Product recommendation

[lavendersparkle]

I thought I'd recommend a product I have found useful, Le Parfait preserving jars. No, I haven't become so domestic that I've started bottling stuff, Le Parfait preserving jars are great because they are relatively cheap very nice kitchen storage. You buy a pack of six 0.5 litre jars from Lakeland for £13.99. They have nice old fashioned flippy clicky fastenings and seem pretty air tight when shut (I think they have to be for preserving). They also have groves on the bases and lids which make them stack really well. I've got six 0.5 litre ones which I keep different types of sugar in. I'm considering getting some bigger ones to keep flour in, as Alec is getting a little peeved by bags of flour falling out and going everywhere if one opens the baking cupboard. I'm not sure which size is likely to be the right one. Ideally it should be able to hold most of a 1.5 kg bag of flour. Just holding a 0.5 litre jar against a bag of flour makes me think "Hmm, probably about three of these in there" but then I tried to be more scientific and I used a website which gave the weight of cup measurements of different substances to convert recipes into metric buy. This claimed that a cup of flour was 120g and as a cup is 240ml this would suggest that a i.5kg bag of flour has a volume of 3 litres.

This may require further investigation.

Update: I've put flour in one of my 0.5 litre jars and then weighed how much flour I could get into it when it was full. The jar fitted 400g of flour, so to fit a 1.5kg bag of flour I'd need a 2 litre jar, although a 1.5 litre jar would fit 1.2kg, so would work OK if I used the first 300g of flour when I opened the bag.

Further update: I bought a 2 litre jar from Lakeland (£2.93) and it seems to be the right size for a 1.5kg bag of flour. I need three more if I want one for each of the flours I use most frequently (strong brown flour, strong white flour, plain white flour and self-raising white flour). They take up a bit more room in the cupboard but I think it's worth rearranging to make everything nice and tidy and convenient. (Also, storing flour in jars will stop it getting weevils. I've never gotten weevils in flour, but I remember it happening to flour in my mums kitchen when I was little.)

Comments

[pepperedmoth.livejournal.com]

I'm thinking that your preserving jars are like our canning jars (I suppose that's a rather strange Americanism- to can things in jars), and if that's the case, then I totally agree with you. They're the best for food storage. Here, I can buy a flat of 6-12 jars for under $10, and I put everything in them- sugar, flour, rice, dried beans, tea, etc. I haven't found any of the kind with the flippy-clicky lid, though (I know what you mean by that, though- my fiance calls them bail-tops, or maybe bale-tops- never seen it written down).

ALSO, we do a LOT of home canning, my fiance and I, and I highly recommend it. Do not be afraid of the domesticity! Last fall we put up several bushels of apples into sauce, and we shook down the crabapple tree in the yard for crabapple preserves. Plus, every time we go to the grocery store we check over the bins of bruised or imperfect produce, and take it home and can it. We've gotten strawberries, cherries, blueberries . . . haven't bought jam in years, actually.

Oh, and Rob makes a mean pickle relish out of the inevitable bumper crop of zucchini that comes out of the garden .. .

[lavendersparkle.livejournal.com]

Yes, they're canning jars and flippy-clicky lids are actually called bail tops.

My big domestic thing is baking. I love baking and find it really calming. I made my own wedding cake and most people would say that that's a bit nuts but actually when I was really stressed out in the last days leading up to the wedding, sitting down and stirring some icing would really relax me. I think I like the sensuality of baking, the feel and the look and the sound of batters and doughs being mixed in a bowl. I do all of my mixing by hand. I'm going to get an electric hand mixer for when I have to cream large amounts of ingredients together because that does take forever and is really hard work.

I'm not so keen on preserving because my husband and I don't eat much preserves. Also, the jam my mother makes is never as good as shop bought jam, I think she must use too much sugar. Maybe if we're stuck for Christmas presents and want to save money we could make pickles to give people, but I'm not sure if they'd like that.

[pepperedmoth.livejournal.com]

Oh, you're not at all nutty for doing your own wedding cake. I'm not sure if I'm having wedding cake . . . only because I'm going to be so busy cooking the rest of the wedding food. All of it (well, with the help of lots of friends).

So either we're both sane (my vote), or we're both bonkers.

[lavendersparkle.livejournal.com]

The cake was the only food that I cooked myself. My friends and family made all of the rest of the food.