Honey Spiced Pears Canned

Poor neglected blog. I have been so busy with my magazine I have neglected to post new recipes.

So because it is pear season,
 I am giving you my new favorite recipe for canned dessert pears. Ususally, I can my pears in 100 percent white grape juice. I am usually anti syrup in my canned fruit until I tried these honey spiced pears. They are delish. I know. I already opened a bottle on accident. I already know how I plan to eat these pears come winter. I am going to top them with some mascarpone and homemade hot fudge sauce. Doesn't that sound like a little bit of decadence from the food storage.

Now the source for this recipe is iron clad. I got it off the back of the Kerr jar lid box.

Honey Spiced Pears (appx 5 pints)
6 Pounds of Pears halved and cored and peeled.(about 10 cups)
1 Cup Sugar
1 Cup Vinegar, 5 % acidity
1 Cup honey
1 Cup water
2 tsp whole allspice
1 tsp whole coriander
1 Cinnamon Stick, broken

Prepare home canning jars and lids according to manufacturers directions. Keep sterilized jars warm in dishwasher.

Prepare pears  by peeling coring with a spoon and halving. Place in a bowl of water with fruit fresh or a TB of lemon juice.

Combine sugar, honey, vinegar and water in a large saucepot.
Tie spices in a cheesecloth bag or metal tea bag and place in saucepot.

Bring mixture to a boil, stirring to dissolve sugar.

Reduce heat; cover and simmer for 10 minutes.

Add pears to syrup and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and cook for 3 minutes or until pears are hot.

Pack pears in hot jars leaving 1/2 inch headspace. Ladle syrup over pears leaving 1/2 inch headspace.

Remove air bubbles by running a plastic knife or non mettalic spatula down the insides of the jars very slowly.

Wipe rims clean with a clean paper towel or cloth. Place lids and rings on jars Screw band down evenly and firmly to fingertip tight.

Process in a boiling water or steam canner for 20 minutes for pints and 25 minutes for quarts (1,000 ft elevation) for 1,001 to 3000 feet add five minutes, for 3,001 to 6000 feet elevation add an additional 5 minutes (pints 30 minutes, quarts 35 minutes.

Canned Dill Pickles

I have a serious pickle lover in my house -- as in she can eat a pickle a day for 30 days. Therefore, I need to pickle cucumbers every summer. And so with my sister's pickle recipe I bottled up some cukes. Now there are a few things to consider when bottling pickles. 1. I always use the cucumbers that are pickling cucumbers. This keeps your cukes crisper. A pickling cucumber is stubby with ridges and prickly raised bumps. 2. A little secret spice called Alum keeps your pickles crispier.

Also, I know there are many recipes for pickles. I love this recipe because I first tasted them on a lake beach out of my sister's cooler and they were delicious. They are pretty strong and are a combo of dill and a kosher flavors combining both dill and mustard seed in the brine.

The recipe
To each pint add: (Double amount for quarts)
1/16 tsp alum
1/2 TB Mustard seed
1 clove garlic
1/2 head of fresh dill weed,

Hot liquid:
2 C Water
2 C Vinegar
2 TB pickling salt

Cucumbers. I can fit 4-6 pickles in each pint jar if they are medium sized. Usually I end up slicing my pickles to fit more into the jar. Pickling cukes are such fat little odd shaped things. Sometimes it is hard to get them into pints if you don't slice or spear the cukes.

Directions.

Wash and sanitize jars and lids. Keep jars warm until ready to use. I just keep them on the heated dry setting in my dishwasher. Heat lids according to manufacturers directions.

Wash and prepare pickles. Many state extension offices say you need to cut a small slice off the blossom end of the pickles. To tell you the the truth I don't always do this. But it is always better to be safe than sorry.

 Boil hot liquid ingredients:
Fill each pint with herbs and garlic. Stuff with pickles. Ladle hot liquid over pickles to within 1/2 inch of top. Top with lids and process in a boiling water canner. For 1000 feet elevation and under process 10 minutes for pints and 15 minutes for Quarts. For 1100-6000 ft. -- 15 minutes, pints and 20 minutes, quarts; for 6100 ft and over -- 20 minutes for pints and 25 minutes for quarts.

Remove from canner and allow to cool on towel or place mat on the counter. Label and store.

Canned Roast Beef

This spring my husband went and bought himself a flat screen TV and so I only thought it fair that I should get to buy a pressure canner. I finally used my giant kitchen toy to can some roast beef. Now the first time I ever canned meat (with a borrowed pressure canner) I was a little scared. But with a little study I discovered that as long as you follow the procedure correctly it is simple and safe. Not only that, it tastes better and costs less than the store bought canned meat. It is however a lengthy process and requires a little time to be set aside -  a good 2 hours. But I say anytime you can cook several dinners at once it is worth the time.

Roast beef went on sale for $1.68 a pound and that meant I was going to buy a lot. I tried this recipe two ways. I went through the laborious process of trimming and chopping one package by myself. I had the butcher chunk the other package which was much easier but resulted in a lot of fat. I would recommend doing the chunking and trimming yourself. You can see in the above picture that there is a good bit of fat in this jar. I use raw pack because it is less mess and fewer steps. The meat cooks in the jar in the pressure canner.

The process: Raw Pack

Sanitize canning jars by boiling upside down in hot water for at least 10 minutes or use the sanitize setting on your dishwasher and keep warm until ready to use. Prepare lids and rings according to manufacturers directions.

Prepare meat by trimming fat and cutting into large chunks.

Add 1/2 tsp canning salt per pint of meat, 1 tsp per quart. Do not use regular salt or you will have a cloudy consistency in your finished product. Canning salt can be found in the preserving or canning section of the grocery store.

Stuff meat into sanitized jars to within 1 inch of the rim.
DO NOT ADD WATER!

Top jars with lids and rings and place on rack in pressure canner. Do not can meat in a steamer. Pressure canning meat is the only safe way to can your meat.

PRESSURE
Pretty easy. The lengthy part is next as you babysit the pressure canner. Please read your pressure canner instructions carefully they should indicate the pressure needed for your elevation.
I process my meat at 15 lbs but I am over 6,000 feet above sea level. My manufacturing instructions indicate the proper pressure for elevations. The proper pressure is vital. If you can not determine the proper pressure for your elevation please contact your local extension service.

PROCESSING
Make sure you install your lid and follow your directions carefully as you close your pressure canner and determine the time to begin timing. Pints must be processed for 75 minutes and quarts for 95 minutes. Make sure you keep an eye on your pressure gauge. It will fluctuate and the heat on your stove will need to be occasionally adjusted to ensure it remains at the proper pressure.

Once your buzzer goes off turn off heat and allow pressure canner to cool completely before removing lid. Your instructions will tell you how to tell if your canner is cooled completely. Estimate at least 1/2 hour to 1 hour for cool down. Once your pressure canner is opened carefully remove your cans and place on a clean towel on counter. Do not place directly onto a cold surface or the cans may break.

Lids will pop and have an indentation in the center if they are properly sealed. If they have not sealed within a few hours you will need to reprocess your cans.

Homemade Pomegranate Fudge Sauce

I have all this yummy Pom juice sitting in my refrigerator and I needed one more addition to my gift baskets of homemade gourmet preserves. Voila! Pomegranate fudge sauce. So decadent and delicious and so easy to make. Although I used Pom juice to add a hint of rich fruitiness to my fudge sauce, this recipe could easily be adapted to cherry, orange or other flavors. The flavoring is subtle and the chocolate is well, thick and rich and perfect for ice cream sundaes or maybe even pancakes. Once you make your own fudge sauce you may never go back to store bought again.

This recipe does need to be refrigerated, but it will last for a long time, at least long enough for you to use it all up. One recipe made approximately 30 oz of sauce.

4 squares of unsweetened chocolate

1/2 Cup butter

1/2 tsp salt

1 1/4 Cups of evaporated milk

1/4 cup plus 1 Tablespoon 100 percent pomegranate juice

3 Cups granulated sugar

1 tsp vanilla

Fill a saucepan halfway with water. Place a glass or heat resistant bowl on top of saucepan (double boiler). Heat on medium heat. Add butter, salt and chocolate to bowl. Heat until melted, stirring occasionally.

Add milk and pomegranate juice. Mix well. Your chocolate will be kind of grainy and mottled looking at this point. The sugar will provide smoothness. Whisk and add 1/2 cup sugar at a time. Whisk constantly until sauce begins to thicken. You don't need it too thick just syrupy.

Remove from heat and whisk in vanilla. Spoon into containers. Sauce will continue to thicken as it cools.

Store in refrigerator. Reheat for 15 to 30 seconds at a time in microwave for hot fudge sauce.

Now don't you think that looks like a yummy holiday gift? Don't worry I saved a lot for myself.

Chunky Garden Salsa for Canning

Deep Breath! I opened my last jar of last year's salsa and the tomatoes have been ripening on the vine. It is time to can salsa. This is no one day project for me. I need lots of salsa. Because this is no short process and totally a labor of love, this post is going to be a little lengthy. And so I bring you my salsa recipe with a couple words of warning. Once you have had your own freshly canned salsa you will never ever go back to that store bought stuff again. You will not be able to stomach it. You will be forever enslaved over the stove every Fall as you stock up on your own salsa version. Here is mine. It is my own recipe and definitely has some secret ingredients that I promise to share with you. It has some heat but it is definitely not in the upper heat ranges. I would say it is medium. I recently updated my recipe to include the safe amounts of citric acid, a.k.a vinegar or lemon or lime juice, needed for canning salsa with veggies.

Secret #1: Use a variety of tomatoes. Some recipes call for all paste or romas. But where is the fun in that? Every tomato variety has a different flavor, texture and acidity. The more varieties you use the more complex your salsa flavor. I used 4th of July, beefsteak and Mr. Stripey tomatoes this year because that is what I had access to. I also always add one or two yellow tomatoes to my salsa. If you don't have the yellows in your garden visit your local farmer's market.

Secret #2 Tomatillos. I always and I mean always add six or seven tomatillos to each salsa batch. In the past I have grown tomatillos but this year I didn't. So, I bought some from a lady at the Farmer's Market who had three different varieties. Was I ever giddy. The tomatillos add a lemony zing to the salsa.

Secret #3 I substituted some of my vinegar with lime juice.

Salsa Directions Makes 9 to 10 pints
18 to 20 Cups of tomatoes,scalded peeled and cored (use a variety) .
6 or 7 tomatillos, chopped (pepery husk removed)
3 jalapenos, finely chopped (1 with seeds) you can devein and seed the other two if you want. Use caution when chopping peppers. Do not touch your face or use gloves.
2 green peppers, chopped
1 red pepper, chopped
2 anaheim peppers (seeded) chopped
2 - 12 oz cans of tomato paste
4 medium yellow or white onions finely chopped
4 TB salt
1 Tb black pepper
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 1/2 Cup vinegar
1/2 Cup lime juice or lemon juice
3/4 TB cumin
3/4 Tb oregano
1/2 Tb chili powder
1 tsp brown sugar (optional)

Prepare tomatoes by placing in boiling water for 15 to 30 seconds.Remove from boiling water and plunge into ice water. Peel skins by breaking skin with a knife and sliding off. Remove blemishes and upper core. Chop over large stock pot. Add remaining ingredients.


Stir and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for about 30 minutes. Stir occasionally. Add to warm canning jars. (I keep my clean jars in the dishwasher and run the rinse cycle again right before using.) Leave a 1/2 inch head space. Wipe jar rim with clean paper towel and add two piece lids. Process in a boiling water bath or steam canner for 20 minutes. Remove and let cool on a kitchen towel for 24 hours. Check for seal. Remove outer rings. Wipe any leaks or spills and store.

Tip: Wipe down your chopping area with milk when finished to neutralize any juices from those potent chilies.

Pear Pecan Salad with Homemade Raspberry Vinaigrette

Featured Pantry/Food Storage Items: Canned Pears, Vinegar and Nuts.

Pantry Storage Suggestion: Stock up on an extra bag of nuts this grocery tip.

This is going to be a special post with three recipes. Why am I feeling so generous? Frankly, I am so busy preserving food I only have time to do one post but also because all these recipes go together. They need to be together.

I often question my sanity while in the throes of canning season. "Do I really need all those canned pears?" I ask myself. After stumbling across this salad the other day using some canned pears, all I could think of was maybe I need to do more pears. I restrained myself. I still have so much canning to do, including salsa, which is really a project. Anywho -- I also do canned pears because the difference between home canned pears and store canned pears is laughable. They are so tasty when you do them yourselves. I can my pears in 100% white grape juice. I decided to throw some canned pears in my spinach salad. Garnished by yummy extras and some raspberry vinaigrette, heavenly.

Well, now I decided I needed to make my own raspberry vinegar (I had extra raspberries after two batches of raspberry jam) just so I could make my own vinaigrette all winter. So, I bring you the tasty three recipes that will keep you in delicious salads bright with flavor year round. My daughter, a non salad dressing kind of gal, loves this stuff. She asks for it on everything from her raisins to her spinach.

Raspberry Vinegar.

2 Cups raspberries

1 quart white wine or white vinegar

1/2 Cup sugar

Mash fruit in a large bowl. Put crushed fruit, vinegar and sugar into a large nonreactive pot. Bring to a simmer for 10 minutes. Remove from heat and let stand, covered, until cool. To remove fruit pulp, strain through a cheesecloth lined funnel into glass container. Cap with a nonmetallic lid. I like the new plastic screw on lids for canning jars. If you decide to use a decorative jar make sure it has a plastic or cork lid. The vinegar can be used immediately.

Raspberry Vinaigrette I actually cut the following recipe by 1/3 because the dressing should be used in 7 to 10 days and I am more of a sprinkler than a pourer.

1 1/2 Cup raspberry vinegar

3/4 cup sugar

1 TB poppy seeds

1/2 tsp dry mustard

1/2 Cup vegetable oil.

a dash of salt (optional)

Mix raspberry vinegar and sugar in a bowl and let sit until sugar is dissolved. Add poppy seeds and dry mustard and salt. Mix well. Whisk in oil and whisk until well combined. Chill and serve.

Pear Pecan Salad There are no real measurements here because it depends on how many people you are feeding.

Canned pears (I would use 2 halves per person.)

Baby spinach

A handful or two of pecans

1/4 cup of mozzarella cheese chunks per person

herbed croutons

freshly shredded Parmesan cheese

Toss and top with Raspberry Vinaigrette.

Pineapple Pear Jam

OK, first of all, I don't know what is going on with all my buttons. Please excuse the crazy photo bucket upgrade stuff. I did not make my own buttons and am therefore completely ignorant as to what to do. I am seeking help but please bear with me until then.

Now onto the real post.

Sweet Sunshine. Pear season is here and I am happy to say I made it through my first 30 lbs of pears. One of my favorite pear recipes comes from a fellow canner and neighbor. She sent this pear pineapple jam recipe my way last year and I was hooked. It is such a refreshing and unique jam. It is actually the only jam I make with the full amount of sugar and is therefore a little more time consuming then my other jam recipes.

This recipe can be doubled. I made seven 4 oz jam jars and 3 half pints from the following amounts.

4 Cups of pears peeled and cored and mashed to make 3 cups

10 oz of crushed pineapple (1/2 a 20 oz can)

1 1/2 Tbs lemon juice

1 package of fruit pectin ( I did not use Pomonas Pectin for this recipe)

4 1/2 cups of sugar.

Prepare and sterilize jars and jar rings. Keep jars warm in boiling hot water or on the Heated dry setting of your dishwasher until ready to use.

Mash pears and add pineapple. Pour fruit into a 6 or 8 quart saucepan. Gradually stir in pectin. Over high heat, and stirring constantly bring fruit to full boil that cannot be stirred down. Add entire amount of sugar all at once and stir to dissolve. Return to a full rolling boil and boil for 1 minute, stirring constantly. Skim foam from top. Ladle into hot jars and fill 1/8 inch from the top. Carefully place lids and tighten rings. Process in a water boiling canner or steam canner for 5 minutes. Add an additional five minutes for every 3000 miles above 3000 miles above sea level. i.e. I process for 15 minutes because my altitude is above 6000 feet.

Enjoy and don't forget to give a few away.

Triple Berry Jam

Triple Berry Jam, be still my heart, I just love this stuff.

Now I realize that I have been posting a lot of canning, jam and herb recipes, but that is what I do in the summer -- A big part of my food storage plan is to store up summer's bounty.

My Boysenberry and Blackberry bush our having a heyday in my backyard. Unfortunately, I have yet to get enough of one berry at once to make jam. OK actually, we just can't keep from eating the little beauties as they come off the vine full of the taste of sunshine. I also can't remember which bush is blackberry and which is boysenberry. So I combined 2 cups of the black beauties with a cup of strawberries to make this triple berry jam. And seriously, its hard to keep myself from eating it by the spoonful. Oh I do hope I can hoard enough berries for another batch.

I basically followed the same recipe for my blueberry jam. I used my Pomona pectin. I still have enough from my original box left for another batch of jam. The Pomona Pectin is a very economical purchase for your food storage.

2 Cups of mashed berries make appx. 2 jelly jars.

Recipe

3 cups of mixed berries (boysenberry, strawberry, blackberry)mashed to make 2 cups.

1 tsp Pomona Pectin

1 tsp calcium water (packet available in Pomona Pectin)

3 Tbsp lemon juice

1/2 to 3/4 Cup fructose or sugar

Rinse, and mash berries. Add lemon juice and calcium water. Mix.

Combine sugar and pectin in a separate bowl and mix well. Bring fruit to a boil and add pectin/sugar mixture to jam. Stir vigorously for 1 to 2 minutes until pectin is fully dissolved. Return to boil and remove from heat. Fill jars to 1/4 inch of the top. Wipe rims clean and place two lids and rim rings onto jars. Process jam jars in a boiling water canner or steam canner for 5 minutes plus one additional minute for every 1,000 feet above sea level.

When done processing, remove from water and let jars cool completely. Make sure your seal is complete. Lid should be concave and sucked in.

Opened jars last for three weeks once opened. (Like its going to be around that long.)

Tarragon Vinegar -- Add A Little Gourmet To Your Pantry

Every pantry needs a little splash of gourmet and flavored vinegars are an easy way to bring pizazz to your pantry shelves. I am a huge fan of the mild licorice flavor of tarragon. I often stumble across recipes that call for tarragon vinegar. Unfortunately, I have a hard time shelling out the bucks for a store bought gourmet vinegar. Because I love tarragon in so many other recipes I grew my own this year and promised myself at least one bottle of tarragon vinegar. Yesterday, I made one of my favorite crock pot dishes tarragon chicken, and I realized I still had no tarragon vinegar. I made do without but vowed never again and promptly made some this morning.

Herbed vinegars are so easy to make. You can substitute any herbs you want for this recipe but here is the tarragon recipe. I am going to include the link to the crock pot tarragon chicken recipe, even though it is not really all that food storage friendly, just to inspire you to make up some of your own tarragon vinegar.

Recipe for 1 bottle of Tarragon Vinegar
3 Cups White vinegar or white wine vinegar. (I didn't have enough white wine vinegar left so I used the stronger flavored white vinegar).

3 large sprigs of tarragon

2 large garlic cloves

1 tsp rosemary leaves.


Clean a glass or ceramic vinegar or oil bottle that has a rubber or cork stopper.

Place herbs and garlic in bottle.

Simmer vinegar in a nonreactive pan (non aluminum). Pour hot vinegar over herbs. Allow to cool and top with stopper. Let sit one to two weeks before using to allow flavor to mature.

So Easy, So Fast. You may get another vinegar recipe from me soon. I want to try a strawberry or blackberry vinegar.

Crockpot Tarragon Chicken from Spark People

Canned Cherries in Juice

By now you know that I don't like to add tons of sugar to my food. I especially like to avoid a ton of refined sugars in my canned and preserved food. So, I bring you my canned cherries. I almost can't wait to pull these little jewels out of the pantry this Winter. But I can definitely wait for Winter. I raw packed these cherries in 100percent no sugar added apple/cherry juice. I usually can my peaches in a white grape/peach juice blend and they are beautiful peachy treats in the winter.

I am a big fan of Old Orchard frozen juice concentrates. They have no added sugar and come in really great juice blends. I love their apple cherry juice. If you can't find this juice, plain apple juice or white grape juice will work for this recipe.

I am also a really big fan of a cherry pitter. I would not can cherries without one. They make life easier and even the kids love to use this contraption. In my house the cherry pitter means I will have instant cherry pitter volunteers.

Recipe
1 can of pepared apple cherry juice concentrate will fill about 2 1/2 quarts of raw packed cherries. So stock up on enough to fill however many jars you are canning.

Pitted cherries 2 1/2 pounds per quart.

Fruit Fresh (ascorbic acid)-Optional

Prepare your fruit. This can take a little time. Fill large bowl of cherries with water. Discard any cherries that float to the top. Rinse cherries and pit cherries. If you don't pit your cherries poke with a sterilized needle to prevent bursting during processing. Place cherries in water with Fruit Fresh to avoid discoloration (follow the directions for quantity on the package.
Drain when ready to place in jars.)

Sterilize your glass jars and rims(Remember I just use the sanitize setting on my dishwasher) and keep warm until ready to use. Simmer your jar lids in warm water (Do not boil).

Heat juice to boiling on the stove.

Raw pack method:
Place appx. 1/2 cup of juice in warm jars. Pack with cherries, shaking gently to settle cherries and then pour hot juice over cherries until 1/2 inch from the top. Using a plastic knife, gently run the plastic knife up and down through the cherries to remove bubbles. Wipe the rims of the jars with a clean wet cloth or paper towel to remove any sticky juice. Place lids and rings on jars and process in a boiling water bath or steam canner for recommended time. Processing times depend on size of jar and your elevation above sea level. Google or call your local extension service for safe canning times. I processed my quarts for 40 minutes because I am over 6000 ft above sea level. Jars were sealed properly if you are no longer able to push up and down on the lid.

Hint: Make sure there are no chips or nicks in your jar rims.