sugar/salt/liquid. There is a little time frame where being partially exposed is OK, and the other lemon pieces will start to soften and ...
- 3,526
4
votes
Why do home-made pickles float in the jar, but commercial pickles don't?
Most likely commercial pickles are preserved by an accurate pasteurisation and ascorbic acid or other chemical preservatives so that the "brine" contains much less salt as compared to your homemade ...
- 834
4
votes
Accepted
Can unsweetened cranberry juice be used to pickle food
Unsweetened cranberry juice would be perfectly fine for making quick/refrigerator pickles.
If you want to make safe shelf stable pickles, you would need to know for sure that the cranberry juice’s pH ...
- 5,468
3
votes
Can I get botulism by using 2 cups vinegar to 8 cups water when canning pickles - as most recipes require 1:1 ratio of vinegar to water?
Out of sheer curiosity, I recently tested my pickle recipe with an digital PH meter and used buffer solution to calibrate the meter.
Bacteria can't grow below 4.6ph.
My recipe uses Apple Cider ...
- 31
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