Canning

Have you ever canned anything?
I've canned for years and I really enjoy the whole process. From start to finish. You don't need a lot of equipment. But I've found a few things helpful. It's always best to read as much as you can about preserving because there really is a 'right way' and a 'wrong way' to do this and the wrong way can be very problematic. It's great if you have a friend that has already done this. Canning with a friend is fun, helps with all the chopping and stirring and such.

You're gonna first need your product. Your fruit for whatever it is you're going to do. I recommend that you start with a fruit jam, jelly or preserve. Tomatoes are a good choice as well. What ever it is you're going to need a lot of it. It's just too much work for 1 batch. And think about that. Do you want to spend 2 bucks a pound for peaches to make peach jam when you can buy a jar of jam for 2 bucks. Why? It's a great way to preserve fruit from your tree or your neighbors tree. By the way, you want ripe but not over ripe fruit. You don't want to wait till they're too soft and almost ready to pitch. You'll have trouble getting your jell to jell.

You don't want to start with something like veggies. Corn, green beans or other low acid food. The reason is because of their low acid content you're going to need to pressure cook it. I've done it, I hate it and with green beans 2 for 99 cents at the 99 cent store, who wants to go to all the trouble? Not moi. So if you have bounty from the garden that you wish to deal with think about turning it into a jam, pickle or relish.

A few of my favorite things.

A jar funnel, a lid catcher and jar tongs.

The funnel is useful when filling jars. Especially the narrow regular mouth jars. Gives you a wider opening for pouring and packing. The lid catcher is great for fishing lids and rings out of the hot water. It's got a little magnet to catch the lid. And jar tongs. I don't think jar tongs are an option. You gotta have a way of moving hot heavy glass jars. I've done it without the tongs and really, you want to get the tongs. Besides, all of these things came in a pack at Walmart for under 10 bucks I think.

Another great item is a jar rack for water processing. It's a metal rack that into a large soup pot and keeps the glass jars from clanking around while being processed.

You're gonna need some large pots. Soup pots. I forget how many quarts these are. I get the largest pot I have and fill it up with water. That's it. Just water. No salt or oil or, well, you get it. You're going to be boiling a pot of water. Lots of it.

A timer is handy. I use the one on my microwave.

Some large handled spoons. Metal, wood, plastic. I don't know that it matters but I use a flat wood scraper type spoon. It has a large surface to stir the bottom. I worry about scorching.

You're also going to need your jars. Many options to choose from. Pint, 1/2 pint, quart, wide mouth, regular mouth, Mason, Ball, Golden Harvest. I don't like anything larger than 1/2 pint which is 8 ounces, for jam/jelly. I don't use it up that fast anymore. If you're giving it away, think about how much product + sugar you'll need to have and how many batches you'll need to make.

If you're buying them new you shouldn't have much trouble. They'll come with new lids and rings, sometimes pretty labels. If you're like me you will have inherited canning jars or picked them up from garage sales and such. Check these over carefully. You DO NOT want any nicks or imperfections in the glass. You can reuse the rings but you will need new lids. There's a rubber seal that can only be used one time for a proper seal. I mark used ones and use them if I'm storing something in the fridge. You don't want to can with it. It wont seal, you'll be unhappy, and they are not that expensive to buy. I find them at my local grocery.

Pectin. I recommend that you find a jam/jelly recipe that calls for pectin. This is the stuff that puts the jell in your jelly. You can make jam/jelly without commercial pectin and many people swear this is the only way for good reasons. I like using pectin and have great success with it. Someday I'll try it without commercial pectin. I just haven't. There's 2 kinds of pectin, dry powder and liquid. I've used both and I'm not fond of the liquid. It comes 2 pouches to a box. I just don't like it. No real reason either. The name brand of pectin that I use is MCP. My mother used MCP, she told me to always use MCP and I always have. It's a few cents more. I'm sure the other brands are just fine. When you go to all the work and trouble to can you want to stick with what works.

Walmart and my local grocery sell pectin, lids, rings and jars all in the same isle. You shouldn't have any trouble finding them. Wally world has a lot of the gadgets so you'll want to check that out.

Have everything you need before you start. Go over your recipe several times and make sure you have everything you need. Read a few good canning sites before you start.

I've carefully chopped my bells and habs. You put them in a pot with the vinegar and pectin. You're gonna bring this to a boil. Once it comes to a boil that can't be stirred down you're gonna dump all the sugar in at once.
Isn't that pretty? Once it comes back to a boil that can't be stirred down you're going to boil it for one minute. Set the timer, it's just one minute.

Sometimes foam appears on the surface of the jam. You can/should skim it right away. It doesn't hurt anything that I'm aware of. If you put a dab of butter in the jam when you see it foam it will keep the foaming down if not get rid of it totally.

I then pour it through a strainerInto a pyrex measureing cup. Any heat proof glass will do, metal bowl, whatever.

Now you don't have to strain it. I happen to like the clear jell. I toss the stuff I've strained out. If you're clever you could find something to do with this. It's hot as blazes so I can't just pour this over ice cream or anything. And there's only 2 of us in the house that can handle this heat.I keep 2 saucepans handy. Pour some hot water into both of them. Place your glass jars in one pan (you'll have already cleaned them in dishwasher or hot soapy water, even if they're new) This is going to heat up your jars and sanitize them. Some people boil their jars and I have, but I think this is fine.

Place your rings and lids in the other saucepan of hot water. Again, you could boil them and I have. But I think this is fine.

I then poured the jam into the little glass jars. This beauties are 4 ounces. With jars this small the funnel was useless. You also want to leave some headroom, 1/4 to 1/2 inch I think. Carefully wipe any product from the rim of the jar with a damp towel. Continually check for nicks and cracks. You will be boiling these jars and they can break apart in the process pot. (And that is a wicked mess, let me tell you!)The lid getter.
Once you've filled your jars, wiped the goo from the rim, then you're ready to place the lid on. Fish one out, check the rubber seal. See it? That brown ring? Check that to make sure it looks good. If it's scratched off or bubbled or something, don't use it. I've never seen that yet. You also wont know by looking at it if it's been used before, so make sure you buy new ones. Gently wipe the rubber ring with moist towel (I dip it in the hot water, be careful) You want to make sure there is nothing on that ring that is going to interfere with the sealing process. You are then going to fish out a ring and lightly screw it on. You don't need to crank that puppy tight, you don't. You don't want to. I forget why, just don't.

You are then going to place these jars into your process pot. (have some hot water in there to steady the incoming jars) This is the pot that has the rack in it. You don't need a rack but it is helpful. I put the jars in (use your jar tongs because these jars are hot) and pour the hot water in over the jars. This part can be tricky because you don't want to splash. I use a measuring cup to make this hot water transfer more manageable. The water needs to be 1/2 inches above the jar lid.

Process the jars for the time indicated in the recipe. (timer time!)

When time is up you are going to carefully remove the jars and place them in a draft free place. I put them on a towel and place a towel over them to keep the heat even.
Liquid sunshine!



There you have it!

Habanero Jelly

PS: If you do freezer jam you don't need to water process. You can also skip this if you keep jars in the fridge. But if you plan to seal the jars and keep them in your pantry, you'll need the whole water process, process. Yeah?