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: 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!