I just read a piece on ground respiration yesterday. I never had thought about it. You are describing part of that process I believe. Temps, Pressure, Moisture all contribute. Might have been archived in some of the Rutgers stuff pt03 (Lloyd) had referenced to on another topic. __I just rototilled my garden spot. Its 38 degrees now .. last night 16 and tonight 13 predicted. Nothing growing, just trying to get that very last Bermuda grass (wire grass here) root to the top so it can kiss its fanny goodbye.

Thanks - does anybody know if plain roasted tomatoes can be canned (in PC?)? I sent 22 lbs of tomatoes (4 gallons) home with my dad to put in their freezer, I didn't get to roast any last night but I've got a casserole in the oven now, a full sheet pan (disposable) single layer of mostly paste tomatoes cut up. No oil, no garlic, no nothing. DD and I were canning jam today so BWB still has water in it, if I can do BWB (how to determine how many tomatoes for proper acidification) that would be good but I know it will take longer than PC. These tomatoes had spots I had to cut out but weren't over-ripe. The ones I sent with my dad were REALLY ripe, some had soft spots (I cut out), others weren't as ripe but had anthracnose spots (salmon colored) so I don't think I can can those - just take out a gallon at a time to make sauce or soup (or fewer to use in chili)?

I make chili meat out of the eye of round. Boil it in tomato juice and it turns fall apart tender. I've also turned it into bbq beef after boiling it in tomatoes. You can melt cheese on a chunk of it for a beef and cheese sandwich. As others noted it does make a decent roast... I've covered them in garlic and black pepper then roasted with some veggies. A bit tough but very lean meat for those that don't care for lots of fat. The eyes that I get are about 5lbs so after boiling I fish about half of it out and freeze it for the next pot of chili or it becomes sandwich meat. Some here a couple years ago insisted that boiling a roast would turn it into a rubber ball. Perhaps true if you boil it in water but tomato juice has enough acid to make it super fall apart tender. I took pictures of one that I was boiling for chili meat to show here. Roast falling apart on the fork.... As you can see in the picture it is tender with a rich broth suitable for any beef based soup. Very "meaty" so if you have macho men or teenagers they will be delighted with the chunky style. First I use a wooden spoon to break it down some then finish with a potato masher to get bite sized chunks. : ) lyra

Power tools, eh? LOL I agree with foodona, too many blades have various coatings on them. Not to mention I'd have to kill somebody if meat got sucked into the vents on the tool. I used to get 60# chucks and cut them down. What I do is let the large meat thaw some, in the fridge of course, then when the outside three or four inches have thawed but the big core is still quite frozen, I cut it in two or three pieces. It's much easier when some of the meat has thawed. You can get some purchase on the meat with the knife and it still goes through the frozen part. A good big knife works best. I use my 14" chefs knife, but any chefs knife you have should do a good job. Holding the meat with a clean kitchen towel helps too. If you want to try a power tool to help, perhaps the electric knife. I do agree that asking the butcher who did the job originally would be the easiest. Also in future letting him know nothing bigger than ten pounds, five pounds or whatever your preference is, would be appreciated.