Thank you for visiting my canning cellar!

Salsa!  here’s the ingredients I used

10 lbs green tomatoes chopped 
 8 cups onions
 2 teaspoons dried red pepper flakes
 8 lg red peppers chopped
 6 garlic cloves minced
 1 cup dried basil
 1 cup lime juice
1 cup lemon juice
1 cup  apple cider vinegar
2 tablespoons salt
1 tablespoon cumin
4 tsp black pepper 
1 tablespoon sugar

• I washed the tomatoes and used the serrated knife to remove the stem part and any other blemishes, and used my food processor to chop them up, not bothering to remove the seeds or skin. I did the same with the onions and the peppers although I did remove the pepper seeds, and mixed them in the Mirro pot with the lime and lemon juice, the vinegar, salt, cumin, oregano, pepper and sugar. I let this all simmer for about 30 minutes, then I drained it all using the large strainer. I used the smaller strainer to weigh them on the postage scale. After it all drained, I used the funnel and a measure cup to fill pint jars to 1/2 inch head space. I wiped the rims using a vinegar soaked lint free cloth, put on the lids, and did just a tad more than finger tighten the rings, which I find makes them seal better for some reason using this canner. I water bath them for 20 minutes for my altitude above sea level. I used the jar lifter to remove them after letting them sit with the canner cover off for about five minutes to help the contents settle down, and then put them on a dish towel covered table. The dish towel is to avoid shocking the hot jars when put on a cooler surface.

I got 9 pints of salsa.

For the sauce I used the same equipment I used earlier, only this time I did not chop the tomatoes first.  Recipe linked below

As an FYI, the salsa and the sauce drained out a lot of tiny pieces of tomatoes so be sure to have a really good strainer in the sink or you may have a mess in your drain. 
Thank you for visiting my canning cellar. Talk soon. Stay safe.

https://nchfp.uga.edu/how/can_03/spaghetti_sauce.html

https://laurelleaffarm.com/item-pages/farm/stainless-milk-strainer.htm

Pizza Sauce, Update on Evelyn's Jam

What I used for equipment was my presto precise digital canner, my electronic postal scale,  a dutch oven stovetop pot, a jar lifter, a canning funnel, a measure cup, a de-bubbler, a strainer, a wooden spoon, a dish towel, a vinegar soaked lint free cloth, small serrated knife. 

What I used for ingredients: 

10 pounds tomatoes

3 tablespoons oil, and I had some store bought fancy oil that I used, fancy meaning it was an Italian flavored one that I bought it at Big Lots on the after Christmas clearance sale in January

4 chopped onions

2 tablespoons minced garlic

2 tablespoons dried Italian seasoning

3 teaspoons salt

1 teaspoon ground pepper

4 tablespoons tomato paste

lemon juice

I filled the dutch oven pot almost half full of hot water and brought it to a simmer, then turned off the heat and put one layer of washed tomatoes in it, just long enough for the skins to start slipping off easily. Before I put them in the water I had scored each of them on one end with an x using the sharp knife. I used the jar lifter to take them out of the water, it only took about 30 seconds in the hot water. I put the oil into the emptied dutch oven pot and cooked the onions and garlic until the onions were translucent, added the spices, and then added the skinned and cored tomatoes. I had weighed the tomatoes before putting them into the hot water using my postage scale. I used my immersion blender to smush it all down. I let this cook down about an hour, stirring occasionally with the wooden spoon, then added the tomato paste. I then ladled the mixture into the hot canning jars, using the measure cup and funnel, de-bubbled them, and for this I used my actual canning de-bubbler but I’ve also been known to use other thin items that are not metal…the metal could be mean to the jar and cause a break if one is too rugged with the de-bubbling… I added 3/4 teaspoon bottled lemon juice to each jar, not for flavor but to ensure the correct acidity level for safe water bath processing. Then I wiped each rim with the vinegar soaked cloth to be sure they were clean of any sauce, then put on the lids and finger tightened the rings. I water bathed these for 25 minutes. I had found several different pint times so I took the longest, and even though I did quarter pints I still used the pint time which is what’s recommended. When the canning cycle was complete, I removed the canner cover and let the jars sit in the canner for about five minutes, just enough to let them simmer down a little so they didn’t spit at me. I used the jar lifter to remove them and set them on a dish towel. I ended up with 7 quarter pints, plus enough left over to put on two pieces of toast and a couple of crackers.

https://nchfp.uga.edu

French Onion Soup!

What I used for equipment was a large dutch frying pan, a large stock pot, a cutting board, a sharp knife, a canning funnel, a de-bubbler, a two cup measure cup, dish towels, potholders, the jar remover tongs and I ended up needing 9 quart jars. I used the Presto digital canner, again not good with the planning, which meant I had to do this in two batches of four quarts with one quart left over for the next day’s lunch, and I used the pressure canning cycle.

The ingredients I used were 7 pounds of onions, 6 quarts of our own previously canned beef broth, 4 tablespoons of beef base and the brand I have is by Maggi,  4 teaspoons steak sauce and 4 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce, and four tablespoons butter.

While my husband peeled and sliced the onions, I got the broth going. It was very simple. I removed the solidified fat from the top of each quart of beef broth and emptied the broth into the stock pot. I don’t know if anyone else would have had to remove the extra fat, but because my husband can’t tolerate it I just didn’t add it. 

I added the beef base, the steak sauce and the Worcestershire sauce. 

I brought it to a simmer for a few minutes then shut it off. 

I cooked the sliced onions in the butter in the dutch frying pan on medium low until they were translucent, and meanwhile I had my jars going through the warming cycle in the canner because I was going to be putting in hot food. It’s always hot food, hot jars, hot water OR cold food, cold jars, cold water. 

When the onions were done, I measured two cups into each quart jar, filled with the broth, de-bubbled, and added more broth to one inch head space. I wiped each rim with a vinegar soaked paper towel, put on the lids and finger tightened the rings. I processed each batch for 75 minutes. I had some siphoning during processing but all the lids sealed. 

When my processing is done, I always remove the canner cover and just let the jars sit for about ten minutes. This helps if any jars are really bubbling because it gives them that little time to settle down a bit. I have removed bubbling jars immediately and had them spit at me around the lids and rings in protest. And I always set the hot jars on dish towels to help avoid any shock of extremely hot jars on the colder work table. 

The next day I removed the rings, washed the jars to remove any grease from the siphoning, and after they dried I labeled them and put them down in my canning cellar. 

“When any vegetable is damaged, its cells are ripped open. The plant often then tries to defend itself by releasing bitter-tasting chemicals called polyphenols that can be off-putting to hungry animals trying to eat it. But an onion’s defense mechanism goes further, producing an even more irritating chemical, propanthial s-oxide, meant to stop the plant being consumed by pests.” 

It’s been a while since I recommended Jamie’s amazing jar openers, which he makes using 3D technology. I absolutely can’t use anything else because my thumbs give me so much trouble. He gave me permission to put his contact info in the show description. I have no relationship with Jamie, just love his product.

Thank you for visiting my canning cellar. Talk soon. Stay safe. 

https://nchfp.uga.edu

https://www.justapinch.com/recipes/soup/soup-other-soup/easy-pressure-canned-french-onion-soup.html

https://theconversation.com/why-onions-make-us-cry-and-why-some-dont-84486

Jamie’s jar openers:  mwright93434@roadrunner.com 

Thanks for visiting my canning cellar. This is where I don't tell you how to can but rather just how I can. Of course everyone will use his or her best judgement after researching.



http:/nchfp.uga.edu

Welcome to my canning cellar!

What I used for equipment was a dutch oven pot, my Presto digital canner, a cutting board, a serrated lettuce knife, a canning funnel.

What I used for the product was romaine lettuce, I can’t remember how much I had, but am thinking at least three bunches. I used 6 cups of apple cider vinegar, 2 cups water and 1/2 cup of pickling salt. 

I mixed the brine mixture together and let it come to a boil, then let it cool down. Then I packed the lettuce very tightly into 6 pint jars and poured the brine into each jar to the inch head space. I wiped each rim with a vinegar cloth, put on the lids and finger tightened the rings. I don’t boil the lids, but I do wash and rinse them and then keep them in clean hot water until I’m ready to use them. I’ve seen many different approaches to lid readiness and I feel this is what I’m comfortable doing.

I processed the pints using the water bath cycle and let them process for ten minutes. Processing time starts after the water comes to a boil, and with the digital canner, I don’t need to keep an eye on it as the processing starts automatically when ready. 

The lettuce of course is a green, and greens wilt. I was however surprised at how much it wilted because I had the jars really well jam packed. 

Now this was 6 months ago, but my husband just opened a jar to try. He said it tasted like lettuce but in a vinegary greens way. He ate it plain like one would spinach. He likes a lot of vinegar taste so it was good to him, but I found it too tart for my liking. And even though the lettuce wilted up to about 1/2 way in each jar, I definitely would do this again. 

https://nchfp.uga.edu/
https://www.epicurious.com/ingredients/varieties-and-types-of-lettuce-article
https://dpi.wi.gov/sites/default/files/imce/school-nutrition/pdf/fact-sheet-lettuce.pdf

Welcome to my canning cellar, season 2 episode 12. I don’t tell you how to can but rather how I can. Please do your own research as sometimes I will stray off into untested territories, and by untested, I mean by the USDA or the National Center for Home Food Preservation. I sometimes will go by the results from experienced home canners.

I had both white and brown rice and I canned them in separate jars as my husband prefers the white and I prefer the brown. 

The ingredients I used were rice, just rice, oh and water to cook it in. I used three 1 pound bags of long cooking brown rice and three 1 pound bags of long cooking white rice. 

The items I used were two large dutch oven pots, a measure cup, a long thin handled wooden spoon, a canning funnel, a jar lifter, and my digital canner.

I cooked each type of rice according to the package instructions. I did not rinse or drain either  after cooking. 

Using the canning funnel, I filled each warmed jar with the hot rice, and I used pint jars. Each cooked bag of white made 4 pints full and each cooked bag of brown made 3 pints full. At first, I made just one bag each, but for the second and last round, I cooked two bags of each at a time. The white rice was rather clumpy at the bottom of the dutch oven pot so I kept about two pints worth out and froze that. Rice freezes rather well.

After filling each jar I used the handle of the wooden spoon to both push it down and remove air. Even though I packed them pretty well, each jar ended up compressing a bit. I then wiped the rims with a vinegar paper towel, I finger tightened the rings and I fit 7 jars at a time in the Presto digital canner. I should’ve thought ahead and used my larger stove top canner to do more at a time. 

I processed each batch at 20 minutes on the pressure canning cycle.

https://nchfp.uga.edu

https://www.foodandwine.com/news/7-things-you-never-knew-about-rice

Tomato Soup!

tomatoes, probably 14 various sizes, whole, peeled, just top part of core removed 

2 cups bottled tomato juice

1 onion, diced or minced as small as you'd like

9 tablespoons butter, divided

2 cups half and half

4 tablespoons flour

1 teaspoon minced garlic

1 teaspoon basil

3 tablespoons sugar

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon pepper

For equipment I used a strainer, a dutch oven pot, my immersion blender, a wooden spoon, my digital canner, and ended up using 7 pint jars with lids and rings.

Put tomatoes and tomato juice in pot to cook down. Use immersion blender to smooth out. Add onions and garlic that were softened in 3 tablespoons butter, and then add basil, sugar, salt, pepper.

Make roux with half and half and flour in 6 tablespoons butter. Use immersion blender to smooth. Add to the tomato mixture. 

I filled the warmed pint jars, wiped the rims, put on the lids and finger tightened the rings. I processed these using the water bath cycle for 30 minutes. It was very easy, the hardest part was the handling of the freezing cold tomatoes.

Home canned sloppy joes!

The ingredients I used were 4 pounds ground hamburg, 2 cups chopped onions, 6 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce, 3 cups ketchup, 1/2 cup water, 4 tablespoons apple cider vinegar, 4 tablespoons brown sugar and 4 teaspoons prepared yellow mustard, not dry mustard. 

The items I used were my Presto Precise digital canner, a canning funnel, a de-bubbler tool, a vinegar soaked paper towel, a jar lifter, and 5 pint jars with lids and rings. I also used the largest frying pan I have and mom’s old dutch oven pot.

First I got my jars warming in the digital canner, and put the lids to just rest in a pot of hot water just to soften up the rim material. I don’t boil my lids as my research says there’s no need to. 

I then got all the hamburg cooking with the onions. I didn’t break the hamburg up as much as I did when I canned plain hamburg as I thought maybe this on top of pressure canning would allow the meat to stay a bit less mushy. I also didn’t cook the hamburg completely through, maybe about 90% done. Then I drained the meat and onions, keeping the drippings to add to the dog’s and cat’s food. I dumped the meat mixture into the large dutch oven pot and added all the rest of the ingredients and let it simmer for about ten minutes. 

By this time, the warming cycle was done so I pulled out my jars one by one and filled them using the canning funnel. I left them just below the one inch headspace mark because experience tells me that it could bubble up quite a bit. I ran the de-bubbler tool along the inside of each jar and topped each off as needed. I got 5 full pints plus about 1/2 cup left over to put into the fridge. 

I wiped each rim with the vinegar soaked paper towel, put on the lids, and finger tightened the rings. Because this is a meat product, I had to process the pints for 75 minutes. 

Welcome to My Canning Cellar, Season 2, Episode 9.

Welcome to Season 2,  Episode 8



https://www.walmart.com/ip/Salsa-Mix-Mild-3-Of-1-06-Oz-Pouches/124953903

https://nchfp.uga.edu

https://www.streetdirectory.com/food_editorials/snacks/dips_and_sauces/history_of_salsa_sauce_the_mexican_connection.html

Welcome to my canning cellar!

Some of these rutabagas were larger round than a big head of cabbage, and they weren’t easy to peel. My research told me to put them in boiling water to loosen up the skins, but I found the easier way for me was using my vegetable peeler. Not only did it work, it kept me from the extra step of waiting for the water to boil, parboiling for 5-10 minutes, and having to wait for them to cool to remove the skin. 

So besides the peeler, I only needed a cutting board, a very sharp knife, a paring knife, a pot of clean boiling water, my stovetop pressure canner, a canning funnel, a debubbler, jars, rings and lids. I ended up with 16 pints from two large and two medium rutabagas.

These rutabagas were fresh out of the garden so I had to scrub them well, and because most of them were so big most of them also had bad spots above the root area. I cut all the bad part off, hung onto the tops, cut off the rutabagas in more manageable pieces, then peeled those pieces.

After rinsing the pieces, I used my paring knife to cut them into pieces no larger than 2 inches. I filled the jars using the funnel, added boiling water using a measure cup, debubbled, then filled with more pieces as needed to bring it all up to a one inch headspace. I also did something I don’t normally do, I added a tablespoon of sea salt to each pint per online guidance. The reason I used sea salt is because idodized salt is said to cloud the water. Not harmful as far as I know, just not as pretty. Then I wiped the rims off, added the lids and finger tightened the rings. 

I had warmed up the jars in hot water before filling as I was adding boiling water. For my elevation of over 1000 feet above sea level, I processed the pints for 30 minutes. All my jars sealed and are in my canning cellar. While I haven’t opened a jar yet, my sister canned some and opened one of her jars and said it was not too strong, which some folks say could happen. I don’t mind a strong vegetable so I am sure it’ll be fine.  

I wanted to find out the difference between rutabagas and turnips to see if I’ve been tossing around the wrong words all these years, and found that turnips taste like a cross between a cabbage and a radish, with a little zing tossed in. Rutabagas are milder and sweeter. Turnips are white inside and cook up almost translucent,  and rutabagas are yellow inside and cook up yellow.  Because they are both root vegetables, they can be interchanged in recipes. Turnips are normally harvested earlier than rutabagas so they are smaller. 

I followed the procedure from Healthy Canning and I’ll put the link in the show description. 

Thank you for visiting my canning cellar. If you listen on a platform on which you can leave a rating, I’d appreciate that. I know I’m not professional and it’s just me talking into a little stick microphone with my laptop, but it makes me happy to share what I’ve learned. Talk soon. Stay safe. 

https://www.healthycanning.com/canning-rutabaga

Season 2, Episode 6

Blueberry Jam!

My friend Nancy generously picked and gifted us 4 pounds of blueberries. Evelyn plans on entering jam at the fair again this year, last year she won a blue ribbon for her raspberry jam. I measured the blueberries out into two bags of 6 cups each and froze them until she and I were able to do some canning. I had looked at the recipe I was going to follow to know how many to put in each bag. 

What I used for equipment was the Presto digital canner, a strainer, a dutch oven pot, a old fashioned handheld potato masher the kind with the square holes, a wooden spoon, a 4 cup measure cup, a half cup measure cup, canning funnel, pot holders, a lint free dish cloth,  dish towel, jar lifter.

What I used for ingredients were blueberries, sugar, a box of powdered pectin and a pat of butter.

The morning we canned, I let the two bags of berries thaw out separately in strainers to get rid the little bit of water from being frozen. I made two batches of jam, making each one separately as research tells me that doubling a jam or jelly recipe can often lead to canning failure. I personally have never tried that so can’t say by experience.

I used the directions that came with the Sure Jel brand pectin, so besides the pectin and blueberries, I used 4 cups of sugar and a pat of butter. The butter is to reduce the foam that forms on top of the bubbling jam, and normally I just skim it off and save to eat. Foam is good to eat, it just takes up room in a jar that is best served by the actual product plus for entering contests it looks better without it. The butter did its job, I had no foam to skim off of either batch.

After rinsing the blueberries, making sure there were no stems attached, Evelyn used the potato masher to smash the berries in the dutch oven pot. As it’s a jam, she wasn’t concerned about making them too liquidy so she left a nice amount of blueberry clumps. Then she added the pat of butter, and sprinkled the pectin in, mixing them thoroughly with the wooden spoon as it all came to a rolling boil. At this point, she added the 4 cups of sugar and kept stirring and mixing, letting it come back to a rolling boil, which is a boil that can not be stirred down. She let that boil for one minute, and we also put a thermometer in it to watch till it came up to 220 degrees Fahrenheit which is the temperature at which it is supposed to set.

She already had the 8 ounce jelly jars warmed up in the canner, so I took each one out and because the jam was so very hot, I handled the jar filling using the half cup measure cup to fill the jars also using the canning funnel. I wiped each rim off with a lint free washcloth that I continually rinsed in hot water, put the lids on and finger tightened the rings. One jelly jar was a drinking jar with a plastic cover, so I filled that one and set aside for her to take home to put in their fridge. When putting jelly or jam into the fridge right off, it doesn’t have to be processed.

The jam processed for 10 minutes on the water bath cycle, then after the first batch was done I removed the canner cover and let the jars sit for 5 minutes just to let the jars simmer down a bit, then removed them using the jar lifter, and set them on a dish towel. 

While Evelyn’s batch was processing, I had my batch cooking, so I was able to put the 2nd batch in fairly quickly after hers was done. 

Each batch gave us six 8 ounce jars.

https://nchfp.uga.edu

Season 2, Episode 5. Peas!

I looked on the National Center For Home Food Preservation and there all approved and everything was how to can dried peas. I will put the link in the show description.  

What I used for equipment was a large stock pot, a wooden mixing spoon, a measure cup, a canning funnel, debubbler tool, a dish towel and I used the Presto digital canner.

What I used for ingredients was 4 pounds of dried split peas and water. That’s it.

I did the quick hydrating method which was after sorting and washing the peas, I covered them with boiling water in the stock pot. I let them boil for 2 minutes, then shut the heat off and let them soak for one hour. Then I drained them, covered them with clean water right from my tap, and boiled them for 30 minutes, keeping a close eye on them to avoid scorching.

The beans soaked up a lot of the water. I already had my jars hot from the warming cycle on the digital canner, so I was fine with the hot peas into the hot jars and then back into the hot water of the canner. 

All I did was used the measure cup and the canning funnel to fill the jars, debubbled, and made sure they were filled to the one inch headspace. I wiped the rims with a vinegar cloth, put on the lids and finger tightened the rings. 

I ended up with 4 quarts of peas (and a pint left over that I put in the fridge) and the processing time was 90 minutes. 

https://nchfp.uga.edu/how/can_04/beans_peas_shelled.html

Fair Entries,  Bad Cord,  Zucchini Jam

Two different kinds of zucchini jam using the same base recipe.

The equipment I used was my digital canner, a dutch oven pot, a wooden spoon, a food processor with the shredding attachment, a vegetable peeler, a paring knife, a skimmer, a dish towel, a canning funnel, a rubber daisy, a jar lifter, and I always wear the funky tomato pattern snap front apron my late mom gave me years ago. I ended up using 7 half pint jelly jars and 2 quarter pint jelly jars. 

The ingredients I used were 

1 zucchini about 10 inches long

1/2 cup bottled lemon juice

(2) 15 ounce cans of fruit cocktail

6 cups sugar

(2) pkgs of 3 oz orange gelatin which was to take the place of added pectin

I washed and peeled the zucchini, and shredded it with the food processor. I put the zucchini in the dutch oven pot with the lemon juice and brought it to a simmer and let it simmer for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally with the wooden spoon. 

While that was going, I drained the fruit cocktail and put the fruit through the same shredding attachment on the food processor. It turned out mostly mush but with enough chunks to make it look like a jam, in my opinion. I drained it again after shredding, and of course shredding it is using that term loosely as already soft fruit doesn’t exactly shred.

I added the fruit and the sugar to the dutch oven and brought it to a boil, stirring until the sugar was dissolved. Then I let it cook for another 7 minutes, skimming off as much of the white foam as I could, then I shut the heat off, and stirred in the two boxes of gelatin. The reason I skimmed the foam is because foam takes up space in the jars that would be better served by filling with the actual jam product. I never throw out jelly or jam foam, I put it in the fridge for eating. 

Using my canning funnel, I put the hot mixture into the hot jars, leaving about a half inch of space, wiped the rims with hot water on a paper towel, put on the lids and then finger tighten the rings. The original recipe said to water bath for 5 minutes, but because my elevation is just over 1000 feet above sea level, I processed the jars for 10 minutes. 

The orange gelatin of course colored the jam a very pretty color, but it’s hard to make out any of the fruit or zucchini pieces. So I decided to do another batch but use canned pears and clear Surejel.

I did the 2nd batch almost the same way I did the first, only this time using (two) 15 ounce cans of unsweetened pears. Because I didn’t like the looks of the zucchini seeds in the first batch although I did cut out some larger ones, this time I cut out all the seeds. I put the zucchini and then the drained pears through the food processor shredding attachment, and then let the zucchini and lemon juice simmer in the dutch oven pot for 30 minutes.

This batch cooked down almost all the liquid out so I had to pay particular attention to it to avoid scorching. Then I added the sugar and the pears, brought to a boil while I stirred the sugar until it dissolved, then again let it cook for about 7 minutes. After turning the heat off, I stirred in the one box of Surejel. I knew that if the one box wasn’t enough, I could always re-process the mixture with a 2nd box although I was really hoping that wouldn’t be necessary. And it came out so nicely that this was the jam I entered in the fair.

http://grandmasquickfixrecipes.blogspot.com/2012/02/quick-easy-zucchini-cherry-jam.html
https://www.britannica.com/technology/food-processor#ref197227

Using the Mrs. Wage’s packet:. 

What I used was a stainless steel stock pot, a wooden spoon, paring knife, strainer, canning funnel, de-bubbler, jar lifter, towel, paper towel, white vinegar, and I used my digital canner.

I followed the directions on the package, and it was very easy seeing how it included the spices. All I had to do was wash the tomatoes, put into boiling water for three minutes, immediately put them into cold water and peel and core. I chunked up the tomatoes, added 1/2 cup of white vinegar and the pouch of seasonings, brought to a boil stirring occasionally and then letting it simmer for ten minutes. Because I wanted a thick salsa, I strained it into another bowl before filling the jars. I de-bubbled the jars, wiped the rims with white vinegar on a paper towel, and put on the clean lids and then finger tightened the rings.  I only ended up with 2 pints of salsa and 1 pint of leftover liquid which I water bathed for 45 minutes per the directions. The directions called for 6 pounds or about 18 medium tomatoes and not thinking I had enough, I added a couple pints of my 2020 canned plain tomatoes.

I wanted to make a salsa using the large summer squash that a friend had given me. I ended up combining a couple of recipes using what I had on hand.

I also was using the water bath cycle on my digital canner for this batch. The equipment I used was a food processor, chopping board, paring knife, strainer, dish towel, debubbler, jar lifter.

The ingredients I used were 15 cups of finely chopped yellow squash, 2 quarts of my 2020 home canned tomatoes which I drained, 3 medium finely chopped onions, 6 cups of frozen finely chopped green peppers, 1 fresh jalepeno pepper that had been given to me, 2 tablespoons dry ground mustard, 2 tablespoons garlic powder, 1 1/2 tablespoons paprika, 3 cups white vinegar, 1 1/2 cups brown sugar, 3 tablespoons red pepper flakes, 1.5 teaspoons nutmeg, 1.5 teaspoons black pepper. 

I used the food processor for the squash and the onions. Using my stock pot again, I combined all the ingredients and brought it to a boil, then simmered it for 45 minutes to help reduce the liquid. I drained the mixture saving the liquid. After filling each jar and using the debubbler, I wiped each rim with a vinegar soaked paper towel, put on clean lids and finger tightened the rings. 

I processed 7 pints on the water bath cycle for 15 minutes, and I had 2 pints of the broth that I did on the stove using my stockpot as a narrower water bath canner. I put a dish towel on the bottom of the stockpot and then set the jars on it, adding another empty jar just as a filler. This was not an idea canner, it did boil a lot over the top, but I was trying to save time by doing two things at once. 

Thanks for visiting my canning cellar! 

Welcome to Season 2, Episode 1, Herb Potatoes

My equipment was the Presto Precise Digital Canner, a small pot, 2 large pots, a colander, a potato peeler, my favorite small paring knife, a canning funnel, a de-bubbler tool, vinegar and paper towels, an oven mitt, a jar lifter and a dish towel, along with my usual garb of the vintage snap front apron my late mom gave me many years ago.

What I did was wash and peeled the potatoes as I started the broth, letting the broth come to a slow boil.  These were potatoes given to me and had no variety name on the bags so I can’t help anyone there. I diced the potatoes into pieces no larger than 2” for heat distribution reasons, and put them in a pot of cold water into which I’d added a dollop of lemon juice known as acidified water which I had to research to know what it meant. 

My goal was to dice the potatoes as evenly as possible which goes against my hurry-up nature, but because I may want to enter a jar in our local fair, I wanted to do a little more even job.

I used about 5 pounds of smallish potatoes, discarding some pieces that were grayish. My sister gave me some fresh rosemary and thyme from my niece’s herb garden, and I also ended up using some of my dried rosemary and dill as I ran out of the fresh herbs and didn’t have any dried thyme on hand. I’ve never known how to use herbs so normally I don’t buy them…the dried rosemary came from our lovely neighbors.

The process was after rinsing the potatoes that had been in the lemon water, letting them drain in the colander,  then letting them all sit in fresh plain cold water for about 15 minutes, I put some of the diced potatoes into the jars then added a teaspoon of herbs, then filled the potatoes to the top at about the inch mark then added the hot chicken broth, de-bubbled and added more broth if needed to the inch headspace. Because I assume the judges will fault me for decreased liquid as many food items are prone to having, I knowingly overfilled the jars. I wiped each rim with a vinegar soaked paper towel, put on the lids which I had sitting in a little pot of from the tap hot water, and finger tightened the rings. 

Pressure canner time was 35 minutes for the pints.

I have often found it to be true that if any jar comes out of my canner with the food not bubbling, then that jar may not seal. I actually had two jars not visibly bubbling this time yet they both eventually sealed. And despite over filling the jars with broth, only two are at a level I think would satisfy the judges. But I have never entered home canning at a fair before so I may be off the mark here. 

Lots of canners including myself get very discouraged by lids that buckle while processing. I am very careful to only finger tighten my rings on lids but it happens sometimes. And sometimes those jars will still seal and when they do they make a loud pop. I think that the generic lids are sometimes made thinner so they just don’t take the pressure well. That said, I HAVE had success with generic lids.

I have noticed that most of my lids this summer have sealed without the lovely sound of the ping…I miss that sound but as long as the jars seal I can deal with the lack of fanfare, albeit reluctantly.

Recipes for coleslaw and herb potatoes, using the basic directions and adding or detracting ingredients depending on what I had on hand.

https://www.justapinch.com/recipes/side/vegetable/canned-cole-slaw.html

https://www.canningandcookingathome.com/dianes-blog/herbed-potatoes-for-pressure-canning

http://www.buymeacoffe.com/mycanningcellar 

#homecanning   #cannedfood   #mycanningcellar

Welcome to My Canning Cellar,  episode 25, Season 1 finale

http://buymeacoffe.com/mycanningcellar

Equipment: large stockpot, a cutting board, a vegetable peeler, a large sharp knife, the two largest bowls I have, several measure cups, a food processor,  a canning funnel, a jar lifter, a stainless steel scraper blade, and a slotted spoon, a paper towel soaked in white vinegar, and my Presto digital canner, and my 16 quart stainless steel water bath canner.

Ingredients (netted me 7 pints and 1 and half pints of brine)
2 cups apple cider vinegar
3 1/2 cups white sugar
1/2 cup water
2 teaspoons celery seed
3 teaspoons ground mustard powder

2 heads of cabbage
4 carrots
2 onions
1 orange pepper
4 tablespoons canning/pickling salt

The first step I did was put the vinegar, sugar, water, celery seed and the mustard powder together in the stock pot and let it come to a boil, then let it boil for 2 minutes.

Chopped the cabbage into strips, used food processor for onions and  carrots, cut up pepper.

I put the cabbage, carrots, onions and salt in one of my large bowls, then dumped it into another slightly larger bowl and mixed it up to distribute the salt as evenly as I could. And as a FYI, if you use your large Pampered Chef collapsible bowl like I did, then the carrots will stain the inside bottom. The brine was left in the stockpot to cool as the cabbage mixture settled with the salt. 
After letting the slaw mixture sit for one hour, I rinsed and drained it twice. It was easier to do this step in halves as there was so much of it and even my largest colander was a bit too small. A larger colander with smaller holes that pieces of chopped carrots can’t stick into, is on my wish list. 

Then I added it all to the brine which I had put into the larger water bath canner as my regular stock pot was too short. 

This is a water bath canning food because of the acidity of the vinegar and because the brine was only lukewarm by the time everything was ready to be put together, I had filled the canner with lukewarm water and while I did warm up the jars, I by-passed the jar warming cycle on the digital canner. The food temperature has to match the jar temperature has to match the canner water temperature in order to protect the jars from shock which could cause them to break.

Using my canning funnel and slotted spoon I put an equal amount of cabbage mixture in each jar pushing it down but not trying to make a solid pack, poured in the brine to one half inch head space. Wiped rims with vinegar cloth, put lids on, finger tightened rings.

After the jars were done processing, which was 20 minutes for my altitude of just over 1000 feet above sea level and yes with the Precise digital canner I do have to adjust water bath manually,  I removed the canner cover and let the jars set for another 10 minutes, just to help in case they are still boiling pretty good, it made me feel a little safer, then I removed them using the jar lifter and set them on a dish towel on my canning table, where they sat for 24 hours. 

I actually did two more cabbages worth but was out of raw bell pepper so I only used  cabbage, carrots and onions, and I added the previously made brine to this bunch. My first 7 pints had about one inch brine on the bottom, so I extra packed the last batches with the cabbage mix, and the jars look totally full. 

We opened a jar of the coleslaw and it did indeed stay crispy, this is definitely a go-to recipe and method for me.

Total was 17 pints of cabbage coleslaw and one pint of brine.
 
This is an example of the stainless steel scraper:
https://tinyurl.com/bwwjvscu

Welcome to My Canning Cellar episode 23, Unstuffed Cabbage Rolls.

I surfed the web and came up with my own recipe for unstuffed cabbage rolls using some parts of this one and some parts of that one, so while the name isn’t original to me, the recipe is the result of my tweaking. There are recipes all over the internet, so of course use whichever recipe you are comfortable with, as again, I don’t mean to tell people HOW to can, I want to tell them how “ I “ can.

The equipment I used was a large dutch oven fry pan, a chopping board, a couple of good cutting knives, and of course I have to have dish towels handy, plus my canning funnel, a de-bubbler, a one cup measure cup, a tablespoon, a teaspoon, and I used my Presto digital canner because I knew it’d be a small batch. Sure enough, using the following ingredients, I ended up with 3 quarts.

• 1 pound ground hamburg
• 1  large onion, chopped
• 2 tablespoons minced garlic
• 1 medium cabbage, chopped, and I had the more common green cabbage
• 1 large orange pepper
• 2 small cans of diced tomatoes
• 1  eight ounce can of tomato sauce
• 1/2 cup water
• 1 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1 teaspoon sea salt
• I chopped the onions, cabbage and pepper while the hamburg browned in the large dutch oven fry pan. After the hamburg was cooked, I drained it in a heat resistant bowl so my dog could have some on her food later, and because it was store bought hamburg and not our own lean hamburg, I also rinsed it with water, draining it into a large metal can. 
• Then I cooked the onions with the minced garlic, and when the onions were translucent I added the cabbage, tomatoes, tomato sauce, the water, salt and pepper. I cooked this until the cabbage was tender. 

Because this was a hot food into hot jars into hot water canning process, I had my jars already through the warming cycle on the canner. I filled each jar to 1 inch headspace using my canning funnel, wiped the rims with a vinegar cloth, put the lids on and finger tightened the rings.

• I processed these for 90 minutes and the reason I processed them for so long is because they had meat in it. And because I used the digital canner, I did not have to manually set any pounds for my altitude above sea level as the canner does it automatically.
• I was thinking of making more of the cabbage rolls but am out of store bought diced tomatoes, and while I have some jars of my own homegrown and canned tomatoes in my canning cellar it seems redundant and a waste of time and energy to open those just to process again.
   
• My next cabbage canning adventure will be cole slaw. I have never canned cole slaw before but evidently it’s a thing, so I’ll talk about that in the next episode, number 24.

I’d like to mention my other podcast called Readings from old diaries. The diaries are actual ones found in our 1790 farmhouse when we bought it. That podcast may be ending soon because I’m running out of diaries. The diaries start back in the 1800’s, and I read nothing personal, so go listen if you are interested. 

Thanks for visiting my canning cellar. If you’d like to help defray the monthly cost of keeping me on the air, please go to http:buymeacoffee.com/mycanningcellar.  My tiny piece of the podcast world isn’t bound to generate any sponsorship interest, so anything is most welcome and appreciated. Talk Soon. Stay Safe. 

Orange Juice Jelly, episode 22

https://www.buymeacoffee.com/mycanningcellar

https://www.medibank.com.au/livebetter/be-magazine/food/the-history-of-orange-juice/

Kori sent me a recipe for sweet tea jelly and I decided to make it using chai tea. Because I didn’t have the required liquid pectin, only powdered pectin, I thought I could substitute the powder. However, because the first pectin I saw in my cupboard was an already opened jar of low and no sugar pectin, I decided to use that. Don’t be me. Don’t mess with the science! I had to process that batch two times to try to get it to gel, adding more pectin the 2nd time. I’ve decided it’s going to be used in baking as a kind of thickish yet runny syrup, and I did have some on toast and it has a great chai flavor.  I have no personal preference as to liquid or powdered, it’s just that I’ve never happened to buy or use the liquid.
 
I then made a batch of sweet chai tea jelly using a recipe that did call for powdered pectin, and  that link will be in the show description. This is how I did it, a slight substitution on the flavor of tea:

I used a dutch oven pot which was an awesome thrift store find of a vintage Wagner Ware,  a small pot for boiling water, a 2 cup measure cup, a tablespoon, a wooden spoon, a canning funnel, lint free cloth, jar lifter, dish towel. My tip especially for new canners is search your thrift stores first for equipment, especially in the fall when folks may be retiring from home canning. It can be costly setting up a new canning center. I broke down my costs in season 1, episode 8.

I used 4 chai tea teabags, 2 cups boiling hot water, 2 tablespoons bottled lemon juice, one box regular powdered pectin, and 4 cups white sugar. 

I added the pectin to the steeped tea after removing the tea bags, and added the lemon juice as well all in a dutch oven pot. Brought that to a boil, then added the sugar, and brought that to a rolling boil and let it go for one minute. The lemon juice is not added for flavor, it’s added so that there’s acidity in the jelly which makes it able to be water bathed instead of pressure canned.  I have researched if I could pressure can jelly, and the answer has been yes and no, with the no being because of the pressure canning resulting in over cooking the jelly and also it would take longer to do. 
This jelly at a rolling boil was an amazing sight of light brown clouds, and didn’t really want to settle down so I could not see if any foam needed to be skimmed off, so I didn’t even bother trying. The foam is edible and I would have kept it in a dish for eating, but most folks take it out to leave room for the actual jelly, especially if the jar is going to be entered at a competition and you wouldn’t want the off-color foam ruining a nice look. 

I had my jelly jars already hot from the warming cycle on the canner, so I filled them using the canning funnel and a half cup measure cup, wiped each rim with a hot water soaked lint free cloth, put on the lids and finger tightened the rings. These were processed for ten minutes on the water bath cycle. Because they were being processed for ten minutes, there was no need to pre-sterilize the jars, this is information found on many trusted sites, including the national center for home food preservation. After they were done processing, I removed the canner cover and let them sit for 5 minutes, just to let pressure come down a bit more, then I used the jar lifter to remove them from the canner and placed them on a dish towel. Hot jelly goes into hot jars into hot water, and then onto a dish towel to avoid shocking the jars on a not hot surface. I ended up with two 8 ounce jars and  4  four ounce jars.

 https://nchfp.uga.edu
https://nchfp.uga.edu/publications/uga/2019_ProcessingJJ.pdf
https://www.thespruceeats.com/sweet-tea-jelly-1327869

Squash Relish

• 10 cups chopped yellow summer squash and zucchini squash 
• 2 large onions, chopped
• Mixed color peppers to equal about one large, chopped
• 6 tablespoons canning salt
• 4 cups white sugar
• 3 cups apple cider vinegar
• 1 tablespoon each dill seed
• 1 tablespoon ground mustard 
• 1 tablespoon ground turmeric
• 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoon pepper

Using my food processor, I chopped the summer squash and the zucchini, the two onions, and the peppers into uniform small pieces, and now that I’m looking ahead to entering canned goods in  September’s Tunbridge Fair I made sure they were as uniform as possible, then I tossed them together and let them set in the refrigerator overnight. All the recipes I had looked at either said drain for two hours or drain overnight.

The next morning I drained them as recipes called for although there was literally nothing to drain, the squash mixture was all nice and dry. But after following the ‘rinse’ instruction, I had to wait for the water to drain out. 

Then I re-read the recipe and saw my error. I was supposed to have added the salt to the squash mixture and let THAT all set. So I added the salt and let it set for two hours. Then I rinsed, drained, rinsed again, adding two hours to my overall time because I neglected to read every word of the recipes I borrowed from. 

After realizing my salt omission error, I Googled to see if it was absolutely necessary to add it to the sitting mixture, and couldn’t decide yes or no, so I just decided to do so. 

While waiting for the water to drain for the last time, I pulled out my large stainless steel stock pot and combined the sugar, vinegar, the dill seed, ground mustard, the ground turmeric, ground nutmeg and the pepper and brought it all to a boil. I used the wooden spatula to stir it occasionally. The sugar tended to make the mixture stick a bit to the sides of the pot which is where my silicone daisy was used. Then I added the squash mixture and let it come back to a boil, then I reduced the heat, letting it simmer for 15 minutes. 

I used my canning funnel and ladle to fill all the hot jars, leaving 1/2 inch headspace. I ended up with the store jelly jar, the pint canning jar, and eight 8 ounce canning  jars.  After filling the jars, I used my debubble tool to not only remove the bubbles but also to adjust the headspace as my tool relocated some of the mixture, I wiped the rims down with a vinegar cloth, put on the lids, and finger tightened the rings. 

I water bathed these for 20 minutes, making sure the hot water covered the tops of the jars by at least two inches. My elevation is over 1000 feet above sea level which is why I did it for 20 minutes. I had read that the 20 minutes would be for pints, and whenever mixed size jars are used I always go by the most time. 

I removed the jars about ten minutes after they were processed, which meant the 20 minute timing started after it came to a rolling boil, and I left them alone on the canning table until the next day, when I checked to be sure they had each sealed. 

I said that I used a jelly jar from store bought jelly. The reason I did this is to experiment with using those types of jars that have the push-down middle button, similar to regular canning lids. I have read many times that these jars are okay to use in water bath canning, and I figured if it did not seal, then that one would go into the fridge. And I put it in the fridge anyway just to err on the side of caution. 

https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/230708/zucchini-crisp/

Pickled Eggs! Even pretty pink ones!

I use a basic pickled egg recipe that goes like this:

12 hard boiled eggs peeled and cooled

1 teaspoon minced garlic 

3 cups white vinegar

1 cup water

1 teaspoon sea salt

1 thinly sliced large onion

1 bay leaf

1/3 cup sugar

4 teaspoons pickling spices

Bring all ingredients except for the eggs and garlic to a boil in saucepan. Simmer 5 minutes and let cool slightly, Add the garlic to the jar, and alternate the onion and eggs, then pour the brine over and seal the jar. I have kept these eggs for months in the fridge. 

Pink Pickled Eggs

2 cans (15 ounces each) whole beets

12 hard-boiled large eggs, peeled

1 cup white sugar

1 cup water

1 cup apple cider vinegar

Drain beets, reserving 1 cup juice.  Place beets and eggs in a 2-qt. glass jar.

In a small saucepan, bring the sugar, water, vinegar and reserved beet juice to a boil. Pour over beets and eggs; cool.

Cover tightly and refrigerate for at least 24 hours before serving.

Onions! 

1. Onion Relish-my digital canner

• 8 cups of thinly sliced onions
• 1 cup of white vinegar
• 1 1/2 cups white sugar
• 1 teaspoon sea salt
• 1/4 teaspoon turmeric
• large dutch oven full of water on to boil as I sliced the onions,  simmered onions for 5 minutes.
• In another pot: vinegar, sugar, salt and turmeric and brought that to a boil. After the onions cooked the five minutes, I drained them , then I added the onions to the boiling liquid and let it simmer for two minutes
• packed the hot onions into the heated jars, and then added the brine, leaving 1/2 inch headspace,  debubbled the jars by running the little utensil through it, wiped the rims down with vinegar on a cloth, put the lids on and then finger tightened the rings. I had enough onions for 5 half pint jars but had liquid left over so for the other two jars so I cut up onions to fill the jars and topped them off with the brine to 1/2 inch headspace, processed 10 minutes

  2.  Onion Cranapple Jam-digital canner

• 8 cups onions sliced and diced 
• 1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
• 1/2 pure maple syrup
• 1 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons pepper
• 1 bay leaf
• 2 cups cranapple juice
• 5 tablespoons low or no-sugar pectin
• 3/4 cup white sugar
• I combined the onions, vinegar, maple syrup, salt, pepper and the bay leaf in my stainless steel pot and cooked over medium heat for 15 minutes until the onions were translucent, and I kept an eye on them, stirring occasionally.
  Stirred in the apple juice and the pectin, and sprinkled the pectin so it wouldn’t clump. Let this boil hard, meaning I could not stir it down. When it got to the hard boil stage, I added the sugar stirring it until it dissolved, then let the mixture get back to a hard boil for one minute, then removed it from the heat. I took out the bay leaf and tossed it
• ladled the hot jam into hot jars, leaving about 1/4 inch headspace. I removed what air bubbles I could with the debubbler, wiped the rims down with a vinegar soaked cloth, put the lids on (which I had sitting in hot water), put the rings on finger tight.
• I was able to do 2 jars that are a pint and a half size, two half pint jars, and two quarter pint jars. These I processed for 25 minutes in my Presto digital canner.

  3.   Plain Onions, pressure canned

• peeled and sliced 2 large bags of onions, each one weighed about 2 pounds 13 ounces on my scale. Again, I simmered them in plain water until translucent, and divided the onions up into the jars, added the hot cooking water to 1/4 inch headspace, wiped the rims with vinegar cloth, put the warm lids on and finger tightened the rims.  I ended up with 10 pint jars and one half pint jar. I processed them in the pressure canner at 15#, which is the weight for my altitude, for 40 minutes. 

  4.  Pickled Onions-water bath ten minutes

• sliced 2 large bags of onions
• 2 cups apple cider vinegar
• 3/4 cup white sugar
• 3 1/2  teaspoons pickling spice

Vinegar and sugar to a boil, lowered the heat to simmering, added the sliced onions. Simmered for 5 minutes. Put 1/2 teaspoon of pickling spice in the bottom of each jar, added the onions smushing them down and added then brine, wiped rims with vinegar cloth, put the lids on, finger tightened rings. Ensure having at least 2” of water over the tops of the jars and water bathed these for ten minutes once the water in the canner came up to a rolling boil. I ended up with 6 half pints and one four ounce jar. 

Of course always do your research to feel confident in your choices for canning food. I tell how I do it and if I fail, I'll let you know!

Rootbeer Jelly

• 4 1/4 cups rootbeer soda
• 4 1/2 cups sugar
• 6 tbsp. powdered pectin
• 2 tbsp. bottled lemon juice
• 1/4 tsp. butter

In a large dutch oven pot I mixed together the soda and the lemon juice. Then I brought it to a boil and let it go for one minute. Then I sprinkled in the powdered pectin  …not dumped like I did with the dandelion jelly… using a whisk to mix together. I added the sugar and brought it back to a boil, then added the butter and let it boil for one minute. 

While the mixture was cooking, my jars were warming in the Presto Precise digital canner. 

Using my canning funnel, I filled the canning jars to one inch head space, wiped down the rims with a cloth and hot water, put the lids on and finger tightened the rings. I was able to fill 13 four ounce jars with a smidgen of jelly left over for taste testing. 

Best I could find out, the lemon juice was needed to add acid to the mixture to help it set, and I was actually just going by several recipes that I’d found as I didn’t find one that said not to add lemon juice. This was the first time I’d ever added butter to help reduce the foam that normally forms on jelly, and I didn’t skim any foam off of this one. 

I processed the jars in the water bath cycle for 10 minutes. I removed them when the canner signaled that the cycle was done, and put them on the canning table to set for 24 hours. Going by the little bit of tasting sample left in the bottom of the pot, I knew that this jelly will set up nicely. 

 It certainly tastes just like rootbeer, and I am already thinking ahead about maybe making a rootbeer BBQ sauce out of it. It is pretty sweet so I will add some kind of vinegar, oil, and other seasonings to balance it out, and let you know how it comes out. 

I really appreciate you visiting my canning cellar. Talk soon. Stay safe.

Dandelion Jelly! I finally tried it!

This recipe gave me twelve (12) four ounce jars.

4 cups loosely packed dandelion petals (about 8-10 cups of the blossoms, remove all green that is left on from the cradle part)

1/3 cup low sugar powdered pectin

2 tablespoons of lemon juice

4 cups of white sugar

To the 4 cups of petals, I added two quarts of water and boiled them for three minutes in my dutch oven fry pan.  The result looked pretty gnarly, almost like a yellowish brownish batch of spinach,  then I let it cool for a couple of hours, as the longer it sat, the more yellow it became.  

Strain until the dandelion tea is rid of sediment. 

Measure out 4 cups of the dandelion tea  and add the lemon juice and pectin, bring back to rolling boil then add the sugar, bring to boil again, let boil 2 minutes. I used my immersion blender because I had clumped the powdered pectin.

Skim off the white foam (and save for tasting!), use canning funnel to pour liquid into 4 ounce jars, wipe jar rims with vinegar cloth, put on lids, finger tighten the rings, water bath process for ten minutes. Remove from heat, let set for 24 hours at least before moving. 

Beet Horseradish Relish

The ingredients I used were: 

three store bought 15 ounce cans of small whole beets, drained

2 cups diced onion

2 1/2 cups apple cider vinegar

1 1/4 cup horseradish sauce

2 teaspoons sea salt

1 1/2 teaspoon black pepper

1/2 teaspoon ground red pepper

I put the vinegar, horseradish sauce, salt, and the peppers into my dutch oven. Because the horseradish sauce was hard to mix in, I used the immersion blender on the sauce till it was thoroughly mixed. Then I added the beets and onions which I had chopped up using the food processor.  

I brought the mixture to a boil and I used a wooden spoon to continually stir it to avoid burning or scorching. After it started to boil, I turned the heat down so that it simmered for 15 minutes and thickened up. 

Using my canning funnel I filled each preheated jar to the bottom line which took about 1/4 cup. Then I wiped the rims with a vinegar cloth, put the lids on and finger tightened the rings. For this water bath food, I used my Presto Precise Digital Canner, and was able to stack 18 four ounce jars. I covered them with water per the instructions and they processed for 15 minutes once the canner was up to pressure.

So again this process was hot food into hot jars into hot water. I realize in listening back to some of the episodes that sometimes I mention having two inches over the jars and sometimes one inch over the jars, and if I was new to this, I may even confuse myself. What I normally do is if the jars are stacked in a more narrow canner like the Presto digital, I feel comfortable with two inches above. When I use my wider stove top water bath canner and the jars are spread out more, one inch is enough for me assuming the process time is only 15 minutes or less. I never want my water to boil down below the rims of the jars. This is just the way that I feel comfortable doing.

Modern lids no longer need to be boiled before use but I like to let them sit in a pan of hot water just to soften them up a little bit. Whether they actually get soft, I don’t know but it may be one of those little habits or quirks that just makes me feel better doing it, and it doesn’t hurt anything.

I removed the jars when the canner signaled it was done, and I put them on a dish towel on the canning table where they sat for 24 hours. I was worried about the jars I’d bought that I’d never heard of before, but every one sealed with a deliciously sounding Ping. 12 of the jars were Ball brand and 6 were a brand I’d never heard of before but they’d been on sale at the time so I bought them. I’m not sure how to pronounce the name Lovoln that’s L O V O L N.

So I want to remind my listeners that I am still a learning canner and therefore I am not trying to instruct you HOW to can but rather how I can, and then folks can make their own decisions based on their own knowledge and research. While I did use the Ball recipe as a guideline, I had to substitute a lesser amount of canned beets for fresh ones and the horseradish sauce for prepared horseradish. I left the sugar the same, as sugar is an important component to setting up a jelly or jam like consistency although in this case I wasn’t trying to make a jam but rather more of a relish as it was called.  And as long as the processing method and time is correct, I feel comfortable adjusting ingredients here and there, and I also can add or delete spices as they don’t add to or delete from the processing time.

Polish cwikla (CHEEK-wah) = grated horseradish with beets.

P.S.  I am NOT an Amazon affiliate, I just buy a lot from there.

https://tinyurl.com/3v4wrz7e   Lovoln 4 ounce jars
https://tinyurl.com/njjymc68   The All New Ball Book of Canning and Preserving

Peach jam from frozen, and Oopsie!

I had 21 plastic dishes of frozen diced peaches, each 4.4 ounces, taking up space in my extra refrigerator freezer, and no one had eaten any in months, so I put all of the containers in a dishpan and let them thaw out overnight in the fridge. The next day I made jam. For the first recipe I used:
4 1/2  cups peaches which was 11 of the plastic dishes

1 package of low sugar pectin

3 cups white sugar

This recipe was inside the box of the low sugar pectin, which in this case happened to be SureJell in the pink box.

Low sugar jam…mixed one package of low sugar dry pectin with 1/4 cup of the sugar, added to the diced peaches, brought to rolling boil on stove, added the remainder of the sugar, simmered for one minute once came to rolling boil again, stirring quite often. Used immersion blender for about thirty seconds as I didn’t want lots of chunks. Fill the jars to first line on the jars, I got seven 8 ounce jelly jars and two 4 ounce jelly jars to process and I did one four ounce jar to put right into the fridge as soon as the jam cooled enough. Made sure there was at least one inch of water covering them.  Canned using the water bath cycle of my Presto Precise digital canner. Processed 10 minutes. And this is where I goofed…forgot to remove regulator before processing, I had left it on there after the last time I used the canner, and I got the E30 error, had to turn regulator to ‘vent’, let it release pressure till the little button dropped, then removed regulator, unlocked cover, let canner cool for 15 minutes, check to be sure have enough water, start over. With this digital canner I don’t use the regulator for water bath. 
Skimming; gap between the lid and the food is called head space and foam in a jar increases the head space and I don’t want to waste my jar space on the foam. But I didn’t throw my little bit of foam away, which also had some of the peach bits in it…I had some of it later in the evening on toast.

Full sugar jam:

4 cups peaches which was 10 of the plastic cups

1 package regular pectin, and the brand I used was SureJell in the yellow box

2 tablespoons lemon juice

5 cups white sugar

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

This recipe I found on line and I’ll link to it. I don’t know why this one called for the lemon juice and the SureJell one did not, but I followed the directions because from doing online research I read that jellies and jams do their best setting up when directions ARE followed exactly. I made this one the same way as the first one, even using the immersion blender. This time I paid attention to what I was doing, plus the regulator was already off of the cover. 

I got 9 full 8 ounce jelly jars of the peach cinnamon jam, the 9th jar due to the extra sugar. I had to soak my dutch oven pan as soon as it was empty because the jam mixture sticks pretty well to the inside and without soaking it’s a bear to clean.

Remember: Hot jam=into hot jars=into hot water

I have to give a shout out followup to my  Axuan Oven Mitts that I mentioned in a previous episode. They are the ones described as ‘Made with high-quality durable material, 100% cotton twill fabric and food grade silicone’. I used them today to grab the jars out of the full canner of water after the jar warming cycle, because I had already dumped water on myself trying to grasp an un-lidded jar of water with my jar lifter, Despite me sticking my hand into the  water, it wasn’t till I was almost done removing the last jar that I could barely feel the warmth of the boiling water. Definitely a great buy in my opinion.

https://barefeetinthekitchen.com/peach-jam-made-by-my-man
https://tinyurl.com/ybf2vvdf  Axuan Oven Mitts on Amazon

Giving new life to soft fruit!

This is how I do it;  you should certainly research if you want to feel confident in your canning choices!

Banana Jam

2 cups mashed bananas

2 cups sugar

2 tablespoons lemon juice

Mix together, bring to boil in pot, simmer for 5 minutes. Spoon into hot jars, wipe rims, put on lids, finger tighten the rings. Have water at least an inch above the jars. Water bath for 10 minutes after the water comes to a rolling boil. Let sit on cloth covered table for 24 hours.

Pear Apricot Sauce

2 cups pears and apricots measured together

2 cups sugar

2 tablespoons lemon juice

Mix together, bring to boil in pot, simmer for 5 minutes, use immersion blender to smooth. Spoon into hot jars, wipe rims, put on lids, finger tighten the rings. Have water at least an inch above the jars. Water bath for 10 minutes after the water comes to a rolling boil. Let sit on cloth covered table for 24 hours.

Refrigerate any jars that did not seal. 

I made ketchup, kind of, and yellow mustard that needs some mellowing. I also found a new product that makes opening canning jars so much easier!

Ketchup aka BBQ Sauce: 
4 quarts chopped tomatoes with skins removed, 1 cup chopped onion, 1/2 cup chopped sweet pepper, 1 1/2 cups vinegar, 1/4 tsp ground allspice, 1/2 tsp cinnamon, 3/4 cup sugar.

I combined all the ingredients in my heavy dutch oven and let it cook down until I liked the thickness, and it took about an hour on medium low heat.  It does cook down quite a bit. Then using my canning funnel, I filled each jar to 1/4” headspace, wiped the rims with a cloth in vinegar, put on the rings and processed for 15 minutes, which is my time because my altitude is between 1000 and 3000 feet. After processing, I used the jar lifter to remove them and let them sit on a dish towel until the next day. Came out like BBQ sauce, and so good!

Yellow mustard:  3 cups white vinegar, 3 cups apple cider vinegar, 4 cups mustard powder, 4 teaspoons garlic powder, 4 teaspoons salt and I use sea salt, 4 teaspoons tumeric, 2 teaspoons paprika, and 4 tablespoons white sugar. 

I whisked everything together in my vintage heavy dutch oven, heating on medium and let it gently boil until I thought it was thick enough. It did cook down which was necessary but also a little disconcerting because in my mind I was losing product but of course I really wasn’t. Because the mustard was hot, I had heated my half pint jars in the oven at 225 degrees-I turned the oven off after 15 minutes and left the jars in there to stay hot until needed, then I spooned the mustard into the jars using my canning funnel and a measure cup, and left 1/2 inch headspace. I wiped the rims clean with white vinegar to remove any mustard residue, put the lids on and finger tightened them. I had already started my water going in my water bath canner, so I put the jars in and made sure they were covered by two inches of water. I processed them for 15 minutes, starting my timing after the water came to a rolling boil. Once the water started boiling, I was able to turn the burner down enough to maintain the boil without over using the propane.  It has to mellow with age so I read, and as of this writing, it's still mellowing. 

Jamie's Amazing Lid Popper! contact: mwright93434@roadrunner.com

https://cosmopolitancornbread.com/canned-baked-beans The only recipe I use, I just switch out the meat as desired. 

https://tinyurl.com/k78kma4h  Ocean Spray Whole Cranberry Sauce, 101 ounce
https://tinyurl.com/pu8b52rk    El Mexicano Nacho Cheese Sauce 
https://tinyurl.com/3ube3sh8   Great Value Cheese Sauce
https://tinyurl.com/39naywrc    Chef-Mate Chorizo Skillet
https://tinyurl.com/2hv7584m   Chef-Mate Creamed Sliced Beef
https://www.canr.msu.edu/news/pressure-cookers-versus-pressure-canners

Plum Jam and Spicy Plum Sauce.

I went by the recipe found in the Sure-jell brand of low or no sugar pectin.  The difference in the makeup is the classic pectin requires a higher amount of sugar in order to set as the low/no sugar pectin will set without any added sugar due to the addition of dextrose in the product. So the pectins can’t be interchanged.

What I used for equipment for the jam was a food processor, cutting board, measure cups, wooden spoon, paring knife, canning funnel, jar lifter, dish towel, dutch oven pot, a strainer, small pot. I also wore my canning apron, because canning and I together are messy. The small pot is because even though companies no longer say to boil the lids prior to using, I do wash and rinse new ones, and I set them in a pot of hot water. 

The ingredients: 3 1/2 pounds of plums, 4.5 cups of white sugar, a 1/2 teaspoon of butter and one 1.75 ounce box of low or no sugar dry pectin. I washed the plums, then I cut them around the pit. I didn’t do any fancy cuts, I just did the fastest and easiest way for me. I cooked the plums down slightly in 1/2 cup of water, then I put them in the food processor to chop up finely. It was pretty juicy so I put them in a strainer over a clean pot as I went along. The recipe called for 6 1/2 cups of cooked plums so I measured them out. I added 1/4 cup of the measured out sugar to the one package of pectin, stirred it together then added to the plums in the dutch oven pot. I have my late mom’s pot in which she cooked everything, so it makes me happy to use it. I brought that to a rolling boil, keeping it stirred to avoid sticking to the pot.  I added the rest of the sugar, brought back to a rolling boil, let it go for one minute. After removing from heat, I skimmed off the foam, which the added butter was supposed to reduce. I always save the foam to eat. 

I had the jars already heated as I always do any hot food into hot jars into hot water to avoid shocking the jars. I used the funnel and a measure cup to fill each jar to 1/4 inch head space, wiped down the rims with a lint free cloth that I kept rinsing off with hot water, finger tightened the lids, and put into the canner. For my elevation above sea level, I water bathed each batch for 15 minutes. 

 I derived my spicy plum sauce from this website: An Oregon Cottage

The ingredients I used were, but you can find the original on the link provided, which the author indicates she adapted from a Ball canning recipe. 

•7 cups chopped plums and juice

1 cup diced onions  

• 1½ cups brown sugar
• 1 cup white sugar
• 1 tablespoon dry mustard
• 2 tablespoons dry ground ginger
• 1 tablespoon salt
• 2  teaspoons minced garlic 
• 2 teaspoons red pepper flakes 
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 cup apple cider vinegar with cranberry and honey, just because that’s the kind I had on hand

I let all the ingredients simmer until very hot. I was able to fill 4 pint jars which had been heated up, and I did these the same way of using the funnel, used the debubbler, wiped the rims, finger tightened the rings, and I water bathed them for 20 minutes.

https://nchfp.uga.edu/

https://www.walmart.com/ip/Sure-Jell-Premium-Fruit-Pectin-for-Less-or-No-Sugar-Needed-Recipes-Value-Pack-2-ct-Pack-1-75-oz-Boxes/172215590?athbdg=L1100

https://www.walmart.com/ip/Sure-Jell-Original-Premium-Fruit-Pectin-1-75-oz-Box/10292609

https://anoregoncottage.com/spicy-canned-plum-sauce/

I goofed! 

The Presto Precise Digital Canner is not the only one approved by the USDA as I stated in the last episode....rather it's the first digital pressure canner that meets the USDA guidelines for safely processing meats, poultry, fish, vegetables, and other low acid foods.

Potatoes! Presto Digital Canner! Testing Lids!

https://tinyurl.com/m2bnx3bf  National Center for Home Food Preservation, how to can potatoes

https://tinyurl.com/ybf2vvdf   Axuan Oven Mitts

https://tinyurl.com/6bvu2ru8   Presto Digital Canner

Where are all the jars?

In 1975, William C Hannah of the Ball corporation was called to testify before the Subcommittee on Commodities and Services of the Small Business Committee of the US House of Representatives. He was asked to explain the company’s response to a big surge in home canning equipment. Congress was alerted to this by consumer complaints. The economic recession of the mid-1970s did much like the pandemic of 2020 by causing many more Americans to want to grow and preserve their own food. In that year, 1974, it’s estimated that as many as 26 millions Americans were canning their own food. This led to material shortages which led to canning equipment being hard to find. Mr. Hannah said that while the Ball Corporation’s sales in its first quarter of 1973 was $166,000, by the first quarter of 1974 it had reached 5,750,000.00 Because demand exceeded supplies, folks started to hoard canning supplies and the store shelves were empty. After days of hearings in 1975 & 1976, the Subcommittee on Commodities and Services gave its conclusion: “the shortage of home canning equipment was the result of normal market phenomena: exaggerated demand , which the manufacturers were unprepared to supply, partly because they failed to accurately predict it, and partly because of a shortage of raw materials the previous year. The shortage was not a result of anticompetitive behavior by the manufacturers.”The market had stabilized by 1976 and home canners could give a collective sigh of relief. Covid-19 brought the same result in lack of supplies due to more folks being home, being bored, or like myself, being home and being bored and not wanting to go to the supermarket any more than absolutely necessary. August 2020 brought the Ball jar sales up by 600 percent. That huge spike wiped out their stock. According to the April 13, 2021 issue of The Insider, out of Utah, on its  website  Quote ‘Retailers/distributors of the traditional Ball/Kerr brand products have informed consumers that  they have not been given any clear timelines from the Newell Corporation as to when manufacturing orders would be fulfilled, due to smaller production lines still in place due to COVID. A recent conversation with a representative from the Newell Corporation (manufacturer of Ball, Kerr, and Golden Harvest canning products) indicates they are hoping for new shipments to go out toward the end of March 2021, but in limited quantities, and production will continue through the summer of 2021.’ According to not only my own research but also most people on Facebook canning groups, while jars are starting to make a comeback appearance at some stores in some states and territories, the traditional flat lids packaged without the rings are slower to show up, and when they do they are quite often bought up by the case load by any one person, although some do say they buy them to share with family and friends. I know I am grateful that my sister bought me some flat lids months ago when she found them. Canners have also been scarce, some folks reporting that they are now receiving canners that were ordered in late 2020. As of this date, the All American Canner website states “Attention: Due to remarkably high demand orders for All American Pressure Canners (910, 915, 921, 925, 930 & 941) will not ship until September, 2021.” This is the reason I recently purchased a Presto electric canner…I want to be able to can outside on my porch this summer to keep the heat out of the house, and I was worried this item would also be sold out and delayed. I am now at the point where I don’t need to be obsessive about jars and lids, and can only assume that with the hopeful wind-down of the pandemic that there will be a wind up of canning equipment production. I now have enough canners,  some new and some full jars of food, and my wish is that everyone who wants to can their own food is able to do so safely and economically. 

Venison and Hamburg

6 pounds of venison, with the recipe I looked up calling for 3 tablespoons of diced onion and 2 tablespoons of minced garlic but we just winged it on the spices which is fine as spices don’t add to processing times.  We added diced green pepper to some. We got 20 pints.

Hamburg with diced onions and garlic made 8 pints.

Process time is one hour and fifteen minutes after the steam has vented for ten minutes and after the weight jiggles for a consistent four times per minute.

Welcome to this short bonus episode of My Canning Cellar.

If you are new to canning you may want to know your upfront costs as well as continuing costs. Of course all costs associated with canning is subject to how you find your supplies, but I will break down my own costs from 2020 to now, the best I can without having kept any formal record. 

The jars I have bought are 4 oz, 8 oz or half pint, 16 oz which is pint and 32 oz which is quart. I have been given many used jars for free as well as some new jars. I asked for and received some through my personal Facebook page. 

My first canner was a McSunley Stainless Steel Water Bath Canner which is 21.5 quart and was a Christmas gift. I use this one for jams, jellies and high acid foods such as tomatoes and apples.

I had an Amazon gift card so my Mirro 22 quart pressure canner cost me just 35.96. I use this one for everything else. 

I just ordered a Presto 12 quart digital electric canner and paid 223.36. I ordered this from Amazon as well, but fyi it’s the same cost on Walmart.com.  I splurged on this smaller canner for two reasons: because I tend to can large quantities for just my husband and I because I don’t like to run the larger canners at less than full capacity. I feel that’s a waste of energy both mine and the propane. I also want to can outside on the covered porch in the summers to keep out unwanted heat. I found that I was uneager to can a lot last summer because it was just too hot indoors. I have electric outlets outside and a sturdy table. 

lids  107.03

jars  120.19

pickling lime   11.92

clear jel   8.98

labels  10.14

accessories   23.61

book   5.96

canners   259.32

Total so far, not including any of the foods I bought just to can: 547.15, and I have bought miscellaneous items at thrift stores like jar lifters that I can’t remember the price of. 

I fell into the trap of two 3rd party sellers on Amazon that were advertising Ball brand lids, but they were not.  The boxes said Ball, but they were generic lids. I got my money back and was told to keep or toss or donate the lids. I kept them and will use them in the most desparate of times. 
Thanks for visiting My Canning Cellar. Talk soon….stay safe. 

https://tinyurl.com/4625ry4e  Presto 02144 12Qt Digital Canner, Black Stainless

https://tinyurl.com/8kjk465y   Mirro 92122 92122A Polished Aluminum 5/10 / 15-PSI Pressure Cooker/Canner Cookware, 22-Quart, Silver

https://tinyurl.com/wy45nb5w  McSunley Medium Stainless Steel Prep N Cook Water Bath Canner, 21.5 quart, Silver

https://tinyurl.com/yjhyet3b     11 Inch Canner Rack for Pressure Cooker, Canning Rack for Pressure Canner (5-Pack)

Welcome to My Canning Cellar episode 8

I want to preface by reminding folks that it’s just me sitting at the kitchen table, and while I did speak of my hopes that the dog won’t bark, the phone won’t ring, and the dirt bikes don’t go racing by, I forgot to mention that my home is right across from the small but mighty town waterfall. So if you hear it roaring, you’re welcome. It’s one of my favorite sounds ever, but the pinging of sealed canning jars comes in a very close second. (and as a side note, I did get a phone ding from my grandson because I forgot to shut off the cell volume)

My husband eats a lot of beans and has been the baked bean maker in the family. To me, it’s a lot of work for something that the one time I tried, the beans never got soft.

But with an abundance of packages of dried beans I decided to try canning them. The beans were pinto, Northern, kidney and navy. While I did start out using one kind per batch, I ended up just mixing random beans together to use them up, especially as I didn’t want jars of just kidney beans, with them not being our favorite.

What I made was 16 pints of baked beans with bacon, 13 pints of beans and hamburg, and 14 pints of beans and venison. Recipes in the show notes.

Because beans are a low acid food plus I was adding meat, I was most comfortable using my pressure canner. Here’s what I used for the beans and different meat combo per batch.

  • 4 lbs (10 cups) dry beans, again I had pinto, northern, kidney and navy

• water to cover
• 2 pounds cup up bacon or 2 pounds hamburg or 2 pounds small pieces of cut up venison
• 6 c diced onions
• 12 tablespoons minced garlic
• 4 c chicken stock
• 3 c brown sugar
• 2 c  molasses
• 1 c ketchup
• 1 c apple cider vinegar
• 1/2 c Worcestershire sauce
• 1/2 c Dijon mustard
• 4 t sea salt
• 2 tsp cayenne pepper flakes
• 2 tsp ground black pepper-when the pandemic started I couldn’t find pepper anywhere but online and then it was super fine pepper. It is too fine to shake out onto everyday foods, so after finally finding the normal grind of pepper, I save the fine just for in canning and cooking. 

1. I started by sorting and rinsing the beans. When I did the pinto beans, that was the first time I’d ever found rocks in with beans, so now I know to never skip this step.
2. I put the beans in one of my big dutch ovens and add enough water to cover by 2 inches. I got them to a boil, over medium high heat and boiled them for 5 minutes.
3. I lowered the heat and let the beans simmer for 30 minutes.
4. As the beans were cooking, I put the diced bacon or chopped up hamburg or venison chunks in a 2nd  large dutch oven. For the bacon, I cooked it till light brown but not hard. The hamburg I cooked probably about 90 percent done, and I did the same for the venison. I just wanted to brown up those meats, plus I didn’t want the hamburg to clump together into one big mass as it could do during processing.
5. I used a slotted spoon to scoop the bacon, hamburg or venison out onto a dish on which I’d put a paper towel to absorb extra grease
6. I kept about 3 tablespoons of the grease in the dutch oven and added the garlic and onions,
7. cooking the onions for about 10 minutes until they got soft, and by then I had stopped crying from the onions. 
8. In my favorite Texas ware bowl,  I put the chicken stock, brown sugar, molasses, ketchup, apple cider vinegar, Worcestershire sauce, Dijon mustard, sea salt, cayenne pepper flakes and black pepper and mixed them together well.
9. By now the beans were done so I drained them and then I put them back into the first dutch oven, and added the meat, stirring well, heating it all for about 5 minutes just to get everything warm.
10. This is when I heated my jars in the oven at 225 degrees for about fifte

In this episode I talk baby carrots and some canning history.

I got 17 pints of carrots out of 8 1/2 small bags of store bought baby carrots.
Washed the carrots, halved, put into jars, then added enough pre-boiled cooled down water to one inch head space. De-bubbled. Processed at 15# for 20 minutes. 

Thanks to Harshal S. Hirve for free use of his carrots photo.

#mycanningcellar    #mycanningcellarpodcast

Blueberry Jelly

• Combine 3 cups crushed blueberries and lemon juice 
• Stir in the one envelope of Fruit Jell pectin.
• Bring mixture to a boil, stirring constantly.
• Add sugar, stirring to dissolve.
• Return mixture to a rolling boil.
• Boil hard 1 minute, stirring constantly. A hard boil means you can’t stir it down but you do want to put the effort into stirring it to keep it from burning. 
• Remove from heat.
• Skim foam if necessary. The foam won’t hurt the jam but it makes the jam look cloudy, and more importantly, the foam takes up some of the head space and we want the head space to be just jelly or jam, otherwise the foam can cause the lid to not seal. 
• 
  
• Ladle hot jam into hot  sterilized 8-oz jelly jars using the canning funnel, to 1/4 inch below rim, and again I got 6 jelly jars full. 
• Wipe jar rim clean.
• Place lid on jar and tighten ring just to fingertip strength. Even when using a water bath, too tight of lids can cause them to buckle.
• Process 10 minutes in a boiling-water canner or large pot. You have to have at least two inches of water at all times over the jars.

The timing of the water bath starts after the water comes to a rolling boil. I turn my heat down under it just enough so it keeps a steady roll but I’m not over using the energy, in this case electricity for the hot plate.

• Cool for 12 to 24 hours.

Grape Jelly from juice

1. 3 cups grape juice
2. 1 package powdered pectin
3. 4 cups sugar

same cooking and canning as for the blueberry jelly

Carrot Cake Jam

• 1 can (20 ounces) unsweetened crushed pineapple, undrained
• 1-1/2 cups shredded carrots
• 1-1/2 cups chopped peeled ripe pears
• 3 tablespoons lemon juice
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1 package (1-3/4 ounces) powdered fruit pectin
• 6-1/2 cups sugar
• Place first 7 ingredients in a large saucepan; bring to a boil. Reduce heat; simmer, covered, until pears are tender, 15-20 minutes, stirring occasionally. Stir in pectin. Bring to a full rolling boil over high heat, stirring constantly. Stir in sugar; return to a full rolling boil. Boil and stir 1 minute.
   Remove from heat; skim off foam. Ladle hot mixture into 8 hot sterilized half-pint jars, leaving 1/4-in. headspace. Remove air bubbles and adjust headspace, if necessary, by adding hot mixture. Wipe rims. Center lids on jars; screw on rings until fingertip tight.
   Place jars into canner with simmering water, ensuring that they are completely covered with water. Bring to a boil; process for 5 minutes. Remove jars and cool.

#mycanningcellar    #mycanningcellarpodcast

• 4 cups of split peas which was a two pound bag
• 12 cups of chicken broth (store bought is fine)  
• 4 cups of water,
• 2 cups of diced ham,
• 3 cups of chopped carrots,
• 2 cups of chopped onions,
• 1/2 teaspoon of ground allspice
• 2 bay leaves. 

immersion blender
https://tinyurl.com/s96efmxj

Macaroni and Cheese

edited from my first try,  to reduce siphoning

7 1/2 cups of dry macaroni

(1) number ten can of cheese sauce

(3) quarts of chicken broth

made 15 pints

processed in pressure canner for 20 minutes at 15 pounds for my sea level elevation

https://tinyurl.com/3teafwy5    El Mexicano Nacho Cheese Sauce
https://tinyurl.com/9kuem4ve  dissolvable labels 
 https://tinyurl.com/d8au93dz  easy jar key opener
 https://tinyurl.com/e7yb6uwt   plastic mason jar covers

Canning last year's tomatoes! Here's how!

I forgot to weigh the tomatoes that I froze last year, but I figure there were about 25ish pounds.  To freeze, I simply rinsed them with water, cut off any blemishes, and froze in plastic bags. 

To use, what I did was pour each bag of tomatoes into a pot of hot tap water, just long enough for the water to allow easy slipping off of the skins. I saved the unblemished skins to put in my dehydrator, as I’ve read about many folks doing this and then blending them up into a powder to use as seasoning.

After the skins were removed, I put all the tomatoes in my electric roaster pan, adding just enough water to the bottom to make me feel they wouldn’t stick or burn. After they started to thaw, I drained that water, as the tomatoes were making their own juice. Once the tomatoes were all thawed and fairly smushed up, I removed all the stems and any other dark pieces. I drained the tomatoes into a large stock pot. Then I used my measure cup and funnel to fill pint jars with the tomato meat and then the juice separately in other jars. I don’t sterilize my clean jars as long as they are being pressure canned for at least ten minutes, and that ten minutes starts after the venting procedure and the count down. Venting is the releasing of steam as the canner gets up to pressure. After ten minutes of venting, I add the 15 pound jiggler, which is what I need for my elevation above sea level. Count down begins after the jiggler starts dancing consistently at least 3 or 4 times per minute. For me, I can reduce the propane flame below the canner at that point as long as the jiggler keeps moving. 

I added about one tablespoon of bottled lemon juice to each pint of tomatoes and juice as so much information is out there saying that modern tomatoes often don’t have the same acidity as years gone by. The acid is needed to help preserve the safety of the tomatoes once canned. I tried a spoon of the tomatoes with the added lemon juice and did not taste the lemon. Research also says that sugar can be added to eliminate any lemon flavor but I did not add any sugar.

After filling the jars, I debubbled them, wiped the rims with the wet lint free washcloth, put on the lids and finger tightened the rings.The canning time for me was 15 minutes pressure canning. I ended up with 9 pints of tomatoes, 4 pints of juice and one 12 ounce jar of juice. The juice was not as thick as store bought tomato juice but I figured I could use it either in any tomato base dish or even cook pasta in it. The next day I saw that two of my tomatoes did not seal. I opened them up, drained them again, and because that then made them less than two pints but more than one pint, I filled two 8 oz jelly jars and one 4 ounce jelly jar and re-processed them with new clean lids. This time they did seal. My rule of thumb which is from much research is I always let the jars sit after processing on a dish towel…the dish towel helps avoid shock from hot jars on a cooler surface…for 24 hours. Then I remove the rings and lift each jar up with one hand on the lid rim and one under the jar just in case it hadn’t sealed. I never store my jars with the rings on as they could conceal a false seal by keeping the lid on, and they also can rust while in my cellar. I store the rings in totes in the cellar. 

https://nchfp.uga.edu/how/can3_tomato.html#gsc.tab=0

• proven reliable sources
• my must haves of canning equipment
• books I reference
• how my canners function
• what brand of canners I have
• basic information

https://nchfp.uga.edu/index.html   National Center for Food Preservation
https://www.fda.gov/media/107843/download   FDA shares canning tips and other links
https://nifa.usda.gov/extension   Find your local extension agency

https://tinyurl.com/vwm2vzff   McSunley medium stainless steel water bath canner, 21.5 qt
https://tinyurl.com/3jznw8jw     Mirro pressure canner, 22 qt

https://tinyurl.com/hs7rv7sz   'The Amish Canning Cookbook: Plain and Simple Living at Its Homemade Best' by Georgia Varozza
https://tinyurl.com/59yat7dt  'The All New Ball Book Of Canning And Preserving' by The Ball Home Canning Test Kitchen
https://tinyurl.com/99jw7vm3   'Canning and Preserving Without Sugar' by R.D. MacRae

Thank you to the following companies for the podcast art
https://snappa.com 
https://spark.adobe.com 

I can, so I can! Why I started and what I am going to share with you. Everything I can is done my way with much help along the way from Facebook groups and other online sources, and everyone who cans needs to find their comfort spot for their own food safety. 

New podcast every Wednesday!

This is season 2, episode 19, Pepper Jelly. 

This recipe was done on the water bath cycle of my digital canner, and of course you can use your regular water bath canner. For equipment I also used a dutch oven pot, pot holders, a canning funnel, canning jar lifter, a sharp knife, a cutting board, measure cups and spoons, my small food processor, and a towel. I always put newly processed jars on a towel no matter what table I use, not only to catch the water but also to avoid shocking the jars on a colder surface. 

The recipe I used is from a website I happened upon online, and I will put the link in the show description, and this is a  Ball brand recipe.  I didn’t follow the recipe exactly because I didn’t have the amount of honey called for, but do check out the website to see the original recipe. 

The ingredients I used were 

8 medium green and red peppers

1/2 cup  jalapeño peppers, and I used store bought ones that came in a jar

1 1/4 cups apple cider vinegar

3 tablespoons low or no sugar needed pectin, and I had Ball brand

2 1/4 cups sugar

3/4 cups honey

I cut the tops off of the peppers, de-seeded the peppers, and then chopped them as small as I could. After the first 4 peppers, I wondered why I wasn’t using the food processor, so I then did. I trimmed around the cap of the peppers, using every good piece of pepper I could see.

I also put the jalapeño peppers in the food processor and gave them a few spins with the blades.

I put the peppers all into a dutch oven pot with the vinegar and pectin, and brought it to a rolling boil. A rolling boil is one that can’t be stirred down. Then I added the sugar and the honey, brought that to a rolling boil, and let it boil while I stirred it continuously for 3 minutes. 

My jars had been setting in boiling water in the digital canner as I always put hot food into hot jars and into hot water, so I took each one out, filled them using the funnel to 1/4 inch headspace, wiped the rim off with a lint free cloth that was soaked in hot water, put the lid on and finger tightened the ring. After each jar was filled and back in the boiling water, I added enough hot water to cover the jars by about two inches. 

The processing time for my elevation above sea level was 15 minutes. Using the digital canner, I didn’t have to do anything other than advance to the canning cycle when prompted, let it do its thing, and after the cool down period I let them set in the canner without the cover for another five minutes before removing, which is just to allow for some settling of the food so nothing spits out at me when I lift them out. If I had used my regular stove top water bath canner, I would have started timing the 15 minutes after the water started a continual rolling boil.

I ended up with 6 and almost a full 7th half pint jars. Normally I would be sure to have the correct head space, but I figured that I would just put the almost full jar in the refrigerator for more immediate use after processing. 

The reason for needing the correct head space is that tested recipes are configured using a certain headspace, and if we have too little then the time allotted for processing may not be enough to rid the jar of the extra air, which can lead to food discoloration or a failed seal. 

https://nchfp.uga.edu
https://www.nifa.usda.gov/about-nifa/blogs/usdas-complete-guide-home-canning
https://my100yearoldhome.com/pepper-jelly-and-jam-recipes
https://www.healthycanning.com/the-role-of-headspace-in-home-canning

Welcome to my canning cellar, where my goal is not to tell YOU how to can, but rather tell you how ‘I’ can. I am an advocate of following guidelines such as stated by the National Center for Home Food Preservation, and I’ll put the link in the show description, although I also explore other canning groups and websites to study and sometimes copy tried and tested recipes. Like me, please do your own research to be sure you are confident in the safety of your home canned items. 
 What I used for equipment was my digital pressure canner, a serrated knife, a cutting board, a dutch oven pot, a strainer with another pot to strain into, a canning funnel, a dish towel, and I used pint canning jars.

My husband and I rarely eat pork, so the several packages we had, had been in the freezer for a few months and I wanted to clear some things out of the freezer. I had 7 bone in pork chops of different sizes, and I let them thaw out in the refrigerator. Once thawed, I sliced the meat from the bones and trimmed off most of the fat. I cut the pork in strips about 1/2 inch wide. I think the best part about eating pork chops on the bone is being able to use my teeth to get all the meat off the bones, but using a knife on the raw chops didn’t have the same result, it was very hard to get right down to the bone and also in-between some sections. So I covered the bones that still had meat left on them with water, and let that come to a boil and then let it simmer for half an hour. I strained the broth and ended up with me two full pints, plus a half pint of broth to which I added the boiled meat that then easily pulled off from the bone. The broth came out light in color, and it should be a nice addition to another canning project, I’ll probably use it in baked beans.

I raw packed the meat slices I cut off from the bones into pint jars and I did not add any liquid because raw packed pork makes its own juice. 

The pork was cold, so to avoid shocking the jars, I packed the meat into cold jars, to one inch headspace, wiped the rims with a hot wet cloth, put on the lids, finger tightened the rings, and put into cold water in a pressure canner. I let the pressure canner heat up both the water and the filled jars without the canner lid on while my pork broth was still simmering as I was going to do all 6 pints in one batch, and just as I do cold food, cold jars, cold water, I had to do the hot food into hot jars into hot water. 

Normally plain broth does not need to be processed as long as meat does but I wanted to do just the one canner full. I ended up with 3 pints of meat, one pint of broth with the boiled meat, plus the two pints of pork broth all processed together for 75 minutes, and for my elevation I used the 15 pound weight. 
I  thought I had packed it fairly tightly but like some of the meat that I have canned, it shrunk.  I am still working on always finding that sweet spot of meat to headspace ratio after processing, which hasn’t easy when the jars are quite full before processing. 

I learned that the reason for specific headspace is that when processing times have been determined, it allows for that certain definitive headspace. Extra headspace is not accounted for in those processing times. If too much headspace is allowed, not only can the food discolor,  the jar may not seal properly because there will not be enough processing time to drive all the air out of the jar.

There was no water added to my raw pork, because there’s a lot of water in pork. A 4 ounce cut of pork will turn into 3 ounces once it’s cooked. A 3-ounce serving is about the size of a deck of cards.
 
https://nchfp.uga.edu
http://foodofhistory.com/2017/03/pork-chops/?doing_wp_cron=1653189194.3461968898773193359375