Canning

[SnowyShiloh]

Does anyone here make their own jams or can anything? I've always wanted to, and finally have! About a month ago, I made strawberry freezer jam for the first time. All you do is wash strawberries and remove their stems, mush them up with a potato masher, add some pectin and sugar, put in jars, and put in the freezer! So easy! And the jam is so good. Bright red and very flavorful. It tastes and looks very fresh. Unfortunately, I gave most of it away already and only have 1 jar left. Then about a week ago, I made my own apple butter. I'd never had homemade apple butter, but it too is delicious! I actually canned it- put it in glass jars and boiled it in a big pot for 10 minutes so it's now shelf stable. Then last night I made refrigerator pickles. As the name implies, they have to be refrigerated, but they already taste amazing. The recipe says to let them sit in the fridge for 10 days before eating them, but I don't think they'll last that long! And finally, this morning I woke up early and made some jelly for the first time. Took the easy way out and just used store bought 100% raspberry grape juice instead of making my own juice. I have 4 jars of it setting up right now, but I put 1 in the fridge and it's all gelled. Had a peanut butter and jelly sandwich for breakfast and it is indeed yummy

Here's a cool website with lots of info about canning and recipes. The guy who runs it is really nice. I want to make watermelon jelly!

http://pickyourown.org/allaboutcanning.htm

So, tell me about your canning experiences!

 

[degrassi]

I do a bit of canning. Last year I made pickles for the first time. I made regular cucumber pickles, pickled carrots, and pickled beets. They all turned out really good. This year I need to make more as I'm a pickle addict and they didn't last very long

I also make applesauce every year as we have 2 apple trees. So we can a LOT of applesauce.

I haven't made any canned jams but I have made freezer jam. Last year I made a bunch of raspberry freezer jam as we bought 2 big flats of raspberries. Super easy and really good!

 

[SnowyShiloh]

Mmmm, raspberry freezer jam! Sadly, not much fruit grows in Fairbanks, but we DO have a raspberry bush! I am definitely making freezer jam or regular jam/jelly when they ripen. I've made applesauce before too but never canned it. As much as I'd like to, it's way more cost efficient to just buy applesauce. I do love homemade applesauce and applesauce is one of those things that I eat just about every day.

Pickled beets and carrots sound good! I'm going to have to try pickled carrots. Just buy a big old bag of organic ones at the store.

 

[BethM]

I made pickles once, several years ago. I didn't plant any cucumbers this year so I probably won't try pickles again this year. (Too bad, husband and I have been eating an entire large jar of Clausen's every week, lately. Love pickles.) I should learn to can tomatoes, as I suspect I planted one too many tomato plants in the garden. I suspect I will be too lazy, though, and just give the extras away. LOL.

 

[hartleybun]

i make plum jam when my tree bears fruit - if not my mother in law always has fruit to spare. she has a largetraditional kitchen garden. this year she has added red onions - i make caramelized red onion chutney.

i pickle eggs - my son loves them if MIL has them to spare then i will pickle cucumbers.

havent heard of apple butter - i make apple sauce tho

 

[SnowyShiloh]

Mmm plum jam! Sounds good! What kind of plums are they? I think you would love apple butter if you like applesauce. Basically, apple butter is applesauce that you add sugar and spices to (cinnamon, allspice, cloves), then cook down until it gets thick. It's quite sweet and wonderful on biscuits (American biscuits, kind of like scones), toast, anything really.

I'm kind of regretting my decision to make raspberry grape jelly since we have a raspberry bush and I want to make raspberry jam too, but oh well! To be honest, the raspberry grape jelly tastes more grapey than anything.

 

[BethM]

I love apple butter! My mom used to make it before she developed an allergy to cinnamon. I haven't had it in many years, but I remember it being more intense in flavor and much smoother than apple sauce, almost creamy in texture. I used to eat it on toast. Yum.

 

[SnowyShiloh]

Beth, your mom should just make it without the cinnamon! I'm sure it would be great without too, even though I'm a cinnamon freak Apple butter is so yummy. I'd only had store bought apple butter until I made my own, but it's so good that I'm going to make my own every year! I used a crock pot recipe so it was easy to make, just peel and chop up a bunch of apples, stick in the crock pot with sugar and spices, cook covered overnight, remove lid and cook on high all day... Made the whole house smell good too!

 

[hartleybun]

SnowyShiloh wrote:

Mmm plum jam! Sounds good! What kind of plums are they? I think you would love apple butter if you like applesauce. Basically, apple butter is applesauce that you add sugar and spices to (cinnamon, allspice, cloves), then cook down until it gets thick. It's quite sweet and wonderful on biscuits (American biscuits, kind of like scones), toast, anything really.
.

my tree is damson, MIL's is victoria. both give a good set for the jam.
the applebutter sounds lovely and i will definitely be making it. i use that mix to make an apple crumble, tho you dont cook down the apples so much.

we also use a lot of blackberries - they grow in profusion in the hedgerows here. ok, now im hungry!

 

[PepnFluff]

The only thing I ever make is feijoa jam when its feijoa season, made 10 jars but now only have 2 left cause I gave it away so easy to do, sterilise jars, then boil fruit then add sugar and re-boil and voila!

 

[degrassi]

Whats a Feijoa? What type of fruit is it?

 

[BethM]

SnowyShiloh wrote:

Beth, your mom should just make it without the cinnamon! I'm sure it would be great without too, even though I'm a cinnamon freak Apple butter is so yummy. I'd only had store bought apple butter until I made my own, but it's so good that I'm going to make my own every year! I used a crock pot recipe so it was easy to make, just peel and chop up a bunch of apples, stick in the crock pot with sugar and spices, cook covered overnight, remove lid and cook on high all day... Made the whole house smell good too!

That's a great idea, Shiloh! I've got a nice crock pot in the garage that hasn't been used in a couple years. I'm totally going to make apple butter!

I'm a cinnamon freak, too!

 

[SnowyShiloh]

Here's a recipe: http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/All-Day-Apple-Butter/Detail.aspx

I used 2 C sugar, no salt, 1 t cinnamon, 1/2 t cloves and 1/2 t allspice. Also I cooked mine more like 8 hours with the lid off and on high so it would be thick and not like applesauce. I used a mixture of Gala, Fuji, Red Delicious and Golden Delicious apples, which are pretty sweet already, but if you use Granny Smith or another tart apple you'll probably need to use more sugar. That being said, I regularly make unsweetened applesauce with Granny Smiths because I love tart, but Paul won't eat it because he thinks it's too sour!

 

[hartleybun]

shiloh - i love that site - a great source of ideas for this baking bunny i will be making the applebutter - it looks so tasy in the picture!!

 

[SnowyShiloh]

Donna, I love Allrecipes too! My username is The Bunny Chef and my avatar is Tallulah

So I made my refrigerator pickles I think 1 week ago exactly? The recipe says to let them sit for 10 days in the fridge before eating them. I ate half of one jar in a couple of days, then managed to forget them for a few days. Uh that jar is now empty. They're so good! The spiciness brought tears to my eyes, but they're good hot, not painful hot. And they're super garlicky. They aren't very dilly even though each jar has a couple big sprigs of dill (the recipe called for dill seed too but the store didn't have any, maybe that's where the dill flavor comes from), but they're really yummy anyway.

 

[PepnFluff]

degrassi wrote:

Whats a Feijoa? What type of fruit is it?

Feijoas are little green fruits, they look a little bit like a tamarillo but not as wide and green instead of red. They are the most delicious fruit in the world. They're not to sweet but refreshing. http://www.jos.co.nz/particularly-kiwi-kiwiana-feijoa.htmi don't think they're widely available in the rest of the world but if you can ever try one do.

 

[SnowyShiloh]

Phoebe, I don't know what a tamarillo is either, but the feijoa sounds yummy!