Canning is such a joyful experience. The canning pot on the stove, the pot with the lids and rims steaming and the jars in a pan with lots of soap and hot water to rinse! One can pick and choose the ingredients for a recipe or just throw things together and see what happens. I’ve been the “look at a recipe and change somewhat to suit my taste” kinda of a person. It has worked out well for me. The best ingredients and the most sterile jars and lids and pots make for good canning.
Since there are two of us in this household, I really like to can a few quarts, some pints, more half pints and 1/2 cups are perfect to give away. It just makes sense that I can use a little and give a little and the rest is used throughout the season.
Things I have canned this year: bread & butter pickles, garlic/dill pickles, cucumber relish, strawberry freezer jam, peach/blueberry/basil/rosemary freezer jam, apricot/basil freezer jam, peaches, apple chutney, drchelo’s Mother’s mango-apple chutney, poached apples and pears in gingered syrup.
Looking at this list tells me I want to can more food along with the condiments. I think soups and stews, maybe carrots and green beans could fill up the pantry with goodies to just pull out on a cold winter night or a harried day for a good lunch or dinner. (My take on tomato sauces: I like buying the 28 oz cans of whole tomatoes in bulk and using them fresh for sauces, tomato paste and using the tomatoes in various dishes. The canned whole tomatoes from Trader Joe’s and Muir Glenn are exceptional. I usually have at least five to ten cans in the pantry at one time.) Here’s my tomato paste: Just take a 28oz can of plum tomatos with juice and put it in a sauce pan over very low heat for awhile and smush the tomatoes with a potato masher and cooked low until it looked like tomato paste. Freeze in an ice cube tray and pop into a freezer bag and you will have 1 tablespoon of goodness at a time to drop in a dish!
Here are two really neat links to canning how to’s. The first one http://www.paulnoll.com/Oregon/Canning/index.html is a couple that has been canning forever and travels all over the world. The second one http://portlandpreserve.com/ is a modern guide to preserving and backyard economy. Here’s a link to the Ball Blue Book http://www.freshpreserving.com/pages/home/1.php .
If you really want to can, start with a water bath canner and kit. You can figure out how to improvise a quart water bath canner to accept pints and half pints. Getting into low acidic foods means a pressure canner. I got one at an antique/junk store and just had to replace the rubber seal. I see them going on ebay for $225 now. Look on craigslist also for canners and jars. They do sometimes come up.
I hope this helps someone out there to have food all year round. We all have to stick together, you know!
14 Comments
Giving away canned goods is such a great idea. Me, I’d start by giving home caznned goods to some of the kids at my college. Seriously.
I’m not a canner, but I am back to my old tricks of seeing how many days in a row I can go without spending any money. I remember several years ago, I was on Agonist (run by a fellow named Sean-Paul who’s also some kind of financial dude – shoot, I should be reading him now!), and I made a comment that i thought the best way to make money was to refuse to spend any money – and he said that’s absolutely right.
But frugality has little to do with the art of your post. Except it does because the simplest, least expensive foods can become absolutely dynamite with just the right condiments. My current favorites, in addition to the wonderful salsa I’ve been getting are chipotles in adobe sauce. I’ve been using them instead of salt to spice everything from my morning eggs to the nice baker I just had for dinner.
Adobo, not adobe. Adobo! Which i have simply *got* to learn how to make myself because I’m addicted to it. Using it as much as I use green Tabasco right now.
We had a craving for real Mexican food this month and last night I made some pinto beans, mexican rice and King Ranch Chicken. We discovered the local grocery that has a lot of food products for Mexican cuisine. Lovely place. The white corn tortillas are great. We can use them for tortillas, enchiladas, chips, nachos (so good), and migas. Yum!
What are you trying to learn, adobo spice or adobo sauce? I used adobo chile spice for the chicken.
Adobo sauce. I’ve been browsing recipes, and it doesn’t look like it would be hard at all to make.
I can’t believe I’m only now getting addicted to it.
What are migas?
Oh, migas are toasted tortilla chips with scrambled eggs, black beans, mexican cheese and lovely salsa over them. Adding jalapenos and salsa to taste. Lots of cumin and garlic and onions and chipolte are involved, too! Steamy white corn tortillas, sour creme, guacamole and pico de gallo on the side, too.
Oh man! That sounds wonderful!
“Migas” are eggs scrambled with chorizo, tomato, chilis, and other good stuff, and sometimes migas can be stretched by adding strips of tortillas, or better yet, use the tortillas to make a migas taco!
Adobo sauce is a wonderful sauce for pork, beef, chicken, enchiladas – whatever you want to make taste smoky and hearty and yummy. Careful in looking at adobo recipes – be sure that you use one in which the dried chilis are soaked before frying, not after, otherwise it’s just not the same.
ooo, thank you.
Looks like it’s fixing to become a staple around here. It’s yummy!
Uh, I did think that frugality had everything to do with my post. That is what canning is all about.
I know. I’m spaced out. Good spaced out, not bad!
Besides, I think the post is very art-like.
Thanks! It was a little seed and grew and grew into the big post you are reading now!
I love talking about food and just read a great article about the attitudes about some British in more rural areas that are going back to the grandparents model of living with Victory gardens and preserving and jumpers (sweaters) and gloves for Christmas.
Maybe all us humans could benefit from being more pragmatic in our gift giving and our lives. Fun is good, but the dance once a month was special, going out to a bar every night is not.
I think the way we’ve been living is so, so abnormal. Our parents (at least, mine) and g-parents and g-g-parents were really onto something …
I love the feeling of moderation, which is what frugality is about ultimately. Or at least, i think it is.
Your little seed grew into a lovely post – I’ll *never* be a canner, but I love reading the names of the foods you can and your descriptions.
I find that once I start canning, it’s difficult to stop! When I get that sterilizing pot all fired up and simmering away, I ended up running to the store to get more sugar, more Ball jars and lids, and then rush (like our biscuit) out to the garden to see if there are any peppers left! One year, I made about eight gallons of pepper jelly and shipped at least twenty pounds of said jelly along with pear preserves and strawberry preserves to my brother in Oregon.
I also like the way canned things look on my baker’s rack with the sun shining through/on them. They’re just pretty to look at as well as tasty.
I like your expanded post, Scotia.
Thanks, drchelo!
I remember canning some jalapeno jelly with my own serranos for the first time. I was sooooo proud!
I also love the way light shines thru the jars.
Hugs to you, sweetie!
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