This post almost fits the one below about efficiency, but not quite. This weekend was our annual "canning" spree, we put up 14 bushels of hot peppers (my wife's, not mine), tomatoes, peaches, and pickled cucumbers and eggs. My wife loves doing this, but I tire quickly of skinning, peeling garlic, mixing brine, stemming peppers...you get my drift. Today we were down to the final sprint and my wife had the double boiler going on two stove burners, a single boiler on another, and a pan sterilizing the lids and rings on the last. "I need something to boil the LIGHT SYRUP!!!" (for the peaches) she spouted. Before she could think of an alternative, I had the QB down (it was still full of fuel from it's last breakfast), double primed it and had 20 cups of syrup on it heating up! Now, it wasn't nearly as quick as the kitchen stove, but it got the job done a whole lot better and more 'efficient' than holding a candle under it. I got her syrup boiling, and since it was on a roll, later I boiled up a dozen roasting ears on it since the barbeque was full of chicken and steaks. The relation we had for the picnic had never seen one, and I had my 8 year old keeping an eye on it while I kept the meat from burning. It came thru like a charm, and when all was said and done, darned if it doesn't appear to still be about 1/2 full! I don't get a whole lotta compliments from the wife during these marathon canning spree's, but darned if she didn't say the little stove sure did a fine job today. I'm afraid I have to agree. Next year I'm gonna have two filled up and ready to go...

Hay Baggsy you will have to get a Stovette for next year. Then you will have 3 to cook on. But be carefull your wife may want to do all the cooking on them.
Albert

Handi Albert

Albert im jelious of him. dern if i can get the lady to let me fire up any of my stoves to do any of the cooking. Could it be that she doesn't trust my cooking abilities? Hummm, maybe I'm gaining here but it seems like a loss.

lance

Lance on mothers day You will have to get out early cook her breakfast with roses on the stove. I don't mean cook roses. So you have a while to butter her up.
Albert

Handi Albert

Albert, likely she will eat leftovers and ignore the three hours of effort i would put into a breakfast. Not all that work but the fixing up of the kitchen after cooking the meal and the hour of prep trying to be quiet and her pleasure and enjoyment is gone.
I'm a lousey cook besides. Maybe she'll let me help with a meal if i shut down the regular stove and this is all we have to cook on.

HEY, NOW THERE IS A IDEA.

LANCE

I don't know any kero stovies on the east coast, but a couple guys I know are into cast iron cooking (dutch ovens, griddles, etc). Isabell made them extremely popular as all electricity and other utilities were and still are out. I might have a convert or two as I heard that they ran out of Coleman fuel and everyplace within miles was sold out. But to me that seems like a pretty extreme way to show off for the wife...

Baggsy, I didn't know anyone canned like that anymore. I thought this was a dying art. My mom used to can vast quantities of food; we had a large garden and 7 kids to feed so she needed to. I get the impression from your posts that everyone on your camping trips are very well fed.

It ain't quite a dying art at our house, though I wish it was sometimes when we get going! We can all our vegetables and even put up some venison when I shoot straight. This springs poults started producing early so we even canned some eggs. My Mom and Grandma did it so I know the routine. But I'm surprised at how few do it or know how to do it anymore. I try to line up some help from neighbors, kids, anybody but ME, and nobody wants to help for a % of the action. Too easy to go to the store I guess. I could do without the da&m hot peppers, but the wife loves 'em. Looks like beans and carrots will be done this weekend. Pray for an early freeze...

We do tend to eat pretty good in camp. But hunger is always the best sauce anyway, isn't it?

This was the way I was rased as well me being the baby of 8 with my father being killed in an accerdent when I was 8 so my mother had a battle on her hands. The only thing I couldn't handle was those preserved eggs.
Albert

Handi Albert

My wife has never objected, notwithstanding that she is bemused, by my use of brass stoves in the kitchen. The reason is easy: if I'm using my stoves, I'm doing the cooking. No objections there. She's never asked me to teach her how to light one up!
I was thinking about these stoves during the recent hurricane back east. I had the thought, that Baggsy's news confirms, that Coleman fuel might be hard to find. But I'll bet that kerosene was not! This is where the Yank's universal use of the Coleman stove can come up short. But they could have used auto petrol for the duration if they only knew it.
Of course, I have gallons of kero, Clearlite, and Coleman and hand. I'm waiting for the hurricane that will never come!

I always thought that was a saying peculiar to Northern Ireland, and I haven't heard it repeated in a long time. One of my grandfathers favourites.

There is a new one! I have spent many hours blanching, canning, and cold-packing everything from A - Z, but I have never done any eggs. Could you explain?

P. Lynn Miller
http://members.optusnet.com.au/lynnmiller/index.html

Please remember I way bearly 12 years old back in 57. Was it that long ago.
All I can remember of this was I think lime went in a 8 gallon can than a layer of eggs cover with more lime and so on until full. When these eggs were cooked later they tasted terable and looked worse.
We never had refrigeration to keep these things cold. A lot of things went in the creek to chill and keep cold. The way we lived, but it didn't hurt us too much. We might have 2 heads and 4 feet but that doesn't matter, we still had a Handi stove for a cupa
Albert

Handi Albert

This all kind of transpired by accident. Labor Day was canning day and my wife also scheduled a family barbeque. Note to Self: NEVER do a barbeque on canning day! Anyway, she was gonna make a big batch of potato salad for the picnic, got the eggs boiled up, but couldn't get it done by dinnertime. After I scorched a bunch of meat and veggies, everyone went home and I staggered into the house. There lay a tub full of hard-boiled eggs. I told the wife we should pickle 'em! She was making dill pickles at the time, and said good idea. I went out on the internet and found some recipes for pickled eggs where all you do is make a brine solution, put the eggs in, put 'em in the basement for a couple weeks and shake 'em once in awhile. Sounded easy, so I went back out to the kitchen and couldn't find the eggs???

"Where's the eggs?" I asked. "Right there" she said, and on the table was 8 quarts of eggs pickled just like pickles! Boiled 'em to seal the jars and everything. Now I haven't tried 'em yet, and I'll probably go out into the pasture to open them...but I'm saving them for my 'favorite' brother in law to try first. If he lives I might try a bite...

Lynn
In the UK, you can buy jars of pickled eggs at supermarkets, or sometimes buy them individually from the bar in a pub. They are pickled in white vinegar and spices just like pickled onions.
However, there are also preserved eggs - these are done in waterglass (sodium silicate) which is a transparent odourless liquid of the consistency of syrup. I have no idea of how you do it - maybe you just stick the eggs in the waterglass, like Albert did with the lime

Mike

Hi Baggsy, about those eggs.... Years ago, more than I care to admit, I was doing my "aviator thing" for the USN when I had the occassion to get some R & R in Hong Kong. As luck would have it I found myself on the back side of the island in Aberdeen on one of those floating Chinese restaurants. To make a long short, after a few to many, I worked up the nerve to try the advertised "Thousand Year Eggs". I believe they had eggs from chickens, ducks and something else. They were each very strange in that the "whites" and yolks were different in color from the original and from each other. Browns and purple remain in my memory. I asked how they were made and was told that they were buried in the ground surounded by lime. I forget how long they were left to "chemically" cook but I think is was months. If I closed my eyes the taste wasn't really different from a hard boiled egg. Did the eggs you folks packed in lime change color? Gordon

Pickled eggs,,,,,,fine food. I will be pickling mine in time for Christmas in the next couple of weeks. White vinegar, malt or wine, forms the basis of the pickle. The eggs should not be too fresh as they don't peel "clean". I buy my eggs and leave them for a couple of weeks before boiling on a high simmer for eight to ten minutes, and then cooling fast under cold water. After peeling the eggs, add to clean jars and vinegar, and use your imagination. To the pickle I add, rosemery, or garlic, hot peppers, or tarragon. Leave for at least a month and eat,,,,,,,,,,wonderfull stuff.

Rik

PS they last for months (try a cheese and pickle egg sandwich).

I forgot, we used to make "Red Beet" eggs. Known as "Beet Root", Down Under. We use to take hard boiled eggs and put them in with the red beets when we pickled them. The eggs would turn a deep reddy, purple color right to the yolk. I was never crazy about them, since I am not a great fan of red beets either. The recipe for the brine was white vinegar, alum powder, water and some salt, if my memory serves me right.

Old eggs definitely are easier to peel, you just need to remember to turn the eggs every few days to keep the yolk centered.

P. Lynn Miller
http://members.optusnet.com.au/lynnmiller/index.html

I would say this sounds like the same as what my mother had done preserving the eggs. All I can remember they was not real good. When frying the white went all brown and bubbly I ate them under protest. May be I would of been better off getting drunk first, they may of tasted and looked better.
Some one will mention a stove here if they are not carfull
Albert

Handi Albert

eggs decay through the shell, keep the air out and they last forever. Do as they do in the cold climates, coat the eggs in wax (parafin wax is fine) to keep out the air and the egg will last an age