My Canning Cellar

French Onion Soup!

What I used for equipment was a large dutch frying pan, a large stock pot, a cutting board, a sharp knife, a canning funnel, a de-bubbler, a two cup measure cup, dish towels, potholders, the jar remover tongs and I ended up needing 9 quart jars. I used the Presto digital canner, again not good with the planning, which meant I had to do this in two batches of four quarts with one quart left over for the next day’s lunch, and I used the pressure canning cycle.

The ingredients I used were 7 pounds of onions, 6 quarts of our own previously canned beef broth, 4 tablespoons of beef base and the brand I have is by Maggi, 4 teaspoons steak sauce and 4 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce, and four tablespoons butter.

While my husband peeled and sliced the onions, I got the broth going. It was very simple. I removed the solidified fat from the top of each quart of beef broth and emptied the broth into the stock pot. I don’t know if anyone else would have had to remove the extra fat, but because my husband can’t tolerate it I just didn’t add it.

I added the beef base, the steak sauce and the Worcestershire sauce.

I brought it to a simmer for a few minutes then shut it off.

I cooked the sliced onions in the butter in the dutch frying pan on medium low until they were translucent, and meanwhile I had my jars going through the warming cycle in the canner because I was going to be putting in hot food. It’s always hot food, hot jars, hot water OR cold food, cold jars, cold water.

When the onions were done, I measured two cups into each quart jar, filled with the broth, de-bubbled, and added more broth to one inch head space. I wiped each rim with a vinegar soaked paper towel, put on the lids and finger tightened the rings. I processed each batch for 75 minutes. I had some siphoning during processing but all the lids sealed.

When my processing is done, I always remove the canner cover and just let the jars sit for about ten minutes. This helps if any jars are really bubbling because it gives them that little time to settle down a bit. I have removed bubbling jars immediately and had them spit at me around the lids and rings in protest. And I always set the hot jars on dish towels to help avoid any shock of extremely hot jars on the colder work table.

The next day I removed the rings, washed the jars to remove any grease from the siphoning, and after they dried I labeled them and put them down in my canning cellar.

“When any vegetable is damaged, its cells are ripped open. The plant often then tries to defend itself by releasing bitter-tasting chemicals called polyphenols that can be off-putting to hungry animals trying to eat it. But an onion’s defense mechanism goes further, producing an even more irritating chemical, propanthial s-oxide, meant to stop the plant being consumed by pests.”

It’s been a while since I recommended Jamie’s amazing jar openers, which he makes using 3D technology. I absolutely can’t use anything else because my thumbs give me so much trouble. He gave me permission to put his contact info in the show description. I have no relationship with Jamie, just love his product.

Thank you for visiting my canning cellar. Talk soon. Stay safe.

https://nchfp.uga.edu

https://www.justapinch.com/recipes/soup/soup-other-soup/easy-pressure-canned-french-onion-soup.html

https://theconversation.com/why-onions-make-us-cry-and-why-some-dont-84486

Jamie’s jar openers: [email protected]

Thanks for visiting my canning cellar. This is where I don't tell you how to can but rather just how I can. Of course everyone will use his or her best judgement after researching.



http:/nchfp.uga.edu

Welcome to my canning cellar!

What I used for equipment was a dutch oven pot, my Presto digital canner, a cutting board, a serrated lettuce knife, a canning funnel.

What I used for the product was romaine lettuce, I can’t remember how much I had, but am thinking at least three bunches. I used 6 cups of apple cider vinegar, 2 cups water and 1/2 cup of pickling salt.

I mixed the brine mixture together and let it come to a boil, then let it cool down. Then I packed the lettuce very tightly into 6 pint jars and poured the brine into each jar to the inch head space. I wiped each rim with a vinegar cloth, put on the lids and finger tightened the rings. I don’t boil the lids, but I do wash and rinse them and then keep them in clean hot water until I’m ready to use them. I’ve seen many different approaches to lid readiness and I feel this is what I’m comfortable doing.

I processed the pints using the water bath cycle and let them process for ten minutes. Processing time starts after the water comes to a boil, and with the digital canner, I don’t need to keep an eye on it as the processing starts automatically when ready.

The lettuce of course is a green, and greens wilt. I was however surprised at how much it wilted because I had the jars really well jam packed.

Now this was 6 months ago, but my husband just opened a jar to try. He said it tasted like lettuce but in a vinegary greens way. He ate it plain like one would spinach. He likes a lot of vinegar taste so it was good to him, but I found it too tart for my liking. And even though the lettuce wilted up to about 1/2 way in each jar, I definitely would do this again.

https://nchfp.uga.edu/
https://www.epicurious.com/ingredients/varieties-and-types-of-lettuce-article
https://dpi.wi.gov/sites/default/files/imce/school-nutrition/pdf/fact-sheet-lettuce.pdf

Welcome to my canning cellar, season 2 episode 12. I don’t tell you how to can but rather how I can. Please do your own research as sometimes I will stray off into untested territories, and by untested, I mean by the USDA or the National Center for Home Food Preservation. I sometimes will go by the results from experienced home canners.

I had both white and brown rice and I canned them in separate jars as my husband prefers the white and I prefer the brown.

The ingredients I used were rice, just rice, oh and water to cook it in. I used three 1 pound bags of long cooking brown rice and three 1 pound bags of long cooking white rice.

The items I used were two large dutch oven pots, a measure cup, a long thin handled wooden spoon, a canning funnel, a jar lifter, and my digital canner.

I cooked each type of rice according to the package instructions. I did not rinse or drain either after cooking.

Using the canning funnel, I filled each warmed jar with the hot rice, and I used pint jars. Each cooked bag of white made 4 pints full and each cooked bag of brown made 3 pints full. At first, I made just one bag each, but for the second and last round, I cooked two bags of each at a time. The white rice was rather clumpy at the bottom of the dutch oven pot so I kept about two pints worth out and froze that. Rice freezes rather well.

After filling each jar I used the handle of the wooden spoon to both push it down and remove air. Even though I packed them pretty well, each jar ended up compressing a bit. I then wiped the rims with a vinegar paper towel, I finger tightened the rings and I fit 7 jars at a time in the Presto digital canner. I should’ve thought ahead and used my larger stove top canner to do more at a time.

I processed each batch at 20 minutes on the pressure canning cycle.

https://nchfp.uga.edu

https://www.foodandwine.com/news/7-things-you-never-knew-about-rice

Tomato Soup!

tomatoes, probably 14 various sizes, whole, peeled, just top part of core removed

2 cups bottled tomato juice

1 onion, diced or minced as small as you'd like

9 tablespoons butter, divided

2 cups half and half

4 tablespoons flour

1 teaspoon minced garlic

1 teaspoon basil

3 tablespoons sugar

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon pepper

For equipment I used a strainer, a dutch oven pot, my immersion blender, a wooden spoon, my digital canner, and ended up using 7 pint jars with lids and rings.

Put tomatoes and tomato juice in pot to cook down. Use immersion blender to smooth out. Add onions and garlic that were softened in 3 tablespoons butter, and then add basil, sugar, salt, pepper.

Make roux with half and half and flour in 6 tablespoons butter. Use immersion blender to smooth. Add to the tomato mixture.

I filled the warmed pint jars, wiped the rims, put on the lids and finger tightened the rings. I processed these using the water bath cycle for 30 minutes. It was very easy, the hardest part was the handling of the freezing cold tomatoes.

Home canned sloppy joes!

The ingredients I used were 4 pounds ground hamburg, 2 cups chopped onions, 6 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce, 3 cups ketchup, 1/2 cup water, 4 tablespoons apple cider vinegar, 4 tablespoons brown sugar and 4 teaspoons prepared yellow mustard, not dry mustard.

The items I used were my Presto Precise digital canner, a canning funnel, a de-bubbler tool, a vinegar soaked paper towel, a jar lifter, and 5 pint jars with lids and rings. I also used the largest frying pan I have and mom’s old dutch oven pot.

First I got my jars warming in the digital canner, and put the lids to just rest in a pot of hot water just to soften up the rim material. I don’t boil my lids as my research says there’s no need to.

I then got all the hamburg cooking with the onions. I didn’t break the hamburg up as much as I did when I canned plain hamburg as I thought maybe this on top of pressure canning would allow the meat to stay a bit less mushy. I also didn’t cook the hamburg completely through, maybe about 90% done. Then I drained the meat and onions, keeping the drippings to add to the dog’s and cat’s food. I dumped the meat mixture into the large dutch oven pot and added all the rest of the ingredients and let it simmer for about ten minutes.

By this time, the warming cycle was done so I pulled out my jars one by one and filled them using the canning funnel. I left them just below the one inch headspace mark because experience tells me that it could bubble up quite a bit. I ran the de-bubbler tool along the inside of each jar and topped each off as needed. I got 5 full pints plus about 1/2 cup left over to put into the fridge.

I wiped each rim with the vinegar soaked paper towel, put on the lids, and finger tightened the rings. Because this is a meat product, I had to process the pints for 75 minutes.

Welcome to My Canning Cellar, Season 2, Episode 9.

Welcome to Season 2, Episode 8



https://www.walmart.com/ip/Salsa-Mix-Mild-3-Of-1-06-Oz-Pouches/124953903

https://nchfp.uga.edu

https://www.streetdirectory.com/food_editorials/snacks/dips_and_sauces/history_of_salsa_sauce_the_mexican_connection.html

Welcome to my canning cellar!

Some of these rutabagas were larger round than a big head of cabbage, and they weren’t easy to peel. My research told me to put them in boiling water to loosen up the skins, but I found the easier way for me was using my vegetable peeler. Not only did it work, it kept me from the extra step of waiting for the water to boil, parboiling for 5-10 minutes, and having to wait for them to cool to remove the skin.

So besides the peeler, I only needed a cutting board, a very sharp knife, a paring knife, a pot of clean boiling water, my stovetop pressure canner, a canning funnel, a debubbler, jars, rings and lids. I ended up with 16 pints from two large and two medium rutabagas.

These rutabagas were fresh out of the garden so I had to scrub them well, and because most of them were so big most of them also had bad spots above the root area. I cut all the bad part off, hung onto the tops, cut off the rutabagas in more manageable pieces, then peeled those pieces.

After rinsing the pieces, I used my paring knife to cut them into pieces no larger than 2 inches. I filled the jars using the funnel, added boiling water using a measure cup, debubbled, then filled with more pieces as needed to bring it all up to a one inch headspace. I also did something I don’t normally do, I added a tablespoon of sea salt to each pint per online guidance. The reason I used sea salt is because idodized salt is said to cloud the water. Not harmful as far as I know, just not as pretty. Then I wiped the rims off, added the lids and finger tightened the rings.

I had warmed up the jars in hot water before filling as I was adding boiling water. For my elevation of over 1000 feet above sea level, I processed the pints for 30 minutes. All my jars sealed and are in my canning cellar. While I haven’t opened a jar yet, my sister canned some and opened one of her jars and said it was not too strong, which some folks say could happen. I don’t mind a strong vegetable so I am sure it’ll be fine.

I wanted to find out the difference between rutabagas and turnips to see if I’ve been tossing around the wrong words all these years, and found that turnips taste like a cross between a cabbage and a radish, with a little zing tossed in. Rutabagas are milder and sweeter. Turnips are white inside and cook up almost translucent, and rutabagas are yellow inside and cook up yellow. Because they are both root vegetables, they can be interchanged in recipes. Turnips are normally harvested earlier than rutabagas so they are smaller.

I followed the procedure from Healthy Canning and I’ll put the link in the show description.

Thank you for visiting my canning cellar. If you listen on a platform on which you can leave a rating, I’d appreciate that. I know I’m not professional and it’s just me talking into a little stick microphone with my laptop, but it makes me happy to share what I’ve learned. Talk soon. Stay safe.

https://www.healthycanning.com/canning-rutabaga

Season 2, Episode 6