What are you canning now?

[rancher hicks]

Did you use fresh Kiwi and fresh pineapple? They have an enzyme in them that dissolves protein, that might be part of the problem. If you cook them first by themselves, and denature the enzyme, and then add it maybe it will work better. Again, this is a guess. I don't know for sure, but it might give you a research point to go from.

Hey, apparently I was wrong about Kiwi, these people say it is high in pectin.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/05/dining/decoding-strawberry-jam.html?_r=0


And then there is this: http://www.thenakedscientists.com/HTML/experiments/exp/science-of-fruit-jellies/
...and I just confused you as much as me. sorry. Pretend you never read any of this.

No I just made straight up strawberry jam.

Strawberries, lemon juice and sugar. It's all the recipe called for. Boiled it to 220*F. One recipe (conserve) called for 2 pounds of strawberry, juice of one lemon and lime and 4 1/2 cups of sugar.
Most recipes call for canned pineapple.

 

[WYNot]

Quick update... After a month or so of daily shakings, I took the jars out of the closet and strained everything through cheesecloth to remove the vanilla beans and pods. Rebottled everything. Mom and wife did a taste test and gave big thumbs up. Mom went home with her (2) empty Kahluha bottles refilled and a big smile on her face.

Have not made the liqueur style yet. Just been too busy with other things... garden, chickens, etc. Got 10 Buckeye chicks this spring and had to expand the run. Got them moved out with the laying hens last week. The hens are not impressed. hehehe

Not really canning but...

After much success with and many batches of the homemade vanilla, vanilla liqueur, and fake Disaranno amaretto I'm going to be making a big batch of Kahlua coffee liqueur this weekend.
Not sure if I'm going to make the drinking version or go for the thicker, liqueur version. Either way, I'll be adding a few vanilla beans and aging it in a large jar. Once it is aged, probably for about a month, I'll pour through a coffee filter into small bail top bottles and add a vanilla bean to each.

Well, just a little over 8 liters of kahlua sitting in the closet while the flavors marry. Two 3L bail top jars, a 2L Ball jar, and a small (8 oz?) syrup bottle full. I may have to try the liqueur version next time. We'll see what the ladies (Mom and wife) think of it after it ages a month. So far even "fresh" it is getting the thumbs up from both of them.

 

[3goodeggs]

yummy.

I have a vanilla orchid that might take the rest of my life to bloom, but when it does....

 

[3goodeggs]

Canned more cowboy candy,
I had a miserable jar. For some reason the ring did not hold and I diluted the contents with canning bath water. So I dumped it out, added more brine and I canned it again. (I like having left over brine because it is so good for basting and pasta salad.) I replace the ring, the next one held snugly until I put it in the canner and the same thing happened...AGAIN!

I took a good hard look at the jar.
It was one that had been given me with a bunch of other older ball jars- but this one wasn't. The tops and rings fit-almost, but it was a slightly, oh so very slightly smaller jar and I had to make a small batch of brine to replace the watered down brine.
It was the never ending pickling day. Which, hopefully has ended, but there were some real groundhog day moments there.

 

[jerryse]

Canned more cowboy candy,
I had a miserable jar. For some reason the ring did not hold and I diluted the contents with canning bath water. So I dumped it out, added more brine and I canned it again. (I like having left over brine because it is so good for basting and pasta salad.) I replace the ring, the next one held snugly until I put it in the canner and the same thing happened...AGAIN!

I took a good hard look at the jar.
It was one that had been given me with a bunch of other older ball jars- but this one wasn't. The tops and rings fit-almost, but it was a slightly, oh so very slightly smaller jar and I had to make a small batch of brine to replace the watered down brine.
It was the never ending pickling day. Which, hopefully has ended, but there were some real groundhog day moments there.

FYI that is probably a mustard or mayo jar . Back in the day people reused these with no problem . To prevent this they changed the size of the jar . Said they were not safe . Too thin . Still have some really old ones that are the right size . Now the mayo jars are plastic and it is hard to find mustard in a quart . All plastic squeeze bottles .

 

[rancher hicks]

Canned more cowboy candy,
I had a miserable jar. For some reason the ring did not hold and I diluted the contents with canning bath water. So I dumped it out, added more brine and I canned it again. (I like having left over brine because it is so good for basting and pasta salad.) I replace the ring, the next one held snugly until I put it in the canner and the same thing happened...AGAIN!

I took a good hard look at the jar.
It was one that had been given me with a bunch of other older ball jars- but this one wasn't. The tops and rings fit-almost, but it was a slightly, oh so very slightly smaller jar and I had to make a small batch of brine to replace the watered down brine.
It was the never ending pickling day. Which, hopefully has ended, but there were some real groundhog day moments there.

Someone gave me a bunch of jars too and those that were NOT canning jars got trashed. They had had jam in them but I was taking no chances.

Now as far as my jam problems with them not setting a firmly as I'd like, I just added a package of Certo to this last batch. It set better.

 

[KentuckyMom]

@rancher hicks My problem lately has been the opposite.My last batch of strawberry jam set like glue. It has to be microwaved for about 30 seconds to become spreadable. I haven't been to the store to buy pectin lately and seem to be hit and miss without it as far as the right consistency. The pineapple mango jam I made turned out perfect though. Mmmm...
@3goodeggs I've had those Groundhog Day moments before too. At least you were able to save the cowboy candy. I've had it happen while making jam and then it's wasted. I have jars of all shapes and sizes that work just fine, but every now and then there is that lid and jar that aren't compatible with each other even though they appear to be at first glance. Sigh.
Yesterday I made and froze homemade onion rings . There is a lot of work on this end, but when I am able to pull out a bag later for dinner to deep fry or bake they are "scrum-dilly-icious" (new word)!

 

[rancher hicks]

@rancher hicks My problem lately has been the opposite.My last batch of strawberry jam set like glue. It has to be microwaved for about 30 seconds to become spreadable. I haven't been to the store to buy pectin lately and seem to be hit and miss without it as far as the right consistency. The pineapple mango jam I made turned out perfect though. Mmmm...
@3goodeggs I've had those Groundhog Day moments before too. At least you were able to save the cowboy candy. I've had it happen while making jam and then it's wasted. I have jars of all shapes and sizes that work just fine, but every now and then there is that lid and jar that aren't compatible with each other even though they appear to be at first glance. Sigh.
Yesterday I made and froze homemade onion rings . There is a lot of work on this end, but when I am able to pull out a bag later for dinner to deep fry or bake they are "scrum-dilly-icious" (new word)!

This reminded me. I had made a pear vanilla jam and it was hard. Turned out the recipe called for 2 packs of liquid pectin. I suspect it should have only been 1. I heated it and poured it over ice cream. Still yummy.

Even the books can be wrong.

Next up is more Strawberry jam and Strawberry/Pineapple and perhaps some Strawberry/Currant or Gooseberry.

Now should I do anything different since my Currants and Gooseberries are frozen?

Bought 8 more quarts of Strawberries. $28. I have been freezing leftover berries, if there are more than the recipe calls for.

I too have an assortment of jar shapes. Someone gave me some 12 oz jelly jars and there are some I've never seen before. I'm used to 8 or 4 oz.

I've learned a pint is too small for applesauce, since I eat half a jar at a time. I don't like big jars of stuff in case we don't eat it quick enough.

With just the two of us, large jars don't make sense. Except for tomatoes. Now sauce might be a different matter. If I made and canned sauce.

Sweet cherries are coming into season. I made a Sweet cherry blue berry jam but I didn't care for it much.

 

[KentuckyMom]

@rancher hicks
I don't think you will need to do anything different using frozen berries. If there is excess water from frozen crystals of ice, it will cook off. Mmmm...gooseberry jelly. I would like to grow gooseberries here. My grandmother had them in Cincinnati years ago and always had a jar of gooseberry jelly sitting on the table at every meal. I can only find the plants through mail order ; no one local carries them. Many of the younger generation don't even know what they are. Some day I will get some...

 

[sunflour]

Have been canning pickles - bread and butter and a small batch of kosher dills.

Today blanched and froze butter beans, speckled butter beans - still have more to do tomorrow and a bushel of pink eye peas. And then more pickles.

And our BlueLake Pole beans are starting to produce and will be canning those really soon