Putting Food By - Janet Greene [108]
Wash plums, cut in half and pit. Unheated fruit: press raw through a sieve or food mill or purée in a blender or food processor. Add ¼ teaspoon crystalline ascorbic acid—or ½ teaspoon crystalline citric acid—to each 1 quart of purée. Heated fruit (the firm ones): add 1 cup water to each 4 quarts of plums; boil for 2 minutes; cool, and press through a sieve or food mill or purée in a blender of food processor.
Wet pack, juice. Mix ½ to 1 cup sugar with each 1 quart of purée. Pack; leave appropriate headroom. Seal; freeze.
JUICE
Wash plums, simmer until pulpy in enough water barely to cover. Or juice raw using an extractor. Strain through a jelly bag and cool the juice.
Wet pack, juice. Add 1 to 2 cups sugar to each 1 quart of juice. Pour into containers; leave appropriate headroom. Seal; freeze.
Rhubarb
Freeze only firm, young, well-colored stalks with good flavor and few fibers. (See also “Canning Fruits,” Chapter 7.)
PIECES
Wash, trim, and cut in 1- to 2-inch pieces, or longer to fit the package. Heating rhubarb in boiling water for 1 minute and cooling immediately in cold water helps to set the color and flavor.
Dry pack, no sugar. Pack either raw or preheated (and now cold) rhubarb tightly in containers. Leave appropriate headroom. Seal; freeze.
Wet pack, syrup. Pack either raw or preheated (and now cold) rhubarb tightly. Cover with cold 40 percent Syrup. Leave appropriate headroom. Seal; freeze.
PURÉED
Prepare as pieces. Add 1 cup water to each 6 cups of rhubarb and boil 2 minutes. Cool immediately; press through a sieve or food mill or purée in a blender or food processor.
Wet pack, juice. Add ⅔ cup sugar to each 1 quart of purée. Pack; leave appropriate headroom. Seal; freeze.
JUICE
Select as for pieces. Wash, trim, and cut in 4- or 5-inch lengths. Add 4 cups water to each 4 quarts of rhubarb, and bring just to a boil. Remove from heat and let stand 5 minutes. Or juice in an extractor. Strain through a jelly bag.
Wet pack, juice. Pour into containers. Leave appropriate headroom. Seal; freeze.
Tomatoes
See Chapter 15, “Freezing Vegetables”; Chapter 17, “Freezing Convenience Foods”; and of course, Chapter 8, “Canning Tomatoes.”
15
Freezing Vegetables
Freeze only prime vegetables that are garden-fresh and tender-young—younger, usually, than for canning. Freeze them in small batches, refrigerating overnight if you can’t freeze them promptly the day they’re picked. Any vegetable that cans well freezes equally well at home, with only several exceptions. These, in their raw state, are whole tomatoes, greens for salads, white potatoes, and cabbage. Because they have a high water content, home-freezing allows large ice crystals to form and rupture their flesh; the result, defrosted, is flabby or shapeless.
Certain vegetable varieties are better for freezing than others, so read your seed catalogs to see which ones you’ll have the most luck with. Or ask your County Agent for good performers in your area. Or, a farmer can tell you (but sometimes the person tending his roadside or market stand cannot).
CONVERSIONS FOR FREEZING VEGETABLES
Do look at the conversions for metrics, with workable roundings-off, and for altitude—both in Chapter 3—and apply them.
General Preparation
The first step, after you’ve gathered your packaging, etc., is to wash the vegetables. Use cold water and lift the vegetables out of it to leave any grit in the bottom of the pan.
You may need to take a further step to draw out possible insects in broccoli, Brussels sprouts, and cauliflower: simply soak them for ½ hour in a solution of 1 tablespoon salt to each 1 quart of cold water; insects will float to the surface, to be skimmed off. Wash vegetables again in fresh cold water to get rid of the salt. Sort the vegetables according to size; peel, trim, and cut to size as needed.
YIELDS IN FROZEN VEGETABLES
Since the legal weight of a bushel of vegetables differs among states, the weights given below are average; the yields are approximate.
Blanching
Even after vegetables are picked, the enzymes in them