Reducing Food Waste Recipe Sharing/Tips & Kitchen Scrap Tips

I love reading this thread!

I reuse pickling brine for refrigerator pickles. They don't last as long - not that we need them to because pickles disappear very quickly in our house, but they're great and very easy.

This might be questionable for some for nutrition reasons, but I also render my own lard and tallow from animal fat (we order meat in bulk) and use it for cooking (and leaf lard for pastry crust). It's actually very easy to do - cut it up in 1-inch chunks and cook in a slow cooker overnight with a quarter cup of water to prevent scorching as it gets up to heat. Once it's all melted, strain it to get the cracklings out into jars. I keep one in the fridge and the rest go into the freezer for later.

The cracklings are super addictive so watch out, but they can be used as a garnish or salad topping, or in some recipes in place of bacon (the type of thing where you'd be using crumbles.)

After making stock I will grind up the bones to make bone meal, which can be put in the compost or in the garden directly - I use it for roses.

acpgee wrote: »

@penguinmama87
How do you grind down bones? Curious because I heard breaking up bones results in a stronger bouillon but wouldn't know how to do it without power tools.

I also render down beef tallow. I put the beef fat through the food processor before popping it into the rice cooker without water for a few hours. I also save all the fat from roasting duck and goose.

My method is to boil them clean after making broth, then dry them out in the oven. I break them up outside in a bag or even an old pillowcase with a rubber mallet into small pieces. Then I grind them up in my blender with a blade I use just for that purpose. I usually do a whole bunch at once because it is time consuming. But beating them up with the mallet is really, really fun.

I've heard amazing things about duck fat in particular, but I've never been brave enough to try roasting duck (or goose) yet, though one of the stores I shop at does carry them around the holidays.

I just make bone broth by roasting the bones, letting them cool, then soaking then in apple cider vinegar and water for an hour, then simmering for at least 4 hours.

https://youtu.be/ZBtVNGBKgy4

Not all table scraps are good for pets. Chocolate, raisins and chicken bones are just a few things that should stay out of the doggie bag. But lean meats, vegetables and grains are fine. Here’s a link from the ASPCA about the dos and don’ts of feeding your pet from the table.

-https://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/07/27/doggie-bags-for-portion-control/

I try to meal plan and just buy what I need, most the time just rotating 4 or 5 dinner ideas and then eating at a restaurant a few times per week for variety. Between meal planning & a dog who will eat just about anything, we hardly have any food waste!:D

If anyone else makes sweet pickled watermelon rind, I discovered a neat trick. Put in a little citrus peel, pith and all for a day or two in the brine. The little undercurrent of bitterness and citrus scent makes the pickles much more compex.

I use a lot of the ideas above - and when my lettuce/cauliflower/broccoli arrive I often cut a mm off the stems and keep them in containers of water in the fridge (changing water from time to time). Just deep enough so they can drink away. Keeps them fresher for much longer - and you can also revive limp carrots etc this way.

Someone mentioned roasting potato peelings. Really ? Presumably in a hot oven with a bit of oil to make something a bit like crisps? ?

Lately I have been making fruit waste sorbet to use up odds and ends. My last one was a tin of peaches, a couple of overripe bananas, an overripe pear that had gone grainy, and some underwhelming fresh nectarines from the supermarket. Peel fruit and blitz together in the food processor. Sweeten to taste with sugar, keeping in mind that once frozen it will taste less sweet. It is ingredients like sugar, alcohol and egg white that prevent the mixture from freezing too solid. Freeze, mashing the edges of the mixture with a fork every 40 minutes or so to prevent large ice crystals from developing. If it is too hard or grainy once frozen, taste to check if it needs more sugar and run through the food processor with some vodka or liqueur and an egg white and freeze again.

I don’t buy canned fruit much, but our lunchroom ladies used to use the sweetened juice with kool aid and unflavored gelatin to make some seriously good jelly!

I had to warm up stale corn tortillas that would have broken if you tried to fold them. Wrap up a stack of tortillas in a wet paper towel, put them in a fabric tortilla wamer (or oven mit) and microwave 20 seconds flip, and then blitz another 20 seconds.

Last year was the first year I canned my own liquid pectin using crab apples. Now, not only do I save my apple peels in the freezer, but I also save citrus pith for the same purpose. Supposedly the pectin content of citrus pith is very high and will be better when making things like dandelion jam where you don't want an apple flavour to overwhelm.

https://www.theguardian.com/money/2022/mar/07/how-to-stop-wasting-food-and-save-money

I have been recently making spring rolls and gyoza's from small quantities of leftover meat to store in the freezer. They make a good starter on a night you have only made salad for dinner.

Dice up the meat fine, stretch with some minced re-hydrated dried shitake mushrooms, grated or finely shredded veg to make a filling.

You can buy gyoza or wonton wrappers in the deep freeze section of an asian supermarket. Making your own is fairly easy if you have a food processor for kneading the dough and a tortilla press for rolling thin rounds. For spring rolls you can either buy the frozen wrappers in the asian supermarket or use dehydrated Vietnamese rice papers (for summer rolls) that you soak individually before wrapping. I find the rice papers easier as you just take out what you need and return the rest to the pantry. Google for videos on how to wrap and roll.

Freeze in a single layer on a tray before tossing into freezer bags to prevent them from sticking together. I like to coat the tray for spring rolls in oil, and rolling them around a bit before freezing. For gyozas I dust the tray with flour before freezing.

I warm up spring rolls in the air fryer at 200C for 10 minutes from frozen. For gyozas I will use a scant amount of oil in a non stick pan, and toss in a glass of water and cover once the bottoms have browned. Cover with a lid to steam until the water has cooked off.

Some different wrapping styles for dumplings and spring rolls made with both Vietnamese rice paper and Chinese wheat based spring roll wrappers.