Really only took a bit of skin and surface flesh.
Just a signal warning to always use the guard, and if there’s not enough there for the guard to affect, don’t try to slice the last bit. That was my error.
2 Likes
I want to make my own home based pasta sauce in like a 10 litre batch. Any suggestions on what i need to do so it can be preserved as well?
my lesson was don’t slice prosciutto on a 35 degree day without the guard on.
Make sure you wash the jars well and then sterilise them before filling. Adding some acid (e.g. lemon juice) would probably help preserve it for longer.
1 Like
Does it need to be refrigerated? How long will it keep for? When you say steralised so through boiling water?
What kind of jars are you using?
No to refrigerated if you sterilise.
My italians friends’ families usually make sauce once a year and it supposedly lasts that long.
1 Like
My grandpa has got some in his cellar from at least 4 or 5 years ago. Still fine.
Pasta sauce jars! The store bought ones which used to have pasta sauce in them 
Do they have the pop up buttons on the lids or are the lids flat?
I think they do it once a year because they run out, more than anything tbh.
1 Like
Pop top
Good. I have no idea if the following is a good technique, but it has been working in my family since before I can remember
Basically, just make your sauce how you normally would. The only cooking requirement is that it simmers at least 10 minutes to kill the bacteria.
Meanwhile you’re going to either bring a big pot of water to the boil, or just use a kettle a few times.
Place a metal spoon/knife (or anything metal) in each of the jars and fill them with the boiling water. The spoon stops the glass from shattering due to the heat. Also pour some of the water onto the inside of the lids and your ladle (and funnel if you have one). i.e. sterilise everything.
Let them sit for a few minutes (or until your sauce is ready) and then pour out the water, hopefully without burning yourself. Place the jars upside down on a clean tea towel until you’re ready to fill.
Fill 'em up to within half a centimetre or so from the top. I can’t recommend a funnel highly enough.
Clean up any spillage on the jar and screw a lid on fairly tightly.
Repeat for all the sauce.
Leave your jars to cool. Whatever you do, don’t touch the button on the lids. The next day, have a look at the lids. If the button has popped down, it has sealed. You can store those for months in a cellar or pantry. The ones that haven’t popped aren’t sealed and should be kept on the fridge and eaten within a few weeks.
As I said in a earlier post, if you use more sour tomatoes or add some lemon juice it will keep better. I assume that acid kills bacteria or something like that.
You’d also probably have a better success rate by canning in a hot water bath, but you need the right kind of jars and it’s more of an effort.
4 Likes
Yep, … they provide a guard for very good reason. I have used a fork in a crises when I really wanted that last slice.
Use a very large CAST IRON pot for starters, … like a Canp Oven. Then either pack into saved bought pasta sauce punnets and freeze (easiest) or a Fowlers Vacola bottling outfit, … or as my Old Man used to, … boil bottles, bottle hot, with glad wrap or wax paper seals cut and placed. A right royal fk around TBH.
Freezers really make life easy :).
2 Likes
Ok, this is a really long shot, but I’ll ask here cos I don’t know where else and I know there’s at least one other person here who’s spent time in Colombia and might know what I’m on about…
- What is the best readily available potato in Australia you could use to substitute pappa criolla in ajiaco? (I want to use fresh potato)
2 what cold you use to substitute for arracacha in sancoccho trifasico?
3 is canned hominy corn ok in soups such as SOPA de mute.
Thanks. Sorry to everyone whose eyes have glazed over!
1 Like
Have you tried Casa Iberica in Johnston St, Fitzroy? They’re all Latin Americans there…the day I went, anyway. Only a couple speak good enough English though. I tried to ask whether you can get a suitable corn to put on top of pastel de choclo. All they could say was that the Australian corn is too sweet.
I asked once about papa criolla, which Los Latinos in Maidstone was going to serve, but they ended up not being able to get the right spud. I think there’s something quite distinctive about it.
There’s another Latin American grocery out in Deer Park, connected to a cafe. Used to be La Morenita in Berkshire Rd, Sunshine. Pretty sure it’s on Ballarat Rd.
1 Like
Yeah Casa iberica is an awesome source of Latin American stuff. They sell frozen Pappas criollas but they’re pre fried and unpeeled. The point of using them in Ajiaco is that they break down in the cook and give the soup a kind of grainy thickness and a unique, subtle flavour. I might try peeling and chopping something like a kipfler and then taking some of them out with a bit of stock, blending them and putting them back.
Anyone have any advice on how to best preserve olives?