Preserved Book

Why preserve? Food preservation is at the heart of civilization. To be wild is to have to eat on the run. Almost all the ingredients we use in our cooking have gone through some kind of preservation process. Take everything cured, smoked, dried, hung, fermented, candied, canned, frozen, pasteurized, irradiated or vacuum-packed from the average shopping basket, and you aren't left with much. Just fresh fruit and vegetables and a few fish and poultry products. And probably not even those, unless you go organic. In recent years, there has been a huge backlash against impersonal, mass-produced food. Many people who enjoy cooking still feel a residual sense of detachment from the ingredients they are using - and hence from the end-product - because they are so far removed from the raw materials. If you use a tube of tomato paste, you're already a long way from the original tomatoes. Once you've made the real thing, it is almost impossible to go back to the store. Not only does it taste better and cost less, you will also feel a bit of a phoney. Preserved is a panoramic introduction to a world that will seduce and consume you. Full of practical information, it covers all the main techniques of food preservation in an accessible and light-hearted manner. Johnny and Nick show you how to dry meat, salt fish, and cure ham. They will teach you how to build a smokehouse and then smoke your own salmon, how to make sausages, pickle eggs, infuse oils, preserve with sugar, bottle fruit in alchohol, and can your own produce. Preserved also reflects the international nature of these techniques, exploring the biltong of South Africa, Korean kim chee, and herbes de Provence as well as British classics such as kippers and sloe gin. Accompanying the techniques are over 50 recipes that will help you to bring out the best in your preserved food - hints on what to do with your damson jelly, homade chorizo, or smoked oysters. There are also entertaining tales about the history of preserving, including the American World War II pilots who made ice cream by tying cartons of the appropriate mix to the tails of their planes. Preserving is a kind of alchemy. It is about transforming products, creating individual foods that you will enjoy not only because they taste so good, but because you have crafted them, tailored them to your own palate, and then waited for them. But above all, preserving is fun.Read More