Favorite Method of Food Preservation

Freezing is so easy, especially with blueberries and raspberries. I pop them in baggies and freeze for smoothies, or just to sit and eat on a hot day. I like to blanch and freeze kale and spinach, also put them in ice water, drain, flatten in baggies so that I can “file” them upright in freezer boxes. I pull out a bag and break off a chunk to throw into casserole, soup, eggs, etc.

Still, my favorite is canning. I love shelves full of jars of fruit, jams, pickles, vegetables, and chicken or salmon, which really aren’t that hard to do in my pretty big pressure canner. Canned foods last forever but I admit that the flavor suffers over time. I found a quart of ten year old chicken soup in the depths of my cupboard, perfectly sealed but after the first bowl I gave it to the chickens, (Little cannibals that they are.)

I tend to can what people like. Chow chow and picalilly for my sister, pepper jam for the kids and the vet, pickle relish to clean up what’s left in the garden at end of season. I can tomatoes and spaghetti sauce for me. I dry the halved tomatoes in a hot oven for about forty minutes because the flavor is concentrated and the skins are easy to slip off.

Because I live in an earth sheltered home my garage stays cool even in summer. I can keep onions, potatoes and squash there. Good enough, all of this, for our ninety days growing season.

To Christopher,
Always wanted to know about limed eggs.
How long do they last? What is the flavor like?
Can you tell if they go bad? DO they go bad?
Thanks ,
Marty

The ONLY food preservation I haven't done is, smoking and brining.

I took the plunge and, instead of a vacation, four wheeler, bike or rig upgrade, bought a freeze dryer.  Though someone said they are slow, the food supplies add up far quicker than one might imagine.

I live in farm country. One farmer has acres of apples and grows various row crops each year.  Since I never charged him for the eight foot wide steps off his deck, painting his deck railing, enlarging a bath entry for his handicapped son, and so on he owes me a favor or two.  Said another way, I'm not hurting for access to row crops, apples and so on.

If I froze these things, I need a row of freezers, and it would all be gone in a big power outage.  Everything else works, but has a "pay close attention to it" lifespan. Not so the freeze drying, and many things come back (eggs, shrimp, etc.) indistinguishable from fresh.

I both vacuum seal and insert a oxygen absorber. They aren't so expensive I would worry about risking an investment.

Now, if we need milk, all we need is water. So too it goes with sour cream. Eggs become omelets, but are easy to store. And on and on it goes.

Hi OP!  I’m curious what is your base jam/jelly recipe?

I’ve tried finding the right amount of added sugar and struggled to hit a good ratio.  Especially trying use a little sugar as possible for the taste and texture that is supreme!



Thank you !

Kelly Craig wrote:The ONLY food preservation I haven't done is, smoking and brining.

I took the plunge and, instead of a vacation, four wheeler, bike or rig upgrade, bought a freeze dryer.  Though someone said they are slow, the food supplies add up far quicker than one might imagine.

I live in farm country. One farmer has acres of apples and grows various row crops each year.  Since I never charged him for the eight foot wide steps off his deck, painting his deck railing, enlarging a bath entry for his handicapped son, and so on he owes me a favor or two.  Said another way, I'm not hurting for access to row crops, apples and so on.

If I froze these things, I need a row of freezers, and it would all be gone in a big power outage.  Everything else works, but has a "pay close attention to it" lifespan. Not so the freeze drying, and many things come back (eggs, shrimp, etc.) indistinguishable from fresh.

I both vacuum seal and insert a oxygen absorber. They aren't so expensive I would worry about risking an investment.

Now, if we need milk, all we need is water. So too it goes with sour cream. Eggs become omelets, but are easy to store. And on and on it goes.

I’m a bit confused by your reply, Kelly.   So what are the benefits of freeze drying compared to standard freezing then?  

With the pre packaging preventative maintenance measures you take of vacuum seal and oxygen scavengers, Im wondering how much of a difference freeze dry v freezer…

Thanks!!!

Marty Hill wrote:To Christopher,
Always wanted to know about limed eggs.
How long do they last? What is the flavor like?
Can you tell if they go bad? DO they go bad?
Thanks ,
Marty

I just watched this in a Townsends video.

Apparently in the test an actual 100% of eggs were good after 8 months of being in lime. Absolutely remarkable if you ask me. Nasty refrigerator eggs from the store go bad so quickly and these lime eggs were stored at room temp!

Favourite? It depends ...
For the taste I prefer fermenting and pickling.
When I'm lazy I just put it in the freezer.
If it's something I want to take with me when I go on a bicycle tour, dehydrating is my favourite method.

Todd, they are not, even remotely, the same. The only thing they have in common is freezing and that is only because the freeze dried food is temporarily frozen.

To freeze dry, my chamber takes the food down to around 50 below 0 degrees Fahrenheit.  Then a vacuum is put on the chamber and the trays are warmed. This causes all the ice to melt, but it goes straight from frozen to gas, bypassing the water stage, as it's moved out of the food.

The moisture laden gas then collects on the freeze dryer chamber walls.

In the end, the food is so dry even expensive moisture meters cannot measure the moisture content (they only go down to 5%).

The food, once dried, is bagged and sealed in 5 or 7 mil Mylar bags (you could use lighter for shorter storage periods and for food that was not likely to poke holes in the lighter material).

Consider shrimp, for example. Once dry, it is, literally, like Styrofoam. A minor just of wind will blow it off the trays.  So a ten pound bag of shrimp weights mere ounces when dried.

Once bagged, the freeze dried food does not have to be refrigerated. It can be stored in a cool, dark place (e.g., root cellar or basement) for about twenty-five years and the loss of power will not, of course, affect it.

Regarding my overkill approach (vacuum and O2 absorbers), many just just use the O2's.  Sometimes the bag will show signs of the 21% oxygen being removed from the air left in the bag, as often it won't show, even though it did work.

Because I buy about 1,000 O2 packs at a time, they aren't a horribly expensive means of insuring the freshness of the contents. With most the air removed, they do not have to work hard to remove the oxygen that is left and it would be possible to reuse them, if I handled things quickly enough.

Todd Bud wrote:

Kelly Craig wrote:The ONLY food preservation I haven't done is, smoking and brining.

I took the plunge and, instead of a vacation, four wheeler, bike or rig upgrade, bought a freeze dryer.  Though someone said they are slow, the food supplies add up far quicker than one might imagine.

. . . .

I’m a bit confused by your reply, Kelly.   So what are the benefits of freeze drying compared to standard freezing then?  

With the pre packaging preventative maintenance measures you take of vacuum seal and oxygen scavengers, Im wondering how much of a difference freeze dry v freezer…

Thanks!!!

Seems quite convenient, weight wise and space wise. If ever in an intentional community it'd be great to have a little storefront... Kelly's Freeze Dried Goods.

I don’t have a favorite, but I don’t like salt curing and dehydration of meat. I simply find them too hard to use, and will only do those for long term storage.
As for the rest, I do them all, and I love them all for different reasons. 1 is room/space. My freezer space is limited, since we use 3 for meat and fish, and only 1 for herbs and veggies. So for the freezer I prioritize the things we like better after freezing and those things that has to be frozen. It’s things like peas, garlic cloves (though I also preserve those in other ways),some culinary herbs,  Pesto and other freezer sauces, plus I make a large batch of soup mix that we freeze also.
I pressure can a lot of meat, since it saves freezer space, and makes for fast and easy meals. During spring, summer and fall, my son and I process 80% of the vegetables, fruit and berries  we use the rest of the year, plus about 400 jars of meat or MRIs.
I don’t can all of that produce. Some are frozen, some are dehydrated and some are fermented. The last 20% of vegetables I get fresh from our garden year round. We live in SoCal, so we can grow food year round, plus I have an indoor garden too.
My pantry are divided between long term storage and short term storage. The short term are those that we use within 1-3 years. Long terms storage is the ones that are processed to last up to 25 years. How you pack things up will make a difference in how long you can use what you preserve. I make a lot of dehydrated vegetables, fruits and berries, that I add to long term storage. It’s a lot smaller than my main short term storage pantry, but it gets a little bigger each year, and it’s like putting money in the bank. Every little bits count.
For years I didn’t do a lot of fermenting, simply because I didn’t have the right cold storage for it. Now I have and I am happy, because fermentation are so good for our bodies.

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Mark Brunnr wrote:

jim loggin wrote:All of the meats I have in the freezer  can be canned as is or cooked then canned..I might not want to try that with the fish thoe.on account I've never home canned fish before.

Simple Living Alaska has some videos on preserving their fish, using brines, smoking, and canning:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JsiaR-q8SBE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VgVMAnVaeQA

I am brand new to pressure canning and I may have a bit of a crush still coloring my perpsective.  But..  being able to store, meat especially, without electricity?  YES!

I shaved $100 off my grocery bill this month being able to shop bulk and sales well.   Yippee.   I probably invested that much into the jars/cans I bought.    I paid about $170 for my pressure canner new,  so looking at what, 90 days to recoup start up?

I eat keto, so all the storage stuff that applies to staple carbs (grain/flour/potato/etc) doesn't really apply to me.  

Solar dehydrating would probably be next on my list;  again, looking to get away from reliance on so much electricity is a priority for me.

(edit;  plus, no plastic)

Heather Staas wrote:I am brand new to pressure canning and I may have a bit of a crush still coloring my perpsective.  But..  being able to store, meat especially, without electricity?  YES!

I shaved $100 off my grocery bill this month being able to shop bulk and sales well.   Yippee.   I probably invested that much into the jars/cans I bought.    I paid about $170 for my pressure canner new,  so looking at what, 90 days to recoup start up?

I eat keto, so all the storage stuff that applies to staple carbs (grain/flour/potato/etc) doesn't really apply to me.  

Solar dehydrating would probably be next on my list;  again, looking to get away from reliance on so much electricity is a priority for me.

(edit;  plus, no plastic)

I have been canning for 40 years, but didn’t get my pressure canner until 4 years ago, and I love it too. We like to be prepared for things, so I have both a short time storage (1-5 years) and a long term storage (up to 25 years). It’s a blessing to be able to store meat, not only in freezers, but in jars, but the biggest game changer has been stock. We go through at least a double gallons each month. I used to buy it, since I didn’t have room for it in my freezer. We are on the paleo diet, plus we have a lot of food allergies.
I have a dehydrated too, but most of what I dry goes into the long term storage. I wish I had a freeze dryer, but it’s too expensive.
Have you done any fermenting yet? It’s essential on keto. Both kefir and kombucha are keto, and helps keep the stomach in tip top shape to digest all of the proteins and fats. My husband has been keto for many many years now.
As you I also love all the money I save, by buying bulk, but I save even more, since do to stocking up, I can now stick to mostly buying things when it’s on sale.

Fermenting is on my list, my first sad attempts were big fails but I haven't spent a lot of time on learning.  

Heather Staas wrote:Fermenting is on my list, my first sad attempts were big fails but I haven't spent a lot of time on learning.  

The best website to learn fermentation is culturedfoodlife.com . Since following her instructions, I haven’t had a single fail, and are getting more confident in doing it. It used to be my husband who did the ferments, and he only did sour kraut. My first 2 attempts at kraut failed, or so I thought. After reading about it on the website I saw that what I thought was molds, was a harmless one, you just scoop away. Mark though that I haven’t had mold growth since I started using her methods, but at least I now know what to do if it does grow mold.

I took the plunge and got a freeze dryer. I love it.  Though I bought the large one and the batches are larger than I anticipated so I have to aquire a hoard of goodies before I can run a batch.  I am thinking about getting a small one so I can make some ready to eat meals without an industrial kitchen.  Dry powerless storage is a plus, the oxygen absorbers and electricity is a con if SHTF.

Fermentation is probably the funnest method of preservation though.

Chuckle

Jeff Steez wrote:Seems quite convenient, weight wise and space wise. If ever in an intentional community it'd be great to have a little storefront... Kelly's Freeze Dried Goods.

Don't forget, you can still remove most the air from a bag without power. Many buy brake bleeder hand pumps and use those.  The hard part would be sealing the bags.

IF you do buy a second for smaller batches, it might be you'd be happy with the medium (which I have). The large does as much as a medium and small combined. So a medium may not be that bad and you wouldn't be as limited.

Tom Digerness wrote:I took the plunge and got a freeze dryer. I love it.  Though I bought the large one and the batches are larger than I anticipated so I have to aquire a hoard of goodies before I can run a batch.  I am thinking about getting a small one so I can make some ready to eat meals without an industrial kitchen.  Dry powerless storage is a plus, the oxygen absorbers and electricity is a con if SHTF.

Fermentation is probably the funnest method of preservation though.

Hallo all, I saw this method just recently and looks kind of very frugal and effective. Has someone ever tried vacuum-sealing as this and if so, would that one be kind enough to share the experience with us?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XrZPLF0ezw8&ab_channel=SeriousEats

I really love canning. Something about the jars sitting there just screams comfort/safety to me. It is convenient to open a jar. The jars look pretty. Vinegar pickles, Jellies, apple butter and sauce, peaches, pears, and green beans all taste great.

If I get a second choice I'm taking curing/smoking for my meats.

So yeah, in my ideal world most of the preserved produce is canned and the preserved meats are smoked/cured.

There are only a few foods that can't be preserved in one of these ways, and I find they are often just great things to eat fresh.  

As someone who first got her fingernails dirty in the tiny garden of our city home only 17 years ago, let me tell you.  Go ahead, pull up a chair.  I had to go s-l-o-o-o-o-o-o-wwww.

For much of that time since - and we had to move to a new place in late 2020 on nearly an acre to satisfy my need to homestead -, I've done pretty much water bath canning; freezing; dehydrating (just herbs), then about five years ago I finally buckled down and started pressure canning.  HOW I WISH I HAD STARTED YEARS EARLIER!!!  Especially meals in jars!  Dinner done is the best thing!

Just this year, I received and have maintained a sourdough starter - and have baked so much with it - that I am so very unwilling to bite into anything from a big box store.  My recipe box grows with "gotta try this!" lists.

New challenge for me this year, too: fermenting and sprouting.  Those two I guess I saved for last because there's an intricate relationship with a ferment and sprouted greens that I, uhmm, needed some time to lean into! HA.  I'm happy to say I made strawberry vinegar from our garden berries this spring and am totally hooked!  

And don't even get me started on seed-saving.... I do that every year, too, and it is probably one of the funnest things besides posting to a permie thread.  Especially when I open a box and see all my seeds in there, who needs the hidden gold of Montezuma when I have these???

~Mimi  

I employ a variety of techniques, but I am learning new ones thanks to Permies!

I have been preserving cloves of garlic in mason jars filled with vinegar. It is incredible how long it lasts and how 'fresh' the garlic stays! If I don't want too much extra vinegar flavor, I just wash them off quick before slicing.

It really is neat learning older techniques that still can be employed effectively today.

I have made tinctures with my elderberries and hawthorn.  Permaculture has led me down a path of exploring many side interests.  Herbal medicine is one.  Taking hawthorn has allowed me to cut my pharmaceutical prescriptions for heart failure in half!  Since taking elderberry tincture, I have not gotten any kind of sick with flu and the like.  I make plantain salve...I am constantly amazed at how much better these homemade remedies work! I've even started making capsules with some plant material: burdock, chickweed, horsetail, yellow dock, etc.
Another preservation technique is making wine!  So far, I've made dandelion, strawberry and rhubarb wines...quite successfully, too!  It is quite lovely to just grab a bottle whenever a glass of wine sounds nice.  It is basically free, because I grow the fruit, I recycle the bottles and the water is free.  Yes, there is sugar and yeast and a few other ingredients, but over the long haul, it's dirt cheap to make.  There is a time commitment.  Some wines take a year or more from start to finish, but once you build up your stock, that doesn't matter. I used to make beer, and I am having renewed interest in doing that again, as well.
I have a freeze-dryer, but I don't love it.  In retrospect, I wish I'd just gotten a big dehydrator which I'd use much more.  Although the nutrient aspect is better, the machine requires more maintenance.  It has allowed me to powder eggs, mushrooms and some fruit.  I've freeze-dried sour cream and cream cheese, herbs, and a few other things.  Unless things are powdered, the size remains the same, unlike dehydrating.  I grow wine cap mushrooms, and when they start producing, there is a crazy amount of them.  I freeze dry and then crush them for mushroom soup throughout the year.
I've just started pickling and canning, which is easier than I expected.  I grow Kirby cukes, because you don't have to peel them and the size is right for me.  I've made a few batches of bread and butter pickles, and hope to do another either today or tomorrow.  I've canned blueberries.  I'm eager to try canning meat, like turkey, when it's on sale. Of course, I love just freezing stuff, but the room it takes is forcing me to branch out. Right now, I have 50 quarts of strawberries frozen, which is preventing me from any kind of big shopping.  I have fermented some things like asparagus and rhubarb. That was fun, but I wasn't sure about how long these would keep without refrigeration.  
I've dehydrated in a small, round cheapie dehydrator for years.  You know, the type with no settings--it's either on (plugged in) or off!  My favorite is dehydrated cherry tomatoes.  They condense down so that they are like candy and wonderful to toss into salads.  Because I don't want them so dry, but instead, pliable, I keep those in the freezer.  What started as gallons shrinks down to a quart or less, so it is a huge savings in space.  
This fall, I hope to try my hand at making "apple scrap" vinegar.  If I can make enough of it, it would really help with the next season's pickling!
My brother accused me of really liking gadgets, and he wouldn't be wrong! I have many.  One is an apple peeler, corer, slicer which will help me make dried apple rings and have the peels and cores for the vinegar.  I have a cherry pitter for the day when the cherry trees produce in earnest, all of the wine-making implements, a steam juicer for the concord grapes...the list goes on and on, plus, I inherited all of my mom's gismos too. I have her Squeezo, Foley food mill and canning stuff.  Good thing I have a big pantry!

Stephen Smyth wrote:hi, just wondering if anybody has a read an article  comparing  the different methods of preserving and  measured the available nutrients before and after, specifically  all soft fruit, rosa rugosa, elderberries, hawthorne ,apples and maybe afew examples of green vegetables ,kale, sprouts,carrots.There are obviously lots of different methods, i am  interested in alcohol and fermenting.  Thanks, Stephen

How clever!  I could just fill one side of the sink and not haul out a tub, though.  I've already sent it on to a friend who has a lousy refrigerator and can never freeze anything without it getting freezer burn.  I've found that channel to have some good stuff.  I use the "Grape Nuts" recipe from that site, and the taste is exact.  The "nuts" are a little softer than the name brand, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. Anyway, thanks for sending this on.

Vase Angjeleski wrote:Hallo all, I saw this method just recently and looks kind of very frugal and effective. Has someone ever tried vacuum-sealing as this and if so, would that one be kind enough to share the experience with us?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XrZPLF0ezw8&ab_channel=SeriousEats

This is a very fun thread and useful, too!  One of the best sites out there is "Practical Self-Reliance."  She is thorough, clear and, well...practical!  She provides beautiful photos to amply illustrate her points and covers every kind of food preservation imaginable.  She even has a post about limed eggs.  She goes into cheese making, wine making, all sorts of ways to preserve meat, fruit and vegetables. She also talks about foraging and IDing things and then how to use them. She doesn't blather on like so many peoples' sites do.  What she writes matters toward the end result.  She has so many links to recipes that it is nuts. She lives it, she's not some suburban housewife dabbling in an idea to make a few bucks, but lives off-grid and actually writes from experience.  I have used her wine recipes and her tincture and salve recipes, to name just a few, and all have been perfect.

I think that when it comes to food preservation it depends of you needs, what food you eat and location. For example, we eat a lot of cabbages so I grow a lot of them and they need preserving. We do ferment some for kraut and pickle some too, but those methods won’t preserve the raw cabbage we use in a lot of recipes, so I freeze dry them. For eggs I start out waterglassing them, and if any are left after a year I freeze dry them.
Some medicinal herbs like mullein has very large leaves, and I use the whole plant. They are way too large to machine dry, so those are hung outside to dry.
Seeds for oil and eating, I dry in my dehydrator. Some fruits are preserved with the candying method, some canned and some dried. Meat I usually can unless I am salt curing it for something.  I preserve some things in fat as well, but keep them in cold storage with my fermented foods or freeze for longer storage.
My point is that I don’t have a favorite way to preserve food. It all depends on what needs to preserved and what I want to use it for, plus how we like it. I know most pressure can their tomato sauce, but my family don’t like it when I can it, so that goes into the freezer instead. Avocados are okay frozen, but we like them better freeze dried.

Vase Angjeleski wrote:Hallo all, I saw this method just recently and looks kind of very frugal and effective. Has someone ever tried vacuum-sealing as this and if so, would that one be kind enough to share the experience with us?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XrZPLF0ezw8&ab_channel=SeriousEats

This post may be too old to reply to but... I just want to say that Ziplock bags "breathe" regardless what method is used. Freezer burns when foods are frozen in those bags and , funky plasticky taste in Ziplock meant for pantry storage.
I found this out before I purchased vacuum sealer. I won't use any bags like that.
Other than that, I use some methods already mentioned by others

I won't use zip lock bags for that very reason. Freezer burn.plus the meat still goes bad to easy. That's why i'll use vacuum seal bags only. I can vacuum seal 16 pork chops.5 months later they'll be still good as the day I put then into the freezer.