Putting Food By - Janet Greene [160]
Salted Green/Snap/String/Wax Beans
Use only young, tender, crisp beans. Wash, remove tips and tails; cut in 2-inch pieces, or french them. Steam-blanch 10 minutes and cool. Weigh the beans, and measure 1 pound (1½ cups) of pure pickling salt for every 4 pounds of beans. Sprinkle a layer of salt in the bottom of a crock, add a layer of beans; repeat until the crock is filled to within 4 inches of the top or until the beans are used; top with a layer of salt. Cover with clean muslin sheeting or doubled cheesecloth and hold down with a weighted plate. If not enough brine has formed in 24 hours to cover the beans, eke it out with a solution in the proportions of 3 tablespoons of salt to each 1 cup of cold water.
Proceed as for Salted Sweet Corn, above.
Salted Dandelion (or Other) Greens
Green salads were a rarity with New England hill folk in the early nineteenth century; nor did they go in for leaf vegetables much, except for dandelions in early spring and beet or turnip tops from their gardens in late summer.
Sometimes they salted their greens according to the l-to-4 rule. Nowadays we’d go them one better, though, and steam-blanch the washed, tender leaves until they wilt—from 6 to 10 minutes, depending on the size of the leaves. Cool the greens, weigh them, and layer them in a crock with 1 pound (1½ cups) of pure pickling salt for every 4 pounds of greens. Proceed as for Salted Sweet Corn and Salted Green Beans, above.
To cook, rinse well and freshen in cold water for several hours, rinse again, drain, and simmer gently in the water adhering to them. Season with small dice of salt pork cooked with them, or serve with vinegar.
Salted Rutabagas (or White Turnips)
Use young, crisp vegetables without any woodiness. Peel; cut in ½-inch cubes. Steam-blanch from 8 to 12 minutes, depending on size of the pieces; cool. Weigh the prepared turnips and proceed with the 1-to-4 rule—1 pound (1½ cups) of pure pickling salt for each 4 pounds of turnips—and handle thereafter like Salted Sweet Corn, above.
To cook, rinse and freshen for several hours in cold water, rinse again; then simmer until tender in just enough water to keep from scorching. Mash if you like and serve with butter and seasoning to taste.
Salted Cabbage
Remove bruised outer leaves; quarter, cut out the core. Shred as you would for cole slaw. Steam-blanch for 6 to 10 minutes until wilted. Cool, weigh; follow the 1-to-4 rule for Salted Greens above, and continue with the cure.
To cook, rinse and freshen for several hours, rinse again; then simmer until tender in just enough water to prevent scorching. Season during cooking with 2 teaspoons of vinegar and ¼ teaspoon caraway; or drain and return to low heat for 3 minutes with crumbled precooked sausage or small dice of salt pork; or serve with butter and seasoning to taste.
Old-Style Dry-Salting to Ferment Vegetables
Most often fermented are cabbage (Sauerkraut) and Chinese cabbage, and rutabagas or white turnips. Generally speaking, the sweeter vegetables make a more flavorful product, while firmer ones provide better texture. Don’t relegate tough, old, woody vegetables to the souring crock—use the best young, juicy ones you can get.
If you feel like experimenting with a small batch (5 pounds, say, in a 1-gallon jar, or less in a smaller container) you could add with the salt the traditional German touches of caraway or dill; or try a bay leaf or two, or some favorite whole pickling spice, or some onion rings, or even a few garlic cloves, peeled (but whole, so you can fish them out before serving).
Some rules advocate starting fermentation with a weak brine, but this procedure offers a loophole for too low a concentration of salt, and the likelihood of mushy food or even of spoilage instead of the desired acidity. Unless you’re an old hand with sauerkraut and its relatives, you’ll do well to stick to dry salting here.
As with vegetables preserved with salt earlier, you should never mix a fresh batch with one already fermenting.
Produce to be soured is not blanched: