What are you canning now?

[rancher hicks]

I did a Google and lemon curd and lemon butter seem to be the same thing, just a different name over here.

Yes these are definatly not as acid as a lemon. I tasted one yesterday and you can eat them like an orange, but they do still have a bit too much sour for me. I couldn't eat a wedge of regular lemon though. I think it's quite common here as I had heard of a lemonade tree before this http://www.daleysfruit.com.au/buy/lemonade-tree.htm

I also found lemon butter/curd its not really able to be bottled long term. That surprises me because you always see it for sale at school fetes but nobody ever puts a refrigerate and use within 2 weeks sticker on it.

I have a recipe for "Lemon Curd". The final paragraph says. "Process in a boiling water bath, then seal, label, and freeze for up to 4 months. Refrigerate once opened. Alternately, this recipe can be canned using a pressure canner."

I have "Honey Lemon Marmalade" "Lemon Ginger Marmalade", Lemon Lime Marmalade, and Apple Lemon Marmalade. A Bllueberry, Lemon & Lime Conserve too. Point? you might consider mixing them lemons with something else.

"Conserves differ from jams in that they contain large pieces of fruit or whole fruits, the fruits are steeped in sugar before cooking to firm them up, and they are boiled more gently than jam. Serve on toast or bread, muffins or scones".

 

[rancher hicks]

I think we've gotten away from what it means to "put on a spread". I told DW this the other day.

Breakfast today consists of a bowl of cereal, or toast, eggs and bacon or hash browns or just eggs and toast. Heck breakfast cereal might even be a sugar cereal with milk and nothing else.

So what's my point in bringing this up. Why not get back to putting more on the table. A nice dish of Conserve with that toast or muffin or some scones. Plus all the other stuff. Warmed up in the microwave and put on toast, jams and conserves taste really good.

Why not some warmed up conserve on the table to put on bread with other stuff. Not just a salad and pasta or meat, potato and veggie. Why not two veggies ? Plus the apple sauce or conserve. When you look it this way you have more options to using and eating those fruits and veggies.

Some conserves and jams go well with cheeses, but we just out cheese and crackers?

And I haven't even gotten to Chutneys.

"A fairly thick savory sauce made from fruit and vegetables, sugar, vinegar and spices. The term came into English from Hindi in the 19th century. Mango chutney is the classic, but these days the term is most often used when a recipe contains dried fruit (like raisins) along with fresh ingredients".

When I think of a "spread" I think of the holiday time at our house. There would be black and green olives, macaroni, potato, coleslaw and tossed salad, sweet and dill pickles, mashed potatoes, squash, dressing and gravy, different salad dressings. Ham and turkey maybe and of course different pies. Oh and rolls and bread. Everyone could find something they liked.

I don't like Egg plant but DW has found a recipe that is kind of like a chutney that I like on pasta.

 

[jerryse]

Tomatoes processing now . 5 quarts . I do mine outside on the turkey fryer . Those burners heat water fast . Keeps the heat outside . I am over run with large cherry tomatoes . Been gifting lots of them . I think I may collect a large batch of them and try canning them .

 

[Beekissed]

Same here and wish I had an outside burner setup...over 100* in the shade here and we don't have AC, so canning these maters in the house creates some heat.

I just throw all my cherry tomatoes in the batch with the big ones.

Going out to pick corn and get it cut off the cob for canning.

 

[Christabean]

I made nearly 5 quarts of delicious plum-applesauce last night. The only problem is, instead of the appetizing pink I was expecting, it came out a bright crimson color. 4:1 ratio of apples to plums wasn't high enough to dull the color. It tastes good but my kids are (almost)4 & 6 and it's too weird for them. My 5-year-old niece was adventurous and liked it, though. I bet if I bake it in muffins it'll be a nice pink and they'll eat it, otherwise I might mix it with regular applesauce before I serve it to them!

 

[wyoDreamer]

Just about time for me to start canning apple sauce. I am tempted to run and pick up 25# of pitted, frozen tart cherries. I would like to make some more cherry pie filling, the batch I made this year is not as good as last year, so I want to try again. Cherry is my favorite anything, so it won't go to waste at all.

It is sweet corn season, so I would like to get some corn canned up. Haven't tried canning corn yet.

 

[Peep_Show]

I add a syrup of Red Hots (you know, those cinnamon dots/hearts) to applesauce. The grandkids love the bright pink color and flavor.... It's their favorite dessert. (Yay! Fruit, not candy!)

 

[wyoDreamer]

My DH gets to taste the applesauce before I process it, to make sure it has just enough sugar and cinnamon for his taste. We like a lot of cinnamon and a slightly tart applesauce. I add lemon juice to the apples before adding any sugar. I peel, slice off the core, cook them down till they break up and then start to season and sweeten.

 

[wyoDreamer]

We finally tried the Black Forest Sauce that I canned.
I made my first pound cake - I used a recipe I found on BYC - to try it on. DH wouldn't try the new sauce, he just ate pound cake with cherry pie filing...
The Black Forest sauce is very strong flavored - nice proportion of chocolate and cherry, maybe a touch too heavy on the chocolate, but I used dutch process high fat cocoa and the recipe may be written for grocery store quality cocoa. It will be wonderful as a filling between layers of cake. I may try some with cream cheese on crackers too.

 

[Raech]

Quick question, I am canning pear buttter. The recipe says it does it in pints, i want to use 1/2 pints. Can I use 1/2 pints and just cook it at the recommended time(10 minutes) for pints?