Pickling and Canning, Mania Style
Written by panicbean on June 21, 2008 – 2:19 pm -This post is dedicated to my husbands grandmother, Annabelle, who passed away 3 years ago, but has never passed from our memory or our hearts. I called her Nannybelle, and she always giggled when I did it. She was a 93 year old woman with more sense, strength, and humor than any young woman I have ever known. I hope there are tomatoes, pecans, and okra in heaven, dear lady.
Every year dh puts up hot pickled okra, mostly for himself because he just loves it, while I do like it, I don’t crave it. He craves it, but hates to pay the dear price they charge in the stores, so when the okra comes in, watch out, the kitchen is filled with his activity, dh is on a mission! My participation is limited to peeling the garlic, fetching him another beer, or just simply staying out of his way.
We use the water bath method when we do our canning. Place large container on the stove, we use our large blue speckled turkey roaster, and fill it with water about halfway. Remember, you are going to place your canning jars in it, and the water will rise. You can buy a canning set up that includes the pot and the rack for your jars, and why we don’t own one is beyond me, but we don’t, and our method does work just fine. Once you place your filled jars in the water bath, put the seals on the jar, then screw the lid on until snug remembering to then give it a quarter turn back, or at least until the lid is loose enough to allow for venting the steam. This is important because you do not want the lid too tight or the glass can explode (I am going to invest in a rubber lab apron and goggles if we don’t buy one of the canning set ups, at least that was my latest threat) and serious injury can result. The water needs to reach at least three quarters to two thirds of the way up your canning jars. Let water boil for 15 minutes for canned tomatoes in quart jars, or 5-6 minutes for the okra which we do in pint jars, and green beans boil for 10 minutes done in quart jars. We like our okra and our green beans crispy, so this is the time we allow to get that desired texture. Mushy, slimy okra sucks! At least to this northern born and bred gal.
The recipe for canning hot, pickled okra will be first. This is the only one dh uses, I don’t know where he got it, but I do know he canned some okra last year without his recipe (from memory, and I use that term with a huge grin—if you knew my dh you’d know why), and that okra was not good, at all, even he finally admitted it. Though it did get eaten, it was not enjoyed. The ingredients will be per pint of okra. Preparing the okra is important. Remove the woody part of the stem, insuring not to remove the cap on the okra. Soak the okra in a cold water bath for approximately 2-4 hours. If you wish, you can use a vegetable brush to remove the hair. Dh chooses not to do this, he likes his okra and his women furry!
1/2 lb. small, young okra (per pint)
2 cloves garlic, per pint (large cloves are fine with us)
2 jalapenos, quartered lengthwise, per pint (and to taste-more or less is fine, dh likes hot ones!)
1/2 tsp of dill seeds, per jar (fresh dill is fine, too-2 or 3 sprigs will do nicely)
1 tsp of mustard seeds, per jar
Liquid recipe (per pint jar):
2/3 cup white vinegar
1/2 cup water
1 tblsp. pickling salt (can be purchased at most grocery stores)
To each pint jar add garlic, dill seed, and mustard seed. Pack jar with okra and jalapeno peppers. Bring your prepared liquid mixture to a boil, add the liquid to each pint jar filling to within 1/2 inch below the rim. Then place your jars in the water bath, and boil as detailed above. Remove okra from water bath, monitor it to make sure the lids pop down, you should hear the popping take place, also the dimple on the jar lid will be inverted. If you tap the lid and there is no sound, it is safe to tighten the lid and store in a cool, dark place for 4-6 weeks before eating. Dh is lucky to make it a week!
Recipe for pickled green beans is identical to the okra, remember to double the recipe for a quart jar, green beans are longer. :) Dh opened a jar of the pickled green beans we put up last week and they are already delicious, we can hardly wait to see what they taste like in another few weeks. Bloody Mary Sundays here we come!
Canning tomatoes. This is the first time we have canned our own tomatoes, and the reason we did it was not because of the latest food scare, but because Nannybelle always did it for us, and we miss those damn tomatoes so much (and her) that we decided to just go ahead and give it a try.
We are fortunate to have a little gentleman farmer who grows his own veggies, and sells them to us for a fraction of the cost of what you pay in the grocery stores or at the farm markets. He is totally organic, and I feel blessed that he found us. He came by the other day with about 25 lbs of beautiful red ripe tomatoes for sale, I paid him his asking price of $20.00 and hauled them home. We canned most of them yesterday, but I saved a few out to make a fresh tomato/vegetable sauce for dinner last night. Delicious! I just love it when I am reminded of how wonderful fresh from the garden produce tastes.
To each quart jar, add 1/2 tsp of salt, we use kosher or pickling salt, 2 tablsp. lemon juice, 1/8 tsp. peppercorn (or approx. 5 peppercorns)
2 finger pinch of fresh ground pepper
1 clove garlic
Bring water to boil in large pot, once again we used the blue speckled turkey roaster. Fill about 1/2 full, remember when you add your tomatoes the water will displace. Add tomatoes as quickly as possible, leave in boiling water about 30 seconds, larger less ripe tomatoes need about 60 seconds, and remember the water must remain at a full boil.
Have an ice water bath prepared (kitchen sink does nicely) and remove tomatoes to the iced water bath as quickly and safely as possible. Dh uses a large skimming kitchen utensil to remove the tomatoes.
Removing the skins from the tomatoes is the next step. We do not bother seeding our tomatoes but you can core them, half them, and wash the seeds out if you wish. I simply used a very sharp paring knife, cored them and cut them only if they were too large to fit in the canning jar, the peels should come right off. Pack the tomatoes down into the jar until their juices rise to about 1/2 inch below the rim.
Boil the tomatoes in the water bath, but without the lids on. This is something dh found out yesterday while we were doing ours, and it is only because the meat and some seeds got under the lids, and they did not seal properly. Or you can try to make sure the rims of your jars are perfectly clean, and boil them with the lids in place. We made quite a few attempts at getting our jars to seal properly, along with lots of head scratching, moaning and groaning taking place.
So, there you go. I hope some of you will find this diary useful. I’m sure there are many here who have been doing it for years, and I would love to hear any tips, comments, or critiques of our rather haphazard method.
The mania comes in the ongoing conversation that takes place between the two of us. We are both opinionated, and verbal, and there is always much discussion on what is the best way (dh), what is the easiest way (me), and then the way we will actually do any one thing that we are going to do, together. But, it gets done, we usually have a blast doing it, and in the end that is what counts.
Eat well!
Posted in Diaries, Food, Frugality, Gardening, Recipes |
19 Comments
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While I applaud your industriousness, I am extremely concerned with your canning methods. I do not mean to be critical in a negative manner, but all of the leading canning authorities, including Ball and Kerr (now both owned by the same holding company) recommend that you NOT back off a band after tightening it, just tighten it hand firm, not forced.
As far as the water bath, it is safe ONLY for high acid or high sugar (or both) foods. Green beans should NEVER be canned by the water bath method, only with a pressure canner. There is a severe risk for botulism when low acid foods are canned with a boiling water bath.
In the boiling water bath, great for tomatoes and pickled okra, amongst others, the canning authorities recommend that sufficient water be placed in the canner to cover the jars one to two inches OVER the lids and rings. Otherwise, the material in the top of the jar may not get hot enough to be sterilized.
As for canning without lids and putting them on later, this is not canning. It is cooking. The lids, regardless of how clean you are with them, have bacteria on them and will contaminate the contents of the jars at least now and then if not sterilized in the canner. I reiterate the thought about not covering the jars with boiling water which is obviously not possible if there are no lids on them. The reason that the seeds are getting between the sealing compound and the rim of the jar is that you are backing the rings off a quarter of a turn, so the lids are not really making contact with the jar rims. Modern lids and bands are designed to vent even though the band is firmly attached, and form a seal only after the pressure inside the jar is exceeded by the atmosphere.
I have a nifty funnel that belonged to my grandmother that keeps any residue off of the rim, and I wipe with a damp paper towel before putting on the bands and rings. You can make a passable one out of something like a yogurt cup bu cutting off the bottom, but it is too narrow at the top to use in wide mouth jars, just standard Mason ones.
It is hard to hurt yourself with tomatoes and pickled okra, but ten minutes in a water bath (not even a full one) for green beans is Russian roulette, and you will lose someday. It is not a matter of if, but a matter of when. Botulism is extremely difficult to treat, and, with extremely few exceptions (one, I think, in the past several years in the US), all of it resulted from improperly processed home canned, low acid foods. Hit Google for botulism for more information.
My grandmother’s Kerr canning guide strongly recommends a pressure canner for green beans, but if simply not available, it recommends processing in a boiling water bath, with water at least one over the top of the jar for 180 minutes. Yes, three full hours. For a pressure canner at 10 psi, it recommends 25 minutes for quarts and 20 for pints. Even with the pressure canner, you MUST boil low acid foods, uncovered, for at least 10 minutes before tasting.
Once again, it is not my intent to be argumentative or to upset you, but these canning methods are extremely hazardous. The Kerr book recommends for tomatoes 35 minutes for pints and 45 for quarts in the boiling water bath, and 5 is the recommendation for pints of strongly acidic pickles.
I want you and yours to be around for a long time. Warmest regards, Doc.
You can order the Ball Blue Book from canningpantry.com for $6.99. I suspect it may be available is larger bookstores, too. It does not appear that the Kerr one is available any more. Warmest regards, Doc.
Holy shit! Who knew I would need more than goggles and a rubber apron, apparently I am in need of a bio-suit as well.
Thank you so much for making myself, and others aware of the real way to can, Doc.
I just assumed that Nannybelle knew what the hell she was doing, I mean after all, she did reach the ripe old age of 93.
Will take your advice, and read up on the dangers of improperly canning our vegetable, I hope others will do the same.
You’re a wonderful, and very knowledgeable blogger, thank you so much for your comments.
pb
Luck of the draw. Some folks can tempt fate for decades unscathed, and for others the first flirtation spells disaster. I just like to play the probabilities based on the best information available. Thank you for the kind words. As I said, tomatoes and pickles are not apt to do much damage, but botulism is the real deal.
As far as beating the odds, sometimes I write about Granddad. The family always said that his guardian angel hardly any wings left after wearing them out taking care of him, and he lived to be 91. If the muse strikes, I may write about “Granddad and the DDT” later, but I already have the second installment of Phases of Matter to proof and post. Warmest regards, Doc.
Wow panicbean,
That just sounds so good. I have never seen okra here. Maybe I can get a friend to bring me some seeds. I haven’t thought about okra for years. Of course there are many things that I just never think about anymore.
I just sat out 11 more plants. The hail and cool weather had set mine back from earlier. Warmest regards, Doc.
Our gentleman farmer has now put in his 4th crop, we live in Florida, he said the others have not even come up. I hope this next one does, because he sells us a whole box of them for 3 bucks!
We bought this last batch at the local farm produce store and paid a lot more than that.
We
Bad year here for okra, and the hail did not help. Warmest regards, Doc.
I’d send you some of our canned okra, but I don’t know if you are willing to take the chance of eating it, damn it. Would some seeds do?
I had never eaten any okra until I met dh and his family, now I love it. Properly cooked, that is.
As I said, not much danger with pickles. I like my okra sliced, rolled in corn mean with salt and pepper, and fried in oil (with some bacon grease for flavor) very crisp. Or in gumbo. I never developed a taste for plain stewed okra, however. Warmest regards, Doc.
p.s. I think I may have abused the tags thingie, but I wasn’t too sure about that one.
Oh, you lucky. Okra is manna of the gods, afaic. And it’s a lovely plant.
There is no such thing as tag abuse here. Tag with impunity and to your heart’s content!
I edited to add the tags, then I wasn’t sure I did the right thing with them, too funny.
Thanks, biscuit. You’re back!
You must of moved in, good for you, I’ll not ask if you are settled.
I love my new house.
But I also love my old homestead.
But I really love my new house.
And … there are hardwood floors underneath all the stuff on them. Unearthing them will be my first major project — okay, putting in a wood stove will be my first major project, but the hardwood floors are next!
It smells like an old house. I grew up in an old house and always loved that smell.
Wood pellet burning stoves have taken off in Maine, I have never heard of one, but read about them and it in the local papaer, which I read online.
Wood pellets now a popular choice.
“by Bruce Farrin RUMFORD CENTER - It was quite a sight Friday morning to see 44 tons of wood pellets stretched along the driveway of Thibodeau Antiques. Fortunately, they were in 40-pound bags packaged on pallets. They disappeared relatively quickly as all had been pre-sold. “People are getting ready for next winter,” noted owner Mike Thibodeau, who has decided to become a distributor for wood pellets, which are made in Maine through Corinth Wood Pellets. With the concerns about what the heating oil season might bring and the rapidly rising cost of buying wood as a result, people are getting more interested in the option of using wood pellets as their source of home fuel. One of those people is Mike Hartford of Wilton, who arrived with a trailer to pick up four tons of wood pellets here. “This is my first time. I just bought a wood pellet stove.” Wood pellets are a renewable resource made from the waste material of sawmills (saw dust and shavings). They are clean, convenient, and economical. It is known that burning wood is much better for the environment than burning fossil fuels. Better yet, pellets are made from waste wood, so they efficiently reduce products that previously polluted the environment. Thibodeau said he himself purchased a Harmon wood pellet stove in January and was impressed with the results, enough so that he believes others will be just as impressed. Besides becoming a distributor, he is also selling second-hand Harmon wood pellet stoves. “Area stove shops are going crazy to keep up with the demand.” They are packaged in 40-pound bags (50 bags to the ton), making them easy to handle and store. A complete winter supply can be stored in a 6×6-foot space. The current price with this shipment was $215 per ton, but price on future shipments are subject to change due in part to transportation costs. He said the wood pellets are soft wood from spruce right here in Maine. Further, the business will soon have a hardwood line of wood pellets. Thibodeau said wood pellets burn much more efficiently than wood. There is less handling involved. Further, he said once the hopper to the stove is filled, there is an automatic feed to the stove. Thibodeau’s wife, Louanne, noted with the wood pellet stove, “It’s a lot cleaner in the house than a wood stove.” Thibodeau said news about his supply of wood pellets sold here has spread by word of mouth. He began by letting the guys in NewPage know about the venture. He said he’s “just feeling the waters on this right now.”
I hope I didn’t break any copyright laws, but when I attempted to link to it, I got everything they had posted for the last 30 days!
pb
Heh, copyright laws aren’t that much of an issue here, as long as you attribute, which you did. That’s the important thing. As I tell my students, it’s crucial to make it crystal clear to the reader what are your words and what are the words of other people. And that, you did!
I’m not Bob Vila, but I play him on TV, so I can use his words freely as my on. LOL! Just a joke. Can anyone identify the commercial to which I reference? It was a classic, and led to the “but I play one on TV” quote. Bonus: What famous really bad singer composed the McDonald’s “you deserve a break today” jingle? Hell, I might as well start doing AAF’s food quizzes. LOL! Warmest regards, Doc.
Barry Manalo (sp?)