Canning day 1

[MadJohnShaft]

14 strawberry jellies - in batch one I used fig balsamic vinegar instead of all lemon juice. Good idea, Ball website.





Everyone had strawberries at the Farmers market so I got a 8 quart flat for $32.   I'll do a round of blackberries and a round of raspberries when those show up and that will carry us until next June.  I should do another 12 and give them away at work, so people like us.

Yes!

[Chovie D]

each one of the jars is like a lifetime supply of jam for me. smaller jars for jam maybe?
I'd like to be able to can, that would be swell... Id do that italian gardenaire shit, green beans, stuff like that.
all you need is big pot, jars, lids ?

[MadJohnShaft]

Only acidic and sugary stuff like pickles and jams can be done in a water bath.



Everything else, like tomatoes and green beans, needs to be pressure canned - same process but it goes through a pressure cooker. It is not much different than water bath canning or using a pressure cooker to make dinner.

Except you can poison and burn yourself easier.

[RAGER]

Never been much into canning.  I like fresh stuff in season and frozen stuff out of season.  I'm not a jam person at all.  I usually freeze tomatoes and such at the peak of the season.  As far as pickled stuff, I usually do it the fridge way because it's fresher and I go through that stuff pretty quick.

[Chovie D]

ah....I meant pickled green beans. Gardenaire is also pretty muhc an acidic pickling no?
Can those be done without  a pressure cooker? My buddy made som that was awesome and I dont think he used a pressure cooker.
I bought a pressure cooker and love it, but its not big enough for the kind of canning you mentioned.

what is this fridge way you speak of Mr. Rager?

[RAGER]

You just pretty much make your brine and just barely cook whatever it is your doing just in the brine until it's a little softer but still retaining some crunch.  put it into jars to let cool on the counter and then in the fridge for a few days or a week and start enjoying it.  nice and simple

[Chovie D]

You just pretty much make your brine and just barely cook whatever it is your doing just in the brine until it's a little softer but still retaining some crunch.  put it into jars to let cool on the counter and then in the fridge for a few days or a week and start enjoying it.  nice and simple

thanks, that sounds like the ticket.

[MadJohnShaft]

I got kids that need Jam.


Yeah - I don't like pressure canning food, I would freeze tomato sauce and green beans. Any pickling I would do in the fridge, Rager style.

I might can whole tomatoes, to take the place of buying canned tomatoes I suppose. The process of skinning and seeding sucks so much I'd rather only make sauce and use a food-mill to avoid that work.

[Chovie D]

Oh yeah I forgot aboot the kids and their annoying jam consuming tendencies.
Children would only get in the way of my erotic gardeniare making lifestyle.
You shuould get rid off em..ship em off to private non child moelsting boarding school or something.
Thats how a real party rocker would handle the sitch.

[MadJohnShaft]

The only place they're getting shipped to is Harvard or MIT

[Chovie D]

See if you can ship em off now, Doogie howser style.
MIT ...man i couldnt beleive how hard they partied there. I thought they'd be a bunch of boring eggheads but they were really into physchedelics. send em there. sooner the better for your sake. having to constantly make all that jam must be a drag, leaving you no time to enjoy listening to compound discs of important stoner rock bands  

[MadJohnShaft]

Canning and other involved activities lend themselves nicely to listening to stoner rock. I use my ears for the listening part, not so much for jam making.

Not on stupid Compound Disks though - no shuffle and stops after an hour, like it's the fucking 90s and we don't know from shinola.

[Chovie D]

I cannot understand why anyone enjoys "shuffle" 
Its like letting a perverse retard select your music for you and invariable comes up with the harshest juxtapositions of crap from the foulest depths of my collection.

[I,Galactus]

I cannot understand why anyone enjoys "shuffle" 
Its like letting a perverse retard select your music for you and invariable comes up with the harshest juxtapositions of crap from the foulest depths of my collection.

Back in the days of ipods w/ buttons on 'em, I used to make playlists specifically for shufflin'.  Like a radio station that doesn't suck.

OT: My folks make citrus marmelade for xmas every year and it's delicious.  Stinks up the house something awesome.  I believe the recipe is under lock and key, tho.  So sorry.

[MadJohnShaft]

I have a recurring nightmare where I am on a road trip in Fartgarth's car, listening to his 5 hair metal Compound Discs on shuffle.   I always wake up screaming.



I wonder when the next berry comes out?   One flat of 8 pints strawberries makes 14 8OZ jars jam. Noted here for reference next spring.

[khoomeizhi]

You just pretty much make your brine and just barely cook whatever it is your doing just in the brine until it's a little softer but still retaining some crunch.  put it into jars to let cool on the counter and then in the fridge for a few days or a week and start enjoying it.  nice and simple

little stuff like beans, you can just pour boiling hot brine over the stuff (beans, garlic, etc) in a jar. just make sure the jar's at least room temperature and it won't explode. 

my house shuffles with a 5-compound-disc-changer, the possibilities need to be strictly limited. shuffling a whole collection is for those who like schizophrenia.

[Chovie D]

shuffle alway puts shit like slayer back to back with the brady bunch cd...

someone run down this  fridge canning thing for me step by step.

correct me please, is this it?:
cut up whatever I wanna "pickle"
mix up some brine
do as Khoo says and pour the boiling brine into the jars stuffed with the chopped veg?
allow to cool, seal jars, place in fridge, enjoy in a week or so?

ball canning jars yes?

[deleted account]

I don't think there's one with an opening small enough.

BAM!!!

[khoomeizhi]

canning/mason jars, yes. tighten the lids on while they're as hot as possible, let the vacuum work on the dome as they cool off, they'll be good to open in a week to months in the fridge if you do a larger batch.

brine can be somewhat variable, but you always need enough-but-not-too-much of both vinegar and salt. old-school trick of dropping a young not-quite fully extended grape leaf or two (wild or cultivated don't matter) keeps cukes, beans, etc nice and crunchy even over relatively long periods. i've got some...at least three-year-old jars of dill cukes and dill okra (which is badass) in the fridge that are still good. this method.

i'm sayin' shuffle needs to stay thematic. don't put the bradys in there. or go partridges/bradys/monkees...what am i missing? and then, i guess suicide? shuffle to set a mood, is what i'm sayin'.

[Chovie D]

thanks man.

Priest, there isnt a jar openeing BIG enough to can my ghost nutz.

If I have to preselect my shuffle...why dont i just program a playlist?
I still dont dig it. I like  to listen to album sides as intended.

[khoomeizhi]

If I have to preselect my shuffle...why dont i just program a playlist?

'cause you're using compound discs? i hear you, and i usually go with whole sides, but wit' a good shuffle, i notice more good transitions than bad ones, and it's like it's a paaarty, maaan!  i just live in the previous decade....at least.

don't forget hot peppers.

[Chovie D]

alot of brine recipes call for alot of sugar. that sounds kinda lame...do i really need the sugar?

[deleted account]

oh I think you're gonna need all that sugar

[khoomeizhi]

if you're doing sour pickles you don't need it at all. if you were doing beets or other sweet pickles, you'd want it.

[MadJohnShaft]

Fun with Botulism for Heavy Metal listeners:



Can't I simply heat the jars in a water bath canner for a very long time or add acid (vinegar or lemon juice)?

Botulism spores are very heat resistant. They may be destroyed at boiling water temperatures, but extremely long times are required. The higher the canner temperature, the more easily and quickly they are destroyed.
Low acid foods

Therefore, all low-acid foods should be sanitized at temperatures of 240° to 250°F, attainable with pressure canners operated at 10 to 15 PSI. PSI means pounds per square inch of pressure as measured by a gauge. At these temperatures, the time needed to destroy bacteria in low-acid canned food ranges from 20 to 100 minutes. The exact time depends on the kind of food being canned, the way it is packed into jars, and the size of jars.
Acid foods

The time needed to safely process low-acid foods in a boiling water canner ranges from 7 to 11 hours. Such long processing times are not researched and are not recommended. Losses in nutrients and quality would be unacceptable. The time needed to process acid foods in boiling water varies from 5 to 85 minutes.