Food Preserving FAQ

Frequently Asked Questions about Food Preserving

Some portions may be Copyright prior to 1998 by others: Leslie Basel, Diane Ferrell, Anne Louise Gockel, Steven Kostur, Al Durtschi, Richard Thead.

This FAQ and all its constituent parts, as a collection of information, is Copyright 1998-2002 by Eric Decker, as a work of literature. Distribution by any electronic means is granted with the understanding that the article not be altered in any way. Permission to distribute in printed form must be obtained in writing. The removal of this copyright notice is forbidden.

This FAQ contains third party copyrighted information. Specific permission for replication for such information here has been granted to Eric Decker, FAQ Maintainer. You may replicate said info but ONLY as part of a FAQ part in its entirety. You may not replicate such information outside the FAQ format or anywhere else without getting permission to do so from the copyright holder(s). The existence of information in this FAQ does not convey any legal rights to use copyrighted information for any purpose other than to read it as part of RFP FAQ.

Disclaimer: No author represented in this FAQ is qualified to establish scheduled processes nor is any author a competent processing authority in the sense of 21 CFR 113.83 et alia.

Beware of anonymous posters who contravene known safety standards. Circa late 2001, early 2002, there is at least one poster active in RFP who has consistently repudiated long-standing food-preserving authorities.

This file is a compilation of shared knowledge and answers to frequently asked questions of the group rec.food.preserving. As such, this file is updated. Be a contributor - point out mistakes, write sections and reviews, provide us with new sources. All contributors will be cited in this file.

Special mention is hereby given to Leslie E. Basel for her core role in the founding of this newsgroup. Thank you Leslie.

Contributors listed in alphabetical order by surname:

Matt Albright, David G. Allbee

Leslie Basel, Rachel Beckford, Jean Bergeron, Brian Bigler, Alan Blacklock, Michael Boddy, Mike Bowers, Susan Brewer, Norman Brown, Teresa Bruckner, Rick Buchanan, Daniel Burke, Ralph Burr, Bob Baron, Don Buchan

Jennifer Cagle, Dave Calhoun, Tracy L. Carter, Robert Chislan, Naomi Counides, Suzanne Chandler, Bruce Carpenter

Emily Dashiell, Eric Decker, Richard De Castro, Al Durtschi, Ted Denison, Robb Dabbs

Diane Ferrell, Sandy Fifer, Derace Fridel, Jerry Fowler

H.B. Ghoddusi, Anne Louise Gockel, Lois Grassl, Patrick Grealish, Kate Gregory, Steve Gunnell

Bess Halle, Diane Hamilton, James Harvey, Patricia Hill, Paul Hinrichs, M. Zoe Holbrooks, Dirk W. Howard, Garry Howard,

Kevin Johnson, Stuart Johnson, Lynn E. Johnson-Conrad

Deana D. Karas, Mary Keith

Colonel I.F. Khuntilanont-Philpott,

Naera Kim, Henriette Kress, Betty Kohler, Steven Kostur, Al Kudsi, Mick Kunstelj

John Laidler, Joan Lane, Larry London, Ron Lowe

Linda Magee, Marie Martinek, Kathy Meade, Ron Meisenheimer, Linda Merinoff, Wendy Milner, Joshua H. Moffi, Richard Molay, the Morgans, Scott Murman

Daniel Nachbar, Louis "Butch" Nagel, Jean P. Nance, Susan Ness, Carol Nelson, Richard Nielsen, Hank Nolle, Stephen Northcutt

Nicole Okun, Paul Optiz, Lynn Otto

David Paxton, Gary Lee Phillips, Kim Pratt

Cassandra Richardson, Jim Richardson, Phil Rozanski

Barb Schaller, David Schwoegler, Clint Scott, Charles Scripter, Brenda Sharpe, David Sidwell, Doug Smart, Tom Sponheim, Michael Stallcup, Susan Hattie Steinsapir, Jean Sumption

John Taylor, Michael Teifel, Connie TenClay, Richard Thead, Steven Tobin, Tanith Tyrr

Logan Van Leigh

Anna Welborne, Elaine C. White, Ellen Wickberg, Don Wiss, Kate Wrightson, Ivan Weiss

Gary Yandle, Bobbi Zee

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Jewels of rec.food.preserving ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

These are the "Experts active in the newsgroup" folks that can and will provide you real-life, in-depth knowledge based on scientific fact. These folks have preserving skills coming out their ears and are capable of several if not all phases of preserving. If somebody else is better suited to answer you question you will most probably be advised of that.

These folks are known to us over several years and are known to be honest above ANY reproach and take very seriously all they post in RFP. Those folks often do extensive research before posting. They are human and sometimes will be in error - but that is so rare one should think of them as angels.

Watch for their articles as they are usually quite informative.

This list is dynamic. As others become known and their commitment to the Charter of RFP is shown, in time the value of their participation will be proven and they will become a Jewel of r.f.p. Persons who are no longer active in RFP or disregard the Charter of RFP will be retired - maybe permanently.

The process of selecting a person as a Jewel of R.F.P. is regrettably somewhat subjective. However it isn't that by much as we have extensive archives of this newsgroup since day one. We simply index on author and see the extensive contributions. We know these persons well. We know intimately the quality and care of their processes and postings.

------------------------------------- The Jewels of rec.food.preserving at this time are:

In alphabetical order by first name:

Barb Shaller (shaller_barb@nospam.htc.honeywell.com)

Eric (eric@nospam.getcomputing.com)

Ingrid Gordon (mapickle@nospam.coho.net

Blanche Nonken (momblanche@nospam.bigfoot.com)

Ross Reid (mrreid@nospam.golden.net)

Vicky Shaw (vickyshaw@nospam.home.com )

Jim Weller (jweller@nospam.ssmicro.com)

Ellen Wickberg (egw@nospam.direct.ca)

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

While every effort has been made to be clear, concise and accurate, no warranties are implied. What you do with the information presented here is your business. The same caveat applies to any communication you may have with any person in rec.food.preserving or for that matter by e-mail.

Charter, about Rec.Food.Preserving and this FAQ, and Introduction

* Where can I get this faq? * Why isn't this on the Web? * I have a refrigerator and live near 5 supermarkets. Why bother to preserve food?

CHARTER

Rec.food.preserving is a newsgroup devoted to the discussion of recipes, equipment, and techniques of food preservation. Current food preservation techniques that rightly should be discussed in this forum include canning, freezing, dehydration, pickling, smoking, salting, distilling, and potting. Foodstuffs are defined as produce (both fruits and vegetables), meat, fish, dairy products, culinary and medicinal herbs. Discussions should be limited to home-grown or home-preserved foods.

addendum:

This newsgroup is for those who can, jar, and preserve foods for personal and family use. Due to liability and health concerns, we can not provide information here on methods of food packaging or preservation for products to be sold to the public. Please contact the agency or office in your area that handles such questions. Thank you for your interest!

rec.food.preserving has been a close-knit group since its inception. It has managed to stay that way but it has not been by accident. Over the years there has been a lot of effort expended by many RFPers into keeping the junk out of RFP. Those who have nothing good to say are invited to leave. We thank them for doing so.

ABOUT REC.FOOD.PRESERVING AND THIS FAQ

The newsgroup rec.food.preserving was created in August 1994. Discussions tend to be seasonal, following the Northern Hemisphere growing season. We are a rapidly expanding but still tightly focused group; expect about 50-60 posts/day during the height of canning season, < 20-30 posts/day during the winter months. As of August 1999 there is quite an increase in traffic. Y2K concerns has awakened much latent intest in food preserving. Perchance it will continue. If you don't have access to rec.food.preserving on your news server (last I checked, the % of sites carrying the group was about 55%), after politely requesting the group from your sysadmin or administrator, you have a number of options:

*1.) Sign up with a different ISP - Internet Service Provider. *2.) Browse the archives of http://www.dejanews.com using Internet Explorer or Netscape *3.) Email to access USENET newsgroups, by emailing to one of these addresses: rec.food.preserving@news.demon.co.uk or rec.food.preserving@ cs.ttu.edu.

FAQ versions are numbered to coincide with the year. 1998 has a prefix of 3, 1999 mwill be 4, 2000 will be 5, etc. The suffix indicates the month of issue. 3.10 means 1998, 10th month.

[Where can I get this faq?]

Several ways. Wait until it gets posted to the newsgroup rec.food.preserving, around the 20th of each month. Another way of getting this FAQ is to get it in the 'nnn' pieces from www.dejanews.com archive, however this will require a fair amount of work on your part.

NOTE: rec.food.preserving will always have the most current or revised version -as will rtfm. [ see below ]

Easiest way to get the FAQ on browser equiped systems:

http://www.faqs.org/faqs/by-newsgroup/rec/rec.food.preserving.html

or plug the following URL into your browser - select the lastest version and part(s) that you want. The text will appear in your browser. Do a "-save as" giving the file an extension of TXT. The format is then viewable in Notepad, Wordpad and the like.

ftp://rtfm.mit.edu/pub/usenet-by-hierarchy/rec/food/preserving/

This FAQ is also available in six parts (currently it is six) via anonymous ftp from: rtfm.mit.edu/pub/usenet-by-hierarchy/rec/food/preserving/ You will need a text viewer like List.com on non-unix systems for viewing the files downloaded.