Category: Food Storage & Cooking

Good evening, Hugh, Your wife has posted a couple of articles indicating your family uses an industrial vacuum pump for vacuum sealing canning jars; do you have any recommendations on vacuum pumps for this task? How many inches of mercury do you regularly pull on canning jars? I’ve seen a couple of videos on Food Savers indicating they pull about 18 inches, but I suspect 20-21 inches should be more than adequate. She also mentioned you made wood crates for storing and transporting canning jars. I’m getting ready to start making some; any suggestions? What dimensions do you use for …

Hugh, For larger volumes: A Deli Slicer. This is one with a rotating blade with adjustable depth. I don’t know about the above, because I got mine from a second hand store, and it’s an old one built like a tank. It helps for freeze-drying as well as dehydrating. The problem with Mandolin slicers is the pressure or movement for some things to slice and limited capacity, and I even have one with a ceramic blade. The deli slicers make short work of large blocks of food. – T.Z.

Hugh, R.T. may change his mind. I bought a Swissmar mandoline and don’t like it at all. I’m now looking at metal mandolins with legs to hold it up away from the food and not so many parts. I found the Swissmar difficult to use and unnecessarily complicated. Also, the plastic “pusher” is breaking already. Excalibur has a couple that look good.

Even in very hot climates, below ground soil temperatures can be cooler than an air-conditioned house or garage. When you have a house on a slab, and dug root cellars are impossible because of high water table levels, you can still “build up” by putting in an earth berm and storing preps under it. If you have enough land, you can make the berm part of decorative landscaping, or use it to increase privacy and reduce noise from the road. Even on smaller plots, you may be able to use an earth temperature moderating technique that is more common in …

Dear Editor: I bought the food slicing mandoline recommended in the article on the topic of food dehydrating: “So Tell Me Again…”- Part 2, by M.P. the very morning the article appeared and have used it frequently ever since. I’ve used it primarily for making sauerkraut and other pickled vegetables as well as hash browns. Until the article I would’ve scoffed at the idea of paying $20 for something that I could already do with the knives in our drawer, a food slicer and a food processor; but now I concur on its usefulness. Perhaps it’s even a necessity if …

Guys, I recently read your article regarding Pemmican Jan 10 2008. I’ve tried to make pemmican, but after placing it in a Quart Ziplock bag and flattening it, it has firmed up but not really become hard. Is it supposed to store kind of squishy after several days and/or indefinitely? Is it supposed to harden like a granola bar? Thank – M.C. HJL Comments: The animal fat may keep it soft, especially if it’s stored in an airtight container. You can firm it up by using less fat in the mixture. It shouldn’t be crunchy like a hard granola bar …