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Are You Unprocessed?
For the third year running, Andrew of Eating Rules has kicked off the Unprocessed challenge. The goal is to go one entire month without eating or using any processed foods. Sounds simple, right? After all, as DIY food enthusiasts, we are constantly taking matters into our own hands so that we can avoid icky things like preservatives, additives and chemicals with names a hundred syllables long.
But. When you dig into it, and realize that to be truly unprocessed, you need to avoid things like white sugar, kosher salt and possibly even some kinds of vinegar, it throws a little wrench in the plans. Preserving recipes are exacting, and tinkering too much with your ingredients can produce results that can range from unexpected to undesirable to outright dangerous.
On the other hand, to my mind, there's room for argument on exactly how far down the chain of unprocessed one needs to go. After all, Andrew himself gives a pass on baking powder and baking soda, though one could technically work around it by using, um, antlers. I use granulated sugar in my preserves and kosher salt in my pickles because it produces consistent and predictable results. It's not that I couldn't find alternatives, but that I haven't made an effort to.
All that said, I feel that I more or less live the lifestyle that Andrew is espousing. After all, I just now turned off the burner on the last of our annual 100 pound tomato canning extravaganza. Inside the cans: Tomatoes. That is all.
So, I want to know from you: How do you work around things like refined sugar, kosher salt and other technically processed foods in your preserved goods? Alternatively, when do you feel it's appropriate to use a modicum of processed foods when putting your own stuff up? Tell me all about it in the comments.
I stay out of the supermarket
I stay out of the supermarket and grow my own veggies. As for meat I order from an Ontario based meat supplier, Nutrafams. They have free range animals available in whatever cut you like and are hormone free.
My food has tasted so fresh since saying good bye to processed garbage!
avoiding proccessed foods
I use pomona pectin and concentrated fruit juices, stevia, sucanat, honey and maple syrup as sweeteners for my jams and jellies. Technically the pectin is I'm sure proccessed but it's not the nasty sugars that one gets when using sure jel or other stuff. I'm waiting for a glut of apples to be able to can some homemade apple pectin. I can all my fruits in a white grape juice mixture I make of water and concentrate. I've switched from canning pickles with vinegar to using lacto fermenting methods for saurkraut, salsa, and pickles- so only whey and real salt gets used there. We've done alot of dehydrating lately which allows for no sugars of any kind or preservatives. The biggest thing I do on a regular basis is to can soups, and bone broths in our pressure canner as most broths and premade canned soups have serious ickiness in them. I don't consider the salt I use to be proccessed-- I only use orsa salt which is a minimally proccessed sea salt or a celtic sea salt. Since cloudiness is the only real issue with using sea salt vs. kosher or canning salt I fudge on that one and deal with the cloudiness which is minimal. We also make all our own sausages out of deer or elk meat and our own spice mixes! I can and preserve things for exactly that reason-- to avoid all those things I don't want my children and my family to eat, and since most commercial foods that meet my standards are pricey, this also saves us money!!
avoiding processed foods
I'm always waffling between too processed and/or local. I haven't yet reached the level where I can do without commercial sugar or salt. Vinegar is a hard one too since I'm not confident about the acidity level. Awesome challenge...
avoiding processed foods
I've taken to using honey...but that's only with no-sugar pectin, which makes me wonder if the pectin is processed too.
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