Retro Kitchen Arts Glossary!

*Under Construction

Head or Headed - This means to take the stem, leaf, or green part off the fruit or vegetable.

Hull – This means to take out the hard, mostly white, mostly white part of the fruit or vegetable.  For instance, in a strawberry it is the hard, white part on the top and spiraling down the middle of the berry.  Same for a tomato.

Lid Flower - This is a home-made pedestal for the hot water bath canner.  Take two or three of the screw top lids and tie them together forming a “flower” that will comfortably fit the bottom of your hot water bath canner or pressure cooker.  Jars being processed need to sit on something besides the bottom of the pan.  See my article on Tips & Tricks for a picture.

Overripe – Past the usual stage of being ready to eat.  When fruits are squeezed, they are not firm with some “give”, they are plain old mushy!

Sheet – When something sheets off a spoon, it means that it spread or falls off the spoon in layers instead of all at once and leaves the spoon bowl coated with some of the ingredients.

Rolling Boil -  Also called a  hard boil  is when contents boil rapidly and do not die down when stirred.  If not watched closely, a rolling boil can spill over onto the stove.

Work Up -  This is an old-fashioned term (that my nana used) to describe what is done to fruits or vegetables in order to prepare for the canning process.