[Sca-cooks] Pennsic food

[Elaine Koogler]

I'm not sure it's still available, but Ball, the folks who make probably the
vast majority of canning jars, etc., used to publish a "Blue Book" that
contained information on how to can all sorts of things.  It was my mother's
bible when she canned stuff, which was all the time...my dad seemed to think
he was trying to feed Custer's army when he planted his garden!  I don't
recall her ever canning meat, but she did can all sorts of veggies and
fruits.  However, my aunts used to can traditional mince meat.  After all
that, given the fact that they were very careful to follow proper canning
procedures, we never got sick.  I know you'll need new lids or rubber rings,
make sure the jars are spotlessly clean and use a canner of some sort to
process the jars to seal them.  Mama had a real canner, but I believe you can
use a large pot into which the jars can be placed under water...they have to
be completely immersed.  See if you can find a copy of the Ball Blue Book for
complete instructions.

Kiri

"Pixel, Queen of Cats" wrote:

> On Wed, 18 Jul 2001, Angie Malone wrote:
>
> > If you want to do soups and stews I recommend freezing them.  You
> > could also buy very large canned soup/stews and then do what my
> > mother called 'doctoring them up' which meant adding spices, more
> > veggies, assorted pasta other stuff to make it taste better or be
> > more filling.
> >
> > If you are not trying to do all period cooking you could also have a
> > pasta night.
>
> Pasta is period. It's the tomato sauce which is questionable. ;-)
> >
> > I usually pack some cans of broth and mixed vegetables and other
> > stuff so that the night we get the down pour of rain I can make a
> > quick hot soup for people in the camp which consists of me opening a
> > bunch of cans and pouring them into a stock pot and adding some
> > seasoning and any meat I have frozen in the cooler and some kind of
> > pasta.
> >
> > I've never canned meat before but I've heard it's tricky.  Although
> > I've also heard people say home canning is dangerous and tricky, and
> > ate my mothers canned food for 25 years and never got sick.
> >
> >
> Not physically sick, anyway. Hi, Ang! [waves] :-)
>
> Ok, here's the deal. N19 is on the other side of Pennsic from the
> source of ice--it's right underneath the parking lot on the highway
> side--and I want to avoid a cooler full of frozen meat as much as
> possible. Heck, I'd like to skip the whole cooler thing entirely, but,
> since both of us will be being retinue, and we will both be spending a
> certain amount of time on the fighting field, we just won't have the time
> or the energy to cook.
>
> Especially if this last weekend is any indication. Kraft macaroni and
> cheese was a huge effort.
>
> I have lots of Classico mason jars, so I am planning on single usage. We
> will empty the jar, rinse it out, then recycle it. I have three shelves
> full of these things--I'm not worried about running out of them.
>
> Margaret FitzWilliam
>
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