What are you canning now?

[vfem]

2 boxes of Apples I ordered aren't here yet from the mountains... but the pears are in from across town and the farm called me to come get them!!! FINALLY! PEARS!!!!

Anyone have a pear recipe they swear by?

 

[vfem]

Quote:
HOLY NEW LOVE OF MY LIFE!!!

Actually, these turned out to be asian pears... I hope even with their hardness they will be ok. Anyone have a suggestion on how to get these soft? I'm guessing a long slow cook on medium heat with water and lemon should do it, but I was hoping for bartlett pears. Take what you can get you know!

Which reminds me, my apples came in AFTER I left. So going to pick those up within the hour now.

I'm going to be BUSY for the next few days.

 

[gallinamama]

Quote:
I am not an expert , this said, I would think that the difference between jelly, jams and perserves is all iin relation to the fruit itself...perserves is pieces of fruit in a jam like consistency... Jam is the fruit pulp and juice and is less thick than jelly... jelly is just the juice without seeds or pulp or any sign of the fruit itself.

All are made similar... it is just the way the fruit itself is changed. does this make some sense? all made with fruit, sugar and or added pectin.

 

[chicks4kids]

Do any of you can your peppers (not pickled) without removing the skin?? My sister-in-law gave me a bag of little green long peppers to can for her. Long story short, I don't want to-didn't want to to begin with but here I am with these peppers.

I make pickled sweet peppers and don't remove the skins, but she just wants these canned in water and not pickled-- from googling info on it, all suggestions and instructions say to remove the skins. So have any of you NOT removed the skins and have them turn out ok? Thanks!

 

[calicokat]

Quote:
Oh dear - please please share the recipe! Pears are the only fruit I have access to in abundance, and they'll be coming on in a couple of weeks.

Last year I took the Carmel Pear Jam recipe and converted it to jelly. It was a hit. Then I added ginger instead of cinnimon and called it Ginger pear jelly and it was a hit too! Always looking for a new pear jelly recipe. ('cause I too would rather have jelly than jam

)

 

[KDbeads]

GINGER PEAR PRESERVES

5 ½ cups finely chopped peeled cored pears
2 1/3 cups granulated sugar
1 ½ tsp dry ginger or 1 tsp fresh ginger minced (dry worked better for me)
3 limes, juice and zest

Combine all, boil on medium low heat until it thickens, about 15 minutes. Remove from heat and test for gel stage, skim foam. Ladle into half pint jars with ¼ inch head space. Process in boiling water bath for 10 minutes (half pints)


It's in the Ball Complete book and a few pages before this is a Ginger Pear Marmalade that uses most of the same ingredients.

 

[calicokat]

I was trying to can salsa today, first time using my "sauce master" -- used the "salsa screen" - but it is way too liquid for salsa. Anyone have one of these and sucessfully making salsa?

I made 6 pints, but the rest of the tomatoes I just put through the screen and added lemon juice and put up as "pulpy tomato juice" - it's too pulpy for juice, but too juicy for salsa *sigh* I'll use the plain juice for making chili, so it won't go to waste. And I'll probably make some kind of Taco Chili with the other.

 

[vfem]

Quote:
I just made a similar one I found in a Preserving book I got at the library. Pear and ginger, I also replaced half the sugar with raw honey my neighbor gave us! DELICIOUS!!!!

I made 5 1/2 pints of the pear, and I made 3 pints of tomato sauce (I now have about 12 pints of tomato sauce stashed away, and 4 quarts of salsa. Of course my tomato plants are looking terrible these days.)

 

[RockyToggRanch]

Quote:
No pectin? I've never tried jams without pectin...I'm so afraid of it not setting up. I really want to try this

 

[Terri O]

You beat me to it KD! Good job. On my last batch I used a larger sized chunk of pear. Turned out good. My husband prefers larger pieces of fruit on his toast and I like smaller. So I have 2 kinds; 1/2 inch dice and 1/4 inch dice. Who would have ever thought I would use that onion chopper for so many things?

To the person with the peppers...I think they dont recommend canning with the skin on because lots of botulism toxins can come from skin. (please correct me if I am wrong--I think I read that somewhere though) This is why I freeze all my hot peppers that I am not putting into anything.

Terri O