Help! What is happening?

On Thu 13 Oct 2005 06:23:10p, George Newton wrote in rec.food.cooking:

Quoted message said:

WHA'S HAPPENIN HERE!?

Is this some normal/natural OK phenom!

Well, yes, cabbage in particular will begin to ferment if not cooked. Guess
where sauerkraut comes from?

Quoted message said:

Will I live? <g>

In spite of yourself.

Quoted message said:

Is this some normal fermentation that is going to
increase/ferment much more?

Yes, it will continue.

Quoted message said:

Does partially cooking everything before storing
inhibit/prevent fermentation (if that's what this is)?

For the most part, yes. However, the whole thing could go sour over time,
and not in a good way.

Quoted message said:

Could the pre-peeled garlic alone have caused this?

It's unlikely if it's fresh.

Quoted message said:

(Is this happening because I started studying
chemistry recently? <g>😉

It's a test!

Now for an opinion you didn't ask for... IMHO, this concoction, partially
cooked and stored, sounds absolutely disgusting. Whatever possessed you? I
doubt I could get even a teaspoon past my lips.

OTOH, freshly prepared, cooked, and eaten soon after cooking might be a very
different story. Best of luck...

Cheers!

--
Wayne Boatwright *¿*
_____________________________

http://tinypic.com/eikz78.jpg

Meet Mr. Bailey

George Newton said:

I've been making a dish for a few years now and I've recently
added cabbage - usually savoy - instead of rice. All of a sudden
I think it has started to ferment in the frig. ??
I've never cooked or prepared cabbage before. (Yes, I know,
I've only just started to really live. <g>😉

1 cup tomato puree
10-12 cloves of garlic liquefied in garbanzo juice.
(no, I don't like garlic)
1 tsp salt

all chopped/processed:
6 med carrots
3 large zucchini
2 large red peppers
2 cups cooked garbanzos (a little smoother than veggies)
1 1/2 lg heads of savoy cabbage.

When I was using cooked brown rice instead of cabbage,
I would partially cook the mixed ingredients, then store
in the frig in serving sized containers.

Then on eating day, I would cook on very low for about
20-25min.

Recently I decided to use cabbage instead of rice and still
partially cooked it all as above.

Then I got the bright idea not to pre-cook it at all. It
seemed like a waste of effort, but now maybe it helps to
preserve it a bit?

So, the first time I left it (w/cabbage - no rice) all
uncooked, no major changes in results. It makes about ten
servings and it gets eaten over about 15-18 days.

*way* too long to keep any leftovers, unless frozen. yuck. I throw
things out after less than a week. unless im trying to make sauerkraut
or pickles 🙂

--

saerah

"It's not a gimmick, it's an incentive."- asterbark, afca

aware of the manifold possibilities of the future

"I think there's a clause in the Shaman's and Jujumen's Local #57 Union
contract that they have to have reciprocity for each other's shop rules."
-König Prüß

Quoted message said:

Well, yes, cabbage in particular will begin to ferment if not cooked. Guess
where sauerkraut comes from?

I knew that sauerk. came from cab. but the sauer part
always turned me in the other direction. I'm also
1/2 Lithuanian, so I thought that I had enough stored in
my genes to last me a few more lives. Maybe one of my
past lives has finally caught up with me!

And since I had the genes to intuitively sense that this
would lead / was leading to some relative of sauerK...
but I wanted to check in with the experts <g>.

Thanks for visiting my cabbage conundrum.

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

(Is this happening because I started studying
chemistry recently? <g>😉

It's a test!

Life is really like that! Synchronicity!

Quoted message said:

Now for an opinion you didn't ask for... IMHO, this concoction, partially
cooked and stored, sounds absolutely disgusting. Whatever possessed you?

I need dishes that are in my nutritional range and meet my own
persnicketty
tastes that I can make in batches 'cause I need lots of free time to
investigate and solve the mysteries of life. Ok, so I won't invite you
over.

But I am grateful for your 2.5 cents worth.

Quoted message said:

http://tinypic.com/eikz78.jpg

Meet Mr. Bailey

And Mr. Bailey is indeed a handsome fellow. Which leads to a
cat story from yesterday:

I'm walking down the street: Mt Rainier looms invisibly in the
distance behind the clouds.

My friends the crows are having a gab fest, but one of them
has a particular story to tell: he/she's sitting on a phone wire,
squawking at a cat who is sitting on the front edge of a peaked
roof near the top of a two-story house.

The cat is glancing at crow and giving that ehh-ehh-ehh-ehh kind
of mouthing that they can do when in a perplexed state of soul.

I'm concerned. Has the cat been driven up there? It looks a bit
young, less than a year. Perhaps not all that fel-osophised yet.
So I knock on the door, while the cat looks down at me from
directly overhead: Definitely interested in what I'm doing.

Man opens door. "Do you know that creature up there," I say?

He comes out and looks up. "Yes. That's Mary Wilson." She lives
here. His kids named her that.

"Have you ever seen her up there," I ask? "No," he replies.

So I settled my concern that the proper someone else could
worry about her now. I bet Mr. Bailey could teach her a thing
or two.

See ya.

--
George Newton

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

So, the first time I left it (w/cabbage - no rice) all
uncooked, no major changes in results. It makes about ten
servings and it gets eaten over about 15-18 days.

Quoted message said:

*way* too long to keep any leftovers, unless frozen. yuck. I throw
things out after less than a week. unless im trying to make sauerkraut
or pickles 🙂

It does sound like a very long time to me as well, and I am
just a bit embarrassed to expose myself thusly.

BUT, I have been doing this for a while, and I am fairly
persnicketty (some would say VERY) about what I eat.

Do you think that the high concentrations of garlic can function
as a preservative? (Aside from keeping the vamps out of me frig)

--
George Newton

George Newton said:

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

So, the first time I left it (w/cabbage - no rice) all
uncooked, no major changes in results. It makes about ten
servings and it gets eaten over about 15-18 days.

Quoted message said:

*way* too long to keep any leftovers, unless frozen. yuck. I throw
things out after less than a week. unless im trying to make sauerkraut
or pickles 🙂

It does sound like a very long time to me as well, and I am
just a bit embarrassed to expose myself thusly.

This is how we learn 🙂
I used to keep leftovers around until they were ripe enough to climb out
of the fridge and throw themselves away. After a few evenings praying to
the porcelain god, you get real nit-picky about tossing stuff.
And then there was the time that I thought the ricotta cheese would be
ok if I skimmed off the green stuff. That didn't make me sick,(though if
I had eaten it, I'm sure it would have) but its a pity to have to
throw away an entire lasagna because it smells like it spent a few years
in a damp basement.

Quoted message said:

BUT, I have been doing this for a while, and I am fairly
persnicketty (some would say VERY) about what I eat.

Do you think that the high concentrations of garlic can function
as a preservative? (Aside from keeping the vamps out of me frig)

Theoretically, especially with salt. But only in the sense that you'll
have fermentation that won't kill you,but tastes bad, as opposed to
spoilage that might make you sick. I make sauerkraut and (non vinegar)
pickles all the time, and though I am careful about making the brine, I
have had a few batches go off. (and when sauerkraut goes off, whoo-boy
does it stink!) I would get some small plastic containers (you can find
decent cheap ones near the canning stuff at your local hardware store or
large grocery store) and freeze the stuff in meal-sized portions.
--

saerah

"It's not a gimmick, it's an incentive."- asterbark, afca

aware of the manifold possibilities of the future

"I think there's a clause in the Shaman's and Jujumen's Local #57 Union
contract that they have to have reciprocity for each other's shop rules."
-König Prüß

On Thu 13 Oct 2005 07:52:11p, George Newton wrote in rec.food.cooking:

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

Well, yes, cabbage in particular will begin to ferment if not cooked.
Guess where sauerkraut comes from?

I knew that sauerk. came from cab. but the sauer part
always turned me in the other direction. I'm also
1/2 Lithuanian, so I thought that I had enough stored in
my genes to last me a few more lives. Maybe one of my
past lives has finally caught up with me!

And since I had the genes to intuitively sense that this
would lead / was leading to some relative of sauerK...
but I wanted to check in with the experts <g>.

Thanks for visiting my cabbage conundrum.

George, the thing about sauerkraut is that a good result is from a
specific formula of cabbage and salt, temperature and time. What I'd be
concerned about with your mixture is that it probably doesn't meet the
requirements for proper sauerkraut. It's just turning sour, probably not
in a good way. Raw or fully cooked vegetables stand a better chance of
keeping for longer periods. Partial cooking and, in particular, a mixture
of vegetables is probably the worst technique and will probably lead to
earlier spoilage. Generally speaking, even fully cooked foods I would
probably not keep in the fridge more than a week.

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

(Is this happening because I started studying chemistry recently?
<g>😉

It's a test!

Life is really like that! Synchronicity!

Quoted message said:

Now for an opinion you didn't ask for... IMHO, this concoction,
partially cooked and stored, sounds absolutely disgusting. Whatever
possessed you?

I need dishes that are in my nutritional range and meet my own
persnicketty
tastes that I can make in batches 'cause I need lots of free time to
investigate and solve the mysteries of life. Ok, so I won't invite you
over.

But I am grateful for your 2.5 cents worth.

I understand and it was unfair of me to criticize. I'm sure there are many
foods I like that you might not. My greatest concern is partial cooking and
length of storage, regardless of the food or combination. Some things hold
up better. Apparently this combination may not.

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

http://tinypic.com/eikz78.jpg

Meet Mr. Bailey

And Mr. Bailey is indeed a handsome fellow. Which leads to a
cat story from yesterday:

Thank you! I think so, too.

Quoted message said:

I'm walking down the street: Mt Rainier looms invisibly in the
distance behind the clouds.

My friends the crows are having a gab fest, but one of them
has a particular story to tell: he/she's sitting on a phone wire,
squawking at a cat who is sitting on the front edge of a peaked
roof near the top of a two-story house.

The cat is glancing at crow and giving that ehh-ehh-ehh-ehh kind
of mouthing that they can do when in a perplexed state of soul.

I'm concerned. Has the cat been driven up there? It looks a bit
young, less than a year. Perhaps not all that fel-osophised yet.
So I knock on the door, while the cat looks down at me from
directly overhead: Definitely interested in what I'm doing.

Man opens door. "Do you know that creature up there," I say?

He comes out and looks up. "Yes. That's Mary Wilson." She lives
here. His kids named her that.

"Have you ever seen her up there," I ask? "No," he replies.

So I settled my concern that the proper someone else could
worry about her now. I bet Mr. Bailey could teach her a thing
or two.

See ya.

That's a great story! Alas, I doubt Mr. Bailey would know quite what to do.
He is a totally indoor cat except for escorted outings to the patio. As are
our other 4 furry felines. Tonight, after I got home from work, I
accidentally left the front door unlatched. By the time I realized it, Mr.
Bailey had slipped out undetected, as had our matriarch Miss Millie. When I
check outside, Miss Millie was sitting on the front porch just looking
around, but Mr. Bailey was nowhere in sight. My heart fell. I search as
much as I could in the dark without finding him. Well, I decided to feed the
brood, putting Mr. Bailey's bowl just outside the front door. I kept
checking and, in about 15 minutes, I found him there eating. The end of my
panic!

Do be careful with that food storage, George. Maybe make up a batch of this
once a week and cook a bit more thoroughly.

Cheers!

--
Wayne Boatwright *¿*
_____________________________

http://tinypic.com/eikz78.jpg

Meet Mr. Bailey

On Thu 13 Oct 2005 08:03:03p, George Newton wrote in rec.food.cooking:

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

So, the first time I left it (w/cabbage - no rice) all
uncooked, no major changes in results. It makes about ten servings
and it gets eaten over about 15-18 days.

Quoted message said:

*way* too long to keep any leftovers, unless frozen. yuck. I throw
things out after less than a week. unless im trying to make sauerkraut
or pickles 🙂

It does sound like a very long time to me as well, and I am
just a bit embarrassed to expose myself thusly.

BUT, I have been doing this for a while, and I am fairly
persnicketty (some would say VERY) about what I eat.

Do you think that the high concentrations of garlic can function
as a preservative? (Aside from keeping the vamps out of me frig)

Keeping the vampires at bay is about the only good the garlic will do,
except for great flavor, of course. It is definitely not a preservative,
in fact it is sometimes difficult to preserve garlic itself for any period
of time unless it is properly pickled.

--
Wayne Boatwright *¿*
_____________________________

http://tinypic.com/eikz78.jpg

Meet Mr. Bailey

Quoted message said:

Bury it in a clay pot in your back yard for a few weeks. Voila! Kimchee.
Handle wirth care.

You mean next to the bones?

--
George Newton