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TomatoNut95
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Re: Tennessee 2019 Garden

Oh yeah, I've seen that in my Wal-Mart but I don't think I've bought any. I hardly ever use dried herbs or spices. I mostly use just salt, pepper and onion flakes.(or fresh onion if I've got one that doesn't smell like soap) I've got a pot of onion chives, but I've hardly used it since I bought it. The McCormick onion flakes I'll admit are getting tough to find. It's either in a giant container or in a cheap brand that doesn't say it's 'non GMO'.
I can't wait until spring when I can get my basil planted! I can't wait for another fresh basil pizza!!

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Gary350
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TomatoNut95 wrote:
I can't wait until spring when I can get my basil planted! I can't wait for another fresh basil pizza!!
What is your sauce recipe.?
Last edited by Gary350 on Tue Dec 31, 2019 5:54 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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TomatoNut95
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It's not really 'my' recipe. The crust is from an old Betty Crocker cook book recipe. The recipe makes two crusts so I have to cut the ingredients in half:
1 cup of flour
1 tsp baking powder
A sprinkle of salt
1/3 cup of milk
1/8 cup of oil
After mixing up and rolling out the crust dough onto my pan, I put tomato sauce, pepper, onion (when available, fresh bell pepper) and last but not least, cheddar cheese. It may sound plain, but I do enjoy it. I have not made one of my homemade pizzas in a while, and have gotten addicted to frozen Red Baron Classic Supreme pizzas which have all the extra added goodys of little sausage balls and pepperoni.

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Gary350
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Today I got the Master Gardener Bread & Butter Pickle Recipe.

This is information I have been needing conformation on. I knew a man about 25 years ago that made pickles he cold packed jars with cucumber then poured hot boiling brine into the jars, screw on seal & ring it was finished. But I never knew the details how it was done.

Master Gardener recipe you do not soak sliced cucumbers in salt water for 4 hours. You do not boil cucumbers in brine.

BRINE RECIPE
4 cups vinegar
4 cups sugar
1/2 cup salt
1 1/2 tsp Turmeric
1 1/2 tsp Pickling Spice

Pack sliced cucumbers & onions in jars. Fill jars with boiling brine. Screw on seals & rings. Stand jars upside down on a towel to cool naturally.

This recipe will make it possible for me to make 5 gallons of Bread & Butter pickles in 20 quart size mason jars in about 4 hours work instead of 30 hours work.

1/2 cup of SALT seems like too much SALT.


ORIGINAL OLD FASHION BREAD & BUTTER PICKLE RECIPE
1 cup vinegar
1 cup water
1 cup sugar
1/2 tsp celery seed
1/2 tsp mustard seed
1/2 tsp ginger
1/4 tsp Turmeric

Soak 1 gallon sliced cucumbers, 1 cup salt, 1/2 gallon crushed ice, in large pan, in refrigerator 4 hours, stir every hour. Rinse in 2 gallons & soak in 2 gallons of water 3 times to remove salt.

Boil brine, add cucumbers, when brine returned to a boil fill jars with hot cucumbers then fill with brine. Screw on seal & ring. Stand upside down to cool on a towel.


OLD FASHION RECIPE increases 4 times to see how it compares to Master Gardner recipe.
4 cups vinegar
no water
4 cups sugar
no salt
2 tsp celery seed
2 tsp mustard seed
2 tsp ginger
1 tsp turmeric

Everyone says Bread & Butter pickles are much better with cinnamon. I see Pickling spice in a can has Cinnamon plus a lot of extra spices and no celery seed. I was not going to grow cucumbers again next year but I might just to try this new recipe. When warm summer weather is here our pickles will become relish for hot dogs on the grill, potato salad, chicken salad, 3 gallons of pickles will be used up by end of August.
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TomatoNut95
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WHOOPS. I just now realized you asked for my SAUCE recipe, not my crust. My sickness has been making me foggy-headed. Well, I do not make my own sauce actually. It's just a small can of Hunts tomato sauce. When the price of the Hunts sauce went up I switched to Red Gold which is a little cheaper for the same tasting stuff. But I've gone back to Hunts because Wal-Mart is sloppy on carrying the Red Gold.

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Gary350
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TomatoNut95 wrote:WHOOPS. I just now realized you asked for my SAUCE recipe, not my crust. My sickness has been making me foggy-headed. Well, I do not make my own sauce actually. It's just a small can of Hunts tomato sauce. When the price of the Hunts sauce went up I switched to Red Gold which is a little cheaper for the same tasting stuff. But I've gone back to Hunts because Wal-Mart is sloppy on carrying the Red Gold.
I though you would make your own pizza sauce with your garden tomatoes & garden basil.

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TomatoNut95
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No, I buy my sauce. I meant that I lay the fresh basil leaves directly on the pizza before placing in the oven. And when available, I lay slices of garden tomatoes on my pizzas. :wink:

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Gary350
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TomatoNut95 wrote:No, I buy my sauce. I meant that I lay the fresh basil leaves directly on the pizza before placing in the oven. And when available, I lay slices of garden tomatoes on my pizzas. :wink:
We have tried many times to make good pizza sauce but we can not make it as good as RAGU. We tried all the pizza sauce in the stores RAGU is still the best. RAGU jars says, Tomato puree, tomato paste, soybean oil, salt, spices, natural flavor. SPICES are what we can not figure out. I have watched many hours of YouTube videos most pizza sauce is, tomato sauce & basil or tomato sauce & oregano, no other spices.

The very best home made tomato sauce we have made is, ripe red garden tomatoes allow to set in the kitchen 3 days for acid flavor to go lower & tomato to get sweeter then cut tomatoes into several pieces & push out jell & seeds & get rid of them. Cook tomato pulp with skins in a pot with lid along with crushed red pepper, salt, garlic, bring to boil then turn off heat and let it cool with lid. Then puree high speed in kitchen blender until skins puree and disappear into the sauce. This is very good but still not as good as RAGU. I have tried adding spices, 1 at a time & 2 or 3 or more at a time, basil, oregano, marjoram, fennel, in different combinations of each still not as good as RAGU. I think we are about 94% there with no spices but can't figure out the missing flavor. We have not added paprika yet we need to try that.

My Grandmother, mother, both aunts, could taste something then go to the kitchen and make it and get flavor exactly right. I can not do that.
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TomatoNut95
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How strange. It is probably the fancy factory process of the sauce that does something so special. And perhaps it may depend on the variety of tomatoes they use. The Heinz Classic Ketchup tomato I have is claimed to have once been used by the Heinz company to make their ketchup out of. If they still use the same tomato I don't know. I'm sure they use some weird hybrid now. Perhaps RAGU has their own secret tomato. And if the sauce is not non-gmo, all the plants they use, including the herbs, maybe have been genetically engineered to have a strong flavor. Who knows. When you read about genetically modified crops it can make you sick.

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Gary350
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The last of our green garden tomatoes were ripe when we left for the beach Dec 21. I gave my son all 7 ripe tomatoes, on Christmas day I got a text message he diced 4 tomatoes and ate them on Tacos. He ate the other 3 tomatoes for dinner.



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