Canning: Pumpkin

If you've been following along with the pumpkin-related posts to date, you should have a pumpkin already peeled, seeded and chopped. Be sure that the pumpkin is not chopped into too large of pieces. What's the point of canning pumpkin if you can only fit three chunks in each jar? The next step of your operation will be to gather your canning equipment, and review the basics of canning. The technique used for canning your pumpkin will be hot packing, and you will use a pressure canner to process your pumpkin.









Place your peeled and chopped pumpkin into a large stockpot, cover with cold water and bring to a boil. Only allow it to boil for a minute or two, you just want to get it hot, not necessarily to cook it. It will get plenty of cooking in the pressure canner! Put your hot pumpkin chunks into your hot jars. In this case I decided that quarts would be good. You can add a teaspoon of salt to each quart jar if you desire.



Next you will need to fill the jars with boiling water. An electric kettle works wonders in this situation!










Check your headspace using your headspace tool. You should have an inch of headspace for this canning application.










Turn your headspace tool over, or find another suitable thin plastic tool, and work out any air bubbles that may have formed during the filling process. Simply slide the tool down the outside of the food and work it around a bit. Shake, jiggle, pry, whatever you need to do to get those little bubbles out!















Use a clean damp dishtowel or paper towel to wipe the rims of your jars.











Use your lid lifter to place your lids onto your clean jar rims and screw on the rings. Remember that your rings should be "finger tight." They shouldn't be loose, but you don't have to crank them down with all your strength either.








Once the water has come to a boil in your pressure canner you can lower your jars into the vessel. Since the jars will likely be hot, you will want to use your canning tongs to lower them in safely.
















Once the vessel is pressurized and the weight is rocking nicely you can start your processing timer. I strongly urge you to refer to your pressure canner user's manual for processing weights and times. For me, I processed 1 hour 30 minutes at 15 pounds pressure.







Don't forget that when your processed jars come out of the canner, they should be placed on a dishtowel on the counter and not touched until they are completely cool. If you put a hot jar onto the cold counter, it may burst. If you move a warm jar, the seal may be broken. Just be patient, and wait for the little fellers to cool. It will be okay, I promise.

Slow Cooker Chili Sauce for Canning

In our ongoing effort to find tasty things for us to make ourselves and can for later, Willie and I set about making chili sauce for topping our hot dogs. Everyone likes a chili dog, right? We began our search for a good no-bean chili recipe and came across this recipe at Taste of Home. We modified it to fit our own use by taking the hot dogs out and increasing the sauce to meat ratio somewhat, so that it would be better for canning. Here is the recipe we devised:

3 lbs ground beef, cooked and drained

5 15oz cans tomato sauce

⅔ c worcestershire

5 Tbsp dried minced onion

2 ½ tsp garlic powder

2 ½ tsp mustard powder

2 ½ tsp chili powder

2 ½ tsp ground black pepper

¼ tsp cayenne pepper, heaping

Your first step should be to brown and drain your ground beef.




















This gives a better flavor, texture, and appearance to the meat than it would have if you just lumped it all in the crock pot raw.

Next, add in the tomato sauce.

Finally, measure out your flavorings and seasonings This recipe is pretty easy in that all of the seasonings are dry. No chopping onions for you!







Stir it all up and put the lid on. Allow it to cook for about 4-5 hours on low. Just long enough to warm it up and allow the flavors to mingle a bit.








Once it is good and hot, turn your crock pot to "keep warm" and start preparing your jars and equipment for canning.










If you need help with canning equipment, please see my blog post on the subject. Otherwise, continue on to my Basics of Canning page for further instructions on preparing home-canned food. Please note that we processed our chili sauce as though it were spaghetti sauce with meat. Please check your pressure canner's instruction manual for directions on how long to process your sauce, and at what pressure.

Don't forget! You can always pull a jar of chili out of the pantry for Chili Cheese Sandwiches as well!

Can the Sales!

Often times when the subject of canning comes up, the common response I get is that the person I'm talking to doesn't have a garden, so they don't can. The thing about it is, though, you don't necessarily need a garden! Most grocery stores have their weekly ads available online, so why not check out what's on sale and can that? As we have learned in my previous post What to Can, there are a great number of items that can be preserved by canning.

For example, my local grocery stores have the following "cannable" items on sale this week:

Beef Roast (Rump)

I realize that this first one is a little bit of a strange one, but canned meat is fantastic! One of my nursing home residents told me that her husband used to go hunting every year, and a portion of what he shot got canned. Later on, after his health had declined a bit and he was no longer able to go hunting, she would scan the ads to find meat that was on sale, and can it. Grandma always canned a portion of the game that grandpa shot, too. I thought it was a great way to preserve your meat, and it is super easy to use. Some of the best loose meat sandwiches I've ever had came from home-canned meat! Here are some instructions on canning meat.

Roma Tomatoes

Since Roma tomatoes are a paste tomato, it stands to reason that they would be made into tomato paste. Click here for an easy tomato paste recipe that includes canning instructions.

Grapes

Grapes are nice because you can juice them and can the juice, or you can make grape jelly. You could even mash them up to make wine, but then you would need to bottle it, not can it. Besides, that's another blog post in itself.

Peaches or Nectarines

In my family someone always had a peach tree, so there were always peaches to be canned in the fall or winter. While the obvious choice would be to preserve peach slices in a light syrup, you could also make them into jam, jelly, or pie filling, and can that. Nectarines can also be used in place of Peaches, since the only difference between the two is that nectarines lack the fuzz that peaches have.

Plums

I had never considered it before, but you can make plums into jelly or jam. Although I've never tried it, I think it would be an option worth exploring!

Asparagus

Asparagus is an fairly easy vegetable to can. If you have tall, thin jars you can preserve the spears whole, if not, you can just as easily snap them and preserve them in another type of jar. All you need to can asparagus is a little salt and some water, but if you're feeling daring you could always pickle it! Either way, the instructions are here.

Pineapple

Although I had never considered it before, I came up with the idea that one might be able to can pineapple at home several months back, and I spent an entire workday obsessing about the idea. When I got home I finally had the opportunity to research the subject, and was quite satisfied at how easy it is to can pineapple.

Carrots

  You can either can your carrots on their own, or you can use them to compliment other items, such as pickled jalapenos. Likewise, you can pickle carrots and can them.

Apples

  I love apples because there's just so much you can do with them! The top "cannable" items to be make with apples are, for me, apple jelly, apple butter, apple sauce and apple pie filling.

Don't forget! If you have any questions about canning equipment, boiling water canning, or pressure canning, I've got info to help you! Please note that the boiling water canning link sends you to a recipe, but at the bottom of that recipe is boiling water canning instructions.

Food Preservation: What to Can

Bread and Butter Pickles from my
mother-in-law's pantry

We all know that canning is a great way to put the foods we grow in our gardens away for a rainy (or snowy) day, but what exactly are you able to can? 

Well, pretty much anything!

Jam, Jelly, Preserves, or Apple Butter
Peaches, Apricots or Pears
Apple Sauce
Pie Filling
Veggies (carrots, green beans, corn, etc.)
Potatoes
Tomatoes

Taco Soup, Dill Pickle Relish and
Marinara Sauce from my pantry

Pickles
Pickled Peppers, Okra, Squash or Asparagus
Salsa, Taco Sauce or Chili Sauce
Pasta or Pizza Sauce
Soup, Stew, or Chili
Barbecue Sauce
Meat
Fruit or Vegetable Juice

Chokecherry Jam from Mom's
pantry

In my family we have always had our canned "staples."

Grandma and grandpa always kept a fairly large garden, and grandma would can the resulting produce. Strawberry jam, canned peaches, tomatoes, chili sauce, salsa, and she also canned meat. I know what you're thinking: "WHAAT?! Canned meat?! Why would one need to can meat?" Well, grandpa worked for the state fish and game association and, therefore, went hunting on a regular basis. When he brought home a deer, elk, or pronghorn most of the meat went into the freezer, but a good portion was also canned by grandma. It was tasty, already cooked, and made the best loose meat barbecue sandwiches you've ever tasted. So, why can meat? Why not?!

Aunt Steph's Apple Pie Filling

At my parents house my mom made strawberry jam, peach jam, canned peaches, tomatoes, salsa, and pickles. At the house they live in now they have a peach tree that produces far too many peaches for any human to eat, so mom stays pretty busy canning jam and peaches each fall.

At our house Willie and I have canned taco soup, marinara sauce, green beans, dill pickle relish, potatoes, and tomatoes.

So, by now I'm sure you're asking "But what about your great uncle? What does he can?" The answer: Jalapeno jelly.

I've asked my family to take photos of the canned food in their pantries for this blog entry. Photo credits go to: Cheryl Nisonger, Pat Williams, and Stephanie Black.

Aunt Steph's Pickled Beets

Aunt Steph's
Raspberry Jam

Aunt Steph's Tomato Juice
and Crushed Tomatoes

Aunt Steph's Salsa

Aunt Steph's Bottled

 Venison

Aunt Steph's
Applesauce

Canning - Dill Pickle Relish

Willie had bought some cucumbers to experiment with making cucumber salad, but after his first batch his interest waned somewhat. Since the cucumbers were starting to get a bit long in the tooth, I figured some preservation was in order. I did what anyone would do, I made relish! This post will take you through all the necessary steps, from prep work to canning.

First, the recipe:

3 lbs cucumbers (the recipe calls for pickling cucumbers, but regular ones will work fine)

2-3 sweet onions (I've used regular yellow or white onions with good results as well)

1/4 c. pickling salt (don't use table salt, it will discolor your beautiful yellow relish)

3 cups white vinegar

3/4 c. white sugar (you may choose to use less, depending on how sweet you like your relish)

4-5 cloves of garlic, minced

2 tsp dill seeds

2 tsp mustard seeds

2 tsp celery seeds

1/2 tsp turmeric

2 Tbsp cornstarch

I liked this recipe so much that this is the third batch of relish I've made. Please take a moment to look over the original recipe here and give it a good rating. It really is phenominal! I only had a pound and a half of cucumbers, so I made a half batch. I would recommend reading through the entire post before you begin, because there is a lot of different steps, and there are a few things that need to be timed carefully.

Here's the equipment that I used for my prep work: 

Kitchen Scale

Cutting Board

Knife

Mandolin Slicer

Chopper

Strainer/Colander

Large Mixing Bowl

First, cut the ends off of your cucumbers and slice with the mandolin slicer. I used the medium setting, because I wanted my bits of relish to be small, but not too small. Don't have a mandolin? No problem! Just slice these fellows up with your knife.

Next, do the same to your freshly peeled onion. Once sliced, chop your slices into quarters so that it will fit onto your chopper. If you are using a chopper, that is.

Chop your onions, and put them in your large mixing bowl.

Do the same for your cucumbers, and add them to the bowl as well.

Next, measure out your pickling salt and stir it into your cucumber/onion mixture. Don't worry about making your relish salty. We're just using the salt to draw the water out of your vegetables. Allow this mixture to sit for an hour. That's right, walk away, come back in an hour. Maybe put your jars in the dishwasher to sterilize.

After an hour has passed you will see that there is a ton of water pooling up in the bottom of the bowl. The salt has done its job!

Empty the contents of your bowl into a colander or strainer and rinse thoroughly. Allow it to drain completely. You want this mixture to be fairly dry, so you may want to press some of the moisture out as well.

While your cucumber/onion mixture is draining and drying, get the ingredients together for your pickling solution.

Put everything but the turmeric and cornstarch into a large pot and bring it to a boil.

Add your cucumbers and onions and allow the mixture to boil for nine minutes. Right around your nine minute mark, measure out the cornstarch into a small container. Add a bit of the liquid from your pot to it, and whisk it until it is well incorporated. Stir this mixture into your pot, and continue stirring and boiling until the mixture thickens somewhat.

Cut the heat and stir in your turmeric. Mix it in well, as is will want to clump up a bit in the warm mixture.

Check out the color and texture of this relish. Delightful!

Now comes the canning! If you haven't already, sterilize your equipment, jars, lids and rings. You can use boiling water to sterilize, or your dishwasher if it has a sterilization feature. Be sure that you don't leave your lids in boiling water too long, or run them through your dishwasher, as it will activate the seal prematurely and your jars will not seal. Time it out so that your jars and your relish mixture are still hot when it comes time to combine the two. Now is also a good time to start your water boiling. Use a large pot, deep enough to cover the tops of the jars by two inches, and be sure to use some sort of rack. Since I only had two jars, and didn't want to drag my pressure canner out, I just used a large stock pot and put a flat-bottomed colander into it to hold my jars.

Use your canning funnel to fill the hot jars with hot relish.

Use your headspace tool to check your headspace. This recipe calls for 1/2 inch of headspace. Once your jars are filled and headspace measured, turn the tool over and use the flat handle to remove as many of the air bubbles from your jar as you can.

Using a damp paper towel or clean damp dishcloth, wipe the edges of your jars. Be sure that there is nothing on them, so that the lids can seal securely.

Use a lid lifter to place your lids on top of your jars. Screw the rings onto the jars, tighten them until "finger tight" and then back it off about 1/8 inch. If your rings are too tight, the air cannot escape and you won't achieve a vacuum, and you run the risk of bursting your jars.

Using your canning tongs, lower your jars into the boiling water gently. If there is not enough water to cover the jars by two inches, add more hot water and bring back to a boil. Process for ten minutes. Please note that this method of canning, known as the boiling water method, is not suitable for canning all foods. There are many foods which require pressure canning to achieve the temperatures necessary to kill bacteria and prevent food-born illness. Follow the instructions as noted on the recipe, or the instruction manual for your pressure canner, in order to prevent illness from home-canned food.

Once your ten minutes is up, use the canning tongs to lift the jars out of the boiling water. Place them on a dishtowel on the counter and let them cool. If you place the hot jars directly onto the cold counter, the temperature shock may cause them to shatter. Don't touch, bump, jostle or handle them until they have sealed and cooled. Reminds me of family car trips when I would fight with my brother. Mom would say, "Don't look at him, don't touch him, don't BREATHE on him." Same concept, I think. Except this time, rather than avoiding a fight, we are avoiding your lid popping off.

You can tell if the jar has sealed, because it will make a loud popping sound. Once cooled, double check that the jar is sealed by pressing in the center of the lid with your finger. If the jar is sealed the "button" will be down. If it is not sealed, you will be able to press the button down with your finger and it will pop back up when you remove the pressure. If your jar is sealed you can label it, remove the ring if you desire, and store it in your pantry. If the jar is not sealed, you can put it into the refrigerator and use it right away. Some people claim that you can process your unsealed jars with new lids, but I'm not a fan of this idea. Seems as though you will over cook the food being canned. Best to put it in the fridge and use it first.