what to use for a natural preservative?

[Carri]

Hi All,

I make my own salad dressings and sauces and find that they go bad too soon. What can I use to naturally preserve them? I've used powered whey in some things but if I'm remembering right, it does thicken it and that isn't always desireable. Any tips would be appreciated.

Thanks in advance,
Carri :p

[Mitra]

If it's a simple vinaigrette type dressing, then I generally just make what's needed.

If whey helps, then you could use liquid whey - if you make your own yogurt and strain it, then you'll have plenty available.

I saw a suggestion from Julia Child in Mastering the Art of French Cooking, that if you're putting chopped herbs in a sauce (such as mayonnaise) that you want to keep for a few days, you should blanch the herbs for one minute in boiling water them, then run cold water over them, and dry them with a cloth or kitchen paper. She says that it keeps the colour and stops them turning sour in the sauce.

[Gaelen]

Carri, I generally also only make enough salad dressing for the salad being dressed, or for a couple of days. As for mayonnaise, I also only make enough for two-three days. I like Mitra's suggestions from Julia Child re: the fresh herbs...you also need to be careful about anything you make using fresh garlic that's uncooked.

Vinegars and salt are also natural preservatives, along with wine and beer, to some extent. Freezing and drying will also help preserve, depending on what it is. If you really want to make up larger quantities of some things (ketchup, homemade barbeque sauce, mustards), you might want to pick up a home canning/preserving book. I have canned ketchup, salsa, and made homemade vinegars, and I regularly freeze homemade pesto--all without or with greatly reduced amounts of added sugars.

[Inez]

I bought some dishes at Walmart made by Anchor-Hocking (I think) -- they're clear glass dishes with a blue plastic cover on them. You put the cover on and then push down on it to force the air out. I make all my own salad dressings and condiments and they keep in these dishes in the refrigerator pretty much until they're used up, which can be a couple of weeks. I have used both store-bought mayonnaise and homemade. I usually throw out anything made with homemade mayonnaise after a week, although I've eaten some that smelled fine but had been around for awhile and haven't got sick yet! I've also stored homemade salsa in them, and salsa looks pretty bad even a day after it's made, but in these dishes it has kept nice and fresh-looking for a couple of weeks. I have homemade lemon curd and pumpkin butter that have been in these dishes for three or four months now. As for vinaigrette, I keep that in a glass bottle with a cork in it on the counter by the stove (I bought a very expensive bottle of olive oil once in a very elegant bottle!) and it keeps as long as it takes to use it, maybe a couple of weeks.

[Carri]

Inez,

Those little glass dishes sound great but I live way over here in the UK. I wish we had a Walmart over here. So does it suck all the air out? Is it alot different than an ordinary Tupperware system besides it being glass? If so, I will see if my Mom can search for them at Walmart cause she's always sending me stuff from back home. Any more info. on them would be appreciated. I wonder if they have a webpage where I can find them? Hummm...

Thanks everyone who replied.

Cheers, Carri

[Mitra]

I wish we had a Walmart over here.

There are many aspects of UK life I'd like to improve, but strangely enough, bringing Walmart over has never been on my list ;). Actually, they own Asda, so they are already over here in quite a big way :(.

[Carri]

I do know what you are saying Mitra. But there is both bitter sweet in bringing over the big conglomerate stores........They have it all! I have to search so much living here for things (don't live in London) and I miss the big department stores from back home. Yes, I know it would put the Mom and Pop stores out of business and that's not good especially living in a smaller town. But sometimes I just wish........

Empathetic but frustrated,
Carri :eek:

[Mitra]

I think it's a question of what you're used to - I don't live in London either, but I've never had access to the megastores, so I don't miss them. I know my mother really missed the big shops when they moved to a smaller town, but I was only 4 at the time, so it was never an issue for me. But I'd hate it if someone took away the shops I depend on.

[Gaelen]

Carri...how about glass canning jars? I do think things kept in glass in a refrigerator tend to keep longer than the same thing kept in plastic containers in the 'fridge. Corked bottles, canning jars should both be available and should both work. As for getting the air out...how about a Food Saver and the jars that go with it? Don't they have an attachment that will take the air out of canning jars...if I'm thinking of the right thing, it would even be available on QVC.UK

[Carri]

What's a Food Saver? If it's that plastic vacumed stuff, I am trying to get away from plastic if possible because of toxins leaching into the food. I just don't trust stuff. I would love to have lots of small glass bowls but don't know if they even make them for storage purposes. But getting to my main objective in preserving homemade sauces longer, I don't know if I want to go to the trouble of having a whole canning system.

Doesn't anyone have an ingredient I can add to preserve my sauces longer?! :confused: I'm sure there has to be something out there. What about ascorbic acid? Does anyone know how it's used?
Thanks, Carri

[Mitra]

What sort of sauce are you talking about? I'm pretty sure there isn't one magic ingredient that will preserve every kind of sauce. I've made some, like mushroom catsup, that keep at room temperature for months without any special treatment. Fruit-based sauces that are put hot into sterile glass jars can keep for several weeks in the fridge.

[Inez]

Carrie: actually, I've never owned any Tupperware! I usually just store food in old yogurt containers. I bought the glass dishes so I could store and serve stuff in them and then I started noticing that food was keeping much, much longer than normal for me, so it is probably just the fact that the tops create a vaccuum and any sort of storage that creates a vaccuum would work just as well.

[Carri]

I make blue cheese dressing, Ranch dressing, cream or cheese based salad dressings and stuff like BBQ sauce and oriental sauces for stir fries. Plus I do use herbs in my oil and vinegar dressings and found they seem to "pollute" the batch after awhile. I like to make up alot so when I take the time to make a nice green salad, I don't have to also make the dressing every time. This then encourages me to make and eat more salads and also when I have my own condiments on hand that are sugar free, I won't be tempted to use conventional ones. I like them to last weeks or even a month would be nice.

Carri

[Inez]

I'm so proud of my growing collection of homemade condiments, but then it never fails: one of my kids' friends will stay for supper and absolutely has to have, say, ranch dressing, which I don't have, and which every other household in America probably does have -- so I have to frantically try to pull together some ranch dressing for the spoiled brat! It makes me wonder sometimes how much people's eating habits would change if everyone had to make everything by hand -- no bottled dressing, no frozen dinners, no Oreos, no extra-large bags of Doritos... I bet some of those weight problems would disappear pretty quickly!

[Gaelen]

The food saver is a vacuum sealer that primarily uses plastic bags...but they do have an attachment lid that fits standard glass canning jars.

Vinegar would be my preferred preservative of choice for dressing and the asian condiments you mention. Putting in the fresh herbs will contaminate the dressing...but why not make up a batch of basic viniagrette, and then mix in herbs with your daily serving? That way, the un-herbed batch stays fresh longer, and you can vary your dressing as needed. Hope this helps!

[Carri]

I know this is a late reply, but thanks everyone for your input. I'll try some things and see how it goes.

Cheers, Carri