Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with canning

Canning season is here - we need advice on how to keep our pickled veggies crunchy!

pghjezebel — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 05:31:19 -0800

Canning season is here - we need advice on how to keep our pickled veggies crunchy! Mom and I are gearing up for our yearly canning weekend. Last years batch was a huge success (taste-wise) but our veggies weren't as crunchy as we would have liked them to be.

What tips can you give us on making our veggies as crunchy as possible? (And any tried and true recipes that you love are welcome as well - the stronger the kick the better!)

We're going to be doing:
Cauliflower, celery and carrots
Garlicky dilly beans
Pickles (if we have the time)

I thought of a really bad pun on the word "bean," but I guess I can spare you.

synecdoche — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 16:32:21 -0800

Why do cans of beans usually come in 19 fluid ounce cans in Canada, and 15 ounce cans in the US? Whenever I see American recipes that call for a can of beans, they list the can size at 15 or 15.5 ounces. All the cans I get in Ontario (and did in BC) were 19 liquid ounces. After asking on a foodie forum, I also learned that in the US, beans often include a weight in grams; my can also has a volume in millilitres. I'm curious as to why they do things differently and if my 19 fluid ounce can contains approximately the same quantity of beans as an American's 15.5 ounce can. (Note that I do not have easy access to an American can to check.)

I think that canned tomatoes might also vary between the countries, but I'm not certain. A typical can here is 19 liquid ounces.

Under pressure!

mudpuppie — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 15:44:17 -0800

Are there any pressure canners available that are smaller than 16 quarts? If not, are there any pressure *cookers* on the market that can double as a pressure canner? We brought home a 16-quart pressure canner because it was the only one that the big box store stocked. Only after getting it home did I realize that it was too big for me to store easily, and that it would come close to taking up two burners on my stove. (One of the reasons we bought the pressure canner is that the water bath canner I scored for free on the street is a 33-quart monster; it's too big to lift when full, requires too much heat, and is generally MUCH larger than what I need.)

Another drawback of the 16-quart pressure canner is that we'd like to use it as a pressure cooker as well, but it's just too damn big for a pot of beans for two. (Even if it cooks the beans in 5-7 minutes).

So, 1) are there smaller pressure canners available that I'm not finding online?

2) Is it a really bad idea to use an 8- or 10-quart pressure cooker (even 12 looks too big) as a canner? I know that the two main factors are that it must maintain up to 15 lbs of pressure to can some foods, and that jars must be raised off the bottom of the pot. Do normal pressure cookers maintain that level of pressure, and would they be deep enough to accommodate a rack + pint jar + 1" water?

3) Other options I'm overlooking?

Help with canning peaches

thirteenkiller — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 09:47:23 -0800

I canned (cold packed) seven pints of fresh peaches yesterday. The lid rings weren't screwed on tightly enough while the jars were processed, so some of the syrup leaked out. The jars do seem to have sealed, however. What should I do about this? Instead of the nice modest 1/2 inch headspace these jars were supposed to have, some of them lost up to half of their liquid and not all of the peaches are under the syrup level. Assuming the jars did seal properly, what other problems might I encounter from the low syrup levels? The Internet suggests exposed peaches might become discolored or get a weird flavor. Will this make them really unpleasant or unedible? Should I open the jars, add syrup, and reprocess or will the peaches just be a mushy mess by the end of that?

Too many peaches

mccarty.tim — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 13:05:02 -0800

I just bought 25 lbs of peaches. I can, bake, and cook. Help me use them up before they go bad. Today at the Farmer's Market, I saw a nice looking batch of fresh #2 peaches selling for $10 at 25lbs. On impulse, I bought this massive amount of fruit.

I'm interested in maybe making jam as well as some desserts. Ice creams and frozen yogurts are also fair game. I also have a grill, so any good grilled peach recipes are nice, too. I'm not too particular about what type of recipe I get, I just want to hear a bunch of good recipes, preferably ones that can be put up or frozen.

For the record, I don't drink, so I'm not interested in making infused liquors, although I am not afraid to do a recipe that has liquor in it.

Half preserved

Blazecock Pileon — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 01:43:49 -0800

I made a half-full jar of jam, is it safe to eat? Never thought I'd ever ask a "is it safe to eat" question, but here I am.

I made some strawberry jam for the first time and I was only able to fill the last jar halfway full. The other jars were filled to 1/4" from the lip.

I gave it the same boiling and cooling time as the full jars. Due to the air pocket acting as a floatation device, I had to use a meat tenderizer as a weight to hold down the jar as it was boiled.

The jar lid dimple is depressed, so it looks like a good seal was made. There's some condensation inside the jar's sides, where the jam doesn't cover.

Will it be safe to consume, or should I toss it?

Also, the mashed berries seemed to separate during cooling. There's about 1" of jelly at the bottom of each jar and mashed fruit bits at the top — is that normal, in general?

Jam session

rhoticity — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 08:15:59 -0800

Home canning filter: do I need to sterilize Mason jars/lids by boiling or oven or some other method if I'm using them for fridge pickles and freezer preserves, or am I okay just washing in hot soap and water? I can find stuff on google about pressure canning doing the sterilizing for you, and about sterilizing if you're processing the canned goods for <10 minutes, but I just wanted to make sure that I wasn't going to give me and my boyfriend a nasty case of botulism or something by just washing and going.

Also if you have any recommended freezer preserves or fridge pickle recipes, I would love to have them. Working on a farm this summer = lots of free produce and time spent at farmers markets. We just don't have the room in our little apartment for a canner that only gets used a few times a year.

Searching for long lost pickle recipe

mudpuppie — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 10:57:21 -0800

Need the bread and butter pickle recipe from either the Ball or Kerr canning recipe books. Hep me! My mom's bread and butter pickle recipe came from a 1970s edition of either the Ball Blue Book or the Kerr canning book, but she can't find the books (or the recipe). My library doesn't have the books, either.

The recipe was very simple -- vinegar, sugar, onions, mustard seeds and maybe turmeric. No weird stuff, like a lot of the recipes I'm finding online. (And the recipe on Ball/Kerr's own site now calls for "Ball® Simple Creations® Bread & Butter Pickle Mix." That ain't happening.)

This is the version I grew up with, so I'd like to use it.

Any help? I've got 5 lbs of cukes that need to go into jars tomorrow.

how to make cake in a jar

Anonymous — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 16:35:14 -0800

how safe are cakes baked in mason jars? I realize that it's not shelf stable canning, but google searches seem to indicate that the cake can stay good for up to 6 months. How successful have you been? Also - i'm looking to ship this from texas to new york and i'm concerned that the seal will break with the heat from the shipping. will freezing the cake before i ship it make any difference at all?

Any other tips or tricks about baking cakes in jars is certainly welcome. this is my first time!

anonymous since this is a gift to a mefite.

You can take the boy out of the farm but you can't take the farm out of the boy

Mutant — Thu, 08 May 2008 07:36:46 -0800

Best practices on home canning? So much to the amusement of Mrs Mutant, I've laid in about a dozen tomatoe plants, five Broad Bean vines, ten Bell Pepper plants and five Cucumber plants. I'm also planning to plant some potatoes and onions.

As we live in London and our flat is located on land with a history of industrial use (and I'm too cheap to pay for an evaluation of the earth in our garden) all planting is being done in 47cm pots. From the bottom we've got rocks, sticks, earth, compost, with the seeds in the compost.

I should be able to start harvesting in about two months, but wanted to get some ideas about best practices for home canning. I'm ashamed to admit that back on The Farm my grandma canned frequently but, as I was more interested in cartoons, I didn't absorb much more than cutting, boiling and bottling.

From reading I realise that cleanliness is key, and further, that tomatoes appear to be the safest (due to acidity). If things go well, we should have a large quantity of those to be canned.

Can we combine the tomatoes with other vegetables? I was hoping that perhaps the acidity would help with other vegetables that might be troublesome on their own.

What combinations, if any, can we make from what we're planning to plant? Or should we focus on canning vegetables individually?

Finally, what about fruit? We can get very cheap deals on seasonal fruit from street markets but I've read the sugar makes this a relatively riskier undertaking. Does anyone have a view on canning fruit?

Many thanks!

FruitFilter

deborah — Wed, 22 Aug 2007 13:42:08 -0800

I have two fruit trees that seem to be ripening ...NOW. One is an apple tree and the other tree is a plum. I already know about making jam (which is what I'll probably do with the plums) and making apple butter/sauce. I have a few questions: - What should I do with the fruit that isn't usable (bugs, birds, too ripe, etc.)? I have a compost bin. I doubt I can just chuck the whole fruit in there. I should at least pit the plums, right? Cut the fruit up into smaller bits? Any other disposal tips would be great.

- Can I clean and semi-process the fruit (skin, pit, slice up, etc.) and freeze the slices for later jamming and saucing? If I can do this, should I use heavy-duty freezer bags? Space is not a problem; I have a large deep freeze.

- Do y'all have any other ideas/recipes for plums and apples? Please share!

Please note: I'm not totally ignorant about canning, but it's been about 25 years since I canned anything except pickles.

My pepper jelly recipe is not quite right. Help me fix it.

nanojath — Sat, 18 Aug 2007 08:33:10 -0800

I'm looking for a good recipe for hot pepper jelly I love the appetizer where you pour pepper jelly over a block of cream cheese (previously on AskMe). I decided to try canning some from my garden produce this year and I'm not thrilled with the results. I used a recipe from Rodale's Stocking Up. It was more of a true jelly - the peppers were food processed to a puree - there wasn't a high enough hot pepper to bell pepper ration (it's not really hot at all) and the flavor is VERY vinegary. It isn't terrible, just not what I was looking for and I'm sort of wishing I didn't have a pint and a half of it now.

I'm capable of typing "pepper jelly recipe" into a search engine. I'm hoping for personal recommendations - the family recipe. Specifically, I was looking for what I've encountered before, a sweeter, hotter, more chunky-preserves/chutney texture affair. My mom never made this. Email your mom for me? Thanks!

Making/canning preserves

veggieboy — Fri, 10 Aug 2007 06:53:57 -0800

I'm making raspberry preserves. I want to use half-pint jars instead of the pint jars the recipe specifies. However, I'm a little paranoid. I'm an experienced home cook, so I frequently modify/ignore recipes. But it's different when I'm doing home-canning. I scrupulously follow the recipe because there are food safety issues at play.

This is the second summer now that I've done a lot of canning/preserving, using the Ball Blue Book of Preserving. One of the frustrating things is that, for example, on Page 32, it gives a recipe for berry jam and says it makes "3 pints." My question: I can use half-pint jars and process them for the same amount of time, right? Because a full pint of raspberry preserves is rather a lot.

I cannot see how harm would come from using a smaller jar and processing it for the same time as you would process the larger jar (setting aside possible taste issues and focusing only on safety). But I would be comforted to hear from others on their experience here.

What is this elusive dill pickle recipe?

rabinowitz — Tue, 17 Jul 2007 13:38:41 -0800

What is this elusive dill pickle recipe? I made a ton of really fabulous dill pickles last fall with a recipe I found online, but I forgot to save the recipe. Now I can't for the life of me find it. I vividly remember the ingredients and process. Does anybody know this recipe?

I packed jars with cucumbers, fresh dill, a clove of garlic, and several black peppercorns, then poured a room temperature (not boiling) vinegar/salt/water solution (of forgotten proportions) over the top. Then I sterilized the jars for 15 minutes in a boiling water bath.

All of the recipes I've found involve boiling the vinegar solution. Is it even safe to make pickles with room temperature vinegar solution?

Pickled sausages? Do tell.

jdroth — Sat, 30 Sep 2006 12:54:21 -0800

You know those pickled sausages you can buy at convenience stores? The ones wrapped in plastic with a little bit of brine? I love those things. Especially if they're spicy hot. My dad used to buy them at the grocery store back when they had to be fished from a jar with a pair of tongs. How do I make pickled sausages of my own? Has anyone done this before? I'm willing to go to a lot of effort in order to have a jar of tasty pickled sausages that I can access at a whim: boiling, cooking, canning, whatever. Though it's going to limit responses, I'm mostly interested in recipes that you've tried yourself and know to be good. (I'm also open to recipes for other pickled meat, as well.) Nutrition not a factor.

Liquid vs Powdered Pectin?

onhazier — Mon, 12 Jun 2006 04:20:14 -0800

Does liquid pectin cause jam to set more slowly? For the last three weeks, I have been making strawberry jam. The first week results were perfect. It was a double batch in which my measurements were not 100%. The second batch, made a week ago, still has not set. My ratio of fruit to sugar to pectin was off. Yesterday's batch also did not set. I made sure I followed the recipe exactly. Batch one was made with powdered pectin. Batches two and three were made with liquid pectin.

This is my second year making jam. The only time my previous jams did not set right away was when I made an apricot/red plum jam and only used one box of pectin for what was essentially a double batch of jam. I had read that plums have a high pectin content and that apricots take forever to set. It did eventually set though it took about 2 months.

So, does liquid pectin take longer to work? When making jam, which version gave you better results?

cheap omega-3 from fish filter

mrkohrea — Mon, 12 Jun 2006 00:22:12 -0800

I've decided that I'd like to get more omega-3 fatty acids from fish in my diet, and I'm wondering what the most cost effective way to get it is. (The omega-3 from plant sources such as walnuts and flax appears to be different than the omega-3 from fish.) Judging from a quick google search, canned sardines and canned wild salmon are good sources of omega-3, and judging by a trip to my grocery store, canned pink salmon and sardines seem to be the best choices on a value basis. However, there seem to be quite a few links on the web saying that the double cooking of canned tuna used by large companies is bad, because of increased mercury and/or decreased omega-3.

Are canned sardines and canned wild salmon a good source of omega-3 (and in the case of salmon, a relatively low source of mercury)? If yes, how is the canning of sardines and salmon better than the canning of tuna?

simple canning resources

sharksandwich — Wed, 12 Oct 2005 13:27:51 -0800

Simple canning of sauces. I like to make large batches of pasta sauce, barbecue sauce and fresh salsas. I've been freezing them, but the canning sounds like it would be a better route to go (no need to defrost, no freezer burn). Know of any resources to get me started? I've never canned a thing in my lfe.

Advice on making jams, pickles, and preserves.

kenko — Sun, 11 Jul 2004 14:15:38 -0800

I want to learn how to make preserves, jams, pickles, and other such things. But, I don't want to die from botulism. I have a fairly basic grasp of how the sterilization process works, and I'd like some pointers to/on techniques, supplies, cookbooks, whatever anyone who's got some experience in the matter might recommend.