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More in depth food preservation


Blyatman

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So I like that canning goods has been added even though its a bit useless due to the rarity of jars/lids and the fact that food doesn't last long. As someone who lives in Eastern Europe where canning is extremely common I would like to throw my 2 cents and say what you did right and what you missed.  You made the recipes for canning have sugar and vinegar in a jar with water and vegetables and while that would work its overall a pretty crappy method of canning. I am guessing you did this to keep things simple and I get why but I feel the need to tell you how its properly done and maybe give you an idea for future updates. You take a pot add water, vinegar, sugar, salt and in some cases black pepper. You then put it on a fire source until it begins to boil. The vegetables must be tightly packed inside the jar before you pour the liquid on them. After it begins boiling you remove it from your stove/fire and add the super secret eastern european ingredient to the mix which is....aspirin. At this point you might think I am joking with you but I am completely serious. Aspirin does miracles to preserve canned goods. I have torshi that was canned in 2012 and its still good for consumption. Anyway the aspirin must dissolve in the liquid while its still hot and then you pour it into the packed jars and close em. Last step is sterilizing them where you either pour boiling water on the lids or you put the jars in water and boil them for 4-5 minutes.

While I am at it I am going to throw in two more ideas. First one is adding homemade jam. You already have strawberries and rosehips in the game so thats 2 types already. I ain't gonna go so much in depth like the stuff I said above all I am going to say its pretty simple and you already have the stuff you need in game.

Last idea is preservation through fermentation. A good example is sauerkraut. If you don't know how to make sauerkraut this is the proper way to do it. You take a barrel and tightly fill it up with cabbages which you keep pressed to the bottom with something heavy on top like a rock for example (not joking I use rocks). Then you fill it up with water and add salt to the mix. Adding corn will speed up the fermentation process while adding carrots will make it tastier. I know germans cut the cabbage into tiny pieces but here we don't bother and just throw the whole cabbage into the barrel. The trick is to keep the cabbage under the water for the fermentation process to work otherwise it will rot if it floats on top. It's a little more in depth but I feel this is simple enough for the game. Maybe make so you learn these things from a magazine including canning? I find it absurd that you can't make bread dough without a magazine yet you somehow know how to can food from the moment you spawn. Anyway if you don't like my ideas I am still glad I managed to teach you something new today.

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12 hours ago, Blyatman said:

So I like that canning goods has been added even though its a bit useless due to the rarity of jars/lids and the fact that food doesn't last long. As someone who lives in Eastern Europe where canning is extremely common I would like to throw my 2 cents and say what you did right and what you missed.  

 

You made the recipes for canning have sugar and vinegar in a jar with water and vegetables and while that would work its overall a pretty crappy method of canning. I am guessing you did this to keep things simple and I get why but I feel the need to tell you how its properly done and maybe give you an idea for future updates. You take a pot add water, vinegar, sugar, salt and in some cases black pepper. You then put it on a fire source until it begins to boil. The vegetables must be tightly packed inside the jar before you pour the liquid on them. After it begins boiling you remove it from your stove/fire and add the super secret eastern european ingredient to the mix which is....aspirin. At this point you might think I am joking with you but I am completely serious. Aspirin does miracles to preserve canned goods. I have torshi that was canned in 2012 and its still good for consumption. Anyway the aspirin must dissolve in the liquid while its still hot and then you pour it into the packed jars and close em. Last step is sterilizing them where you either pour boiling water on the lids or you put the jars in water and boil them for 4-5 minutes.

 

While I am at it I am going to throw in two more ideas. First one is adding homemade jam. You already have strawberries and rosehips in the game so thats 2 types already. I ain't gonna go so much in depth like the stuff I said above all I am going to say its pretty simple and you already have the stuff you need in game.

 

Last idea is preservation through fermentation. A good example is sauerkraut. If you don't know how to make sauerkraut this is the proper way to do it. You take a barrel and tightly fill it up with cabbages which you keep pressed to the bottom with something heavy on top like a rock for example (not joking I use rocks). Then you fill it up with water and add salt to the mix. Adding corn will speed up the fermentation process while adding carrots will make it tastier. I know germans cut the cabbage into tiny pieces but here we don't bother and just throw the whole cabbage into the barrel. The trick is to keep the cabbage under the water for the fermentation process to work otherwise it will rot if it floats on top. It's a little more in depth but I feel this is simple enough for the game. Maybe make so you learn these things from a magazine including canning? I find it absurd that you can't make bread dough without a magazine yet you somehow know how to can food from the moment you spawn. Anyway if you don't like my ideas I am still glad I managed to teach you something new today.

 

Fixed. And yes, they will probably address this at some point in the future adding everything you just described. Not so sure they'll add aspirin though.

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How about drying?  Most things rots because there is humidity in them.  If you dry them, they won't rot until they pick up any significant moisture again.

 

I don't know about the drying process per se, but I use that technique after pealing fruit and vegetable (as well as the bits I'll throw away) by merely spreading them over a couple of newspaper sheet.  After a few days they are thoroughly dried and ready to throw into the garbage (since I don't have compost where I live).  From there, it can stay in a garbage bag for months without rotting or developing mold and such (and it does take that long to fill a bag... thanks to recycling).

 

I guess it could as easily be done with chopped piece of fruit and vegetable, just need to make sure there is enough air reaching each slice so that the humidity can enter it (assuming it's relatively dry air... may not work in summer when there is a high % of humidity... then low heat may be required).

 

Now meats are an entirely different thing on which I won't speculate (I freeze any meat/fat product I intend to eventually throw out).

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7 hours ago, MyTJ said:

How about drying?  Most things rots because there is humidity in them.  If you dry them, they won't rot until they pick up any significant moisture again.

 

I don't know about the drying process per se, but I use that technique after pealing fruit and vegetable (as well as the bits I'll throw away) by merely spreading them over a couple of newspaper sheet.  After a few days they are thoroughly dried and ready to throw into the garbage (since I don't have compost where I live).  From there, it can stay in a garbage bag for months without rotting or developing mold and such (and it does take that long to fill a bag... thanks to recycling).

 

I guess it could as easily be done with chopped piece of fruit and vegetable, just need to make sure there is enough air reaching each slice so that the humidity can enter it (assuming it's relatively dry air... may not work in summer when there is a high % of humidity... then low heat may be required).

 

Now meats are an entirely different thing on which I won't speculate (I freeze any meat/fat product I intend to eventually throw out).

Yeah drying and smoking meats would be nice. I personally don't have much experience with it myself though. My family has knowledge of how to make salami and other sausage type foods but I always considered it too complicated and never cared much about it after we were done hunting. Your experience of drying reminded me of another thing they should totally add. Drying/dehydrating peppers! It's simple really you take your chilli or bell pepper and you drill a hole in the stem so you can put twine through the hole. Then you tie a knot next to the pepper so it won't move down the line. Repeat the process as much as you want. The only things you have to worry about are leaving them in an area that is too humid and the pepper making contact with another pepper or a wall. The peppers must be fully exposed to air from all sides so they dry and can't catch mold. That is about it, pretty much anyone can do it with minimal effort. Just add peppers to farming. It is extremely basic at the moment and some peppers, onions and corn farming would be a good addition to the mix. 

susheni_chushki.jpg

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Preserving food in a jar could not be any simplier than Tyndallization. No secret ingredients. Just boiling.

 

I've recently found this method, I'm no expert, but a guy claimed that food is completely safe to be eaten even after 15 or more years.

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11 hours ago, Crazy ManMan said:

canning requires doing it carefully be safe. Use FDA recommeneded guidlines for best results. Properly canned goods can last litterally forver as lone as they are not in the sun and the temperature and humidity where they are remains about the same (so in a dry basement or root cellure they would last forever). After a few years the quality of the food will deplete a little as it turns to goo and the nutrition will be slightly less, but it will be still plenty edible. The reason canned goods have an experation date is because they will not taste as good after that date but you could still eat them. Just open carefully and observer closely for any sort of bacteria growth or contaminants.

100% can confirm what Crazy ManMan said about the long shelf life. The pickles in the picture I attached have been canned no later than 2010 and are perfectly edible but have lost some of their taste and are becoming squishy. I wouldn't say they are becoming goo but on closer inspection of the water I can see dust like particles which have come off from the pickle itself. From my experience tomato (not whole, the sauce) canned in a beer bottle (yeah it works too) lasts about 10 years when made with aspirin. My lifetime supply of it started going bad last year and that stuff was canned back in the Nokia brick phone days. Also they should make so that when you eat pickles you get to keep the twist type lid jar. That can be used to make jam that won't go bad and doesn't need the rare lid. I canned the one in the picture back in June this year and it has been sitting on my shelf ever since. It tastes like it did on day 1 and shows no signs of going bad anytime soon.

20161005_112024.jpg

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  • 4 weeks later...

Cold rooms/cellars.

 

In addition to smoking, drying, and easier canning finds (still looking for a 2nd lid, cmon), subterranian cold storage for root vegetables over Winter would be awesome. And subterranian building layers for that matter, because underground zombies are awesome (we all want to get CHUDded somewhere in this game, amiright?!).

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  • 1 month later...

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