Seasonal Tips

As summer, 2010 all too quickly slips into the past, you (and everyone else except the skiers)  are wishing you could savor summer  all through winter.  In a way, you can.  All that delicious produce in your supermarket (or, better yet, in your garden) is just waiting to jump into jars and remain in suspended animation until some snowy day when you long for fresh-like fruit.  Yes, truly fresh fruit appears in the supermarkets in winter, too but at exorbitant prices and with diminished taste.  The long journey from who-knows-where to your supermarket jacks up the price and diminishes the flavor; the produce grows too old and tired to retain its just-grown taste.  Canning is one inexpensive way to feed the year-round urge for produce that tastes great. Furthermore, you know your own canned goods won’t have preservatives, color additives, or other chemicals you may not want to consume.

Editor’s Note:  Below are a food scientist’s recommendations for cooking a turkey so that it comes out tender and moist.  His comments also include interesting recommendations for thawing and marinating the bird.

The author, Dr. Clair L. Hicks, is a food scientist and faculty member of the Department of Animal and Food Sciences at the University of Kentucky.  He is also a member of the Shelf Life Advice Advisory Board.