Canning success stories and favorite recipes

[matt walker]

I'm an avid canner. I do use multiple methods of preservation, but other than the meat in the freezer, I stock most of my food by canning. I thought I would create a thread about our favorite home canned recipes. I have canned quite a varied array of stuff at this point, and there are a few that stand out that have become staples for me. Here's a couple favorites:

Green Tomatillo Salsa-
I just love this one. I make it as a salsa with vinegar or lemon juice and boiling water bath it, and I also omit the vinegar or LJ and pressure can it to make Green Chile for chile verde and such. I basically use the NCHFP recipe:

http://nchfp.uga.edu/how/can_salsa/toma ... salsa.html

I substitute cilantro for the oregano, and I roast half of the tomatillos along with the peppers. Big Jim is my favorite variety of pepper, and I mix in a few Ancho/Pablanos as well as a couple cayennes for heat. This is a great staple. I use it as normal salsa of course, but it's a great base for all kinds of things. Man, a little of this mixed in a roux for a scalloped dish or mac and cheese type dish is great. Simmer homemade chorizo in there, and add in some beans and serve over rice. Awesome southwest style chili. Chicken marinade, etc. The list goes on and on.

Okay, here's a freestyle one:

Roasted Tomato Basil Sauce-
I use this one as kinda the Italian version of the above recipe. It makes a great base for pasta sauce, it's a wonderful pizza sauce, can be used as tomato basil soup, or a wonderful addition to a casserole or other baked dish.

I use this soup recipe as a starting point, believe it or not:

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ina- ... index.html

I just make it thick, since I'm usually dealing with a whole lot of tomatoes at one time, and pressure can it right after it starts simmering, so most of the cooking happens in the jars. I follow the guidelines at the NCHFP website, and usually err on the side of safety. That means I'm canning pints and half pints for 60 mins. I know that's probably too long, but since it's mixed veggies and stuff, I don't like to take chances. I've been using this recipe and that processing time for 3 years now, and I love the way it tastes, so I'm not inclined to risk shorter times.

[dave brenneman]

Nice one, Matt.

In August, I made a load of jam from last year's damsons - turns out we have a tree out front over where the cars park, so every day I was out there shaking down the ripe ones, gathering them on a sheet... must have made about 10 pints or so, easily a year's worth of jam for me. I just cooked down the plums in a pot, rinsed the pulp with the least amt of water I could and still clean all the pulp from the stones. I saved the rinse water along with the pulp, weighed that, and added half the weight in sugar. Then cooked that down on the stove, and robert is your father's brother, as they say.

I'd use a plate cooled in the freezer to test how set the jam was. just put a dollop on the cold plate, pop it back in the freezer, and then check in a minute to see how firm the jam is. If it's jam-like, turn off the heat, pour into sterilised jars and you're done.

[matt walker]

Well, the season started today. Made a couple quarts of spicy radish pickles, on of my favorite basics. Radish, leeks this time, some previously pickled jalapenos, all cut up into jars. Pour boiling vinegar over 'em, and let 'em seal. Easy as that. I try to get a bit of the jalapeno pickle juice in there and some of the seeds.

I also am trying to make some kraut with baby chinese cabbage. It's kinda lettuce-y, so we'll see how that works. Anyway, good harvest today.

[missusmlaargh]

Nice! Super jealous of all those jars. Got a good pickled green bean recipe? I cussing love those.

I tried canning for the first time this year. I've just done some hot packed tomatoes and some blackberry & honey jam. I'm getting over being scared of poisoning us all, so maybe next year I'll get a little more adventurous.

[missusmlaargh]

Would those last two recipes be doable using a water bath? I have no experience with a pressure cooker (and limited with the water bath method, too). My mom has one she isn't using though, should I just go for it and figure that thing out? Is is safer/more effective using the pressure cooker? With the water bath it seems like only half to three quarters of the jars will seal on the first go around. Is the success rate for sealing higher with one?

edit: looking over the recipe for the green salsa, I am so going to try that this weekend with some of my (many) green tomatoes. Thanks dude!

[matt walker]

Yeah, there's BWB (boiling water bath) versions of most tomato/tomatillo salsa recipes and some sauce recipes as well. That said, you should get a pressure canner. If you read through the stuff on the NCHFP website I posted above it will walk you through all the steps in an easy and safe manner. Home canned carrots, green beans, and stuff like that make awesome staples for the winter. Carrots especially are really good, IMO.

[pa_friendly_guy]

We have been making homemade apple sauce lately. My Father in Law has an orchard near his home around Altoona and he called and asked how many apples we wanted, we took 5 bu. Two for each of the married kids and one for us. We went to Clarion to baby sit the 3 Grandkids last week and made the 2 bu into sauce for them. We freeze it in containers. Used a squeezo to process the cooked apples into sauce. I was turning that crank alot for 2 days, I love the squeezo, it is one of the best tools we own. I think we paid just over $50 for it when we bought it years ago. A very high price at the time I thought. Saw one at the Mother Earth Fair for $225 this weekend. I was shocked, They are solid metal, well made and well designed they last forever and the design has not changed in over 30 years I could not understand why they couldn't produce one cheaper. Then I saw a cheaper one, it looked like the same design but it had alot of plastic parts. I guess I am happy that I have the solid metal one, the plastic tool may work just fine, but lets see which one looks better in 30 years, By the way, I love home made apple sauce, its so much better than what you buy in the store, and its easy to make. just quarter and core the apples, put them in a pot to boil down add maybe 1/2 cup of water so they don't stick. If it looks a little bit runny when it is about ready take the lid off the pot to boil away some moisture. When they look like mush put them through the squeezo or a colander, the skins dont come through the colander just the apple sauce goes through. We add sugar to taste, the apples are sometimes tart, and freeze it. Simple easy, and tasty. Depending on the cost of the apples I can't say that it is cheaper, it is just much better. Had some for supper tonight , it was wonderful. Going down to WVa at some point to help them make their 2 Bu worth, and maybe visit the Grandkids down there a bit,

[dave brenneman]