What are you canning now?

[vfem]

Quote:
Ha! Not as bad as the pickles I *almost* made yesterday! Put 3 lbs of sugar in a big pot and grabbed a half-gallon of what I thought was vinegar off the shelf and poured it in
--- IT WAS AMMONIA! The 2 half-gallon bottles on the bottom pantry shelf were BOTH ammonia, not vinegar. I had to run out for more sugar and vinegar.
I need to slow down in the kitchen. The other night, I couldn't get a beef stew to thicken like I wanted. I had grabbed the powdered sugar off the shelf instead of the cornstarch --- dumdumdadum.

Lisa

In this house, my husband would have said you pulled a "Shannon". Yep.... I've done salt for sugar before and made rye bread with a double envelope of yeast because I forgot to unfold them and it over grew the bowl and crawled across the counter. Fun times.... long as you can laugh, its all good!

 

[Happy Chooks]

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Open all the jars and dump back into your pan.Bring to a boil. and let it boil untill when you raise the spoon and let it drip back into the pan. It will start to gel in the spoon. I raise the spoon and when the third or fourth drip starts to hang on the spoon and not want to drop off . Then I start jarring up the jam.I do this even if I use pectin.This is when I know its ready.
I have a tenancy to use too much fruit.

For jam without pectin (such as strawberry or blackberry) the boil needs to reach 221 degrees F or it will not set. The jam should not be producing foam anymore and should begin to look glossy and thick in the pan. Thats how I know it is ready.

Agree with the above. It takes some practice to recognize the look of it. If you undercooked it, it can be used as syrup still.

Also you can stick spoons in the freezer. When it is cooked enough, it will coat the spoon and not drip like liquid - the drip will hang from the spoon. I've also read of sticking plates in the freezer and it will mound on the plate when it's done.

 

[Happy Chooks]

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Can you post the mango jam recipe? I have made 22 jars of blackberry and many jars of strawberry jam, already. Would love to do mango too.

Here you go. I had some of it the other night on my pork chop and it was heavenly. Mango has a good amount of natural pectin, I noticed this one set up pretty quickly.

4 cups peeled, chopped mango
1/2 cup lime juice (I used fresh squeezed limes - 4 of them gave me 1/2 cup juice)
2 3/4 cups sugar

Put the mango cubes and lime juice into a saucepot. Stirring often, simmer until the mango is tender. Remove from heat and mash the mango lightly with a potato masher. Add the sugar to the pan. Over medium heat, and boil the jam until a drop mounds in a chilled dish.

Ladle into prepared jars and water bath for 10 minutes.

 

[Urban Chaos]

We are only doing tomato juice and sauce

It has been so dry that our fig tree and cucumbers died, our pear tree didnt bother to fruit, and our peach and plumb crop was just enough for the boys to eat in one sitting. Well, 3 boys can eat a lot of fruit, but we usually have enough to make jam with.


Our okra and mustang grapes are still not ready - probably going to pickle some peppers soon though.


I love looking into the pantry at all the differnt colored jars of stuff from the yard! We're only on 1/3 acre, and still manage to get quite a bit off it

 

[Chickenberry]

I'm so envious reading all these wonderful canning posts!

My garden hasn't produced yet!

I do have TWO tomatoes that will be ready to eat in a day or two~ and they will be the first of our harvest this year! I'm excited. Bunches and bunches of green ones though!

 

[Happy Chooks]

Mine hasn't produced yet either, but with mangoes at 50 cents a piece, I couldn't resist!

 

[mom22alcorns]

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Mine is a big ol' heavy 21 quart thing made the year I was born--1971. Still works like it was new. I take super care of it and baby it even though it gets a major work out every year. I also have a smaller 6 quart pressure cooker that I use for beans, rice, and anything else for dinner I want done quickly. I don't know how I used to live without either of them...

I am teaching my girls how to can and preserve like my gram taught me so no matter what happens in the future, they will be able to provide for their family. (provided they have food to preserve...lol)

 

[KenK]

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Sour to say the least. I may try adding some sugar to a room temperature jar and then refrigerating for a week or so... May just salvage the jars and try again.

I just got done peeling these home grown shallots, when I retire I would love to can them by the pint, they are so delicious and such a pita to peel. Going to saute with some squash and hot peppers for our supper. Very easy to grow and expensive at the store. My "seed" came from the gucci grocery store in the big city.

 

[flgardengirl]

Quote:
Can you post the mango jam recipe? I have made 22 jars of blackberry and many jars of strawberry jam, already. Would love to do mango too.

Here you go. I had some of it the other night on my pork chop and it was heavenly. Mango has a good amount of natural pectin, I noticed this one set up pretty quickly.

4 cups peeled, chopped mango
1/2 cup lime juice (I used fresh squeezed limes - 4 of them gave me 1/2 cup juice)
2 3/4 cups sugar

Put the mango cubes and lime juice into a saucepot. Stirring often, simmer until the mango is tender. Remove from heat and mash the mango lightly with a potato masher. Add the sugar to the pan. Over medium heat, and boil the jam until a drop mounds in a chilled dish.

Ladle into prepared jars and water bath for 10 minutes.

Thanks for putting up the recipe for the Mango Lime jam that one sounds really yummy. I have two Mango trees: a Nam Doc Mai (superb flavor) and one called Lancetilla. They are smaller trees that you can keep in a large pot. I would love to have a larger one like Kiett or Hayden but they get humongous so until we move further south I don't want to risk them in the ground. I have a whole tropical fruit tree pot ghetto lol. I have mangos, bananas, lychee, papaya, rhambutan, several varieties of dragonfruit, etc.
The Nam Doc Mai mango is of producing age but I can never seem to get enough to can because DH eats them the second they are ripe lol.

Anyone have a good Dragonfruit jelly recipe? I should get enough fruit on those to make something. We usually make drinks with them but I would love to make a jelly.

 

[3goodeggs]

GASP! mangos small enough to live in a pot? Such miracles I did not know of!
You are in the Tampa area? Well, it does not matter, I will drive to any nursery you can tell me to!
Now, do they make avocados small enough to survive in a pot? I have nothing in those stupid big deal, whiz bang greenhouses but weeds. I may as well fill them up with something decent.
Are they grafted mangoes?
Dwarf mangos. wow.

Now, a dwarf lychee tree and I will even heat the green houses for that. Is your lychee bearing? or one you did from seed, because they get huge. Oh, i am so excited and a twitter. I had star fruit in pots and they were doing very well until my husband moved them too close to a draft. They do not like cool, let alone cold.