FREE/BARGAIN — Cookbooks

[Cinisajoy]

Originally Posted by GtrsRGr8

So, who could be some people or what could be some organizations behind the sales pitch possibility that you and AnotherCat brought up?

On the sales pitch, whoever is selling that book. Whether it is the author, the publisher or the PR person.

[tempest@de]

Just adding my two cents about making jams being too much work, I think this was true some years ago but not necessary today with all the gadgets out there that make it easy and simple. Just 2 weeks ago I made pumpkin jam and lemon curd and canned it so I don’t have to store it in the fridge and although the total time for doing them was about 3 h the time in which I was actually doing something was less than 30 minutes, so I think it was worth it.

You can make jams without canning them, you have to sterilize the jars and pour the jam will it is very hot, you then close the lid and put them upside down and let them cool that way. You can sterilize the jars in the oven, easier than using boiling water, and some people even use the microwave to sterilize the jars (not sure how effective it really is though).

About the amount of sugar in jams, where I live the usual amount is equal weight sugar and fruit, I’ve reduced the amount off sugar to half with good results, and even substituted with sucrose. However reducing the sugar makes the jam more prone to spoilage, so in that case I canned it just to be safe.

My mom makes tomato jam every year and she doesn’t cann the jars and the jam last several months, or as much as we allow it

Two years ago we started making our own tomato sauce when she collects the tomatos in july, we can the jars in a water bath using an electric sterilizing pan and we have homemade tomato sauce without additives or preservatives that lasts until the next season. This year I experimented with green beens and even dried beans from our plants and all turned out well. I tried peaches one time just to see out it turned out and would like to make more, but the peach tree is small and doesn’t grow that many, maybe in a few years.

I’m not one of those persons that only eat natural, organic and unprocessed food but I tend to read the ingredients in the food products and sometimes I’m quite surprised with the ingredients in some of them, so when I can I like to make things myself, so I know what actually is in the food.

[GtrsRGr8]

Originally Posted by tempest@de

Just adding my two cents about making jams being too much work
<snip>

The foods that you mentioned are interesting. They wouldn't be readily available here in States, except maybe in a large city with a lot of different ethnicities--say New York City or San Francisco.

I rarely, if ever, run across a cookbook of Portuguese food. If anyone had one, it would probably be Encore. It seems like they have a cookbook for everything and everywhere.

Portugal is on my bucket list of places to visit before I kick the bucket (die).

[Cinisajoy]

Originally Posted by GtrsRGr8

The foods that you mentioned are interesting. They wouldn't be readily available here in States, except maybe in a large city with a lot of different ethnicities--say New York City or San Francisco.

I rarely, if ever, run across a cookbook of Portuguese food. If anyone had one, it would probably be Encore. It seems like they have a cookbook for everything and everywhere.

Portugal is on my bucket list of places to visit before I kick the bucket (die).

Huh?
You can't get pumpkin, lemons, green beans and tomatoes?
What ethnic food did that person mention?

[AnotherCat]

Originally Posted by GtrsRGr8

So, who could be some people or what could be some organizations behind the sales pitch possibility that you and AnotherCat brought up?

I hadn't seen the following when I wrote my earlier post, I was just suspicious. But to answer your question I checked the listing on the Amazon website and it states:
In this first official Pomona’s Pectin cookbook, you’ll learn how to use this revolutionary product and method...

Interesting your comments on freezer jam, I had not heard of it before.

Some comments:

Spoiler:

Regarding cost of making jam the most expensive we make is that using bought frozen berries and for that the cost works out about the same as the cheapest supermarket jams here in NZ, but much better quality plus making jam types unavailable to buy (that comparison assumes having the jars on hand free). Time wise is not too onerous, no worse than making a stew perhaps as long as one knows to do the jar sterilisation the quick and easy way - dishwasher them, then 10 min's at least in a 120C oven taken out hot for filling (Edit- as tempest@de says too, I see ). If using the thermometer jam setting check method one can set the temperature alarm on an electronic thermometer hanging in the jam so apart from the occasional stir one does not have to stand by the stove.

We generally only make it from fruit we have available free or next to nothing, except for berries where we do occasionally use frozen ones, and we don't spend all our time making jam, have just been doing it off and on for many years as and when fruit (and interest) has been available. I got started as a teenager when my mother taught me and then at university one of our chemistry professors ran a few evening general interest lectures on the chemistry of cooking.

I was married about that time as an impoverished student and one day at the small fruit and vegetable shop wife and I shopped at the owner was removing from display a part box of gooseberries which had lost their appearance quality. When I asked he gave it to me and from then on he occasionally did the same again if the outcasts were still of good quality. The next many decades is history.

I was fortunate enough to win a scholarship for my studies from a company that among many other things made bread baking pans for commercial bakers. They gave me some free, and yay you know where that led to . But when we do make bread now it is in a bread-maker as so easy and much less work and handling time.

John

[GtrsRGr8]

Originally Posted by Cinisajoy

Huh?
You can't get pumpkin, lemons, green beans and tomatoes?
What ethnic food did that person mention?

I was talking about the results. Sorry that I didn't make that clear. You would be hard-pressed to find pumpkin jam, lemon curd, tomato jam, etc. except in the kind of places that I mentioned. At least, I think so.

[Cinisajoy]

Originally Posted by GtrsRGr8

I was talking about the results. Sorry that I didn't make that clear. You would be hard-pressed to find pumpkin jam, lemon curd, tomato jam, etc. except in the kind of places that I mentioned. At least, I think so.

I think you would be hard pressed to find those things manufactured on any kind of scale. Your best bet wouldn't be ethnic groups.
You would be more likely to find the jams in parts of Pennsylvania and Ohio. More common among the Amish I would think.
Lemon curd I am not so sure about.

[GtrsRGr8]

Originally Posted by Cinisajoy

I think you would be hard pressed to find those things manufactured on any kind of scale. Your best bet wouldn't be ethnic groups.
You would be more likely to find the jams in parts of Pennsylvania and Ohio. More common among the Amish I would think.
Lemon curd I am not so sure about.

The Amish generally have a German ancestry. I would think that, if their food leans in any
direction away from their "country" cooking and American cooking, it would be German.

Lemon curd sounds like it could be something that the British eat, too. After all, they have that nasty stuff called marmalade. But we haven't had very many British immigrants in the last . . . oh . . . 300 years or so, and they've adopted American cuisine. It's probably hard to find ethnic British food in the U.S., in part because of that. Too, and I'm not saying that I agree, but British food doesn't have the best of reputations in America. Maybe there's a restaurant or two in the D.C. area for the visiting diplomats, entourages, ne'er do wells, etc.

Oh, incidentally, Gibraltar (British territory) may have a common border with Portugal. If not, the common border is with Spain, but Portugal is not very far away. There might be a lot of sharing of cuisine.

[Little.Egret]

Originally Posted by Cinisajoy

I think you would be hard pressed to find those things manufactured on any kind of scale. Your best bet wouldn't be ethnic groups.
You would be more likely to find the jams in parts of Pennsylvania and Ohio. More common among the Amish I would think.
Lemon curd I am not so sure about.

Lemon curd is a Brit staple/ standard, available everywhere in all price ranges from gourmet to store brand economy.

[AnotherCat]

Lemon Curd from several manufacturers is widely available in supermarkets here in NZ (Edit: now reading Little.Egret's post it would have been the Brits that introduced it here). I can remember my mother making it a few times decades ago but have never tried doing so myself.

As of recently there is even an ice-cream with lemon curd through it.

[GtrsRGr8]

Originally Posted by Cinisajoy

I think you would be hard pressed to find those things manufactured on any kind of scale. Your best bet wouldn't be ethnic groups.
You would be more likely to find the jams in parts of Pennsylvania and Ohio. More common among the Amish I would think.
Lemon curd I am not so sure about.

Speaking of curd, isn't there some kind of British rhyme that mentions "curds and whey"?

[AnotherCat]

Originally Posted by GtrsRGr8

...It's probably hard to find ethnic British food in the U.S...

Try an Indian restaurant for it .

[GA Russell]

Gtrs, without looking it up, do you know what we call "curds and whey" in the US?

[Cinisajoy]

Originally Posted by GtrsRGr8

The Amish generally have a German ancestry. I would think that, if their food leans in any
direction away from their "country" cooking and American cooking, it would be German.

Lemon curd sounds like it could be something that the British eat, too. After all, they have that nasty stuff called marmalade. But we haven't had very many British immigrants in the last . . . oh . . . 300 years or so, and they've adopted American cuisine. It's probably hard to find ethnic British food in the U.S., in part because of that. Too, and I'm not saying that I agree, but British food doesn't have the best of reputations in America. Maybe there's a restaurant or two in the D.C. area for the visiting diplomats, entourages, ne'er do wells, etc.

Oh, incidentally, Gibraltar (British territory) may have a common border with Portugal. If not, the common border is with Spain, but Portugal is not very far away. There might be a lot of sharing of cuisine.

Why I said the jams. Not the curds.
Although the curds in the nursery rhyme refers to cheese curds not lemon curd.

And now that you have me curious, off to look for recipes for Tomato and pumpkin jams.
Found tomato jam in an Amish cookbook. And all kinds of other jams. I knew they canned many things.

They are into simple living.

Lemon curd=very simple lemon pudding.

[GtrsRGr8]

Originally Posted by GA Russell

Gtrs, without looking it up, do you know what we call "curds and whey" in the US?

Not without looking it up, but both are by-products from milk. I suppose that one or both are used in cheese; perhaps one or both are also used in stuff like cottage cheese and maybe buttermilk. I don't think that either one are used in making butter.

Inform me.