What are you canning now?

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I'll bring my canning book tomorrow and post recipe for you.

Sandee

Thanks, Sandee!

Kimnkell, we tasted the canned citrus while preparing dinner last night. Very good! And it only cost about 50¢ (in fruit) to fill a pint jar. In our grocery stores any comparable citrus (like Delmonte Sunfresh brand) runs $2.59 - 2.99. I'm going to get more fruit from our market friend this Sat and make a canner load or two.

Also I used a very light syrup - 1 part sugar to 4 parts water. The fruit tastes like fresh peeled citrus, not like sugary syrup. And it held its texture well.

Here's a pic of my test jar - pink grapefruit, oranges, pineapple:



edit: fix image link

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That makes my mouth water!!!! ...Looks great.

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WOW! that citrus looks great. Wish I knew someone with citrus trees to do some myself. Here is the recipe for the cocktail onions

Pickled Onions from the Complete Book of Home Preserving by Ball Page 331
Makes 14 8oz or 7 pints

16 cups peeled pickling or pearl onions
1 cup pickling or canning salt
Water
8 cups white vinegar
2 cups granulated sugar
1/2 cup mustard seeds
7 tsp prepared horseradish
7 small red chili peppers, such as cayenne, slit twice, lengthwise, and halved
7 bay leaves, broken in half

Day 1

1. In a large clean crock, glass or stainless steel bowl, combine onions and pickling salt. Add water to cover. Cover and let stand in a cool place for at least 12 hours, but no longer than 18 hours.

Day 2

1. Transfer onions to colander placed over sink and drain. Rinse with cool running water and drain thoroughly.
2. Prepare canner, jars and lids
3. In large stainless steel saucepan, combine vinegar, sugar, mustard seeds and horseradish. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat, stirring to dissolve sugar. Reduce heat and boil gently for 15 minutes, until spices have infused the liquid.
4. Pack onions into hot jars to within a generous 1/2" of top of jar. Add 1/2 pepper and 1/2 bay leaf to each 8 oz jar, or two 1/2 peppers and two 1/2 bay leaves to each pint jar. Ladle hot pickling liquid into jar to cover onions, leaving 1/2" headspace. Remove air bubbles and adjust headspace, if necessary, by adding hot pickling liquid. Wipe rim. Center lid on jar. Screw band down until resistance is met, then increase to fingertip-tight.
5. Place jars in canner, ensuring they are completely covered with water. Bring to boil and process for 10 minutes. Remover canner lid. Wait 5 minutes, then remove jars, cool and store.


OK now what I did a bit different -

The first time we made these we had no horseradish and left it out. This time we had it and added no real difference in the taste. Also, I used dried red peppers 2 per pint jar and 2 whole bay leaves per jar and the spice is really good. They are not hot since I believe the sugar helps to balance out. I only had brown mustard seeds and think that yellow would have looked nicer in the jar. I had about 1/2 of the hot pickling liquid left. We got the onions from Trader Joe's for $2.99 a package and it took 4 packages to get the 16 cups.

We did the peeling by blanching in hot water for about 30-45 seconds. Next time we'll take the time to peel without balancing so the onion stay a bit crisper.

They are a great addition to "Friday Night-End of the Week" Martinis at our house. Feel free to stop by and join us. enjoy

Sandee

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Those look really great! And look how much $ you saved. I am gonna try some too as soon as I go back to the grocery. Thanks for sharing with us. I always love to see pics of everyone's canning results.

Need some help with canning - cooked pinto beans. I found a slower cooker recipe for making refried beans. I like the recipe and want to can the beans before smashing them. However, my Ball Canning book only gives recipes for "fresh" pinto beans. Anyone ever done "cooked beans"? I know I would need to use a pressure canner but don't know anything else.

Thanks in advance

Sandee

here is someone elses recipe I tried.I came up with my own after trying this and liked mine better.


Canned Pinto/Burrito Beans

Soak 5 pounds of pinto beans overnight. Rinse with clean water and cover. Bring to a boil and cook for 30 minutes. Then proceed with the recipe.

In each hot quart jar, (I believe this makes 14 qt. jars)add:
1/4 cup tomato sauce
2 Tbsp chopped onions
1 tsp chili powder
1 tsp paprika
3/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cumin (I add more to taste)
1/4 tsp each: black pepper, garlic powder AND sugar
1/8 tsp oregano
2 1/2 cups soaked pinto beans

Fill with hot water to 1" headspace. Stir carefully to distribute spices. Clean rim of jar well. Cap securely with two piece lids. Process in pressure canner for 90 minutes at 10 pounds. When pressure is down, carefully move the jars to a folded towel to cool. Remove rings and let cool overnight.

My version

I soaked my pinto beans over night and then add to the bottom of each jar a tsp.of salt and 1 Tblsp to 1 1/2 Tblsp.Of chili and taco seasoning I mixed together from a package mix.Then some tomato juice about 3/4 of a cup and filled the jar with beans leaving 1 inch head space and filled with hot water.Then capped and processed in Pressure canner 90 minutes for quarts.75 for pints.

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Thank you for taking time to post the recipe and your version. I'll try it and let you know how it works. There was liquid left from cooking the beans in the slower cooker - do you think I could use that instead of the water. I'm assuming that the biggest part is the pressure canning for the appropriate amount of time.

Sandee

I can leftover soups and chilis all the time too - as long as they have no flour, cornstarch or cream, milk. I think you could just can the leftover Pintos, and use the leftover liquid. The only issue might be them possibly getting too soft. Since they're already fully cooked, the pressure canning might get them quite soft.

For refried beans, we can Seasoned Pinto Beans w/Bacon & Onion (post #1161). Then I just open a pint jar, pour into a small skillet, add 1/2 tsp each chili powder and cumin, smash beans and cook about 10 min. until thickened. The Seasoned Pinto Beans are great as just a side dish too.

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Thanks Kim_NC I'm going to try your recipe next time. I think for this batch I'll just freeze the already cooked beans, since I don't want them to be too mushy.

Sandee