The Backyard Homestead Book of Kitchen Know-How: Field-to-Table Cooking Skills.: Backyard Homestead
(eBook)

Growing vegetables and raising livestock is only the beginning of a successful homestead, that fresh food goes to waste unless you can properly prepare, cook, and preserve it. Andrea Chesman shows you how to bridge the gap between field and table, covering everything from curing meats and making sausage to canning fruits and vegetables, milling flour, working with sourdough, baking no-knead breads, making braises and stews that can be adapted to different cuts of meat, rendering lard and tallow, pickling, making butter and cheese, making yogurt, blanching vegetables for the freezer, making jams and jellies, drying produce, and much more. You'll learn all the techniques you need to get the most from homegrown foods, along with dozens of simple and delicious recipes, most of which can be adapted to use whatever you have available. Your backyard homestead is a success! The vegetables and fruit are abundant, and the fresh eggs are delicious, but they're more than your family can eat. Your pig is fattening up quickly; will you know how to fill out the cut sheet when it's time to call the butcher? A backyard bounty can be overwhelming. Andrea Chesman's indispensable guide to gathering, processing, preserving, and eating the fruits of your backyard homestead ensures that nothing goes to waste. Her experience and clear instructions equip you with the skills to make the most of everything you harvest! Preface Introduction PART 1 GETTING THE MOST FROM FRESH FOOD - Setting Up the Homestead Kitchen - Fresh Vegetables: Harvesting, Handling, Cooking - Fresh Fruit: Harvesting, Handling, Cooking - Grains and Beans - Homemade Sweeteners: Honey, Maple Syrup, and Apple Cider Syrup - Eggs, Birds, and Rabbits - Fresh Milk - Meat: Goat, Lamb, Pork, and Beef PART 2 FOOD PRESERVATION - Cold Storage - Freezing - Canning: Boiling-Water-Bath and Pressure Canning - Drying - Pickling - Making Fruit Preserves - Culturing Milk and Making Cheese - Curing Meats and Making Sausage PART 3 HOMESTEAD COOKING - Breakfast and Egg Dishes - Vegetable, Cheese, and Bean Dishes - Poultry and Meat Dishes - Desserts and Baked Goods Appendix: Basic Cooking Methods Resources Metric Conversion Charts Index