Did you know shrimp can be pickled? What is a zeer pot? What the heck is water glassing? How could you end up with a salted apple? Find out on this episode!
You can find full episode notes and links to find more information on each topic at my website: https://alleyhart.com/
Did you know shrimp can be pickled? What is a zeer pot? What the heck is water glassing? How could you end up with a salted apple? Find out on this episode!
You can find full episode notes and links to find more information on each topic at my website: https://alleyhart.com/
Did you know shrimp can be pickled? What is a zeer pot? What the heck is water glassing? How could you end up with a salted apple? Find out on this episode. Welcome to Writing Rural with Alley, the fiction writer's inspiration station for rural life and lifestyles from historical to post-apocalyptic, helping you bring your rural stories to life. I'm Alley and this is episode number 49, Five Alternative Food Preservations, Part 4. Stick around to the end to find out all the ways things could possibly go wrong. Now let's get into this. Whether your characters have gardens, forage for food, or have meat, there are plenty of methods that are used, have been used, or might be used in the Apocalyptic. Today, we will cover five more of them. Number 16, pickling. Pickling is preserving method that combines water, vinegar, salt, and sugar. A basic ratio is 100 % vinegar, 50 % water, 25 % sugar, and 2.5 % kosher salt by weight. Anyone else confused about what that was or was it just me? Let's try that in grams. In grams, that equals 200 grams of vinegar, 100 grams of water, 50 grams of salt, and 25 grams of kosher salt. That is easy to scale up or down as needed. When combined, this is called a pickling brine. One other way to look at it, a ratio of eight units of vinegar, to, four units of water, too, two units of sugar, to, one unit of kosher salt. That sounds like a lot of salt. Pickling has done much the same as canning after your brine. Vegetables are chopped up and placed in jars. The brine is poured in. Your character will take care of the air bubbles, then give them a hot water bath and check their seals. Once they're done and cooled, they will be good for at least one year on the shelf at room temperature. There is a long list of things that can be pickles. This includes, but is not limited to, pickles, who to guess? Advocados, peaches, shrimp, meats, orange peels, jalapeño rings, walnuts, asparagas, stems of leafy greens, turmic roots, blueberries, okra, eggs, peppers, green beans, radish, garlic, ginger, onions, carrots, Brussels sprouts, corn on the cob, mushrooms, snap peas, apples, watermelon, squash, and many, many more. Number 17, sugaring. Sugar, yes, you heard that right. Believe to have originated in the Middle East, sugaring has been around for several thousands of years. When sugar is added, it causes an osmastic effect. That's a fancy way of saying it draws water out of fruits and vegetables, but is mainly used for fruit. This creates an environment that is hard for microbes to live in and slows food spoilage. Sugaring requires sugar, water, and lemon juice. Although salt and other preservatives can be used at the same time. This process is much the same as pickles. Chop up the food, place it in the jars, boil the water and sugar. Once the sugar is dissolved, add the lemon juice, pour it into the jars covering the food, get rid of the bubbles, then give them a water bath and check the seals. Some of the most common foods for this are bananas, apples, pears, plums, apricots, carrots, gingers, and onions. Number 18, zeer pot or a charcoal pot. Zeer pot, sometimes called a charcoal pot, are very neat non-electric coolers. They originated in rural Africa and the Middle East. They were rediscovered in 1995 by Mohammed Bah Abba, I'm so sorry if I mispronounced that, a teacher from Nigeria. He patched into it and helped with the repopularization of it. I will quote the definition from instructables. Com, because I cannot give you a better one. They say, and I quote, They consist of two terracotta pots, one nestled inside the other, with a gap between them filled with wet sand. The sand serves as a thermal mass that helps keep the pot cold once it has cooled down and acts as a wick to spread the moisture up the walls of the pot. When placed in a shady, breezy location, the evaporation of the water off outer surface chills the pot. If you have a good breeze or fan powered by solar panel blowing the pot, the pot can get quite cold. End quote! Some people also use charcoal instead of sand. This only works if the large chunks have been removed. It doesn't get quite as cold as a refrigerator, but it will keep food cooler and extend its life. Number 19, vinegar. Vinegar makes this list as it is used in many different types of food preservations. It dates all the way back to 3,000 BC and helps to kill microbes while inhibiting new growth. It is used in pickles, sugary, and cheesemaking, fermenting, and can be used in canning. That's why vinegar makes this list. It is also used by wiping down the food before cutting and removing any microbes on the outside of the food. This is important if it is in a questionable spot. Your character wants as few microbes as they can get, but they might take chances if they are hungry or low on food. It is also good for wiping down cutting boards before the food is chopped up on it and between batches. Vinegar is also a favorite to store herbs, spices and many dressings. Number 20, water glassing. Water glassing. Water glassing is a method of egg preservation. It involves water and pickling lime. Your character will need clean, unwashed eggs to pickle. Both clean and unwashed are important. Clean so they do not sit in the poop. Unwashed because when eggs are washed, it opens tiny holes from the outside to the inside of the egg, letting the limes seep into the egg. Pickly lime is not meant for human consumption. That is why it's important to make sure no cracked eggs go in and to check them when you take them out, along with a rinsing off the lime solution. The way to make them is to add one ounce of pickling lime for every one quart of water. Stir them well. Place cleaned, unwashed eggs, pointy side down into the jar. In a half-gallon jar, you can fit roughly 17 eggs, fill with lime solution and add a lid. Now place them in a cool, dry place and they will last between 12 and 18 months. I should add that the FDA advises not to do this as lime has been known to carry botulism. I've never seen anyone get it from water-glassed eggs, but I've also never seen anyone get hit by lightning. I know they both happen. I just haven't seen it personally, nor do I want to. Fun fact, any type of egg can be water-glassed as long as it's clean and unwashed. Now for everyone's favorite part, what could possibly go wrong? Well, let me tell you. Likely to go wrong, your character uses vinegar and it gets into a wound. This would feel like a burning pain. Also likely to go wrong, your character adds too much vinegar to salad dressing, and now it tastes more like vinegar than anything else. Possible to go wrong, your character notices the lime settling in the bottom of the jar of water-glassed eggs. They decide to shake it up and they crack the eggs, causing them to be inedible. Possible to go wrong, your character doesn't check the pickling jar lids after they are watered bathed to make sure that they were sealed. When they go to eat their pickles, they find they are rotten. Unlikely to go wrong, your character places store bought eggs and pickling lime thinking that that would work and not knowing that they had been washed before they were bought. When they eat them, they can contrack botulism. Also, unlikely to go wrong, your character is trying to sugar some fruit to preserve it, but they mistakenly use salt. The food might go bad or when they bite into their sugared apple, they get a mouthful of salted apple instead. Improbable, but still technically the realm of possibilities. Your character uses a zeer pot and things are going great. Then one day their child decides it would be the perfect thing to jump over. The child misjudges the leap and knocks the pot over, shattering it. Also, improbable, but still technically the realm of possibilities, your character badly misreads the pickling recipe. When they pull their food out to eat, it tastes so salty, they become nauseous. You can find this episode, show notes and helpful links to learn more on my website, alleyhart. Com. That's A-L-L-E-Y-H-A-R-T. Com. Thanks for listening. Subscribe and follow for more episodes. Connect on my YouTube videos by dropping me a comment. A new episode comes out every Monday. Until then, happy wordsmithing.