How To: Canning Pickles

In my opinion I’ve saved the best canning experience for last. While I don’t like eating pickles I LOVE canning them! It is such a fun experience to go through the process of taking cucumbers and turning them in to exciting pickles. I tried my first batch a couple of years ago and Alex loved them. I made about a dozen jars and they lasted us for well over a year.This time however, I decided to cheat a little bit. I wasn’t quite comfortable with just adding ingredients to a pot like I had the last time, just based on more food safety research. So this time I used a pickle canning mix. This just ensure you have the proper amount of acidity in the food to keep any spores from developing. Since you’re working with vinegar, the acidity should be high enough that you don’t need to use a mix, I just wanted to be on the safe side. It is completely up to you but I would suggest doing your own research to see what you’re comfortable with. This year I used Mrs Wages Pickle Mix in Spicy to make my pickles, although any of her mixes will work. They are easily accessible where I live through Fleet Farm so that is what I went with. If there is a different mix at your local store I would say use it. As long as they sound good to you, you really can’t go wrong!To begin you will need to start preparing your jars, lids and bands. If you’re new to canning you can check out my previous posting on How To: Water Bath Canning. You should prepare your jars as suggested by the manufacturer.  You will also need to begin prepping your canning liquid as directed on the back of your bag. The directions and ingredients will vary depending on what type of pickles you are making.After you have begun preparing the jars and canning liquid you will want to slice your cucumbers. The key is to make them all pretty uniform. If you decide to slice them thick, slice them all thick. If you decide on thin, do them all thin. This will just help during the pickling process to keep them from some of them being soggy and some being crisp. After you’ve slice all of them you will want to set them aside and begin packing the jars.To pack the jars you will want to remove a hot jar from the boiling water. At this point you can include extra dried dill or a clove of garlic in the jar. Then pack with the sliced cucumbers leaving a ½ inch headspace. Then fill to the top with the pickling liquid leaving again, a ½ inch headspace. Place a lid on top and secure with a band. Tighten to fingertip tight, then tighten again. Place back in your water bath canner. Repeat until all the prepared jars are full then process your jars. For pickles you will need to process the jars for 15 minutes with the lid on, then remove the lid and process them for 5 more minutes. Remove from the boiling liquid and place on the counter in a spot where they won’t have to be moved for 24 hours. Let them sit and cool. If you find that any jars did not seal you can actually process them again if you catch it within 24 hours. Otherwise put the unsealed jars in the fridge and use within a week. The sealed jars you can put in the pantry for storage.

How To: Canning Diced Tomatoes

We’ve had a plethora of tomatoes in our garden this year, so many in fact, that I decided I wanted to can them. We still had several cans of tomato sauce in our pantry from the last time I canned so I decided that was out of the question. I thought about what type of tomato products I use most during the winter and settled on diced tomatoes. I tend to use these in Chili and other hearty recipes throughout the winter so in order to save a little bit of money l decided this was what needed to be canned.The first step to canning fresh tomatoes, no matter how you will be doing it, is to blanch and skin all the tomatoes. To do this you need to make an X at the bottom of the tomato, then blanch it. You will need to blanch it for about 60 seconds. After this immediately plunge it into ice cold water and the skins should just fall away. If you would like to read more in depth on the blanching process check out my previous post on How To: Blanching Veggies. You will also need to begin prepping the canning jars and lids. Because of the acidity in tomatoes you can water bath can them. If you are new to the canning process read my post on How To: Water Bath Canning.I chose to use the Hot Pack method of canning. This requires a pot of boiling water on the stove while you’re dicing. After you’re done dicing the tomatoes you are ready to pack the hot jars. Remove the jars from the boiling pot. Put in ¼ Teaspoon of Citric Acid in the bottom. Fill the jars with the diced tomatoes leaving a ½ inch headspace. Then cover the tomatoes with the boiling water. Place the lid on the jar and tighten the band to fingertip tight, then tighten again.Place the prepared jars in the water bath canner. Process them for 45 minutes with the lid on. Then remove the lid and process them for another 5 minutes. Remove from the boiling liquid and place on the counter in a spot where they won’t have to be moved for 24 hours. Let them sit and cool. If you find that any jars did not seal you can actually process them again if you catch it within 24 hours. Otherwise put the unsealed jars in the fridge and use within a week. The sealed jars you can put in the pantry for storage.

How To: Freezing Sweet Corn

 To be completely honest freezing sweet corn is a HUGE hassle. However, when it’s the dead of winter and I pull a new bag of fresh sweet corn out of the freezer I absolutely praise summer Stacie for all the work she put in over the summer. This summer we actually planted some sweet corn in our garden. BUT- the stupid deer that come into town actually ate everything we planted! It was so very sad until I went to Aldi while they were having a .05/ear sale. I purchased 30 ears of sweet corn and decided to go ahead and put most of them in the freezer for later.In order to freeze sweet corn you will first need to blanch the ears of corn. You can refer to my previous post on How To: Blanching Veggies and follow the steps. For sweet corn you will need to blanch it for 4 minutes. Make sure to let it cool long enough since you will be handling it pretty heavily.After the ears are cool place the ears onto a baking sheet. You want to cut the kernels ⅔’rds of the way down to the cob. This keeps you from getting any of the cob in the finished product. I typically do the ears after they cool while I’m blanching the next batch of ears. Once I get in a rhythm I can typically get through one batch before the next one is ready. After all the ears have been blanched and cut it is time to portion the kernels into individual packets. I’ve done it several different ways, but I’ve found that I prefer to portion the finished corn into quart freezer packets. I typically put about 2-3 cups of corn into the baggies. This keeps the corn from going in and out of the freezer too much since you will use it quicker.Once everything is in freezer safe baggies simply pop it in the freezer! Make sure to leave it for 24 hours so it can completely freeze. I suggest putting it in a deep freezer and moving it to your regular freezer as you use it. This ensures you will get the freshest product possible throughout the year as needed.

How To: Freezing Zucchini

Zucchini is one of my favorite this to pack away for later use. Every time we have a garden we seem to grow an absolute explosion of zucchini that I can’t use as it comes fresh out of our garden. My Mom always froze zucchini when I was younger so it just made sense to me when we started gardening to put the excess into the freezer for later. This year I packed away 13 cups of zucchini into the freezer and gave away several more.This veggie is SO easy to get ready for the freezer. You only need to have a food processor on hand with the shredding attachment in place. If you have a large mature zucchini you will need to remove the seeds. However, if it is smaller zucchini you will not need to remove the seeds, they will grind right up and won’t be noticeable. After you’ve washed the zucchini and removed the seeds if necessary, you will need to cut it into slices that fit into the top of your food processor. I find that if I cut each half in half again or even in thirds if its an extremely large zucchini it fits into my processor. After that it’s as simple as running each piece through the food processor to shred it.Depending on how many zucchinis you are doing at once you may need to do them in batches. If this is the case I find it easiest to dump the shredded stuff into a large empty bowl until I’m done. After you’ve finished you then need to portion your prepared veggies into freezer packets. I choose to do them in 1 Cup packets since that seems to be the amount I use them in. You can of course, portion them into any size packet that you think you will use. Make sure that you don’t put too much into the packet since it will not last long in the fridge before it molds.When you’re ready to use one of these packets simply defrost the packet in the fridge for 12-24 hours then use as normal in a recipe. Since it has been frozen with the excess water you may need to add a little bit of extra flour to get the right consistency. Typically though recipes that call for zucchini will already have taken that into account, simply be aware if your recipe calls for drained zucchini or not.

How To: Blanching Vegetables

Over the last few years I’ve come to realize how much I absolutely love preserving food that we’ve grown at home or that family members have grown. It gives me such a feeling of accomplishment whenever I go to the freezer or pantry to get something I’ve canned or frozen. This whole week I’m going to be talking about food preservation and how easy it is to do at home. The primary methods I use are water bath canning and freezing although someday I would absolutely love to get a pressure canner and begin to use that. It affords you so many additional foods that can be preserved since it is the only recommended way for low-acid foods. If you’re interested I’ve already posted a whole post on How To: Water Bath Canning, so if you’re interested go back and check it out!Today, however, I’m going to be talking about blanching veggies. This is a necessary first step to preserving a lot of home grown food. When you blanch veggies you preserve the fresh flavor while killing any of the bacteria that might be on them. This method is a must for many of the veggies I’ll be showing you how to preserve this week. For simplicities sake the photos that are accompanying this post is the photos of me blanching corn. I’ll be sharing more in depth later this week on how exactly to prepare it for the freezer. But for today you just get the photos from me blanching it!In order to blanch veggies you need to bring a large pot of water to a boil. It should be a rolling boil and once you put anything in it, it should return to a high boil within a minute. This is key since you need to kill any bacteria on the veggies. Boil the veggies for whatever the recommended time is for the specific veggie you’re working with. For corn the recommended time is 4 minutes, for tomatoes, 60 seconds.After boiling you place the veggies into a large bowl of ice water. They should sit in the water just as long as you had them in the hot water for. After they cool, drain the excess liquid since this can affect the finished product. After this you’re done and can progress to preserving whatever food you’re working with!One disclaimer, I am by no means an expert in this field. I am simply sharing the methods and lengths of time my research has shown me. If you are very interested in preserving your own food I highly suggest doing your own research and figuring out what you feel comfortable with. An excellent resource is the National Center for Home Food Preservation. I have found this to be a highly valuable resource maintained by experts in the field of home food preservation. I also suggest Ball’s book: The Complete Book of Home Preserving. However, since the recommendations can change I always suggest checking the NCHFP site before you try preserving any new recipes. You can never be too safe when it comes to preserving food!

Canned Applesauce

When we received apples from Hubby’s coworker I used some of them to make Apple Pies, but I still had a bunch left over and decided to go ahead and make applesauce. I don’t like to add sugar to my applesauce since I tend to use it for Dog cookies and making granola and I don’t really want added sugar in either of these.  This batch of applesauce turned out beautifully. It was slightly pink since I boiled the apples with their skins on.Applesauce:12 Pounds Apples (quartered)4 Tablespoons Lemon Juice3 Cups Sugar (optional)4 Tablespoons Cinnamon (optional)Prepare the canner, jars and lids. In a large saucepan combine  the apples and just enough water to keep it from sticking to the bottom.Cover your saucepan and boil the apple until they are tender. Approximately 15-20 minutes.Remove from heat and let cool slightly, about 5 minutes. Working in batches process through your Victorio Food Strainer.(This is not a necessary part, but I have done this both ways and I strongly recommend investing in the Victorio 250. It will make your life SO much easier when you go to can things. If you don’t use this you should peel and core your apples prior to boiling them.)Return the applesauce to the pan. Add the sugar if you are using it, lemon juice and cinnamon.Ladle the hot sauce into jars leaving a ½ inch headspace. Process the jars for 20 minutes in a water bath canner.

Canned Tomato Sauce

Our tomato bushes were producing well into the cold weather this year. Since we moved at the end of May we weren’t able to start our garden until the first full week of June. This meant that when the weather started to turn cold our tomato plants were still full of green tomatoes. I brought all of the green tomatoes inside and ripened them. The process took about a month, but then I was faced with the problem of having a glut of tomatoes all at once!I decided to canning tomato sauce was a good way to use all of the tomatoes in one fell swoop. I was able to can six pints of tomato sauce.Tomato SauceTomatoesCitric Acid, Salt, Italian Seasoning HerbsPrepare the canner, jars and lids.Wash all the tomatoes removing stems and any discolored areas. Quarter the tomatoes and put into a stock pot. Boil the tomatoes while mashing with a potato masher. While you are waiting for the tomatoes to boil set up your Victorio Food Strainer.(This is not a necessary part, but I have done this both ways and I strongly recommend investing in the Victorio 250. It will make your life SO much easier when you go to can things.) Process all your tomatoes through the Victorio in batches. You may want to process the pulpy remains through a few additional times. I find I typically get additional pulp each time I process it through. Discard all skins and seeds.Return the mixture to the saucepan and bring to a boil over medium heat. Boil until mixture is reduced by one third for a thin sauce and one half for a thick sauce. Before you fill each of the jars add salt, citric acid and herbs. ( Per Pint: ¼ Teaspoon Citric Acid, ½ Teaspoon Salt, ½ Teaspoon Herbs) Fill jars, leaving a ½ Inch headspace. Remove bubbles, wipe rim and add lid. Place the jars in a water bath canner and process for 35 minutes for Pint Jars.

How to: Water Bath Canning

Last year I decided to try canning for the first time. The experience was absolutely exhilarating! There is just something so exciting about taking extra fruit and vegetables fresh from the garden and putting them up for winter.You need to be very careful when you are canning. If you improperly can something the food can develop Botulism which can make your family very sick. The National Center for Food Preservation has some very good tips and recipes for properly canning food.When you are canning food you need to follow the recipe to the letter to avoid spoilage when it sits on the shelf. I have found the Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving to be an excellent resource for how to properly can various foods.I have only tried the Water Bath Canning method. But I have found it to preserve food excellently. So far I’ve made: Applesauce, Tomato Sauce, Pickles and low sugar Grape Jelly.  Later this week I am going to post directions for canning no-sugar Applesauce and Tomato Sauce. Here are basic directions for water bath canning.You will need:Water Bath CannerEmpty Canning Jars and bandsFresh LidsCanning ToolsSomething to Can!You are able to reuse the glass jars and bands. But each time you can something you need to use a fresh lid. The assures that the jar properly seals after you process it.You first need to sterilize your jars, lids and bands. Prepare your water bath canner by placing the open jars on the metal removal tray and filling with water. Since there is so much water in the pot you will want to start this when you begin making whatever you are going to can.You then want to put all of your lids and bands in another pot with water and boil them.You typically pack each of the jars while the food is hot. So once your food is ready to can and the jars, bands and lids are boiling you can begin.Remove a jar from the water and place on the counter. I put a hot pad beneath to help with heat dispersal and if I need to touch it.Fill your jar, I find it is best to use a funnel to fill my jars. It is not necessary but it certainly makes the job easier.Check your headspace and make sure it matches what is specified in your recipe. Too little headspace can make the jar overflow when you process it and too little can cause spoilage.Wipe the rim of the jar once you have finished filling it. This assures you get a good seal. Put a lid and band onto the jar and tighten until it is fingertip tight.Put the jar back into the water bath canner. Process the cans for the time specified in your recipe.When the time is up remove the water bath canner from heat and wait for 5 minutes. Remove the jars and set them on a towel.At this point they should begin to seal. You will hear a popping sound as they seal. Leave them overnight on the counter. Test the seal by pushing in the center of the lid. If it does not give the jar has sealed. Any jars that haven’t sealed after 24 hours should be put in the refrigerator and used in the next few weeks.Make sure the bands are tight on the jars and store in a cool dark place.Happy Canning!