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Nicole Sauce on Building Food Preservation Skills – Epi-2970 — 12 Comments

    • I have an excalibur. Before I found it though I used the American HArvest. Than one requires frequent rotating of the food because there are areas of it that dry better than others. The excalibur is much more consistent.

  1. Jack, you recently mentioned mixing liver in with sausage but I did not see it mentioned in the recipes you have posted. I grind two pounds at a time so what amount of liver would you recommend? Thanks.

  2. Was looking for the Top Secret Beet Recipe. Couldn’t write it down while driving! We made pickled beets for the first time this year, love them!

  3. Was good to hear that “pink salt” was clarified as many confuse that with Himalayan salt. As mentioned, one has to be careful with those nitrite/nitrate salts. Morton quick cure salt has a safe salt to nitrite ratio which I use to be on the safe side. I always keep several bags of those in the event of a freezer failure. Our local smokehouse is very cautious with nitrites as they do not like the flavor. A distinction also needs to be made between nitrite and nitrate as the latter should only be used be someone who knows what they are doing if they are attempting to cure raw meats. Being that I’m not in that category, I don’t use it.

    As one that loves onions I preserve onions in a somewhat time-consuming method, but one that I find very worthwhile. Cut the onions pole-to-pole in 3/8″ to 1/2″ slices and place in bowl, add canning salt and cayenne and let it sit for 1-12 hours. Drain off the liquid, but do not rinse. I dehydrate it in an aluminum oven pan with a glass cover in the sun. If it doesn’t turn out crispy dry, finish it off in a toaster oven. Excellent in salads.

    It is easy to learn how to make ghee, clarified butter. It will last on the countertop indefinitely, the trick is to boil off all of the water. I have found non-salted to be best as salted would get too concentrated.

    I very much enjoyed this episode and will listen to it again this week to take notes. Curing meats with salt is one part I need to listen to again more carefully and also suggest salt-curing vegetables. This is not pickling, salt-curing vegetables will extend the freshness of many garden vegetables that would otherwise be compost-pile destined. Thanks again for an excellent episode topic.

        • Venison ham

          Per gallon water:
          2.25 cups salt
          1 cup brown sugar
          1 tsp mustard seed
          10 pepper corns
          4 juniper berries
          3 bay leaves
          4 cloves garlic
          ½ tablespoon prague powder #1

          Make the brine by heating water and ingredients until the salt is dissolved. Cool to room temp (or colder).

          Trim your venison ham and brine it for 5-7 days. If you poke holes in the meat it will absorb the brine better.

          Either remove and freeze until ready to smoke and eat, or smoke it until it is done (and eat/freeze it)