Do your cabbage shredding here..

Another post that is now public: I would like to make to a kind of Italian sausage (what else would a Jersey girl make) with the pork and venision -- I don't have a smoker... any suggestions? My reply: OK, start with lots of garlic, and you can even add things like rosemary, oregano, thyme, sweet peppers, onion, and even cheese. The onion and peppers I use are dried and don't add more water. The cheese I use is a high melting point cheddar that's cubed, available from one of my sources. All these are also available from the sausage making suppliers. If you like fennel seeds, add that too with a little anise seed. When I do fennel, I grind some in a small coffee grinder and use some whole as well. Also, ground black pepper and coriander are useful as is sage (easy on sage, its hot spicy). I use fresh and dried garlic and any recipe that calls for it I usually double or triple that amount. If the venison is gamey tasting, you can also add a little ground up juniper berries. They take away some gamey taste, but go easy. Italian sausages are usually all pork, no beef, but as mentioned, salami and pepperoni are OK with beef, and pork or venison, as is summer sausages. Things like hot dogs and bologna are pureed meat with cereal or soy added. For a smoky taste, I use liquid smoke. They sell small bottles of Wrights Liquid smoke in some supermarkets near steak sauces, but I usually buy a half gallon bottle from a sausage maker supplier and use maybe 2-3 tablespoons on a 10 pound batch, unless I want a lot of smoky taste. I also make a really good Canadian bacon that uses a whole boneless pork loin. I get a ham or bacon brine cure mixture and inject it into the pork. Then I place the injected pork in a big vacuum tight vessel and fill it with the brine and pull a vacuum on it for 1-2 days. THis last time, I added some maple syrup to give it a special tang. It too gets liquid hickory smoke flavor. Baked slowly at 200 degrees about 6 hours. Cooled, chilled and sliced. Then, I use a Food Saver machine to pack small amounts of it. Store cost about $6+ a pound, my cost under $2.00 a pound!! I have a decent digital scale that also weighs grams. I use Nitrites in all my sausages as they are not completely done in a refrigerated environment like they do commercially. The Nitrite amounts are tiny and that's what gives cold cuts their red color. They are tinted pink and are mixed with salt, so the ratio is easier and more accurate to measure. That's the main reason I don't use Morton Tender Quick, as you have little control if its added too much. I make pastrami out of corned beef, but simply coating them before they are slowly baked. A year ago, I made about 40 pounds of pepperoni and salami each, and the were not only baked very slowly (8 hours at under 200 degrees), but also dry cured for about a month at room temps and refrigerated. I used fibrous casings that are not edible, as I stuff these casings very tightly with the meats. Using edible collagen or fresh casings will burst if I were to use them. So, when I want to slice the salami and pepperoni I peel it first. I gave some to a kid who though it was a bit tough, until I asked him if he has peeled it beforehand.. DUH!! I have a professional meat slicer too as well as some vacuum systems I use to marinate and do a little home canning with. As mentioned, after mixing and before stuffing, cook a tiny sample and taste to see if it suits your taste buds.

Farmers markets vary greatly. To be certified 100% organic is not cheap and requires a lot of extra work for any size farm. Many farmers are close to that level, but few can remain 100% organic, only because the land acreage can vary. In the case of the item you mentioned, it could be mentioned in the ingredients, then also described as an anti-foam agent. I doubt if most people would even bother to look at the ingredients list. As mentioned, its use has been for many years by the commerrcial industry and it will not affect taste, smell or any other normal character for any jellys or jams. Refined sugar, in its normal process, requires many nasty chemicals (sulfur, lime) to get it to the white granulated stage we see in stores. If all the chemicals were mentioned in sugar manufacture and refining, it would be a long list, and probably scare off most anyone. I see no degradation of properly home canned products. If I were to throw out my stuff dating back 2 years, that would wipe out all my tomatoes, most of the pickles, and 90% of my jams and jellies. Well over 200 jars in total. I am not about to do that with my canned foods as they are as good today as the day they were made. The ONLY issues are darkening color for some fruits, and cukes getting softer after that length of time. In either case, they are not poison, and not unappetizing to me. If we followed the rules of 6 months, we would have to do all our canning and date each and every jar, then toss them out if the dates went past 6 months. Way too impractcal. Who can really say what an expiration date can mean. Many commercial products contain so many 'stablizers' and preservatives, they could last a century. I just cooked up a 2 pound bag of shrimp that has been double bagged in my freezer since 2004. It has no freezer burn or any loss the flavor or texture. Even after I compared it with some shrimp I just bought and also cooked up seperately. Properly packaged, even frozen foods can last a long time. Around here, there are no farmers markets for many miles, so my summer garden sales and garage sales do very little business.

Thank you so much Jeff. I spoke with Fred. Unfortunately, his blender will not fit an old 251 model. I would have to buy his newly designed motor set up. Probably not realistic, when all I need is the blender. All of my other attachments are like new! Have you been pleased with your new kitchen prep setup? Just in case my motor goes out.