Friday Five: What's Preservin'

My friend Jill (and her friend Maya) are writing Friday Five posts on their blog Itinerant Foodies. It's a great idea for a quick post before the weekend and starting today I'm going to steal it! This week, I want to share five things that are aging in the house. Sometimes I feel like I have no space and this is why: tucked into every corner and counter are jars of foodstuffs fermenting, drying, and infusing. In the end, the customized all-local flavors are totally worth the sacrifice of space.

1. Limoncello - We have had a bumper crop of meyer lemons from our potted tree this year. It's the first significant harvest we've ever had in seven years of keeping the tree and I am committed to preserving the flavor so that we can enjoy it for some time to come. I'm using a version of the Restaurant Widow recipe for home brewed limoncello.

2. Candied Meyer Lemon Peels - For my sister and father in law's birthdays (Happy Birthday Heather and Tom!) I was tasked with making a dairy free dessert. I juiced some of our homegrown lemons and made meyer lemon sorbet ala Simply Recipes. I could never discard the peels of a fruit so long in the making, so I candied them. They are drying over the pot rack.

3. Hard Apple Cider - Four gallons of home pressed cider from Ohio apples is still bubbling away in the carboy. It's been stewing for about a month now and we hope to bottle soon.

4. Apple Cider Vinegar - Last weekend we pressed the last of the apples. I made some into cider syrup and we kept a bit fresh. I put 1 1/2 quarts in a half gallon jar topped with cheese cloth to make vinegar. According to the Ohio State Univeristy Extension, raw cider will naturally ferment into alcohol and then natural cultures change the alcohol to acetic acid. Right now there is quite a bit of 'funk' on top and I'm not sure what exactly is happening...

5. Pancetta hanging - Alex cured some pork belly in the refrigerator this week. It is now hanging in the basement to dry as pancetta.

Yay for yeast and salt and sugar and dehydration! Yay for home preservation! Yay for Friday!

Cider Pressing

Our cider press has seen lots of action since we acquired it a month ago. Here is what it produced so far:

October 26 - 1 liter pear cider

November 6 - 1.5 gallons winesap cider, 1 gallon gold rush cider + lots of tastes consumed at our Cider Pressing Party

November 21 - 5.75 gallons winesap cider, 1/2 gallon pomegranate cider

We still have seven bags of winesap apples, some gold rush apples if we aren't able to keep them fresh, and several odds and ends amounts from friends left to press.

Some of the juice, including the four gallons I'm hugging at left, is bubbling away in fermentation vessels to make hard apple cider. The pear cider matched with sierra nevada yeast produced a lovely sweet perry that we shared with family this weekend.

Some people get excited about the stock market or political news or the latest car. We are hot for home pressed cider and the resulting fermented products.

Cider Press!

Meet the newest tool in the hand-powered arsenal at Hounds in the Kitchen:

A cider press!

Charlie of Windy Hill Apple Farm had this press on display with a for-sale sign the last time we visited.  I immediately recognized it as a well maintained machine for a good price.

We debated for a few days about whether we need a press when: 1) we have no apple tress, 2) even if we moved to a farm tomorrow it would be years before we would have producing apple trees and 3) how exactly do you use a cider press?

The debate ended when casual mentions of the press for sale were greeted with friends and family strongly encouraging us to buy it and offering up apples ready for cider-making this season.

Today the cider press is ours.  We immediately tested it with some very squishy pears, yielding a quart of juice.  Not enjoying the taste of the overripe fruit, we poured it into a jug with a fermentation lock to make some pear hooch.  We are determined to master the making of hard cider, as any good pioneer would be.

Soon, bags of apples will be turned into gallons of cider by the power of the screw and our very own hands.  We may host a cider-making day once we figure out what we're doing.  We will definitely accept sharing or renting arrangements for those of you with excess fruit.

"Give me yesterday's Bread, this Day's Flesh, and last Year's Cyder." Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790) 'Poor Richard's Almanac'

Added to Hearth and Soul blog hop.