Fall Canning

A few months ago I did a canning wrap up post featuring all of my summer canning adventures. Today I'm updating you with the fall canning adventures! The summer canning adventures highlighted peaches, berries, and tomatoes. I thought my canning would slow down after the summer ended because I assumed most of what I wanted to can would be from summer produce. Well I couldn't have been more wrong! Much to Patrick's amazement I just kept canning. Since we had such a warm fall there was still lots of produce coming in (so in some ways these canning adventures could be classified as summer) but I was canning some classic fall produce like apples and beets. The beets were one of the last things I canned and haven't been shared on the blog yet. The pickled beets recipe is at the end of this post. Enjoy this roundup of fall canning adventures!

But first I wanted to share how cute these were as Christmas gifts!

I cut out squares of holiday fabric and placed them under the band. Then I did a combination of tags. For one I tied ribbon around the band and included a "Merry Christmas, The Eibls" tag and then for the other I slipped a circular "Merry Christmas, The Eibls" tag over the fabric and screwed under the band so it was visible from the top. Loved how they turned out! And now on to the roundup:

APPLES
~24 pints of Applesauce | 5 half pints of Maple apple jam | ~12 half pints of Apple butter

GREEN BEANS

8 pints of Dilly Beans

GREEN TOMATOES

7 pints of Piccalilli

BEETS

10 pints of Pickled Beets

Pickled Beets from Ball Blue Book Guide to Preserving

   Yield 6 pints or 3 quarts

Ingredients

3 quarts beets (about 24 small)

2 cups sugar

2 sticks cinnamon

1 tbsp whole allspice

1 1/2 tsp salt

3 1/2 cups vinegar

1 1/2 cups water

Directions

   Wash beets; drain. Cook beets; peel. Combine all ingredients except beets in a large saucepot. Bring mixture to a boil; reduce heat. Simmer 15 minutes. Remove cinnamon sticks. Pack beets into jars, leaving 1/2-inch headspace. Ladle hot liquid over beets, leaving 1/2-inch headspace. Remove air bubbles. Adjust two-piece caps. Process pints and quarts 30 minutes in a boiling-water canner.

Apple Butter and apple maple jam

You've made it through the canning blitz week! There were dilly beans and applesauce and piccalilli. And now there are more apples!

What's a gal to do with a bushel of apples besides make applesauce? Resort to other means and methods of course (err... recipes!). After making two batches of applesauce I set off to make something else with the rest of my apples. I did quite a bit of back and forth through some recipe books and I decided to make apple butter and an apple-maple jam. I made two batches of apple butter because it was pretty simple even if it was time consuming. It became an all day affair, really. The apple-maple jam was a bit more advanced because I had to get it to a gelling point which was not only time consuming but required a bit of judgment.

I think I preferred making the apple butter because I figured out I could let it simmer in a crockpot all day - I would make the apple puree in the morning, let it simmer in the crockpot until after dinner, and then can it before bed. Like I said, all day affair!

Apple butter from the Ball Blue Book Guide to Preserving (2012)
yield 3 pints
Ingredients
4 pounds apples (about 16 medium)
4 cups sugar
2 tsp cinnamon I substituted an apple pie spice blend for the cinnamon and cloves
1/4 tsp cloves
Directions
   To prepare pulp: Wash apples. Core, peel and quarter apples. Combine apples and 2 cups water in a large saucepot. Simmer until apples are soft. Puree using a food processor or food mill, being careful not to liquefy. Measure 2 quarts apple pulp.
   To make butter: Combine apple pulp, sugar and spices in a large saucepot. Cook slowly until thick enough to round up on a spoon. As mixture thickens, stir frequently to prevent sticking. Ladle hot butter into hot jars, leaving 1/4-inch headspace. Remove air bubbles. Adjust two-piece caps. Process 10 minutes in boiling water canner.
   Note: If butter becomes too thick, add water or apple juice for desired consistency.

Two for one day! Here's the apple-maple jam recipe too.

Apple maple jam from the Ball Blue Book Guide to Preserving (2012)
yield about 8 half pints
Ingredients
3 quarts chopped, peeled, cored apples (about 6 pounds)
6 cups sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp allspice
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp cloves
1 cup maple syrup

Directions
   Combine all ingredients in a large saucepot. Bring slowly to a boil. Cook rapidly to gelling point. As mixture thickens, stir frequently to prevent sticking. Remove from heat. Skim foam if necessary. Ladle hot jam into hot jars, leaving 1/4-inch headspace. Adjust two-piece caps. Process 10 minutes in a boiling water canner.

And with that the canning blitz week concludes.

Piccalilli

And here we are with Day 3 of the Canning Blitz! We've shared dilly beans and applesauce; today is a green tomato relish that goes by the name of piccalilli.

Piccalilli came about much the same way dilly beans did. But this time it's not because I really like the name! Although I do really like asking Patrick if he'd like some piccalilli as a snack. The reason the dilly beans were actually made was because my dad passed off four pounds of green beans to me. The main component of piccalilli are green tomatoes.

We experienced our first brief frost about a month ago. My dad called the weekend before the frost and said "hey, I've got all these tomatoes that need to come off the vine before the frost comes. Want some?" Patrick can attest to this but when Dad calls and says, "I have some [insert any vegetable], do you want some?" I never turn it down. The other interesting tidbit is I never really quite know what I'm getting myself into when I accept. For instance after this trip down to his farm I came back with a big box of ripe tomatoes, a big box of butterbeans, and he just offhandedly offered a bucket of green tomatoes. So the butterbeans and green tomatoes weren't even planned for! I shelled and flash froze all the butterbeans in 2 quarts bag. The ripe tomatoes were peeled, cored, and then stewed down before I canned them in quart jars as crushed tomatoes. After all of this I was then able to turn my attention to the green tomatoes. I browsed through my canning resources and thought this piccalilli recipe would be just the thing to do with all of them!

After I decided to make it I thought I should know what it is. So I did a bit of research and came up with this: piccalilli is a regional relish of chopped vegetables and has British origins. Wikipedia told me that it was "an English interpretation of Indian pickles, a relish of chopped pickled vegetables and spices; regional recipes vary considerably." And the more I researched the more I saw that regional recipes vary considerably couldn't be more true! It seemed that British piccalilli has quite a bit of mustard in it and that is it's defining characteristic. The Wikipedia page has an expanded section on American piccalilli. It is regionally known in the Northeast, Midwest, and the South. So you read more than you ever wanted to know about piccalilli at the Wikipedia page and googling because I think I've said enough!

Piccalilli [Green Tomato Relish] from the Ball Blue Book Guide to Preserving (2012)
   Yield 7 pints
Ingredients
4 quarts chopped, cored, green tomatoes (about 32 medium)
2 quarts chopped cabbage (about 1 large head)
2 cups chopped sweet green peppers (about 4 small)
1 cup chopped onion (about 1 medium)
1/2 cup Ball Salt
1 1/2 cups brown sugar
2 tbsp mustard seed
1 tbsp celery seed
1 tbsp prepared horseradish
4 1/2 cup vinegar
optional - Ball Pickle Crisp

Directions
   Combine vegetables in a large bowl. Sprinkle salt over vegetables and mix thoroughly; let stand 3 to 4 hours. I let sit overnight. Drain; rinse and drain thoroughly. Combine sugar, spices, horseradish and vinegar in a large saucepot. Simmer 15 minutes. Add vegetables and bring to a boil.

   Pack hot relish into hot jars, leaving 1/2-inch headspace. Add Pickle Crisp to each jar, if desired. Remove air bubbles. Adjust two-piece caps. Process 10 minutes in a boiling water canner.

Patrick and I have been enjoying the piccalilli as a snack with cream cheese and crackers. On this particular day we added some nuts, grapes, and dilly beans. I think it'd be a great addition to summer cookouts!

Almost done with the canning blitz! Come back tomorrow for the last of the canning blitz recipes.

Applesauce

Welcome to Day 2 of the canning blitz! Did you read about dilly beans yesterday??

Today is all about apples! I decided to buy a bushel of apples. Do you know how much a bushel of apples is? It's forty pounds. Forty pounds of apples. When Patrick came home and saw forty pounds of apples acquired by his wife he slowly backed away from the kitchen and turned to run in the opposite direction! No worries; I enjoyed making my way through a bushel of apples!

I canned two batches of applesauce, two batches of apple butter, and tried my hand at an apple-maple jam. There was also an apple crisp! Today we're sharing the applesauce recipe on the blog. The apple butter and apple-maple jam will make an appearance at the end of the week. Keep in mind that these canning recipes are developed for canning and preservation but there's no rule that they have to be canned. You can make the recipes and keep them in your refrigerator and use immediately.

Applesauce from the Ball Blue Book Guide to Preserving (2012)

Ingredients
2 1/2 to 3 1/2 pounds apples per quart
water
sugar (optional)

Directions
Wash apples; drain. Core, peel, and quarter apples.

Cook apples until soft in a large covered saucepot with just enough water to prevent sticking.

Puree using a food processor or food mill. Return apple pulp to saucepot. Add 1/4 cup sugar per pound of apples or to taste, if desired. Bring applesauce to a boil, stirring to prevent sticking. Maintain temperature at a boil while filling jars. Ladle hot sauce into hot jars, leaving 1/2-inch headspace. Remove air bubbles. Adjust two-piece caps. Process pints and quarts 20 minutes in a boiling-water canner.

Variation: Spiced applesauce can be made by adding ground spices, such as cinnamon, nutmeg, or allspice, to the sauce during the last 5 minutes of cooking. I also cooked the apples with two cinnamon sticks and removed before pureeing. 
   For a chunky sauce, coarsely crush half of the cooked apples; process remaining apples through a food processor or food mill. Combine crushed and sauced apple mixtures; continue as directed above. I made two batches. The first was chunkier and I did not use the food processor. For the second batch I used the food processor and greatly preferred this consistency for the applesauce. 

Dilly Beans

Welcome to the canning blitz week! This week I'll be sharing all the recipes that I've canned recently. Today it's dilly beans. Then there a few apple recipes and something with green tomatoes - check back to see what it is!

Do you know what a dilly bean is? It's quite simply a pickled green bean. If I'm being honest I'll have to admit that I wanted to make pickled green beans solely because "dilly bean" is incredibly fun to say. "Hey, what did you do today?" "I made dilly beans!" See... so fun! (And Patrick thought I was crazy when he heard that.) Fun name aside, imagine our surprise when these dilly beans turned out to be awesome. I'm not a huge dill fan so I wasn't 100% sure how much we'd like them as I'd never actually had dilly beans before.

Now you're probably thinking I went and spent money on produce to make something I wasn't even sure I'd like. But I wouldn't do that! My dad called to say he had some green beans fresh from the garden for me. Little did I know that it was four pounds of green beans! And four pounds of green beans is, ironically enough, perfect for a double batch of dilly beans. So off I set to can eight pints of dilly beans.

Four pounds of green beans

Dilly Beans from the Ball Blue Book Guide to Preserving (2012)
   Makes about 4 pints or 2 quarts
Ingredients
2 lbs green beans
1/2 cup Ball pickling salt
2 1/2 cups vinegar
2 1/2 cups water
1 tsp cayenne pepper, divided
4 cloves garlic
4 heads dill or 4 teaspoons dill seed
Pickle crips, optional

Directions
   Trim ends off green beans. Combine salt, vinegar and water in a large saucepot. Bring to a boil. Pack beans lengthwise into hot jars, leaving 1/2-inch headspace. For pints: add 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper, 1 clove garlic, and 1 head dill (or 1 teaspoon dill seed). For quarts: add 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper, 2 cloves garlic, and 2 heads dill (or 2 teaspoons dill seed). Add Pickle Crisp to each jar, if desired.

   Ladle hot liquid over beans, leaving 1/2-inch headspace. Remove air bubbles. Adjust two-piece caps. Process pints and quarts 10 minutes in a boiling water canner.

Let beans stand for at least 2 weeks before tasting to allow the flavor to develop.

A few notes: The cayenne imparts just a bit of spice; it does not provide an overwhelming kick of heat. 
   I used wide mouth canning jars since the green beans were placed into the jars by hand. The wide mouth jar allowed for maximum green bean placement.
   I did not use pickle crisp. I'm not 100% sure what it is. This is a downfall of not growing up and watching someone can. Sure, I can google around and figure out what it is but for something like I prefer a seasoned canner's opinion. I've done a few recipes without the pickle crisp and haven't seemed to need it. Maybe opening the jars after more than a few months might make a difference?
  And finally I used the dill seed instead of a sprig of dill. I desperately wanted fresh dill but only for aesthetics. Dill must be a fragile herb; it was too hot for dill said all the farmers market vendors and there was no fresh dill to be found.

Outtake 1: Dupree helping with the photoshoot.

Canning!

I have a new favorite pastime - it's canning! Canning quickly became one of my new favorite things to do. It's so rewarding to spend time in the kitchen and leave with such a big accomplishment that isn't immediately consumed. So far I have just been water bath canning which is for acidic produce; this means I've been canning tomatoes and fruits. Less acidic produce like vegetables require pressure canning which processes the jars at a higher temperature than water bath canning. Water bath canning is basically a large pot; the jars must be fully submerged in water in the water bath canner.

Over the summer I visited my dad at his house and he pulled out a water bath canner and pressure canner from his barn that had been in the family. Now with renewed interest in canning and the official canning pots I set off on my canning adventure!

It all started with this jar of tomatoes:

At the Lee County Cooperative Extension Center I took two canning classes - 1) an introduction to canning and 2) canning tomatoes. For the canning tomatoes class everyone brought in tomatoes and they were processed from start to finish during the class. The picture above is the quart of tomatoes that I canned that night. This hands-on class answered all of the questions that I had after doing lots of googling and Internet research. Sometimes you just need to see something to understand how to do it!

Then over the next month or two this happened...

So much fun! Unfortunately I was really getting into canning at the end of bountiful summer production. I can't wait for next summer! I also can't wait for some fall canning. Last week I canned 14 pints of applesauce and 8 pints of dilly beans - they'll be on the blog soon! I think I'll feature a fall canning post because I also want to some pickled beets. Here's a breakdown of the jars and links to the recipes, most of which have already been featured on the blog. Zesty Salsa is a new feature and the recipe is below!

5 half pints of
Peach Rum Sauce

10 half pints of

Blueberry Spice Jam

4 pints of
Seasoned Tomato Sauce

13 half pints of
Zesty Salsa

Zesty Salsa from Ball Fresh Preserving

Ingredients

   For Half Recipe (full recipe can be found at the hyperlinked title)

5 cups chopped cored peeled tomatoes (about 13 medium)

2-1/2 cups chopped seeded green bell peppers (about 2 large)

2-1/2 cups chopped onions (about 3 to 4 medium)

1-1/4 cups chopped seeded chili peppers, such as hot banana, Hungarian wax, serrano or jalapeño (about 7 medium) I used jalapeno

3/4 cup cider vinegar

1 to 2 cloves garlic, finely chopped

1 Tbsp finely chopped cilantro

1-1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp hot pepper sauce, optional I did not use this

3 Ball® (16 oz) pint or 6 (8 oz) half pint glass preserving jars with lids and bands

   I processed in half pint jars

Directions

   Prepare boiling water canner. Heat jars in simmering water until ready for use. Do not boil.  Wash lids in warm soapy water and set bands aside.

   Combine tomatoes, green peppers, onions, chili peppers, vinegar, garlic, cilantro, salt and hot pepper sauce, if using, in a large stainless steel saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat, stirring constantly. Reduce heat and boil gently, stirring frequently, until slightly thickened, about 10 minutes.

   Ladle hot salsa into hot jars, leaving 1/2 inch headspace. Remove air bubbles and adjust headspace, if necessary, by adding hot salsa. Wipe rim. Center lid on jar. Apply band until fit is fingertip tight.

   Process both pint and half pint jars in a boiling water canner for 15 minutes, adjusting for altitude. Remove jars and cool. Check lids for seal after 24 hours. Lid should not flex up and down when center is pressed.

It's Always Caturday

Naps, naps, and more naps

Peach Rum Sauce

Here today with another canning recipe! While I was browsing the Ball Fresh Preserving website for recipes this Peach Rum Sauce immediately caught my eye. I don't think I even read through the recipe before deciding to make it. Who wouldn't want a Peach Rum Sauce?! The recipe calls for the sauce to be processed in half pint jars which I think is the perfect amount. We were able to use it up in about three desserts - one with ice cream, another with pound cake, and then finally a mini cheesecake [pictured below]. The sauce is definitely sweet so it's a good thing to splurge on.

Peach Rum Sauce from Ball Recipes

Ingredients

6 cups chopped pitted peeled peaches, treated to prevent browning and drained

2 cups lightly packed brown sugar

2 cups granulated sugar

3/4 cup rum

1 tsp grated lemon zest

7 half pint glass preserving jars with lids and bands 

Directions

   Prepare boiling water canner. Heat jars in simmering water until ready for use. Do not boil.  Wash lids in warm soapy water and set bands aside.

   Combine peaches, brown sugar, granulated sugar, rum and lemon zest in a large stainless steel saucepan. Bring to a boil over high heat, stirring constantly, until sugar dissolves. Reduce heat and boil gently, stirring occasionally, until thickened, about 20 minutes.

   Ladle hot sauce into hot jars leaving 1/4 inch headspace. Remove air bubbles and re-measure headspace. If needed, add more sauce to meet recommended headspace. Wipe rim. Center lid on jar. Apply band and adjust until fit is fingertip tight.

   Process filled jars in a boiling water canner for 10 minutes, adjusting for altitude. Remove jars and cool. Check lids for seal after 24 hours. Lid should not flex up and down when center is pressed.

Seasoned tomato sauce

Sharing another canning adventure today! This time it's a seasoned tomato sauce. I had already loaded up the freezer with peeled, deseeded, and chopped raw tomatoes and then I thought a seasoned tomato sauce would be a nice complement to all those frozen tomatoes. This recipe is from the Ball Fresh Preserving website and I was very happy with it! It does take a lot of work though - straining out all the seeds and skins is no easy task.

I canned four pints of this at the beginning of August. Before we knew it we were opening up a jar for a quick pasta dish and making pasta with vodka sauce. It was great and worth the effort!

Basil-garlic tomato sauce [half recipe] from Ball

Ingredients for Half Recipe

10 lb tomatoes (about 30 medium)

1/2 cup chopped onion (about 1/2 large)

4 cloves garlic, minced

1-1/2 tsp olive oil

2 Tbsp finely minced fresh basil

1 Tbsp bottled lemon juice per hot jar

3 (16 oz) pint glass preserving jars with lids and bands

Directions

   Prepare boiling water canner. Heat jars and lids in simmering water until ready for use. Do not boil. Set bands aside.

   Wash tomatoes; drain. Remove core and blossom ends. Cut into quarters. Set aside.

   Saute onion and garlic in olive oil until transparent. Add tomatoes. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.

   Puree tomato mixture in a food processor or blender, working in batches. Strain puree to remove seeds and peel.

   Combine tomato puree and basil in large saucepot. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer until volume is reduced by half, stirring to prevent sticking.

   Add 1 Tbsp bottled lemon juice to each hot jar. Ladle hot sauce into hot jars leaving 1/2 inch headspace. Remove air bubbles. Wipe rim. Center hot lid on jar. Apply band and adjust until fit is fingertip tight.

   Process filled jars in a boiling water canner for 35 minutes, adjusting for altitude. Remove jars and cool. Check for seal after 24 hours. Lids should not flex up and down when center is pressed.

It's Always Caturday

They love getting on the refrigerator!

Blueberry Spice Jam

Today I'm sharing my very first experiment for canning in my kitchen! I quickly fell in love with canning and can't wait to try out more recipes. I'm definitely looking forward to some apple picking in the fall.

Despite being from the South I didn't grow up watching my mother or grandmothers can which means I have been blazing my own learn-how-to-can trail over here. My dad's mom was a canner but I imagine had just stopped canning by the time I was old enough to remember things. Fortunately my dad was able to pass along some canning equipment and he gave those to me this spring which jump started my inquiries into learning how to can. Canning isn't something to be taken lightly - if something isn't canned correctly then bacteria could develop in your food and it could be deadly. If you have any interest in learning to can I highly recommend finding a canning class either through your local extension office or some other avenue.

With this mind I knew that I wanted to learn from the pros. So I looked around for some canning classes sponsored through the NC Cooperative Extension program. They have offices in all 100 counties in the state and their mission is to provide educational programming in five key areas: sustaining agriculture and forestry, protecting the environment, maintaining viable communities, developing responsible youth, and developing strong, healthy and safe families. It seems like canning is making a comeback so I was surprised to find only a handful of county extension offices offering canning classes. That didn't stop me from driving out to Lee County for two of their canning classes led by their extension director, Susan Condlin. She was a wealth of information and exactly what I was looking for! I learned quite a bit by attending these classes; learned enough that I felt I could tackle some canning!

For my first canning experiment here I still thought it would be a good idea to call over a good friend who had canning experience. This meant she could call me out if I was overlooking something and look over my shoulder to make sure everything was going just the way it should.

This Blueberry-spice Jam is from the USDA Complete Guide to Home Canning. And I've included some of the pictures throughout the canning process below.

A very special thank you to one of my mom's friend who gave me all the blueberries! She has blueberry bushes in her backyard and the most tasty blueberries. We're so thankful when she shares with us. Patrick and I ventured out into the blueberry world and planted 3 bushes in our side yard last spring so hopefully one day we can make this jam from our very own blueberries!

Preparing tomatoes

Is your farmers market overflowing with tomatoes?! The state farmers market in Raleigh certainly has plenty of beautiful red, ripe tomatoes. A few weeks ago I came home with a 10lb box of canning tomatoes. Today's post details how I prepared the tomatoes for preserving. I ended up freezing these tomatoes instead of canning. They'll be great for us to have on hand in the colder months. And here's the quick visual for preparing tomatoes:

There are so many decisions to make when preserving tomatoes - such as to peel or not to peel, to deseed or leave the seeds, to stew down or leave raw, or to dice up or leave whole. This process that I used here let me peel the tomatoes, remove the seeds, and preserve them raw which is what I decided would be easiest to work with when I went to use the tomatoes out of the freezer. I froze the seedless, peeled chunked tomatoes in quart bags. 

Preparing and freezing tomatoes is a bit time consuming but definitely worth it in the end! Or at least I think so.