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RE: 7 Essential Tools For The Homestead Kitchen

in #homesteading6 years ago (edited)

This is an awesome article!
I love my chef knife and my Dutch oven. If you've never baked a bread in a Dutch oven, you must try it! It makes the inner part steamy and moist while the outer crust is crunchy and flky and shiny. The best method outside of perhaps a true clay or wood fired bread oven.
I have one question, I have a pressure cooker that I use constantly. Is a pressure cooker suitable for canning? I can sterilize many things in it, so I considered trying jars for canning but I'm not sure it's appropriate. I would love any suggestions you have. I find pressure cookers great for such a wide range of things that I'm loathe to give mine away and would love to take it to the off grid Homestead with me when we move. (this is of course dependent on how energy hungry it is, as we will be relying primarily on solar).
Thanks for this awesome and informative post! Resteemed, mostly so I remember it's here. Haha

Also I loooove your stove! The cook top with the swing out surfaces is amazing.
I'd love to know where you got it, as we will soon be looking for one!

Xx ToL

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Unfortunately a pressure cooker is not suitable for pressure canning. They are quite different. Just to make things super confusing - I have read that you can use a pressure canner to cook with but a pressure cooker is not safe for canning with. I assume that the cookers just don't have the suitable gauges or something (I haven't really looked into the why of it).

We have solar on our homestead and it is definitely a balance. We spent a lot of time evaluating all of the things we used and how much energy they required. I have a washer and dryer but try to never use the dryer because it is probably the worst energy drain there is. We had this induction cooktop that someone gave to us for Christmas. It was amazing, could boil water in no time at all but the energy it used was outrageous. It would cause a breaker to go every time I used it. That said, I have a blender and stand mixer and other gadgets that I used daily without issue.

We used a Kill A Watt Electricity Usage Monitor tool to test everything when we were tightening up our systems and usage (thirty bucks on amazon) you might find that helpful.

I agree about the Dutch oven bread. I love crusty loaves so much and this is such an easy way to make bread. I've got a great no knead recipe that is so effortless.

The wood stove is a Canadian brand, Pacific Energy 2.5 Newcastle in black painted cast iron. I love that it is cast iron and those warming plates that swing out get a lot of use. I sit my bread on them to proof when the air is cool in the house. (we heat only with wood). The only down side is the cooking surface isn't huge. My larger pans don't all fit on it.

Thanks for the encouragement and the lovely comment. xx

Ahh, awesome, so funny you mentioned the kill a watt, we just ordered one over the weekend so we can start monitoring our appliance energy usage while we are still renting to better figure out our energy needs for planning our solar setup. It's good to hear you also spent some time doing the same. We have a lot of ideas while we brainstorm and to hear that others have put those same ideas into action is very reassuring and validating!

We are also planning on heating mainly with wood, fortunately in Colorado it doesn't get quite as cold unless we are at elevation. We are looking at property between 7k and 9k ft elevation, chilly but we have some friends who live at 10k who have to fire their stove up even in the summer sometimes.

Thanks for the suggestions, it's so helpful! I'll be looking out for a pressure canner as I'll be canning a lot this winter at our rental. It's never too early to learn skills!

I am really happy for you @thetreeoflife! I can feel the excitement and that wonderful energy that comes from taking a big leap when I read your posts.