10-07-2024, 06:24 AM
This post was last modified 10-07-2024, 06:45 AM by FlyingClayDisk.
Well, the Salsa came out really great! I've made tens of thousands of gallons of fresh Salsa before, but this was my first time making it for canning. I wound up making about twice as much as I thought I was going to make. The recipe I was using was for (12) pints and I wound up with (23) pints. Not quite sure how that happened, but I read several other people had the same issue with this recipe. I didn't skin my tomatoes (which the recipe called for), but I can't imagine that made such a big difference. My peppers were larger, but I cut down on the number of them. Maybe I didn't cook it down enough. I don't know, but I'm not going to complain about having too much Salsa because I love, love, LOVE the stuff!
Between the wife and I, we polished off 1.5 pints yesterday, and we gave a couple away to the widow down the road. Still wound up with more than what I planned on the shelf.
Salsa had good heat, but it could have been hotter. I used Jalapeno, Serrano and Habanero peppers, about (30) total. I probably could have gone harder on the Habaneros, but I was worried about it being too hot (for the wife; she doesn't like it as hot as I do). Plus, Habaneros have such a unique flavor, I didn't want to overpower the rest of the Salsa with the Habanero flavor. I was kind of surprised how much the seeding and heating of the peppers knocks down the heat. I didn't try one of the raw Habaneros until after I got done; they were a lot milder than the ones we grow. I didn't have any of our Scorpions or Habaneros from this year...some critter decided to eat every last one of them right when they got ripe (bastage)! Came out the other morning expecting to pick peppers and all that was left was a bunch of plant stubs. Only got to eat (2) of the Scorpions this year, and boy-howdy, were those puppies ever HOT!! Holy Cow! Shame I didn't have any left for the Salsa. Oh well, there's always next year I guess.
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Probably the easiest thing to start off with is what I call Canadian Bacon (it's really ham though).
Go down to the store and get yourself a pork tenderloin (tenderloin, not loin; loins are too big). Also get yourself some Morton's Tender Quick, and some cane sugar.
Recipe
(1) Pork Tenderloin
(1) Tbsp per pound - Tender Quick
(1) Tsp per pound - Sugar
Rub the mixture into the pork loin and place it in either a glass bowl (NOT metallic) or a food grade plastic bag. I use a Pyrex bread/meatloaf pan. Age it in the refrigerator for (5) days. After aging, soak it in a pan of water for 30 minutes (helps cut the salt flavor). After rinsing you can either slice it and fry it up, or what I do is smoke the whole tenderloin. It's fabulous, just off-the-rails good! The great thing about this recipe is, it's really hard to screw it up, and nothing is better for positive motivation than having a first curing attempt come out really well. If you smoke it, you don't even have to cook it further; just slice it up and eat it. (You can thank me later).
This is pretty much the recipe I started out with for curing meats. You can also do a similar thing with fish like Salmon or Trout. I've moved away from Tender Quick these days though. Now that I've got a lot more experience with curing and charcuterie, I go directly the the Prague #1 and #2 (pink salt) curing methods. It works a lot better, but it's a lot more complicated and you need to know what you're doing, and you really only get that from experience. I usually smoke everything I cure. I love making smoked summer sausage, and my latest ones have been venison and buffalo, and antelope and venison. I've got a whole trashbag full of pheasants from last season in the freezer, and a bunch of antelope left over so I'm thinking my next attempt will be a pheasant and antelope smoked Summer Sausage. This stuff is so good your socks will just shoot straight off your feet when you eat some! (I made the mistake of giving some to my neighbor and now he pesters me about once a week asking if I've made any more. LOL! I tell him to go hunt some of his own game for cripes sakes!).
Between the wife and I, we polished off 1.5 pints yesterday, and we gave a couple away to the widow down the road. Still wound up with more than what I planned on the shelf.
Salsa had good heat, but it could have been hotter. I used Jalapeno, Serrano and Habanero peppers, about (30) total. I probably could have gone harder on the Habaneros, but I was worried about it being too hot (for the wife; she doesn't like it as hot as I do). Plus, Habaneros have such a unique flavor, I didn't want to overpower the rest of the Salsa with the Habanero flavor. I was kind of surprised how much the seeding and heating of the peppers knocks down the heat. I didn't try one of the raw Habaneros until after I got done; they were a lot milder than the ones we grow. I didn't have any of our Scorpions or Habaneros from this year...some critter decided to eat every last one of them right when they got ripe (bastage)! Came out the other morning expecting to pick peppers and all that was left was a bunch of plant stubs. Only got to eat (2) of the Scorpions this year, and boy-howdy, were those puppies ever HOT!! Holy Cow! Shame I didn't have any left for the Salsa. Oh well, there's always next year I guess.
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(10-06-2024, 02:38 PM)AngryOldBrewer Wrote: Haven't really done much canning, but certainly have done a ton of fermentation projects, including salsa and hot sauce. However, my interest is now elevated as I have always wanted to do my own cured pork back for pork porchetta and bacon! Perhaps you could share some pointers. I'd be happy to share some of my hot sauce and other fermentation recipes in kind.
Probably the easiest thing to start off with is what I call Canadian Bacon (it's really ham though).
Go down to the store and get yourself a pork tenderloin (tenderloin, not loin; loins are too big). Also get yourself some Morton's Tender Quick, and some cane sugar.
Recipe
(1) Pork Tenderloin
(1) Tbsp per pound - Tender Quick
(1) Tsp per pound - Sugar
Rub the mixture into the pork loin and place it in either a glass bowl (NOT metallic) or a food grade plastic bag. I use a Pyrex bread/meatloaf pan. Age it in the refrigerator for (5) days. After aging, soak it in a pan of water for 30 minutes (helps cut the salt flavor). After rinsing you can either slice it and fry it up, or what I do is smoke the whole tenderloin. It's fabulous, just off-the-rails good! The great thing about this recipe is, it's really hard to screw it up, and nothing is better for positive motivation than having a first curing attempt come out really well. If you smoke it, you don't even have to cook it further; just slice it up and eat it. (You can thank me later).
This is pretty much the recipe I started out with for curing meats. You can also do a similar thing with fish like Salmon or Trout. I've moved away from Tender Quick these days though. Now that I've got a lot more experience with curing and charcuterie, I go directly the the Prague #1 and #2 (pink salt) curing methods. It works a lot better, but it's a lot more complicated and you need to know what you're doing, and you really only get that from experience. I usually smoke everything I cure. I love making smoked summer sausage, and my latest ones have been venison and buffalo, and antelope and venison. I've got a whole trashbag full of pheasants from last season in the freezer, and a bunch of antelope left over so I'm thinking my next attempt will be a pheasant and antelope smoked Summer Sausage. This stuff is so good your socks will just shoot straight off your feet when you eat some! (I made the mistake of giving some to my neighbor and now he pesters me about once a week asking if I've made any more. LOL! I tell him to go hunt some of his own game for cripes sakes!).
