Ben Starr

The Ultimate Food Geek

Tag: canning

  • Bourbon Preserved Figs

    If you’re lucky enough to have a fig tree, or a neighbor who has one, you have figs coming out your ears in early summer…and perhaps again in late fall, especially if you live in a Southern state.  This fall crop of figs often gets interrupted by early frosts.  The figs are still green when…

  • Ben’s Secret to Stock

    Homemade stocks make ALL the difference in recipes, particularly in soups, sauces, and gravies.  But who’s got room in their freezer for gallons and gallons of homemade stock?  Lots of TV chefs will tell you to reduce the stock a bit and then freeze it in ice cube trays, but then you have to maintain…

  • Bourbon Fig Jam

    You fall into one of two categories of humans.  The first: someone who has to pay an outrageous amount of money to purchase figs at the grocery store when they’re in season…sometimes up to a dollar a fig. If you’re not that person, you fall into the other category.  Either you or a neighbor has…

  • Spicy Pickled Asparagus

    I planted my asparagus patch in my garden about 4 years ago, and it has always been productive, but this year…I guess with the mild winter…it has been rabid.  I’m pulling about a pound a day out of the garden, harvesting twice a day, and have been for more than a month! If you’ve never…