Good Knives Make Canning Easier
Earlier tonight, I drove down to Pumpkin Market (a fabulous little shop that primarily stocks food that is locally farmed, raised, grown and produced) and picked up 100 pounds of roma tomatoes. I have a four-day weekend coming up and am going to be spending most of that time applying myself to these tomatoes.
The bulk will be canned whole, but there’s also quite a lot of chopping for salsa, slicing for dehydrating and dicing for pint canning in my future. In preparation for this canning marathon, I’m gathering jars, restocking my lid supply and making sure my go-to knives are sharp.
I believe that knives are the unsung heros of the home canning kitchen. When I talk canning equipment, I always mention funnels, jar lifters and sturdy stock pots, frequently failing to mention the paring and chef’s knives that make it all possible. Thing is, having good, sharp cutlery makes an incredible difference in your canning experience, as well as the quality of the product you produce.
As you can see from the picture at the top of this post, I’m a fan of knives and I have a wide variety. I particularly love a good paring knife and up until recently, my favorite one was that orange-handled Messermeister one you see next to the black-handled shears. It cost about $6, held an edge nicely and was easy to spot in a sink of dirty dishes. But then, some new knives entered my life.
Back in June, while I was up in New York attending the Fancy Food Show, I met a representative from CUTCO at the Food Fete. I told her about the volume of canning I do and she thought I should try their knives. Soon after, she sent me their Kitchen Classics Set*. It includes a slender chef knife, a trimmer (it’s become my go-to knife for separating melons from their rind) and a compact paring knife.
Before trying these knives, I’d always been a little bit scornful of CUTCO products. Mostly, it was an aesthetic thing. I thought those molded plastic handles were kind of ugly. But having spend some time with them, I am now a total convert. They are so light and comfortable to hold. I find that they are now the knives I reach for first.
Photo courtesy of CUTCO
The folks at CUTCO have been nice enough to offer one of my readers that same Kitchen Classics set they sent me. To enter this giveaway, leave a comment on this post and tell me about your favorite knife (paring? chef? Santoku?). All entries must be received by Saturday, September 4, 2010 by 11:59 p.m. After that time, comments will be closed. I’ll do my best to post the winner promptly.
*Disclosure! They sent it to me at no cost, in the hopes that I’d use it and review it. However, I only talk about the stuff I truly like, so had these knives been lackluster, I wouldn’t be raving about them here.
Canning 101: Why You Can’t Can Your Family’s Tomato Sauce
Tomorrow is the first day of September, and with it comes all those traditional end-of-summer events, including tomato canning season (at least here in the mid-Atlantic where I live). Because the yearly tomato glut is finally beginning to arrive, I’ve been getting a number of questions about how to safely can tomatoes.
The most frequent question I get is from people wondering if they can boiling water bath process their favorite spaghetti sauce recipe. You know, the kind that has plenty of garlic, onions, basil, olive oil and sometimes even a few peppers.
Sadly, I always end up delivering disappointing news. You really can’t just can your family recipe. Anything canned in a boiling water bath needs to be high acid (for the science minded types, this means that it has to have a pH of 4.5 or below). This is because botulism cannot grow in high acid environments. However, tomatoes are in the grey zone, typically having a pH right around 4.5. Because of this, tomatoes need to be acidified when canned, so that the acid levels are pushed into the safe zone and the pH becomes something lower than 4.5. That’s why my instructions (and all other good ones you’ll find) for canning whole tomatoes includes two tablespoons of bottled lemon juice per jar (you can also use citric acid if you prefer).
When you make spaghetti sauce, one typically adds a slew of ingredients that, while delicious, lower the acid to seriously unsafe levels. Unless your family spaghetti sauce recipe contains several cups of red wine vinegar, it will be too low in acid to be canned in a boiling water bath.
Most canning information will repeatedly remind you that it’s incredibly important to follow tested recipes. While I will occasionally play around a bit with jams and pickles (and I only do this because I know which aspects can’t be monkeyed with), even I never deviate when it comes to acidifying my tomatoes. I always follow the instructions in either the Ball Blue Book or So Easy to Preserve when I want to preserve tomato sauce, soup and salsas.
The one caveat I have to offer is that if you have a pressure canner, you may be able to preserve your beloved sauce recipe (just so you know, any recipe that includes meat MUST be pressure canned). Pressure canners raise the internal temperature of your jars to temperatures in the neighborhood of 240 degrees, which is high enough to kill off any botulism spores that may exist in your food. However, you should still consult recipes that have been tested using a pressure canner to determine processing time and pressure.
The good news here is that there are plenty of safe, tested tomato recipes that are designed for canning. Let’s hear about your favorites!
Watermelon Jelly Recipe
When I think of fruits that are good for preserving, watermelon is not one that immediately springs to mind. Truly, it’s not something I would have even considered putting in my jam pot, had it not been for a request from my fellow former Slashfoodie, Stef from Cupcake Project.
She was trying to find a way to make a watermelon cupcake that tasted fully of the melon, without resorting to an additives not found in nature. One of her readers suggested using a watermelon jelly, and so she made a request of me. Would I be up for trying to create one that she could use in a cake?
I’m always up for a challenge and so took a stab. During the cooking, I was racked with anxieties, as the watermelon juice took on a slightly strange scent once hot. I used pectin and took the syrup all the way up to 220 degrees, in the hopes of getting a good, jellied set.
Only when I checked the jars the morning after canning, they hadn’t set solidly. The contents were thick, but still loose. I sighed and tucked the jars away, figuring I’d need to try again. However, before I managed to make another batch, I returned to the first set of jars and discovered that while they’d been sitting, the pectin had activated and they’d jelled perfectly. Upon tasting, I was happy to find that jelly was spreadable, sweet, tart and deeply watermelon-y. Another version of summer in a jar. I’m sold!
Books, Press, Conferences and More
When I was 13 years old, I decided that I wanted to become a public speaker when I grew up (yes, I do realize that that’s sort of an odd thing for a freshly minted teenager to choose). The only problem was that I didn’t know what it was that I wanted to talk about. So I let that dream go quiet, not giving up on it exactly, but letting it slip to the background as I went to school, moved across the country, worked and generally lived my life.
It’s funny how things work out though, because in the process of living, I found my niche and became someone who publicly writes, teaches and talks about canning and home food preservation. The 13 year old version of me would be pretty incredulous, but the 31 year old version couldn’t be happier with the way things are working out.
To that end, I thought it was time to share with you some good news (though if you spotted the article the Daily News article in which I was featured, you’ve already got the scoop). I’m writing a cookbook. It will be called Food in Jars (just like this website) and will include 100 recipes that will cover jams, pickles, fruit butters, tomato products, granolas and bread mixes. The book will be published by Running Press and will be coming out in the spring of 2012. As you might guess, I am thrilled.
In other fun news, the BlogHer Food agenda was published last week and I’m excited to say that I’ll be speaking in the session entitled The Old-School Arts: Canning, Preserving, Foraging. My fellow Philly-based preserver Audra Wolfe (aka Doris the Goat) will also be up there with me and Sean Timberlake (who just launched the fabulous Punk Domestics site) will be moderating the session.
And now, in other preserving news, I’ve recently learned that the Mother Earth News Fair is taking place the weekend of September 25-26 just outside of Pittsburgh, PA and has a huge focus on canning, preserving, fermentation, cheese-making, baking, beer brewing and other kitchen arts. Unfortunately, I’ve already got plans that weekend, so I can’t go. However, for those of you who live within a doable drive of that area, I think you should consider attending. It sounds amazing (Sherri Brooks Vinton, the author of Put ‘Em Up! will be there) and the tickets are really affordable. A one-day pass is $15 and a weekend pass is $25. Kids 17 years and under are free.
Unfancy Pickled Jalapeno Peppers
In the springtime, I approach food preservation as if it were an act of art. My jams are fussed over, with plenty of thought given to size of my fruit dice and maceration times. My pickles are packed into jars with great precision and accuracy. That time of year, I’m simply delighted to be anticipating the coming abundance.
Come August, my elevated aspirations are gone. I can to get it done, to get those bits of summer into their respective jars before the season is gone and I’m left with the potatoes, storage squash and kale of winter (I’m a big fan of all those vegetables, but they don’t excite me the way a peach does). And so my many acts of preservation become a bit frenzied and as easy as I can make them.
Take the jalapeno peppers I pickled recently. I bought a pound when we were in New York a few weeks ago because I wanted to bring back some little bit of the Union Square Green Market. The berries were too fragile and I didn’t see any garlic that was clean enough for my suitcase. Jalapenos are sturdy little guys and so I knew they’d withstand the rigors of the MegaBus. Plus a pound cost a mere $3, which I believe is the perfect price point for an edible souvenir.
When I got them home, I washed and halved them (please do get yourself some gloves to wear when dealing with hot peppers. I gave myself a humdinger of a capsaicin burn this time around), packed them into jars and topped them with a very basic brine.
I didn’t spice my brine at all, because I wasn’t trying to create an artisinal condiment or a pickle to be eaten on its own. I’ll use these peppers throughout the year as an ingredient in things and so I want the flavors of the peppers to remain clear and identifiable. Several will join various batches of salsa and most the rest will spice up pots of turkey chili.
The reason I like this kind of utilitarian canning is that by investing $3 and 35 minutes of effort, I’ve created something that will fill a kitchen need all year round. It breaks no culinary ground, but fills me with joy nonetheless. It also doesn’t hurt to know that I have something to turn to come January when my taste buds are in desperate need of revival.
Nielsen-Massey Vanilla Bean Winners
I’m frequently bad about posting giveaway winners, but this may have taken the cake. A full week! I’m quite embarrassed. However, as they say, better late than never. Our winners are Adrienne, Dawn and Doris the Goat! I will be contacting the winners shortly (although, if you’re a winner, you can always speed things up by leaving a comment).
Expect a quick and dirty recipe for pickled jalapenos tomorrow. Until then, happy canning!
Canning 101: How to Store Finished Jars
In an ideal world, we canners would all have cool, dry and dark basements lined with sturdy shallow shelves in which to store our pickles, preserves and pressure canned stocks. However, I’ve found that rarely does life cooperate with ideals.
I live in an 1,100 square foot apartment on the 20th floor of a high rise. I don’t have a basement, but I make do with an array of closets, cabinets and other out-of-the-way corners. As you scope out where the best nooks your home has to offer for canned good store, here are a few things to keep in mind.
–You want to keep your canned goods out of the sunlight. Over time, natural light can deteriorate your product, stealing color and quality.
–Cooler is better. I’m not talking freezing temps, but definitely don’t store home canned goods near heaters, radiators or electronics that run hot.
–Keep your storage space accessible. While it’s true that you want an nice, quiet spot for your jars, you don’t want to make it so obscure or hard to access that you end up forgetting about your peaches and applesauce altogether. Remember, the whole reason we can is to have tasty things to eat all year round.
–Make sure to remove the rings. I realize that this one gives a lot of newer canners pause, but I promise, it’s absolutely safe to take the rings off the jars once they’re sealed and cooled. In fact, it’s the best way to store your jars, because it allows you to know sooner rather than later if something is wrong with your product. If you’ve got spoilage occurring in a jar, storing it without the ring means that any growth taking place in the jar will dislodge the lid and alert you to the problem.
Where do you squirrel away your home canned goods?
August Can Jam: Tomato Butter
Once again, I’m right up against the deadline for this month’s Can Jam. I didn’t intend for it to work out this way. In fact, I made a batch of Tomato Jam last week, based on my friend Amy’s recipe, thinking that it could be my contribution to the month’s challenge. It’s a delicious recipe and I may end up posting it at some point down the line.
However, I had this other idea tickled the back of my brain. Remember when I announced that it was my summer of butters? Well, it’s been awhile since I made one. And I had this idea that tomatoes might make a nice butter.
I started with a little over five pounds of Lancaster County tomatoes. Blanched, cored and peeled, I fed them into my Vitamix so that I had a chunky raw puree (if you don’t have a Vitamix, you could either pulse them in the food processor or take a potato masher to them).
Using my beloved slow cooker, I let the 10 cups of pulp cook down without any spices or sugar overnight and for an entire workday. It wound up being approximately 18 hours of cooking. Look closely at the next picture, you can see the rings from the cooking down process.
When I got home from work today, I had a bit less than four cups of cooked tomato, a far cry from the 10+ cups I started out with. Using an immersion blender, I whirred in some honey, brown sugar, lemon juice and zest and an array of my typical jam/fruit butter spices – cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves. In the hopes of giving this butter a little zip, I also included 1/8 teaspoon of cayenne. Not so much to make it unpleasant, just to give it a little extra interest.
When all was done, I had a spread that was a bit sweet, but not cloying, with a nice spice profile. Consistency-wise, it’s quite similar to ketchup, but without the familiar vinegar-y zing. I’m looking forward to pairing this butter with a dab of goat cheese and seeing how it works on flatbread with caramelized onions. How would you use it?
Table Talk and Fall 2010 Classes
Got canning questions? I’ve got answers! Tomorrow at 1 p.m. (10 a.m. west coast time), I’ll be joining Kim O’Donnel (who’s got a lovely new book
* * * * * * *
Fall is coming, but that doesn’t mean that the time for canning is coming to an end. I firmly believe that there’s plenty of canning to be done straight through the autumn months. I’ve got a series of four jam and chutney classes scheduled September through December that take advantage of all those sweet, crisp apples and pears. These classes cost $45 per person and are all scheduled for Saturday mornings, 11 a.m. through 12:30 p.m.
September 18
Spicy Applesauce
October 23
Pear-Ginger Jam
November 6
Cranberry Apple Jam
December 4
Apple-Pear Chutney
Additionally, I’ve been thinking about offering a sauerkraut class. If you’d be interested in something like that, please leave a comment on this post, so I can determine whether there’s enough interest.
Canning 101: On Substituting Salt in Pickling
One question I’ve gotten fairly frequently this summer has been about salt. More precisely, people are wondering how to substitute other types of salt for the pickling salt that most canning recipes call for. I’ve done some thinking and some testing in this area and have come to the conclusion that the best way to make this substitution is through weight.
Last night, I pulled out every different variety of salt in my kitchen, carefully measured out a single tablespoon and took the weight of that tablespoon. The photo above is of standard pickling salt. It is finely milled (so that it dissolves quickly), has no additives to make it run free (most table salts do contain these flow enhancers) and a tablespoon weights precisely 3/4 of an ounce. However, if you live in more urban areas, pickling salt can be hard to find.
A good substitute for pickling salt is kosher salt. It’s more widely available, isn’t particularly expensive and is also free of those additives that prevent clumping (thanks to a comment from salt expert Mark Bitterman, I’ve learned that kosher salt can also contain those anti-caking agents). A level tablespoon weights 5/8 an ounce, which is pretty darn close to the pickling salt. The one thing to be aware of when using kosher salt for pickling is that it will take a bit longer to dissolve.
Here’s my precious little jar of the grey velvet salt I got at The Filling Station in Chelsea Market last Friday. A level tablespoon of it weighs 1/2 an ounce. I included it in this salt weighing, but I’m actually far too fond of it to use it in pickling because it would get depleted too fast. But it would dissolve quite quickly, which makes it a good back-up, for those moments when I’m out of pickling salt.
This salt is the multi-use sea salt from The Meadow (an amazing store in Portland, OR that specializes in salt, chocolate, flowers and other lovely things). Sea salt has become a fairly common ingredient in kitchens in recent days, and as long as it is fairly refined, it makes a good salt for canning. One tablespoon weights 1/2 an ounce.
The last salt I tested was the sel gris from The Meadow. This is a very chunky salt, which makes it not so desirable for canning, because it would be challenging to get it fully dissolved. A tablespoon weighed 3/8 an ounce.
Now what does this all mean? Essentially, it means that though salts aren’t interchangeable by volume, you can weigh out 3/4 an ounce of just about any salt and substitute it for a tablespoon of pickling salt in a canning recipe. However, as I’ve noted above, you should also take into account the texture of the salt you’re using, as well as any additives that might be included in the salt.
In the interest of disclosure, you should all know that the pictured salts from The Meadow were given to me as review samples. However, The Meadow has been one of my favorite spots for quite some time and I always make a point of stopping by the store when I visit Portland.