Canning 2009 - Page 2

[tankgirl73]

Too early in the season for me here, too. No canning done yet, but I've frozen some green beans and some rhubarb (ages ago now lol).

What I usually do for fall canning:
- blueberry jam
- dill pickles
- bread and butter pickles
- tons and tons and tons of salsa
- whole or half tomatoes
- maybe some applesauce

Anything else gets frozen.

Trying to get a lot of it out of my own garden this year -- first year in our new house, first big garden ever. But I started things off badly, almost killed many of my plants... and it's been a VERY cool and rainy summer. So far I've got lots of baby tomatoes, we'll see if they grow and ripen in time. My pepper plants are still mere infants. Potato plants are enormous but only a few have flowered, no sign of baby potatoes yet. Green beans are doing well. Cucumbers are just barely starting to show some fruit. Only one broccoli plant is making a head. Carrots and onions are doing well.

[MissMommyNiceNice]

Originally Posted by Owen'nZoe

Is there any way to can your own fire-roasted tomatoes? Those are our faves, but I'm trying to get away from using canned tomatoes this year. I only have a water-bath canner - no pressure canner.

The recipe is in the ball blue book. It's in the back in the something special section, I think. I beleive it has some lemon juice so that's what preserves it.

As for freezing tomatoes, it's super easy. Just chop & freeze. Like I said, I do 2 cup measurements because a can is 15 oz. YOu can also freeze little romas whole by cutting an x in them on the blossom end and laying them on a cookie sheet. Bag them when frozen. They don't keep as long as some other veggies in the freezer, maybe only 6 mos or so, but it's better than canned. And cheaper too.

[Carrie Posey]

Any recommendations for a good canning recipe book? I'd like to make Salsa and maybe some apple and pear sauce.

[lmonter]

Originally Posted by Jyotsna

Imonter,
Can I be your canning bitch?

Nah. But if you're nice, you can drool at me from afar via my blog.

Originally Posted by janey99

Hi lmonter -
Mind if I ask you your dehydrating and freezing resources? I'm about to have a ton of tomatoes, but I'm kind of leery about freezing because I'm concerned I'll do it wrong. Also, I'd love to try sun dried or oven dried tomatoes too, but need a starting point.

Dehydrating is the book I got with my dehydrator... How to Dry Foods by Deanna DeLong.
Freezing, well, it's mostly knowing what I can and can't get to turn out okay frozen wise. I've never frozen tomatoes, so I'm no help. Last year I barely had enough to make tomato sauce. This year is looking up, but who knows since we haven't had much funky weather yet besides just a *really* hot July. But if you freeze grated zucchini, may I suggest freezing in 1 or 2-cup portions? Measuring out thawed zukes isn't exactly thrilling.

Originally Posted by AFWife

Does anyone want to be my canning tutor? I'm thinking I can save money by buying veggies and making my own stuff (apartment so no garden)

Depends on what kind of help/encouragement you need. Pressure canners really aren't so scary once you finally dive in - as long as you don't have one from 40 years ago (lots of safety features have been added in the last 10-20 years).

Originally Posted by Owen'nZoe

Is there any way to can your own fire-roasted tomatoes? Those are our faves, but I'm trying to get away from using canned tomatoes this year. I only have a water-bath canner - no pressure canner.

I'm sure. Probably only pints of half-pints though. There's got to be recipes out there on recipezaar or wherever. And you'd just add something like a teaspoon of lemon juice to a pint of tomatoes to make sure you've got enough acidity for the water bath canner, no worries. I did that last year with my plain tomato sauce, and you can't even taste it.

Originally Posted by Carrie Posey

Any recommendations for a good canning recipe book? I'd like to make Salsa and maybe some apple and pear sauce.

For a great, all purpose canning book? Hands down, the Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving. It has all the recipes of the dinky blue book, and it's a hardcover. Which, if your house is anything like mine, means the book has a better shot at actually lasting (paperbacks tend to... well, it's not pretty). Pear sauce, I found the recipe linked somewhere... just google it, and you'll come up with a fair share of them. Or up in the stickied fruit thread above... Salsa, I just have a recipe a friend gave me. Relish is my grandma's secret recipe, and I'm still working on a crisp dill pickle recipe... Think I'm going to try the grape leaf thing this year and see if that helps. That's actually why I'm on at this time in the morning, to track down the recipe I used last year. Smelled great, apparently tasted good in the jar my sister got that seems to be the only non-soggy one, but soggy pickles (blech).

[Owen'nZoe]

Originally Posted by MissMommyNiceNice

The recipe is in the ball blue book. It's in the back in the something special section, I think. I beleive it has some lemon juice so that's what preserves it.

As for freezing tomatoes, it's super easy. Just chop & freeze. Like I said, I do 2 cup measurements because a can is 15 oz. YOu can also freeze little romas whole by cutting an x in them on the blossom end and laying them on a cookie sheet. Bag them when frozen. They don't keep as long as some other veggies in the freezer, maybe only 6 mos or so, but it's better than canned. And cheaper too.

Thank you! That is exactly what I needed to know. Also, my post was totally unclear - I meant I want to get away from store-bought canned tomatoes. I'm fine with home canned. I have frozen them in the past, with good results, but I just don't have enough freezer space to do that this year.

[Owen'nZoe]

Originally Posted by lmonter

For a great, all purpose canning book? Hands down, the Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving. It has all the recipes of the dinky blue book, and it's a hardcover.

Do you have this book? Do you know whether it also has the fire-roasted tomato recipe that MMNN said is in the Blue Book? I have been googling for a TOC online, but can't find anything.

[lmonter]

Originally Posted by Owen'nZoe

Do you have this book? Do you know whether it also has the fire-roasted tomato recipe that MMNN said is in the Blue Book? I have been googling for a TOC online, but can't find anything.

I don't see it in my Complete Book, or the Blue Book. Stewed tomatoes, sure. Tomato sauce, check. But no fire roasted anything. Let me go digging somewhere else for ya...

[MissMommyNiceNice]

hmm...I was just looking on the ball site, but couldn't find it. I'll look when I get home, see if I can find it in book.

[lmonter]

Okay, I asked over in the canning forum of RecipeZaar, and the only response I got was "probably, as long as you take 'em straight from the oven and can them." Just roast 'em up, then follow the directions for canning tomatoes with the hot-pack method (including a tiny bit of lemon juice or citric acid [buy in bulk from your local hfs - cheaper than the dinky Mrs. Wages one in the canning section]) to make sure the acidity is high enough. Intriguing idea though... if I end up having enough tomatoes this year I may just have to try it myself.

[mamadelbosque]

I have the ball complete home preserving book too. It really is a great resource, and most everything I've made out of it has turned out really really good.

[lmonter]

Okay, add in 14 quarts of apricots, 6.5 pints of chicken and about 2 more quarts of dehydrated cherries to my tally.
Also currently drying basil and parsley right now, and have some peas in the fridge I need to deal with as well as more boxes of apricots in the garage.

[Jyotsna]

I had a major failure last night. I canned 4 quart jars of strawberry jam, and it completely failed. I don't know what I did wrong, if anything. Some of the strawberry recipes I saw said that you have to let it cool down and keep in the fridge overnight then warm up and can later. Is this something that I MUST do with strawberry jam? Also, I should have added pectin, but I forgot. That is probably what it is. I guess strawberries don't have enough pectin in them. My figs, apples and blueberry/peach jams all did splendidly without added pectin.

ARgh!

Now, I have more fig jam cooling on the counter, and I hope it didn't have TOO much pectin in it. LOL The figs came from my parents farm, as I suspect the fig tree in my back yard is all done.

I'm going to try the strawberry jam again in a few days...please offer me some tips! Thanks!

[newmomrose]

Originally Posted by Jyotsna

I had a major failure last night. I canned 4 quart jars of strawberry jam, and it completely failed. I don't know what I did wrong, if anything. Some of the strawberry recipes I saw said that you have to let it cool down and keep in the fridge overnight then warm up and can later. Is this something that I MUST do with strawberry jam? Also, I should have added pectin, but I forgot. That is probably what it is. I guess strawberries don't have enough pectin in them. My figs, apples and blueberry/peach jams all did splendidly without added pectin.

ARgh!

Now, I have more fig jam cooling on the counter, and I hope it didn't have TOO much pectin in it. LOL The figs came from my parents farm, as I suspect the fig tree in my back yard is all done.

I'm going to try the strawberry jam again in a few days...please offer me some tips! Thanks!

I am new to canning this year, so someone else might have better info... BUT in our experience so far the gelling of the jam seems to only happen if you get the temp. up to 220 degrees. We have done some jam, with pectin, following a recipe that called for X number of minutes boiling, and it didn't gel as well as any of the other jams we made where we measured the temp. and sometimes didn't use pectin, and didn't put the fruit into jars until the mixture reached the magic 220. This temp was listed in only one of the recipes, but we have found so far it works for everything. We have made a couple kinds of cherry jam, strawberry, raspberry, blueberry, and pepper.

Good luck!

Do other people use the temperature thing or the minutes boiling?

Also, tips on places to find info. about good low-sugar recipes?

[mamadelbosque]

I did strawberry jam last year without added pectin, but I had to cook it for a VERY long time before it finally got to the gel stage... Did you do the gel stage tests? It also had a LOT of sugar in it!!

[Owen'nZoe]

Originally Posted by lmonter

Okay, I asked over in the canning forum of RecipeZaar, and the only response I got was "probably, as long as you take 'em straight from the oven and can them." Just roast 'em up, then follow the directions for canning tomatoes with the hot-pack method (including a tiny bit of lemon juice or citric acid [buy in bulk from your local hfs - cheaper than the dinky Mrs. Wages one in the canning section]) to make sure the acidity is high enough. Intriguing idea though... if I end up having enough tomatoes this year I may just have to try it myself.

Thank you, LM! I think I'm going to try it. My first tomato is just starting to tinge red - I'm guessing I'll be able to do some canning next weekend. I was planning to just go with the lemon juice to acidify.

[MissMommyNiceNice]

Originally Posted by Jyotsna

I had a major failure last night. I canned 4 quart jars of strawberry jam, and it completely failed. I don't know what I did wrong, if anything. Some of the strawberry recipes I saw said that you have to let it cool down and keep in the fridge overnight then warm up and can later. Is this something that I MUST do with strawberry jam?

It depends on the recipe. No pectin (old fashioned) recipes call for much more fruit and less sugar. Say, 9 c crushed and 4 c sugar vs. 4 c crushed and 6 c ...

I've made them both ways. After cooking for a long time (maybe a little too long, I think because the jam was a little tough) last year to make the old fashioned recipe, this year I made the pectin recipe. I have one recipe that calls for you to let it sit for like 48 hours, but seriously, who has the time?

Fruit, pectin & sugar amounts being correct are crucial to the recipe setting up right. If you have too much sugar or too little fruit, your fruit can float and leave a clear layer of jelly-like liquid on the bottom. This is not preferred (although easily stirred up when eating) especially if you have a serious competition problem, er, uh, I mean hobby like I do. Too little pectin will not jell the fruit enough.

Also keep in mind that not all recipes set up in the same way. Some recipes may be ready to eat like immediately. Some may take up to 2 weeks or more to fully jell. Like my sweet cherry jam...it's a slow setter and won't be ready imo for at least a month. Maybe more.

Don't be afraid to experiment with ingredients or combinations, but one thing to remember for sure is to keep the ratios equal. I just had to reduce one recipe down by 1/3 b/c I didn't have enough raspberry juice, but I remembered to cut back the amount of sugar & cherries appropriately.

Try, try again! Practice makes perfect. Just empty your jars into some freezer bags and you have yummy ice cream topping or margarita ingredients for later this winter.

[Jyotsna]

Thanks for the comments. Actually, the strawberries didn't look good and they smelled bad. YUCK. I maybe should have used strawberries that were LESS ripe? Maybe that was the problem, perhaps there were overripe fruits in there.


I made fig jam last night and it looks GREAT. I did use pectin, but I'll just tell you that I recently made apple fig preserves and they look great...no pectin.

[Kiltie Girl]

Can anyone share their lemonaide concentrate recipes? That sounds devine!!

I'm just starting into the canning/freezing/preserving season here. I've done up 13 quarts of broccoli for the freezer and a quart or two of corn and beans. Kind of doing them as they are ready. I've got 10 gallons of saurkrat going with 15 more heads ready to be picked in the next week. Cukes are just starting to come in, so I'm going to start pickling those up this week. My toms are big and green, but I'm guessing another week or three before they ripen.

[Owen'nZoe]

Originally Posted by Jyotsna

Thanks for the comments. Actually, the strawberries didn't look good and they smelled bad. YUCK. I maybe should have used strawberries that were LESS ripe? Maybe that was the problem, perhaps there were overripe fruits in there.


I made fig jam last night and it looks GREAT. I did use pectin, but I'll just tell you that I recently made apple fig preserves and they look great...no pectin.

You definitely want to use nice fruit that has just turned ripe for jam. In fact, some of my older recipes call for 1/4 under ripe fruit and 3/4 perfectly ripe fruit, because the under ripe fruit has more pectin in it. Other recipes have you add a little apple, which also has a lot of pectin.

[Owen'nZoe]

My canning list is very short right now, as we've not had the best year in the garden. So far I've made:

4 pints of dilly beans
4 pints of watermelon pickles
frozen 2 gallons of strawberry
12 pints of strawberry jam
dried 1 qt tyme
dried 1 qt oregano
dried 1 pt sage
frozen 1 qt chives

Still waiting on elderberries (for syrup), tomatoes (for canned roasted tomatoes), cukes (pickles), apples (applesauce and frozen slices for pie), and grapes (jam).