Make Your Own Jams and Pickles at Home
Keep up the age-old tradition of home canning and pickling to preserve the season's harvest. Our pickling recipes and canning techniques make saving this summer's bounty fun, safe, and rewarding. Check out our complete guide for more tips and recipes.
Choosing the Right Jar
Preserving, or preparing foods to keep without spoiling, has been employed for centuries. One popular method is pickling with refrigeration: Fresh produce is covered with a mix of vinegar, herbs, and spices, then packaged and refrigerated.
Another often-used method is canning, which hermetically seals food in a glass jar for pantry storage for up to a year. Though canning may seem daunting, it can be quite enjoyable, provided proper care is taken.
Each style claims its own merits and specific uses. The USDA recommends using only jars with self-sealing rubber-ringed metal lids and tempered glass for safe canning. Glass-lidded jars with rubber rings work well for short-term refrigerated storage.
What You Need
There are only a few necessities for canning. The USDA recommends using tempered-glass jars free of cracks, nicks, or other defects that have a two-piece vacuum cap consisting of a flat, rubber-lined metal lid and a metal screw band. (Note: The flat metal lid is not reusable.) You will also need a boiling-water canner or a large pot that is at least 2 inches taller than the largest jar you plan on processing and is outfitted with a rack and lid. Use a jar lifter or tongs to safely lower and remove jars. Lastly, you will need a long, thin, nonmetallic skewer to insert into the length of the jar to remove trapped air bubbles. Home canning kits include everything you'll need.
Recipes: Perfect Strawberry Preserves, Reduced-Sugar Strawberry Jam, Champage and Grape Jelly, Red Currant and Habanero Jelly
Vegetable for Pickling
Quality counts! Using the freshest produce yields the freshest-tasting results. Always wash produce thoroughly to remove any microorganisms that may be present and that could contribute to spoilage. And always follow a recipe from a trusted source to the letter-these recipes have been tested to ensure that acid levels safely preserve the contents and that processing times are long enough to create a vacuum seal.
Recipes:Cornichon-Style Pickles, Quick Dill Pickles, Dill-Brined Refrigerator Pickles, Bread-and-Butter Pickles, Pickled Garlic, Shallots, and Pearl Onions
The Process
Your work area, produce, and all equipment must be meticulously clean and free of defects.
Set up the boiling-water canner according to manufacturer's instructions. Any preserve that processes in a boiling-water canner for less than 10 minutes will require that jars be sterilized-submerge them in boiling water for 10 minutes and keep in hot water until ready to fill. Lids should not be sterilized but they must be hot: Submerge them in simmering water for 10 minutes.
Reduce the risk of bacterial growth by inserting the long skewer into filled jars to remove air bubbles and wiping each rim dry.
Firmly secure lids and process all jars in the canner for the time specified. Test to see if jars have sealed properly by pressing on the center of the lid, which should be slightly depressed. Any jar that isn't sealed should be stored in the refrigerator and contents should be eaten in 2 to 3 days.
Recipe: Parsley-Walnut Pesto, Basil Pesto, Sweet-Corn Relish
Important Steps:
Learn It:
When using the most up-to-date information, canning is safe and satisfying. The USDA Guide to Home Canning and the Ball Blue Book are two easy-to-follow resources for canning how-to.
Choose It:Fruit and vegetables just at their peak of ripeness are best for canning. Produce that is overripe, bruised, or spoiling won't taste as good and could promote dangerous bacterial growth.
Plan It:Rather than attempting to preserve huge quantities all at once, try to keep canning projects manageable and safe by packing only about eight jars of food per each canning session.
Store It:Thoroughly rinse and dry all sealed jars before placing in the pantry. Any questionable seals and non-USDA-recommended jars should be reserved only for short-term refrigerator storage.
Monitor It: Label jars to help ensure food safety. Include the food type and canning and expiration dates. Examine closely and discard jars with loosened seals or bubbles--which can indicate the presence of harmful bacteria.
Have you tried canning or pickling in your home? What are your favorite foods to preserve?
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Reprinted with permission of Hearst Communications, Inc.
