Big Annual Cooking Projects

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Started 1 year ago by Rosa
Latest reply from pkilmain
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Rosa
Member

Okay, are there any other gardeners or local food types around here?

I just last week was thinking, I have got to get rid of some colanders, this is stupid, why do I have four colanders?

And then today I am canning tomatos and pickles and plum jelly and salsa and using, guess what, all four colanders!

I think I learned the answer is that most of the year the extra colanders should be stored with the canning supplies, so I don't get tempted to purge them and they're not in the way.

I have been cleaning the canning jar room for a month or so, off and on - it's also my partner's painting supplies room and it was pretty trashed - so I actually *have* a place for all this stuff that's easy to access should it turn out I actually use the other three colanders at other times of the year.

What do people do with things like turkey roasters, canning supplies, christmas cookie cutters, etc? I'm kind of spoiled with a large pantry and a cellar, but I've been trying to get them more organized and use them better.

Posted 1 year ago #
bandicoot
Member

while i don't have seasonal stuff, i do have cooking equipment that i don't exactly use every day.
i like to mill my own flour and juice carrots and make nut butter and make yoghurt and dehydrate stuff and so on.
all of these things take specialised equipment. ok, let's just call them uni-taskers!!
this equipment all takes up room.
it isn't equipment that i want to lug around a lot.
my solution was to remodel my kitchen around it all.
i know that sounds slightly excessive, even insane,....but i don't have any other hobbies to speak of.
i like working in my kitchen.
i like producing the best quality stuff i can for us to eat/drink.
it's not exactly minimalist....i could buy it all at the local grocer.
but it is the minimum i need to do the job.
and i have identified that doing this is important in my life.

now, if i did have seasonal equipment needs, then i'd build a series of big deep drawers in my pantry or cellar and i'd stash things in relevant drawers and i'd label the drawers clearly.
i am also a fan of big deep wicker baskets on shelves, but it does depend on your dust levels.

what a good thing you didn't toss those colanders!!

Posted 1 year ago #
Rosa
Member

Our cellar is not a basement, it's a cellar - rock walls, very thin concrete floor over bricks over sand. They dug it in 1902 or so. Things down there get very dirty and cobwebby fast.

I did finally get shelves, just last month, so the big stuff is just on shelves (pressure canner, water bath canner, pickle crock) - or it was, until I hauled it out this week to use it. Previously they were all on a table down there and then they'd get piled on the floor when I needed the table. All of it has lids, so only the outside gets dirty. The jars I need to start storing lid-on (i have been saving used flat lids so I can do that, after a friend suggested it) so they aren't full of dead bugs when I get them out. So they'll be in cardboard boxes on the shelves, once we eat all this food :)

I need to start on the pantry cleanout project again, though, to make room for what I'm putting up!

Posted 1 year ago #
bandicoot
Member

hmmm, what about giant plastic totes down in that cellar? on shelves of course.
they keep everything inside fairly clean and dry and insect-proof.
you can label them AND see what is inside easily.
and they can be cleaned easily.

Posted 1 year ago #
SunshineR
Member

Rosa, how about bandicoot's idea (plus a plastic tablecloth or tarp over top of that if it is still too dirty). My mom and grandma used to can things and I know they were fastidious about keeping the supplies clean.

I have happy memories, especially of the homemade pickles,jams and the canned berries, brought out in the winter to make pies. Enjoy the profits of your work!!

Posted 1 year ago #
Trish
Member

What a timely post! I was just packing all my holiday baking supplies like cookie cutters and whatnot into moving boxes and realized that I could get rid of some of my cookie cutters- I used to make my special recipe every spring, fall, and winter, but now I only do so on the winter solstice, so Halloween and Easter shapes can go to goodwill. I recently let go of my holiday print table-cloths. I figure my fancy white or gold are good for any holiday. I don't have any big roasting pans because hubby and I always go out to eat for Thanksgiving and travel during Christmas. But I've been wanting a deep-fryer for turkey FOREVER. Deep fried turkey is SO good I would love to make it every couple of months... guess I better buy a treadmill too, if I ever get one!! ha ha

I also would like to invest in canning supplies. If I do, they will live in the garage, in a plastic bin like Bandicoot mentioned. That's where and how I keep our other seasonal items and also overflow canned goods/ emergency rations.

Posted 1 year ago #
lottielot
Member

Deep fried turkey? That sounds disgusting! I make jams and chutney but aim to do only about 5 jars or so at a time, so I freeze stuff while I wait for a time when I feel motivated. I just made 5 jars of redcurrant and blackcurrant jam, yum! I have stacks of onions, courgettes and beans, so I need to use them up too, but again I think I'll chop them up and freeze them till the mood strikes. I don't have stacks of room for either equipment or full jars, my jam pan lives on top of the kitchen cupboards and any leftover sterilised jars I pop in a bag and put inside the pan, all ready for next time :) And I bulk-bought sugar so it's waiting at the top of my pantry. But it sounds like you have a lot of equipment, nice to have the room to store all that food :)

Posted 1 year ago #
Trish
Member

@lottielot: I thought deep-fried turkey would be gross, but it's **really** good. It's been popular here in the states for about 10 years. :)

Posted 1 year ago #
lottielot
Member

I will take your word for it :) Presumably you need a ginormous fryer for it though?

Posted 1 year ago #
jbeany
Member

A ginormous fryer, a hazmat suit, and the fire department on standby....

Alton Brown did a whole show on how not to use a turkey deep fryer. The resultant fire balls from doing it wrong keep fire departments in the US busy every Thanksgiving.

It does taste fabulous, though - think how good deep fried chicken tastes and extrapolate from that to turkey with all the fixings.

My Xmas baking stuff gets tucked in the hard to reach cupboards over the fridge. Thankfully, the giant mixing bowls I use for the homemade cinnamon roll dough get used for all kinds of other things year round, so they can be stored in the regular cupboards, but cookie cutters and rolling pins don't need to be accessible.

Posted 1 year ago #
lottielot
Member

'A ginormous fryer, a hazmat suit, and the fire department on standby....'
rofl!

Posted 1 year ago #
bandicoot
Member

mmmmmm frahhhhhd chickennnnnnn.

Posted 1 year ago #
pkilmain
Member

@Rosa - why not store the jars upside down in their divided boxes? We store all of ours in their original boxes and the boxes in an out building. They're clean when they go in the boxes, and I run them through the dishwasher when I'm about to use them. They need to be warmed before you put the hot filling in anyway.

LOL - I don't like fried chicken or deep-fried turkey either, to each her own!

Posted 1 year ago #
Quadlex
Member

I love cooking. LOVE it. So I decided a few years ago that I wasn't going to unclutter my kitchen to the extreme, just keep it functional.

My solution was to buy plastic storage bins, clear stackable ones. In one I keep all my cake decorating supplies, icing, colouring, flavourings, fondant flowers and so on.

Another houses my baking pans, dishes, cake tins, moulds, and bakers that I rarely use.

A third contains all my "Irregular" TupperWare, the picnic set, the excess QuickShake, and all that other dross.

A fourth contains the MASSIVE potato masher I use for camping, the excess wooden spoons, the spare knives and forks and chopsticks and so on.

I'm about to buy another for the molecular gastronomy products like zanthan gum, and I'm considering one for various cusines... I go through phases of liking Japanese for instance, so I will pack all my tamari, rice wine, rice wine vinegar, and so on into a container so when I'm not in the mood it's not in the way.

Posted 1 year ago #
Rosa
Member

Quadlex, I do very nearly that for stuff like cookie/cake decorations, cookie cutters, and the small canning stuff (pickling spice, jam geller, pickling salt).

We use the tamari and rice vinegar and other condiments enough that they just are stored with our regular stuff, but I do have a square tin for dried japanese things - mushrooms, nori, other seaweeds, dried fish, etc. It's all weirdly shaped stuff that has to be sealed absolutely perfectly, so having it in one sealed container works really well.

Having shelves in my canning room is awesome, btw. I'm almost done canning for the season and I've been getting rid of some excess jars and putting the rest (empty and full) on the shelves instead of in stacked cardboard boxes.

Posted 1 year ago #
Zora
Member

I read recently that soy sauce/shoyu/tamari, once opened, is best stored in the refrigerator if you aren't going to use it all up in a couple of months ... so it might not be a good idea to pack all that stuff away in a tub.

Ditto for sesame oil; refrigerator if not used up quickly.

What do I use up quickly? I go through expensive health-food store olive oil FAST -- I use about a quarter of a cup in each batch of ciabatta, and I bake twice a week. I'm also using up the bottle of Sriracha sauce faster than I thought I would; it's so convenient for giving food just a dash of HOT.

Posted 1 year ago #
chacha1
Member

I guess I don't really do any "seasonal" cooking. Not having a garden, nor mass food storage space, I'm not interested in taking on food production hobbies like cheesemaking or canning now. Maybe some day. ... I do dinner parties fairly often, but it's just food, you know? No special themes requiring special gadgets.

The only "fancy" stuff we have is a creme brulee torch and a fondue set. :-)

The best part about simple cooking is, I use all my equipment frequently, so nothing is left to sit long enough to get dusty. Even in our dust-bowl climate.

Posted 1 year ago #
lottielot
Member

I'm unconvinced by my pickle I made a few weeks ago, but the peach marmalade I made from a big tray of peaches bought dirt cheap from a local market, mmmmmmmmm! Half the sugar of jam or normal marmalade too :)

Posted 1 year ago #
djk
Member

I used to do more seasonal cooking when I had access to cheaper food and storage for it. I will do it again once we have a bigger flat, or one with storage.

Nonetheless I love to make and freeze soups and stocks etc so I have veggies roasting even as we speak for a fabulous roasted red pepper soup we love. I already spent two summer Saturdays making up heaps and freezing them in portions, but the problem is we're barely out of summer and we have polished off most of them already. There is something so cosy about having a cold winter day and pulling out your own delicious treats you put up yourself. We can only get things seasonally here, compared to N.Amer where I could get tomatoes in January if I wanted to.

edited to add: I prefer eating seasonally for fresh things! But I miss making jellies and jams and canning.

Posted 1 year ago #
Ann
Member

We can tomatoes annually and have 4-5 very large cookpots, a big wooden paddle, and sterilizer pots. I store them in a shed behind our garage. I don't worry about spiders, dust or dirt on the pots because we wash and sterlize everything prior to use. The paddle I store in a plastic bag, all closed up. Wash it well prior to use. The jars are stored in the house in the Ball Jar box. After using the tomatoes, we clean the jar, lid and ring and put the jar (with the lid and ring on it) back in the box upside down. Before the next year, we discard the old lid and run the jars through the dishwasher.

Posted 1 year ago #

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