Comments on: Canning: Meal planning months in advance

By: Virginia

Virginia — Sun, 13 Jun 2010 12:16:04 +0000

I found this thread (below) while looking for recipes but did not find the entire conversation or the recipe. I had lots of overgrown cukes after getting home from a weeks vacation.

Last year my neighbor took this ratty-looking bag of overgrown cucumbers that someone gave her and made the BEST pickle relish EVER

By: Sarah

Sarah — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 19:20:15 +0000

Confused- did you actually can this? It says freezer jam on the label….

By: Amanda

Amanda — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 02:40:53 +0000

My first experience with canning was with my best friend’s family. They have a vacation home in the NC mountains and friends from near and far stop by with big baskets of produce ready to be processed. While her dad makes delicious apple cider downstairs, her mom turns all kind of things into jelly and jam – especially grapes and blueberries, but you never know.

I’m still learning, but they can by sterilizing the jars in the dishwasher, getting the jelly/jam nice and hot in its pot, pouring boiling water over the lids to sterilize them and activate the glue, and the just popping the tops on. You can hear them pop as they cool and seal. Anything that doesn’t pop has to go in the fridge, but the rest keep forever.

By: whimsygirl

whimsygirl — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 11:03:25 +0000

Not to mention that pressure cookers are amazing for making slow cooked tasting meals in minutes. I adore mine.

By: whimsygirl

whimsygirl — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 11:01:49 +0000

I want those labels!! Did you design them youself??

By: Whimsy Girl » strawberry dreams

Whimsy Girl » strawberry dreams — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 10:53:32 +0000

[...] thought about it again yesterday but didn’t think I could squeeze it in. But then… this post on unclutter.com … I was OK reading through it until I came to this [...]

By: K

Tue, 02 Jun 2009 16:31:21 +0000

Dilly beans. I’m usually more of a freezer girl but every once in a while I borrow my mom’s canning stuff and make dilly beans…. garlic, dill, green beans and some spices…. they are amazing as garnish for a nice Bloody Mary….

And, before you tell me a pressure canning set up is a unitasker….. mom’s doubles as an autoclave for my dad’s veterinary supplies…..

By: Tiara

Tiara — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 16:36:02 +0000

We rent a house that has a nectarine and a pear tree in the back yard. Every year for the five we’ve lived there, I’ve made nectarine jam and pear preserves from the fruit from the trees and given them as presents. While the nectarines are more tart, EVERYone loves my pear preserves. I got the recipe off AllRecipes.com for the pear preserves and follow the recipe off the pectine package for the nectarines.

My only problem is picking them at the right time. I’ve discovered the nectarines are perfectly ripe for one week in July and if I miss it, they all end up on the ground or eaten by squirrels (or taken by the gardeners). The pears seem to ripen in batches.

Anyway, except for the time, jars, sugar and pectin, it’s a free gift for friends and family. And a lot of the time, my closer friends and family recycle the jars and give them back for next year’s batch!

Enjoy!

By: Sara

Sara — Sun, 31 May 2009 18:57:37 +0000

As a big slow food fan, I love canning because I love cooking. What I don’t love is cooking after a long day at work. Canning allows me to cook what I want, when I have the energy, and to then enjoy that good homemade food every day. Twice a month I make a big pot of chili. Once a summer I make a few big batches of pesto, and freeze it. I make tomato sauce and tons of fruit spreads and fillings all summer and can it for the rest of the year.

I love the feeling of eating something I made from scratch, but even more, I love not having to cook when I’m tired. It’s win win.

By: gypsy packer

gypsy packer — Sun, 31 May 2009 13:18:16 +0000

Forgot one important item–advertise and ask around for free and cheap jars. An index card on the bulletin board at the senior center can get you plenty from those too ill to can. Full goody jars in return will be a blessing to them.

By: gypsy packer

gypsy packer — Sun, 31 May 2009 13:14:42 +0000

It is possible to combine the best of both worlds. I’ve dehydrated loss-leader tomatoes. U-pick farms will keep you in cheap produce, especially at the end of the season when the farmers just want the field cleaned up.
Best way to organize your canning is to can high-priced items with cheap ingredients. If you are a hot-sauce fiend, that sambal paste which runs you four dollars or more in the ethnic grocery will be fifty cents or less if your farmers market, flea market, or community gardener has a surplus and low prices.
And–if you are laid off or otherwise unemployed, those full jars are going to look very good to you. Check recipes.com and other websites–a plethora of canning info is on the Web and more help with this craft than I ever thought possible.

By: Louise Maine

Louise Maine — Sun, 31 May 2009 11:21:57 +0000

Every year my garden gets bigger and I love tending it and then canning the produce (even though most of this happens when school starts – am a high school bio teacher.) I always do salsa, stewed tomatoes with peppers/onions, peaches, pears, and apples from our trees, zucchini relish, pumpkins, and freeze beans, zucchini and everything else. Really need to pressure can (though that scares me) or come up with a recipe that allows me to water bath can them. We have very little freezer space as we buy local cows from farmers we know to butcher for meat. The marmalade recipe shared above will be great for gifts this year. Always looking for something I have not done before. I make my own dog food for my 4 dogs and keeping as much zucchini as possible for them keeps cost low.

By: JJ

JJ — Sun, 31 May 2009 01:18:13 +0000

I can fish, moose, caribou, chicken, turkey, vegetables, fruit/jams, soups, pie filling and am always looking for new things. It is so much healthier and allows us greater control over what is in our food. I love looking at all my colorful creations and take comfort in the fact that I have used my resources wisely and have prepared for future needs. We get a lot of canning information from our cooperative extension of University of Alaska. They also have a free gauge check each year for home canners. Finding space for the equipment and the jars, whether full or empty, can be a huge obstacle and is not for everyone, especially if you live in a small apartment in a large city.

When I was growing up, the salmon we caught over the summer was frozen in our large chest freezer until fall. About three weeks after school started, we had fish canning week. Fish would be thawing in the bathtub while others would be processed in the kitchen. As soon as the bathtub was empty, in went another batch. I can probably prepare canned salmon 50 different ways. We would also can our smoked fish. After hunting season, we canned moose in stew meat and burger.

We’ve made a “pumpkin” pie using home canned carrots.

I like to can beans and soups so that I simply open a jar when needed, and it also reduces the prep time of many dishes.

If done properly, home canning is not hazardous. We always make sure we only store the jars that are truly sealed, anything else either goes in the freezer or is used right away. I’ve never “canned” in the tins, which seem to have more trouble sealing.

I’m using jars my grandmother purchased in the 1970s, and they are in great shape. We have a simple system of thoroughly cleaning the jars when emptied and covering them with a bit of plastic and a rubber band. They are stored on “empties” shelves in the basement. When it’s time to use them again, I simply run them through the sanitary rinse cycle on my dishwasher and I’m good to go. The equipment lasts longer when, after the jars have cooled, the rings are removed and the jars are wiped down. Storing the rings separately and wiping the jars prevents rust and “bug” infestations.

By: Michelle

Michelle — Sun, 31 May 2009 00:40:20 +0000

Growing up we had a huge peach tree in our backyard, so every summer there was a multi-day peach jelly assembly line. After years of such forced labor as a child, I hated the mere idea of peaches or canning.

In the last few years, though, I’ve come to really wish I knew how. So far I’ve put off learning because my mom is thousands of miles away, and I live in such a small apartment I’m not sure I’d have room for all the gear (or the results).

By: Amy in Ann Arbor

Amy in Ann Arbor — Sat, 30 May 2009 23:24:25 +0000

My best little-known tip for canning is that you can “glue” on your labels with milk, which makes them easy to remove when you wash the empty jar. This works great for room temperature storage, but I don’t know whether they would stay on in the freezer.

Strictly speaking, a freezer jam is not actually “canned,” but rather a jam that is prepared and frozen, usually in a cute little jar. And, it IS the best jam in the world–better than genuinely “canned” jam, because it is still fresh, rather than cooked. And, for the woman who was terrorized by tales of “deadly perils,” it’s perfectly safe.

My grandmother and mother made jams sealed with paraffin on top, but I have gathered that that method is not the best idea. “Open kettle” canning (sterilizing, filling and processing jars with the two-part lid) is safe for high-acid or high-sugar foods (tomatoes, pickles & jams).

Canning anything else (low-acid, low-sugar foods) can indeed present deadly peril. Botulinum(a neurotoxin)can be present in improperly canned foods that look, smell and taste fine. The way to prevent infection with the Clostridium bacterium that makes it is with pressure canning, using a special pressure cooker that reaches a temperature higher than the boiling point.

I love picking out luxury foods that are too expensive to be practical and then replicating them in my kitchen at relatively low cost. To me, canning feels both frugal and scientific.