Ask the A2K cooks!

I've made refrigerator pickles lots of times, but not lately. I'll check my recipes and perhaps online.

Ok, I checked, and I've about 30 recipes all together but maybe ten for different items to refrig pickle. So I started looking online re spices and bread and butter pickles, and got a pulled in by a site that says what not to do:
http://pickyourown.org/picklesFAQs.htm

Here's one in my own files that I can't find the original url for, but it's got two interesting lists re spices..
ah ha, this must be the name of the website..
Search What's Cooking America

Question:
(1) I keep seeing "Pickling Spices" as an ingredient in many canning recipes. What are canning recipes?
(2) What is found in the pickling spices (all the recipes call for them but we can't seem to find out what is in the cheesecloth bag)? Can you help us?
I've searched the internet but have not been able to come up with anything. I would appreciate some feedback.

Answers:
(1) Canning recipes that use pickling spices are usually referring to preparing and canning (foods preserved in bottles) anything that is pickled, like dill pickles, sour pickles, and sweet pickles. Some vegetable are also pickled and placed in jars for storing.
(2) Pickling spice is most often used for canning pickles, but in some other dishes as well. The main ingredients are: cinnamon, mustard seed, bay leaves, allspice, dill seed, cloves, ginger, peppercorns, coriander, juniper berries, mace, and cardamom. For a hotter mix, add some crushed hot peppers. Below are a couple of pickling spice recipes:

PICKLING SPICE RECIPE I

2 cinnamon sticks, broken
1 tablespoon mustard seeds
2 teaspoons black peppercorns
1 teaspoon whole cloves
1 teaspoon whole allspice
1 teaspoon juniper berries
1 teaspoon crumbled whole mace
1 teaspoon dill seeds
4 dried bay leaves
1 small piece dried ginger

Mix together all the ingredients.
Store in a small, airtight jar up to 2 months.
Makes about 1/4 cup.

PICKLING SPICE RECIPE II

4 cinnamon sticks (each about 3 inches long)
1 piece dried gingerroot (1 inch long)
2 tablespoons mustard seeds
2 teaspoon whole allspice berries
2 tablespoons whole black peppercorns
2 teaspoons whole cloves
2 teaspoons dill seeds
2 teaspoons coriander seeds
2 teaspoons whole mace, crumbled medium fine
8 bay leaves, crumbled medium fine
1 small dried hot red pepper (1 1/2 inches long), chopped or crumbled medium fine, seeds and all

Wrap the cinnamon and gingerroot loosely in a piece of cloth and bash them with a hammer until well crumbled. Discard any stringy parts of the ginger, then mix with other ingredients.
Store in a small, airtight jar up to 2 months.





My recipes are usually easier - one was the Zuni Cafe recipe for refrig pickling zuccini..
http://www.food.com/recipe/zuni-caf-zucchini-pickles-316950

I like the Vlasic "Hot n Sweet pickle spears"

Rel low cls and a nice sweetish HOT tatste. Ive got plenty of types of chilis in the grden. One of my favs is a minature decorative xhili pepper that spends its time ripening from a green, to purple, to a bright red. They are nice qnd hot (not hqbenero hot but jalepeno hot)
and they are very tiny so one can chew a pepper qnd just get a jolt of heat but not 3rd degree burns.

I want to make a sweet brine (not cloying like sweet pickle relish, but just a moderately sweet/sour brine), the pickle spiceswe usually buy in bulk from Pennsy's
The mustard seeds we get from our own fields. (I will overseed my alfalf fields with a spring mustrd green qnd qwe let em seed by July nd dely on cutting so that the mustrd plnts get incorported with the qlfqlfa (BUT DRY becquse mustard leaves (raw) can be deadly to sheep.

If I had it to do now, I would probably play with the zuni cafe recipe. Not that you have to use zucchini (I spelled it right this time) and certainly not having to use turmeric, and maybe not that much sugar, but as a test for general balance. I presume there are other good recipes out there now. Your hotties sound great. I have pickled jalapenos in my freezer, but I admit buying them in a can, she who hardly ever buys stuff in a can. I think they were pleasantly inexpensive.

Maybe it's my refrigerator, cold in the back, or my laissez faire about bacteria in my kitchen, but I've kept my jars of frig pickles for a fair amount of time. There are still some pickled turnips waiting for me to shine my eyes on them.

Any fish in/under tomato or tomato sauce recipes.

Got a few nice looking pieces of tilapia but don't know what to do with them. Have ingredients for most of my usual preps but I was thinking tomato/tomato sauce might be an interesting switch.

I think I'll go with a Jamie Oliver if no suggestions appear (here or on FB or Fl.)

We are uner tons of peaches. The "Freestone varieties " are now coming in nd these RE THE yellow ones that are sugar rich and are the greatest for pies and jellies.
Mrs F wants tomake some tarts but wants some new suggestions (shes always made these with peaches and cream (or sweetened condensed milk) nice but not the French style "jammy with fig jam layers).
Anybody got a nice shallow dish peach and fig (or any fruit) tart???????????.
We are trying to stay away from adding lots of sugar so the fig (dried) are in our minds.

dont like tilapia . Dont like the way they are raised and shipped

I make tarts, but they are savory (ricotta, eggs, veggies) and I make an olive oil dough - so completely different from your peaches and figs interest. Let us know how it goes though, sounds interesting. Fresh or dried figs?

dont know, dont have any recipes yet. Hence, my post up above.

I''ve got something in an old German cookbook that might work. Will see if I can translate or find a translation.

Will any of the peaches go into salsa? that's my latest love. Peach salsa in the winter is the fastest way to get a taste of summer.

This is very very very close to the recipe my mother used. Traditionally made with Italian Prune Plums but my mother made it with other fruit as well.

http://germangirlinamerica.com/my-favorite-german-foods/plum-cake-pflaumenkuchen/#Plum_Sheet_Cake_Recipe_Pflaumen_SchichtKuchen_Rezept


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Have you considered making some peach pizzas and freezing them?

peach pizzas?? Weve made strawberry and creme "pizzas" but not for freezing

I love peach salsa. We can never freeze stuff like that, its too much texture that goes away an w miss the texture.

PS You dont have to translate, I can handle German or Polish pretty easily.

I'll check with my pal at what stage she freezes things. I think that promises of Emma's peach salsa is what keeps our Roma troupe going.

Emma says you can freeze the peaches and make the salsa later (remember to drain the peaches), or you can make the salsa and freeze it (the peaches should be biggish chunks).

she sent me this link

http://www.ontariotenderfruit.ca/recipe.php?id=4o2s0q6r1c9t

look at this one! My mom used to make this when it was peach season
https://tezukuri-baking.com/2012/09/27/gesturzter-pfirsichkuchen/

I got all the way down to where it made her mouth water. Then the recipe opened . CARAMELIZED PEACHES , rrrrrrrrrrrmmmmmmmmm
I love caramelized anything,
Sorry osso, this is gonna be Mrs F's recipe. I like the "knifed cut" I guess the word was for thin slicing of the peaches , like in an apfelkuchen(jalbka)

thanks muchly.

I'm not in this so no harm, and I too love caramelized stuff.

I just don't want an interesting post to pass all of us by with no reponse, so I said something fairly soon.

and i am greatful

That's the same as the sheet cake above - but with caramelized peaches instead of Italian plums. Good stuff.

Yes, you can substitute any fruit with that recipe - plums, peaches, even apples. It always comes out great!

@ Farmerman: get a picture when Mrs. F is done!!