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Hi, welcome to Local Flavor my name is Øystein Solberg at the Institute for Culinary
Arts. With us here today, we got Executive Chef Michael Combs, he will be with us today
and do some canning and jamming and all sorts of cool stuff. It's starting to get towards
the end of summer, so everybody is just having an abundance of stuff, so, we're going to
have Michael here show you guys a couple of things that you can do with your crops. What
do you have in store for us today, Michael? Michael: Well, thanks for helping me, Øystein,
right now we have some tomatoes out of our garden, these are beautiful tomatoes. They
don't look beautiful, because they have a few blemishes, and this actually shows they
are ripe and ready to use. They don't look like they do in the store but that is a good
sign. These are Brandywine tomatoes, which are very good tomatoes, they are an heirloom
tomatoes. You want to use a fleshy tomato that will hold up, which is what these are,
and it works well with what we are going to do. We did bring some other tomatoes, as well,
we also have a yellow tomato, which is an Amish tomato, it's a low-acidity tomato; we
have another heirloom tomato, we have an Italian heirloom tomato, which for some reason is
very difficult to grow here, but we were able to grab one. We have a striped cavern, which
has a harder shell, that's mainly for aesthetics, for looks, it's not something you really want.
Øystein: You could stuff them with rice, etc.
Michael: Exactly, like a bell pepper. Øystein: Perfect.
Michael: Anyway, right here I have some lime juice, we have a little bit of cloves, we
have some cumin and some salt in here, we have some sugar, and some fresh graded ginger.
We also have an Anaheim pepper, you can use any type of pepper you like, and you can use
jalapeno pepper. Anaheim's are very hot, and this is what we have in our garden, so this
is what we will be using today. We're making a tomato jam. This is the difference between
a jam and a marmalade, which is that with marmalade, you usually use the rinds and that
sort of thing, we are going to use the juice from this, and also we are just going to thicken
by reduction, and by using a starched, in this case with sugar.
Øystein: Excellent. Michael: Shall we get started?
Øystein: Let's get started, I'm excited! I want to eat all of this stuff, you know?
Michael: (Laughing) Yeah, doesn't take long at all, very easy to do. You can definitely
utilize what you have left over in the garden. Øystein: I could start cleaning these for
you, if you want. Michael: Okay, I appreciate that, thank you.
Øystein: I have to be useful for something. Michael: I'll start cleaning up these tomatoes
here, these beautiful tomatoes, they are really nice and heavy, and that's what you want,
because these are full of water, and they are nice and fresh. That's what you are looking
for in a tomato, especially these here, so we are just going to cut off some of these
blemishes here, they are not really bad, but you don't want them in there. We'll wash these
up really well, just to make sure there's nothing on there, no bugs, and you have got
to look out, since these are organic and from our garden, you need to watch out for bugs
in here while you're cutting. Øystein: Yeah.
Michael: Those things do happen. Øystein: Yeah, we had some wasps come in
out of the zucchini flower just earlier today, so it's a good sign, it just shows that the
bugs really like what we have in here. And I guess that's what we need, right, that's
good. If the bugs like it, I like it. Michael: Exactly. They know how to pick out
the good vegetables. Øystein: Yeah, that's some good quality control
right there, just have more bugs. Michael: And so, here, just cutting these
up Øystein: Oh, that's beautiful.
Michael: Really, just really rustic, you don't have to anything crazy with them; you just
kind of cut all of the blemishes out. Øystein: This is all going to cook so long,
it will just break down. Michael: You wouldn't even be able to tell
where the knife cuts were at the end. Øystein: Oh, man, just look at that thing,
that's beautiful. Michael: Is it beautiful, isn't it, just the
color and the moisture inside of it, it's just carrying a ton of water. I'm going to
cut these out, here. Øystein: Yeah, most tomatoes you see at the
grocery store, are so firm, like there's no juice in them at all and they taste like cardboard,
it's crazy the amount of difference, when these are picked about an hour ago, and what's
in the store is like three, four weeks easily, because they just kind of get picked under-ripe,
but just look - I just want a straw and be like (makes sucking sound.)
Michael: Yeah, they should be really nice and sweet, too.
They should be really nice and sweet tomatoes, in my opinion, these are supposed
to be one of the best tomatoes out there, available, for those of you who decide to
grow tomatoes, you should definitely try growing theses, Øystein: it's just a lot harder growing
heirloom-variety tomatoes, because they are a lot more prone to diseases and stuff like
that, most tomatoes in the store they have been cross-bred to have fight diseases and
stuff like that, but it kills a lot of the flavor and the texture that you really want
in a tomato, like these ones are harder to grow, but once you do it right, it's amazing.
I have four trees at home right now that are going nuts.
Michael: Okay, so, all we're going to do is add just everything in there, nothing crazy,
so we'll add our lime juice, our spices, our sugar, and there's quite a bit of sugar, you
can see, even though these tomatoes are nice and sweet, and they're good for other raw applications. Their beautiful for raw applications
but this sugar is what's going to help bind it, normally you would have a pectin in there,
is what you would have to hold it, but we're not going to use a pectin, we don't really need
to have a pectin. Øystein: Yeah, the sugars are going to just
set with the juices and thicken that all up, so it will be beautiful.
Michael: We're going to have to cook this down, it will take a little bit of time, about
an hour, hour and fifteen minutes or so, so to a point where it all gets like a consistency
of a jam, a jam that you would buy at home or anywhere else, so you give it a little
stir, you don't want to add any water to it, this will have all this water is going to
release and it's actually going to have a lot of water in it, so you're going to have
to reduce that down to a point where it reaches a jelly consistency, actually where it more
coats the back of the spoon and a bit beyond that. You don't want it really to turn
the heat on very, very high, because you don't want it to start caramelizing, because it
has all of the sugar in there, you want to stay away from that
Øystein: Yeah Michael: No browning, you don't want any browning, or anything like that
Øystein: you can probably kick-start it with a bit of water and just
let it evaporate. Michael: Exactly, you could even add wines
in there. Øystein: Oh, delicious.
Michael: You can add different wines in there, if you like, a good white wine, sweet wine
white. or, I'd say a sweet to white wine would be good to add to it as well as other
herbs, so you could add basil to this, rosemary, Øystein: yeah
Michael: anything like that. Øystein: Awesome, speaking of a dry white
wine, we could go have a glass, and we'll just let this stew for a little bit, we'll
be back here in a little bit, and we're going to show you guys a whole heap load of more
fun to do, so I owe you the glass, let's go. Michael: Let's go!
Whatever option fits best, Metropolitan Community College is focused on you!
Come experience it for yourself. Metropolitan Community College
Øystein: Hi, and we're back here again at the Institute for Culinary Arts, and we have
our tomato stew in the back, they're going to be doing their things for a good old while,
meanwhile, what else you got in store for us?
Michael: Well, I thought about doing something fermented this time, fermentation, excuse
me, is a process in which we turn carbohydrates into an alcohol, except we're not going to
get that far, we're not going to get to turn this in an alcohol.
Øystein: damn it! (Laughing) Michael: (Laughing) We'll ferment this long
enough to just get a little tanginess out of it, and to develop some flavors so that's
all we're going to do. Øystein: Awesome.
Michael: we're going to use the natural bacteria that's contained in this cabbage, for the
fermentation, because fermentation requires either yeast or a bacteria, in this case it's
going to be a bacteria, and so all I'm going to do is cut the core out of this guy, just
like so. We're not going to use it, because that stuff is kind of hard, I'm not saying
you couldn't use it if you didn't shave it really thin.
Øystein: Yeah. Michael: But obviously I'm not one for using
the cores. Øystein: Yeah, because it's just tough, like
the flavor is good but it gets a little bitter and funky sometimes.
Michael: I agree, so we're going to take that out of there and all we're going to do is
shred this, slice it nice and thin like you see here, and this is very easy to do, there's
different types of sauerkraut that you can make, obviously you could do a cooked sauerkraut,
as well, which is a lot easier when you add your acids to it, vinegar and that sort of
thing to it and this case we're going to ferment it, and this takes a little bit more time,
quite a bit more time. But in my opinion, its a lot more delicious.
Øystein: for sure cause most sauerkraut you find in the stores, like stuff in jars,
that's not really sauerkraut. Michael: No.
Øystein: It's just cooked cabbage, really. Michael: Right, its cooked cabbage.
Øystein: Which is still good, but it's not, it doesn't beat a fermented, like proper sauerkraut.
Michael: It doesn't have that tanginess of properly-fermented sauerkraut.
Øystein: Sauerkraut, literally in German means "sour cabbage," like that's what it means.
Michael: And that's exactly what we're doing.
Øystein: Exactly, it's like magic. Michael: And so, what we want to do is want
to layer this with salt, and salt is what's going to inhibit the growth of other bacteria
in here, but it's also going to help with the flavoring, as well. And so were going
to layer it in here. Øystein: Awesome, is there any specific quantity
of salt or do you just go to town. Michael: Well, yeah, there are recipes out
there and you should probably follow the recipes, but we're professional chefs, we've done this
plenty of times, so we know what to use here to kind of cover each layer what you should
also do is usually use a muddle or you can use your hands to release the waters that
are in this cabbage. Øystein: Yeah.
Michael: And that's what's going to form the brine. This thing has enough water in there
to be released with the salt that forms the brine instead of adding water. Can you add
water? Yes, you can add water. Øystein: Yeah, so just get in here.
Michael: you can I use a small little muddle
Øystein: Oh, I'm going to get down and dirty on this
Michael: that will work as well
Øystein: this is like a Swedish cabbage massage
Michael: (laughing)
Øystein: I'm Norwegian, though; we use cabbage instead of people
Michael: (laughing)
Øystein: you can feel it is already start to softening up, the salt is starting to draw
out the water, that moisture, like it's just crazy how fast it goes it's already starting
to get a little shiny just by pulling that moisture out
Michael: and it's the salt itself that will help pull out moisture, that's what salt does
it begins to draw moisture out. In front of me here, this is some fermented cabbage that
has only been fermenting for a little over a day, very quick, and all the water that's
contained in here, it's just from the natural water from the cabbage
Øystein: yeah
Michael: I do have a everyone's probably wondering why I have this pestle and mortar on top of
it, I just have it on here for weight, and all it's doing is submerging the cabbage in
its brine, so if I keep it completely submerged in there, it won't go bad for quite some time,
it will keep it
Øystein: yeah
Michael: salted over the top keep this in a nice cool place, about sixty degrees, and
you can keep it there for as long as, maybe three weeks
Øystein: yeah
Michael: what it will do is start to bubble, and when it starts to bubble, don't be afraid
of that, that's a good thing that's when fermentation begins and so what you'll do is you'll see
a little froth on there, take the froth off, and just kind of scoop it off there every
now and then and just let it continue to ferment. When it stops frothing, is when fermentation
is complete. And that's when you can process it, you can can it, you can keep it in the
fridge, if you want to, you can eat it right away, if you don't process it, and you keep
it in the fridge, you can keep it in there for up to three or four weeks even up to six
months depending on if it's completely submerged in the brine
Øystein: So depending on how much kind of sourness you want on the cabbage, you can
pull it at different stages,
Michael: exactly, that's exactly what you can do
Øystein: that's awesome
Michael: yeah
Øystein: so we've got this one kind of rubbed down it's starting to lose a lot of volume, so
when we starting this out, like over the next couple of days it's going to keep shrinking,
kind of in volume and turning into more moisture, so do you suggest getting into smaller containers,
just so it's
Michael: you bet
Øystein: stays submerged
Michael: exactly, that's exactly what we had to do with this one put it into a smaller
container to make sure there's enough water to cover it.
Øystein: yeah
Michael: like I said, you can add water but you don't want to add water to something this
large, you really don't want to add water because it will take away the flavor
Øystein: and it will dilute the brine over time
Michael: exactly So that's not something you really want to do, but you can do it and so
once it does get to that point, we would probably use something with a lot of weight on it we
would put that on top, and once it does get to that point, once it starts to get a little
briny, and we will let it sit in a cool area at about sixty degrees, what makes this safe
is that we are in controlled conditions so about sixty degrees is where we want to let
it sit for about three weeks or so.
Øystein: And just make sure that whatever you're using as weight, it's nice and clean,
this bowl, we cleaned it out really well, because you might start getting some growth
of bad bacteria on it, I'm not sure if you've heard, but they're bad, and yeah, so
Michael: (laughing)
Øystein: make sure you just clean equipment, clean hands, like the whole hoopla, you guys
already knew that okay, so, what have you got over in the side over here?
Michael: So what we have over here are some Mason jars, and what you want to do is fill
this with some cold water and put the Mason jars in there with the lids and the rings
that go around it. And so you want to boil these things, first of all, you want to wash
them first, and cover them with about an inch, inch and a half of water, and you want to
boil them for about ten minutes, at a nice roiling boil. So what that's going to do is
it will sterilize these jars because what we're going to do is we're going to put this
food, these items that we're going to can in here, in an anaerobic environment, which can inhibit
growth of really bad things like botulism for instance, so we want to keep those away.
So that's all we're doing right now, is we're kind of boiling these things and
Øystein: yeah
Michael: getting ready to can, and I guess that's what we will be doing in the next segment,
is we're going to start canning?
Øystein: Yep, yep.
Michael: We have a little rack over here, just so I can basically take the water out
of it and let it sit and cool before we fill these jars.
Øystein: And they got special tongs, that fits around a Mason jars that have little
rubber feet on them,
Michael: I recommend those, especially if you're not used to using tongs, and they're very
hot for one thing, but we're kind of used to using tongs, especially we have like commercials
that you hear, but I agree with Chef Øystein that you should definitely use tongs.
Øystein: yeah
Michael: the rubber-insulated tongs
Øystein: yeah because it gets a little hot, a little slippery, and if it starts spilling
hot water around yourself, you might get kind of hot
Michael: yeah, not good the other thing you want to be careful is you don't want to shock
these jars so you don't want to put something cold in there because if you put something
cold inside a hot jar, you could have some breakage, I've even seen them blow up sometimes
I have you seen anything like that?
Øystein: yeah, yeah, yeah
Michael: So you want to be really careful with those things.
Øystein: yeah
Michael: I'm just going to pull out these here, and it's okay to boil these for quite
some time, so don't worry about it even if you go over ten minutes, I would say at least
ten minutes you should boil these jars, we have these little rubber seals I'm not going
to touch them, because right now they are sanitized
Øystein: yeah
Michael: and so what these little rubber seals are going to do and the reason why we can't
keep them in here is because they are going to soften up
Øystein: yeah
Michael: and once they soften up, when we decide to seal these jars up, they are going
to create a hermetically-sealed container, which means there's no air able to be in these
things and nothing will be able to escape or enter, and it should be nice and sanitized
and clean on the inside, Then you would be able to hold these items for up to a year,
easily on your shelf without refrigeration.
Øystein: yeah so you can make like tomato sauce, and stuff like that
Michael: you bet
Øystein: that's awesome
Michael: the one thing you want to look for is when you do decide to do some canning;
you should have a certain pH level. The pH is acidity level, so the lower the pH level,
in our case we would want it to be about 4.6 percent, and that's what's safe for retail
sales and home sales especially
Øystein: if you want to sell stuff at a farmer's market, and stuff like that you just have
it tested recipes
Michael: exactly, and that's what I recommend, if you've never done it before, and you want
to sell first of all, you have to be process control certified, to be able to do that,
but you should be 4.6 percent for the acidity level and it should be 12 percent water activity
level, you don't want to have a whole bunch of product in here with no water activity,
and so everything should be completely submerged, is what I mean by water activity level. Those
are really important things and guidelines to follow if you are ever going to do any
kind of canning or preservation for a long period of time.
Øystein: so even if you do stuff at home, like use recipes that have been tested or
tried and tested
Michael: exactly
Øystein: use legit sources like don't pull anything off a guy called Joe Schmoe on the
Internet because who knows you might end up with botulism and it might turn out very dangerous,
so use true and tested recipes and you should be fairly safe.
Michael: I would think so, and you're right botulism is probably the number one bacteria
you need to worry about botulism is naturally occurring in spores and soils, so it's everywhere,
you probably consume botulism every now and then, but spores aren't going to kill you,
it's when those things start to replicate and when they release toxins is when
they really start to become something. But they need to be an anaerobic environment in order to do that. So its
terrible because that's what we're going to be creating so make sure that things are definitely sanitized
and everything is clean before you start canning.
Øystein: You just blew my canning mind, that's awesome. So we're going to go on a quick little
break, and we're going to show you guys how to make some pickles and how to can and all
that fun stuff. So just two and we'll see you back here in a little second.
Øystein: Hi, and we're back here at the Institute for Culinary Arts, we've got our jars out,
and we've got our tomatoes about ready, so, what have we got next?
Michael: So, basically we pulled the jars out, they're still hot, and we want them kind
of warm, we left the lids inside the water, because they have the little seal on them,
and we want it to melt on top of the jar, that way it hermetically seals it. This is
our jam, and our jam came out beautiful.
Øystein: Awesome looking.
Michael: It took us quite some time to get all of the water out of there, but it starting,
it definitely, that reduction is what we want and it helps quite a bit.
Øystein: So once it keeps cooling, as well, the sugar we just keep thickening it, it will
be like a spreadable jam at the end of it.
Michael: Exactly. Once it cools, that's what's going to happen. What I'm going to do now,
is I'm going to use gloves, and the reason why I'm using gloves is because these jars
have been not just sanitized, but sterilized, and so I don't want to break anything up here,
and I don't want to contaminate them in any way. I'm just going to add a little bit of
this all the way up to about, you can fill this up as much as you want; actually, you
can fill it up all the way to the top. That's exactly what I'm going to do now; I'm going
to fill this up here. And it's not a bad thing when it's hot you want this whole thing to
be nice and warm because that's what's also gonna cause avacuum inside.
Øystein: Yeah, because once it starts cooling, it's going to shrink up a little, inside.
Michael: Exactly. And that's when you get to the top of the canning; you're going to
have a little suction on top.
Øystein: That's why you buy jam at the store and stuff; you got that push thingy on top
that clicks.
Michael: And that's what you want, this is exactly how you do that. This, I'm going to
make sure this is nice and clean, and it is, it's very nice and clean.
Øystein: This is just clean, clean towel.
Michael: Yep, it's a nice, clean towel, and what I'm going to do is I'm going to put it
on top here.
Øystein: Beautiful.
Michael: And I'm going to take one of these lids and screw it on top. Very simple. And
then, what you do is you want to put it, like I said, you want to keep it nice and warm,
so everything's warm. And so what I'm going to do is put this right back into the water,
making sure it's about an inch above and then we're going to process it for ten to fifteen
minutes. If you decide to go a little further, that's fine, you can do that. What this is
going to do now is it's going to hermetically seal it and it's going to sterilize it and
make sure there's no contaminates in there and that's exactly what you need to do.
Øystein: What air is in there is going to be pushed out by the heat and once it cools,
it will just tighten back up.
Michael: Exactly, that's exactly what will happen. You can use a pressure cooker, too,
if you need to. I mean, you don't really need to, but some people like using pressure cookers,
as well, which is just fine.
Øystein: You just get a little bit higher heat, 230 or 250 degrees or something like
that.
Michael: Exactly.
Øystein: Awesome. I'm getting smarter by the minute. Thanks for being here, this is great.
Michael: (Laughing.)What we're going to do is we're going to do some pickles.
And these are some crispy crunchers; they only come one time a year
Øystein: They're so cute.
Michael: And they are crisp.
Øystein: I'm going to take one home, they're so cute.
Michael: And so, they're only grown one time a year, and they're only available that time.
That's why we want to do some pickling, some canning and all of that stuff.
Øystein: Perfect.
Michael: So you can have them for later, right? You can't get these all year. So you want
to make sure these will fit in there. Like I said, don't forget, you want to, you can
cut these up if you like. Let's see, we're going to
Øystein: Does it matter if you have cut ones and whole ones in the same jar or does it
just take so long that it won't matter too much?
Michael: I don't think it will matter much, but in my opinion, every time you do any type
of cooking, and I'm sure you're the same way, I like to have it the same way.
Øystein: Have it consistent, yeah.
Michael: Everything cooks at the same time.
Øystein: Yeah, yeah.
Michael: I'm just going to add some garlic, a piece of garlic in there, I'm going to add
some fennel seeds in there, and we actually have a little bit of sugar and salt that we
have in here, follow your recipe, and we're going to add some vinegar and water. Just
follow your recipe.
Øystein: Awesome. So does heating up the water and the vinegar just to kind of get
all that dissolved and nice and hot?
Michael: Exactly.
Øystein: Beautiful.
Michael: We'll give it a little bit of a stir, here, and this was, has been going so it's
already hot
Øystein: yeah
Michael: which is perfect for what we need. Don't forget, you need to have 12 percent
water activity in here, so you don't want to pack this, get too crazy with this. And
so we're also going to put a fresh piece of dill in there that we got out of the garden.
And you can put anything else in there. You can put pickling spice in there. I like to use pickling spice in there.
Øystein: As long as you keep the acid-to-water ratio and seasonings, you can go crazy.
Michael: Exactly. Øystein: That's good to know
Michael: The important thing is having the water activity, the water and acid, the salt
and the sugar. Those are important, now whatever else you want to add in here, you can just go for it.
Øystein: So you can do like pepper flake, as long as you're not adding anything like
that contains a crazy amount of water.
Michael: Exactly. That's exactly what we're looking for.
Øystein: So you can be adding like pepper flakes, and just
Michael: You bet, if you like them spicy, exactly, add some pepper flakes. So all I'm
going to do is fill this up here and don't forget these jars are warm, okay? You don't
want these really cold jars, because they could probably beak right in my hand.
Øystein: That would be kind of bad, I think.
Michael: That wouldn't be a good thing at all. So, what I'm going to use, I'll make
sure these are completely submerged.
Øystein: Beautiful.
Michael: I'm going to plug another lid, which I've been keeping in here, because I want
to keep that ring soft, we have a little ring on this side, that's the ring you want to
put down.
Øystein: Beautiful.
Michael: We'll grab it here, again, and we'll give it another cover again. Nice and tight.
You just want to over-tighten this; air is going to release, as it cools down, and so
you don't want to
Øystein: If you tighten it too much, the air is not going to be able to escape there,
all right.
Michael: Exactly. Just, like two or three fingers tight, that's all you want to do.
Øystein: What if you got really big fingers?
Michael: (Laughing)
Øystein: Do you have to tighten with one finger?
Michael: (Laughing)
Øystein: (Laughing) Like a little disc jockey going on?
Michael: You could do that. And so,
Øystein: That's beautiful.
Michael: We're going to let those process in there for another ten to fifteen minutes,
and we'll have pickles.
Øystein: Awesome. So basically, once they have been sitting for a while, they'll turn
into this, right? This has been sitting for a month, you said?
Michael: That's right. And as you can see, they are completely covered, by the brine
or the pickling solution, which is important. That you have those things, so you have nthing
else is sticking out and going bad, you want them to be completely submerged, so you can
fill this all the way to the top if you like, I would recommend it. As you could also see,
there's enough space for the liquid to get around, so there's not so many pickles in
there so there's not enough liquid. Everything is in contact with liquid, and that's what's
very important, these pickles.
Øystein: Beautiful.
Michael: Yeah. And so, you can serve these with anything. A lot of people like pickles
and they're very easy to use with sandwiches and charcuterie. We serve them with charcuterie
all the time.
Øystein: It's delicious. Do you deep fry them?
Michael: (Laughing) Yeah, you could deep fry them. Everything deep-fried tastes better,
doesn't it?
Øystein: Oh, it's good.
Michael: And so, with our tomato jam, there's all kinds of things you could serve them with,
too, I mean, you can
Øystein: Totally.
Michael: With toast, you can serve them for breakfast with eggs
Øystein: You can get some cheese or something.
Michael: Exactly.
Øystein: Oh, it's delicious.
Michael: And it's a little bit on the sweeter side because of the sugar we added to it,
so you have to keep that in mind. It's like a sweet kind of savory flavoring.
Øystein: But the amount of sugar we just extend the amount of time you can keep it
in the fridge.
Michael: Exactly.
Øystein: That's awesome.
Michael: Exactly. And these things you should be able to keep for a month, well, not a month,
for six months or so, or even up to a year, depending on where you're going to keep these
in your home. Just because they're canned, doesn't mean you can put them in the heat,
doesn't mean you can
Øystein: Yeah
Michael: You can do anything like that, that kind of abuse them, they still have to be
in cold environments, and preferably in dark environments. You still have to treat them
with care.
Øystein: Yeah. That's with everything.
Michael: That is with everything.
Øystein: That's nice. But, so, sometimes like I've done some canning and jamming at
home before, and sometimes I open them and see a little bit of mold running on the inside
of the ring, I guess that's something natural going on, or is that kind of bad stuff?
Michael: If it's mold, I'd say, if it's actual mold, with spores and everything growing on
there, then I'd say trash it.
Michael: The reason why the mold is there and the reason why you start to see little
spores is because there's no food. Mold is an organic, plant-like material that does
not contain chlorophyll.
Øystein: Yeah.
Michael: So it needs something to eat, which is the food that it's on, or dead organic
matter.
Michael: But when it doesn't have that, it turns into a spore, and that's not a good
thing.
Øystein: That sounds dangerous.
Michael: Yeah, it is dangerous. And so, if you see any type of mold at all on any of
these things, or around the inside of the jars or you see one of the pop tops lifted,
just don't even use it, because it shouldn't, those things shouldn't happen.
Øystein: Yeah. It is after all, like home canning, it's not one hundred percent foolproof.
Things can go wrong.
Michael: They can.
Øystein: And just knowing what to look for can make or break your health.
Michael: For sure, oh, yeah, you don't want to get sick. But, before we, you know, scare
everybody, no one has been sick from something canned, or at least commercially, in decades.
There hasn't been anything in any reports of anybody being sick in decades from canning
so they do have the process down very well and they're all run by process control certified
people, we have to have someone on board here, I'm process control certified, so that person
has to be here to make sure that if we do any canning for retail that it gets done properly,
so we can sell it. But you don't have to be process control certified at home. You're
completely welcome to do it at home.
Øystein: Only if you want to sell it at like a farmer's market and stuff like that.
Michael: Exactly. Or retail to make money on it.
Øystein: That's awesome. Well, I think it's time to start eating some pickles.
Michael: Sounds good to me.
Øystein: Thank you guys for watching, thank you, Combs, for helping us out today.
Michael: Thank you.
Øystein: This is great, you just blew my mind. Thank you guys very much, be sure to
check out our recipes on our website. Stay tuned for more shows.