WINTER STORES

Hawera Star, Volume LI, 20 February 1932, Page 14

WINTER STORES

PE E SER VED VEGETABLES. DRYING AND SALTING PROCESSES. Requests have 'been received from readers with regard to the drying and preserving of vegetables. Many varieties are particularly cheap just now, while they are flourishing in home gardens. As it is so important that greens should bo added to the menu during the “out” months, the question of storing for such times should be taken seriously into consideration. Recipes are given for both drying and preserving the various kinds of vegetables, and the former method may be approved of 'by those folk who are unable to lay in a good store of glass bottles for the purpose.

To begin with, green peas may be dried in quite a simple fashion. See that you choose nice ones of uniform size. Remove the shells, and place the peas in large flat dishes, so that they may be spread out in one single layer. .If you use wire sieves or cake coolers these will do equally well, but care must be taken to prevent the peas from running off. Place them in the oven, and leave the door open. Stir up every hour, and when almost dry place higher up on the oven, and put another lot at the bottom. The whole isecref. of success is to be as slow as possible. When the peas are quiet dry, let them get cold, and then store them away in bottles which are ultimately well corked.

It will be a great change to be able to serve either French or runner beans during the winter. These are preserved a little differently from the peas. Gather them on a quite flue and sunny day, remove the strings, and cut info strips as for cooking. Place as many as possible in a colander, and then plunge it into fast-boiling water, in which a very little bicarbonate of soda has been added. Cook for three minutes, and then turn out and dry with a soft cloth. Have ready some wire sieves, if possible, place the the beans on these in a thin layer, and stand the sieves one on top of the other in a cool oven. The idea is to allow the heat to pass all round the sieves. Every three hours stir gently, and, as the beans dry, move them together on the sieves, so as to leave some of the empty ones for fresh arrivals. Do not mix a new lot with an old one. You will have to use your discretion as to the exact time of drying. When the beans are ready, store them away in air-tight tins or boxes. It is quite impossible to lav down any hard and fast rules here. The drying must be very slow, and it. will possibly take a day for the operation to be complete. The vegetables should be quite stiff, with all the moisture evaporated from them.

Now, here Is a very simple way of keeping ibeans for winter use ’Have them quite dry, and piace in a wooden recap,'tabic in layers of about three inches deep, with a thin layer of salt between each layer. Cover with a circle of wood to keep them from moving. Salt is quite cheap, so that your preserving in this way will not cost you much. When you ■want do use-the beans, soak them in cold water tor a few hours,, and cook as usual. This also applies ito any vegetable's which have been -dried. Both the beans and -peas, if' properly done, should look quite green, and should retain their delicious flavour when boiled in plenty of water with a tiny speck or soda.

The great art of preserving vegetables by what we may term it he “wet” process is to have a pan of water or a kettle boiling on -the stove, so that if there is any filling up to be done it can be carried out with water | of a similar temperature. You can now jget the most wonderful outfits at quite a reasonable rate, but those women who do no-t care to go to the expense can do very well in a home-made fashion. Both peas and broad beans may be treated thus: Take a large pan, and allow loz of salt, to every quart of water. Bon this for 2-li minutes. Then put some of -this in another pan, and, when boiling add at a time sufficient beans to fill one or two bottles. The best thing is to measure them before cooking, and allow a fow extra xor shrinkage. Let the vegetables boil for five minutes only, then lift out with a strainer and fill the bottles. After this take some of the water from the other pan, and pour into the top of the .far, letting the liquid overflow. iSeal up at once, and use good new, rubbers so as to be sure -that all aii is excluded. If properly -done, the vegetables should keep for an appreciable time.

t is understood -that- the great -secret of success lies in the 20 minutes’ boiling of the salt and water in the first instance. Some housewifes line to add a Jittle sugar to the top of the bottles Alien peas are being preserved, but this is a matter of taste. But, of course, when the peas are wanted for use, they will have added ,to them the requisite sprig of mint. Thev will need very little extra cooking.