chasingtides (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
chasingtides) wrote2009-08-30 02:18 pm
chasingtides) wrote2009-08-30 02:18 pm
Entry tags:
Canning Prep
As I like to blog recipes, I've been planning to include some canning recipes this fall. I've only done small batch canning of preserves in the past (particularly rose-hip preserves which were delicious) so keep that in mind with my discussion of the topic.
I grew up with home canned foods, so it's always a bit of a surprise when I hear people are wary of canning. It's a not terribly difficult - albeit time-consuming - process that leads to deliciousness throughout the cold weather seasons. Additionally, I keep a small vegetable and herb garden and it's just impossibly to keep up with the produce I have, so canning and drying are the only ways to avoid throwing out my delicious hard work. (For fruits and other produce I don't grow myself, I tend to make trips to the local farms, especially the pick-your-owns. For example, this year I will be making an apple-mint preserve using my own mint and apples from a farm one town over. Presumably, if you don't have access to local farms, you could utilise a farmer's market. I find that store produce tends not to be fresh enough for canning.)
In any case, I'm doing a small-batch canning series on this blog, with things that are modernly relevant.
At the moment, I'm not canning yet, but I am making sure that everything's ready for it, because I'll be starting in the next week or so. Now, if you've never canned before, you could go out and buy some fancy canning kit (it'll run you about $50 at least). However, you can probably get a water bath canner for much cheaper, if you look around. Here are two inexpensive examples: canning kettle and covered canner with rack.
Jar lifters or canning racks (your choice really, but I prefer lifters) will keep your jars from becoming contaminated when you remove them. One lifter should last you for years if you treat it right. Kitchen tongs work in a pinch, but they aren't insulted like lifters are, so beware burning your hands.
You also want a kitchen funnel. Honestly, I consider kitchen funnels to be a general basic, but I have strange ideas of what a kitchen basic is. You should be able to find a funnel at a cooking store, big box store, Amazon... anywhere you can buy pans, really. If you have no idea what I'm talking about, take a look. (If you're really interested in canning and have $10 and already own a really, really big pot, this kit might be up your alley.)
Canning jars are obviously important. I've seen them at Wal-Mart, Target, the local grocery stores, and the local hardware stores, but you can obviously also get them online. The size you need, etc. will depend on what you're making. I keep a wide variety in the basement and don't always use all of them, but the amazing thing about canning jars is that you reuse them year after year. (Do not throw them out like you do with commercial jars!) If you're reusing, invest in some new lids. Rubber tops - I haven't been able to find any online - are also a good investment. To the great embarrassment of non-canners everywhere, they are only called rubbers. Sorry about that.
If you're die hard about following recipes and rules and this - which, I am not - you could also invest in a canning cook book. In fact, if you follow this blog and find yourself really getting into it, I advise it anyway. I'm eclectic and sporadic and unique in my cooking style and I know most people would probably like something a little more dependable than myself for recipes, even if the rest of the internet is also a great source.
I would recommend, especially for someone new to canning and not canning for a family of fourteen, Ellie Top and Margaret Howard's The Complete Book of Small Batch Preserving and The Complete Guide to Canning and Preserving: Second Revised Edition put out by the US Department of Agriculture. I personally own the latter and greatly enjoy it. The former, I just take out of the local library. (Check your libraries before buying - you can always photocopy a recipe or eight for your own personal use.)
Additionally, if you like or follow what I will be writing in this series, I recommend checking out websites for further recipes and suggestions. Ball runs Fresh Preserving and has plenty of advice and recipes. The National Center for Home Food Preservation has a website that includes food safety information and I will probably be linking that with each recipe and instruction set I post. Canning and preserving is a type of cooking that runs health risks with spoiling so read those pages carefully and follow the rules!
I grew up with home canned foods, so it's always a bit of a surprise when I hear people are wary of canning. It's a not terribly difficult - albeit time-consuming - process that leads to deliciousness throughout the cold weather seasons. Additionally, I keep a small vegetable and herb garden and it's just impossibly to keep up with the produce I have, so canning and drying are the only ways to avoid throwing out my delicious hard work. (For fruits and other produce I don't grow myself, I tend to make trips to the local farms, especially the pick-your-owns. For example, this year I will be making an apple-mint preserve using my own mint and apples from a farm one town over. Presumably, if you don't have access to local farms, you could utilise a farmer's market. I find that store produce tends not to be fresh enough for canning.)
In any case, I'm doing a small-batch canning series on this blog, with things that are modernly relevant.
At the moment, I'm not canning yet, but I am making sure that everything's ready for it, because I'll be starting in the next week or so. Now, if you've never canned before, you could go out and buy some fancy canning kit (it'll run you about $50 at least). However, you can probably get a water bath canner for much cheaper, if you look around. Here are two inexpensive examples: canning kettle and covered canner with rack.
Jar lifters or canning racks (your choice really, but I prefer lifters) will keep your jars from becoming contaminated when you remove them. One lifter should last you for years if you treat it right. Kitchen tongs work in a pinch, but they aren't insulted like lifters are, so beware burning your hands.
You also want a kitchen funnel. Honestly, I consider kitchen funnels to be a general basic, but I have strange ideas of what a kitchen basic is. You should be able to find a funnel at a cooking store, big box store, Amazon... anywhere you can buy pans, really. If you have no idea what I'm talking about, take a look. (If you're really interested in canning and have $10 and already own a really, really big pot, this kit might be up your alley.)
Canning jars are obviously important. I've seen them at Wal-Mart, Target, the local grocery stores, and the local hardware stores, but you can obviously also get them online. The size you need, etc. will depend on what you're making. I keep a wide variety in the basement and don't always use all of them, but the amazing thing about canning jars is that you reuse them year after year. (Do not throw them out like you do with commercial jars!) If you're reusing, invest in some new lids. Rubber tops - I haven't been able to find any online - are also a good investment. To the great embarrassment of non-canners everywhere, they are only called rubbers. Sorry about that.
If you're die hard about following recipes and rules and this - which, I am not - you could also invest in a canning cook book. In fact, if you follow this blog and find yourself really getting into it, I advise it anyway. I'm eclectic and sporadic and unique in my cooking style and I know most people would probably like something a little more dependable than myself for recipes, even if the rest of the internet is also a great source.
I would recommend, especially for someone new to canning and not canning for a family of fourteen, Ellie Top and Margaret Howard's The Complete Book of Small Batch Preserving and The Complete Guide to Canning and Preserving: Second Revised Edition put out by the US Department of Agriculture. I personally own the latter and greatly enjoy it. The former, I just take out of the local library. (Check your libraries before buying - you can always photocopy a recipe or eight for your own personal use.)
Additionally, if you like or follow what I will be writing in this series, I recommend checking out websites for further recipes and suggestions. Ball runs Fresh Preserving and has plenty of advice and recipes. The National Center for Home Food Preservation has a website that includes food safety information and I will probably be linking that with each recipe and instruction set I post. Canning and preserving is a type of cooking that runs health risks with spoiling so read those pages carefully and follow the rules!
no subject
Maybe I'll take a drive to the orchard and see if they have any sour cherries left, though I usually freeze those. Maybe I'll do some applesauce this year. It's been awhile.
Still, even if I've got nothing to can at the moment, all this canning talk gets me excited. It abruptly turned into jacket weather here, and I've been baking up a storm.
no subject
we're going to make apple butter again this year, if we're able to make it to the nearest orchard in the coming months. there's nothing like it.
we've got the best bastardized canning system, though. we've got several flat bottom pots to sterilize our jars, and some really large pots for making the batches of whatever. one jar lifter and one kitchen funnel (plus a couple of cannibalized funnels) makes for a decent canning experience.
it'd be nice to see what recipes you have.