Q. Fresh green beans are out of season and are very expensive at the moment. Have you ever heard of using [...]]]> Ask the Goats is an occasional Monday feature in which we attempt to answer your questions about growing, making, eating, and preserving food. Got a question for the goats? Drop us a line at dorisandjilly@gmail.com.

Q. Fresh green beans are out of season and are very expensive at the moment. Have you ever heard of using frozen for something like canned four-bean salad? They would already have been blanched. I’m guessing they would need to be dried well after thawing first but other than that would they work?—Natalia

Q. Just a question…can pickled three-bean salad then be frozen?—Shana

A. The answer to both questions is yes. But why would you?

Let’s take Shana first. I’m not entirely sure whether you wanted to freeze a fresh or canned four-bean salad, but neither strikes me as a particularly good idea. Fresh vegetables with vinegar in them do not, in general, freeze well. And if you’re talking about freezing a jar of pickled three-bean salad that you’ve opened, the resulting texture is going to be very sad. Remember, you’ve already simmered these beans in a vinegar solution and subjected them to 15 minutes in a boiling-water bath. Any remaining crispness is going to be obliterated by freezing. If you can’t finish your jar of three-bean salad in one sitting, rest assured that it will keep open in your refrigerator for at least a week. After all, it’s pickled.

On to Natalia. It’s the same problem, only in reverse. The texture of frozen green beans is not great to begin with. Although I haven’t personally tried it, I would guess that a canned four-bean salad that included frozen green beans would be very limp indeed. But I’m still having a hard time imagining why you would want to do this, since frozen green beans are already preserved. As Natalia herself points out, green beans are out of season. If you’re already buying frozen green beans anyway, why not just thaw out as much as you can consume at any given time? Why go through the time and effort of preserving something that’s already preserved?

I actually went back to Natalia on this very issue, and her answer made me reconsider. First, she cited cost—but that doesn’t answer the “why-bother-canning-them” question. More to the point, she said, “It’d be something I could can off season, not in the rush and heat of summer, and have available to eat from a jar this winter.” And that’s when I realized that I have, of course, done this very thing with frozen fruits, and even blogged about it here, and that it was more than a little hypocritical of me to chastise Natalia for canning green beans off-season. On more than one occasion, faced with a counter full of freshly picked strawberries, blueberries, or cherries, I’ve decided to stash the extras in the freezer and deal with them in the winter. Other people have told me that they enjoy off-season canning as a way to sharpen their food preservation skills, the better to face the onslaught of summer produce.

So, Natalia, you have my apologies. That being said, I still wouldn’t can a four-bean salad from frozen green beans, unless they’re your own. I think the texture will be disappointing, and if you end up tossing the results, you’ve negated the cost savings from buying frozen in the first place. If you find it more convenient to can a four-bean salad in winter than in summer, at least go with fresh green beans. And if you just want off-season canning practice, I recommend working with something where the texture is less critical, like a jam made with frozen fruit. Better yet, explore what you can do with the remaining produce that’s still available. You could make applesauce, or any number of pickled carrot thingies, or lemon curd.

How do you feel about off-season canning? Do you oppose it in principle? Endorse it only for things that come out of your own food preservation stash (root cellaring, freezing, etc.)? Love it for time management?

Q. Can tangerine marmalade be made with Stevia and/or Splenda for people like me who have diabetes?—Deborah

A. You can absolutely make [...]]]> Ask the Goats is a semi-regular Monday feature in which we attempt to answer your questions about growing, making, eating, and preserving food. Got a question for the goats? Drop us a line at dorisandjilly@gmail.com.

Q. Can tangerine marmalade be made with Stevia and/or Splenda for people like me who have diabetes?—Deborah

A. You can absolutely make a fruit spread from Stevia, Splenda, or other sugar substitutes. You can also go sugar free. If you want a consistency that in any way resembles a traditional jam or marmalade, however, you’ll need to add some form of pectin. Sugar is essential to the gelling process, so when you reduce or eliminate it, you have to add some other means of structural support. Although I haven’t had much experience with it myself, many low-sugar canners swear by Pomona’s Pectin. Laura at Squirrel it Away! recently posted an extremely helpful piece about her experiences converting her high-sugar recipes to low-sugar jams with the help of Pomona’s Pectin. (Note, though, that hers still include 1/2 c. of honey, which may be too much for you.)

Depending on what sort of artificial sweetener you’d like to use, you’ll probably need to experiment to locate just the right amount. You should also be aware that some artificial sweeteners (I don’t have enough experience with them to know which ones) produce an off-flavor when heated, so you’ll probably want to add your sweetener at the last possible minute before transferring the marmalade to the jars. For ideas, a good place to start would be Norma McRae’s Canning and Preserving Without Sugar.

Finally, remember that sugar is a preservative. While it’s safe to can reduced-sugar or sugar-free fruit products, be aware that they won’t last as long as traditional jams once you open them. You should plan on eating the contents of your jars within a week or two. If you can’t finish them that quickly, you might want to consider smaller jars.

Good luck, and please report back on your results!

Q. Is it really necessary to sterilize the jars for jams? I’ve been making [...]]]> Ask the Goats is a semi-regular Monday feature in which we, the goats, attempt to answer your questions about growing, making, eating, and preserving food (though you probably don’t need much help with the eating). Send your questions to dorisandjilly@gmail.com.

Q. Is it really necessary to sterilize the jars for jams? I’ve been making marmalade for many years, and I figure that since the marmalade is almost boiling hot when it goes into the jars, that should do the job. At least, I’ve never had any go bad in the jar.—Ed

A. Weeeeeeeel. It depends. If you’re doing everything else by the book—using a sugar to fruit ratio of at least 1:1, processing your jars for 10 minutes, heating up the lids—it’s highly unlikely that you would have any problems with mold or yeast formation in marmalade unsterilized jars. But those are a lot of ifs.

There are only so many corners that you can cut when canning fruit preserves. You want to reduce the sugar? Fine, but be sure to process the jars for at least 10 minutes. You want to thumb your nose at the USDA and skip processing altogether, like the French? OK, but be sure to use a full 1:1 sugar ratio and sterilized, piping hot jars—and don’t expect the jars to last forever.

The short answer is that you need not sterilize your jars if your processing time is longer than 10 minutes (see the Ball Company’s helpful FAQ for more information). The longer answer is that I often sterilize my jars, both out of habit and because hot jars are less likely than cold jars to break when placed in a boiling water bath. There’s no harm in it, and it doesn’t require any extra energy since you have to boil the water anyway. More importantly, it helps solidify your canning routine so that you’ll automatically remember to sterilize your jars when you really need to.

Long story short: it’s good practice, and harmless, but probably not strictly necessary so long as you’re processing for 10 minutes or more.

Q. I would like to can kimchi so that it can be preserved without refrigeration and for longer periods. Is this possible? You have no [...]]]> Ask the Goats is a semi-regular Monday feature in which we, the goats, attempt to answer your food preservation questions. Got a question? Drop us a line at dorisandjilly@gmail.com.

Q. I would like to can kimchi so that it can be preserved without refrigeration and for longer periods. Is this possible? You have no information on your site.—Robin A.

A. Alas, no. All sources I’ve seen say that while it’s safe to can sauerkraut and fully fermented cucumber pickles, it is not a good idea to can kimchi. Although I have yet to find an extended explanation, there seem to be two separate issues. First, there’s the practical problem that kimchi is generally too fragile to withstand the heat of a water-bath processor. Fresh kimchi is delicious; boiled kimchi, not so much. But putting aside the texture, there’s also the question of acidity. In fully fermented foods, like sauerkraut, the lactic acid produced by the bacteria is strong enough to bring the acidity below a pH of 4.6—the magic number necessary to make a food safe for water-bath canning. The shorter fermentation period in kimchis, however, is usually not strong enough to ensure such a high pH.

There’s one other thing to consider. If you’re eating fermented foods for their health-giving properties, keep in mind that canning will kill the good bacteria along with the bad. Killing bacteria is, after all, the point of water-bath processing.

And finally, yes, you really should refrigerate your kimchi. I just had to throw out a batch that I’d been storing in my 55°F basement. I had hoped that the temperature would be cold enough to inhibit the growth of molds, but such was not the case. The kimchi at the very bottom of the jar was still edible, but the rest of it had an off-taste from mold spores that had dissolved in the brine. Another jar of fully fermented pickled green tomatoes, on the other hand, had been more successful at fending off the molds. Presumably the higher acidity level had something to do with it. Chalk it up to lessons learned.

Q. Last week I canned a few quarts of crushed and whole tomatoes. I thought I had done everything correctly, including [...]]]> Ask the Goats is a weekly feature in which we attempt to answer your questions about growing, making, preserving, and eating food. Got a question for the goats? Drop us a line at dorisandjilly@gmail.com.

Q. Last week I canned a few quarts of crushed and whole tomatoes. I thought I had done everything correctly, including allowing proper headspace in my jars. However, after processing some of the jars leaked  some of their juices while cooling.  At first I was concerned, but it seemed that the jars had sealed properly so I cleaned them and put them away.  I checked on the jars yesterday and found that the two quarts of crushed tomatoes had leakage signs.  I tossed them out

A: Ah, siphoning—the canner’s bane. The problem you’ve described is fairly typical, especially in pressure canning (see this earlier Ask the Goats on a related problem). Whether you’re water-bath canning or pressure canning, the cause is the same: a sudden change in temperature or pressure can cause trapped air in the jars to suddenly expand, forcing liquids out. In a pressure canner, you can reduce the chance of the problem by leaving the jars to cool in the canner, but obviously, this strategy won’t work in the water-bath. What you can do is turn off the heat and take off the lid when the processing time is done, then wait five minutes. This cools things down a bit and reduces the chance that you’ll get siphoning without overcooking the product too much. I had never noticed this before your question, but it’s actually the strategy recommended in many canning books, including the Ball Blue Book and Put ‘Em Up.

The main danger from siphoning is that it can interfere with your seal. If this is the case, refrigerate or reprocess them. Depending on their contents, you might even be able to add more liquid before trying again. If you do get a seal, the jars are safe, but you’ll want to eat them first, as they’ll be more prone to oxidation. Again, this isn’t a safety issue, but a quality issue.

As for preventing the problem in the first place: siphoning is much more likely to happen in liquid-y products (peaches in  light syrup, pickled peppers, tomatoes in water, etc.) than in thick, gloppy canned goods (jams, chutneys, relishes). Be sure to remove air bubbles, and watch that headspace. Then cross your fingers, spin three times, and hum.

Q. I made a beef stew in a 350°F oven. That’s hotter than a water bath, so why can’t I just can the stew as is? Why [...]]]> Ask the Goats is a (mostly) weekly feature in which we, the goats, attempt to answer your food preservation questions. Got a question? Drop us a line at dorisandjilly@gmail.com.

Q. I made a beef stew in a 350°F oven. That’s hotter than a water bath, so why can’t I just can the stew as is? Why do I need a pressure canner?—anon (to me, anyway) via Kaela at Local Kitchen

A. This is a great question, just at that point where common sense bumps up against the laws of physics. We say, over and over again, that the heat of a water-bath canner is not sufficient to kill off the kinds of nasties (botulism, I’m looking at you) that can live in low-acid, anerobic environments (i.e., beef stew). But, obviously, a 350°F oven is much hotter than the 212°F of boiling water. So, what’s the problem?

The problem has to do with what’s inside the stew pot. When an oven thermometer reads 350°F, that means that the air temperature is 350°F. Your stew, on the other hand, is going to be hovering at its boiling point. This is a consequence of what’s called the Phase Change Law, which says (more or less), that a substance will maintain the temperature at which it changes phase until the phase change is complete. Water melts at 32°F, and it boils at 212°F. If you put a pot of boiling water in the oven, it’s not going to get above 212°F until all of the water has turned to steam. Then, and only then, can the temperature start increasing.

Now, in beef stew, you’ve got a liquid that, depending on what it has in it (water, wine, stock, etc.) is boiling probably somewhere between 190°F and 212°F. But you’ve also got solids that are probably at a lower temperature. Think of what happens when you put a large roast in the oven. You might cook it for hours, and it might still be at 150°F. All of which is to say that your beef stew is nowhere near 240°F.

But how does the pressure canner do it? Well, when I said that a substance that’s changing phase will maintain an even temperature, that’s not quite true. It will maintain an even temperature under conditions of constant volume and pressure. Crank up the pressure, and the temperature goes up. And hence, safe canning conditions for low acid foods.

Want more canning advice? Check out the liveblogging stream from the panel on canning, preserving, and foraging that I participated in with Marisa from Food in Jars, Hank from Hunter Angler Gardener Cook, and Sean from Punk Domestics at last weekend’s BlogHerFood conference in San Francisco. I had a blast, and I hope those in attendance found it as informative as I did entertaining.

Q. Hi. I am not new to canning. But something happened this year that has never happened before. [...]]]> Ask the Goats is a weekly series in which we attempt to answer your questions about growing, making, eating, and preserving food. Got a question for the goats? Drop us a line at dorisandjilly@gmail.com.

Q. Hi. I am not new to canning. But something happened this year that has never happened before. I canned 16 quarts of vegetable soup. I used the water bath method and processed them for 1 hour. I checked the seals and they were good. One week later the lids started pinging. What went wrong? That was an awful lot of work to throw away. I am very disgusted. P.S. My salsa, peach preserves, strawberry jam are all sealed and delicious.—Mary

A. Alas, Mary, vegetable broth is a low-acid food, and therefore not safe for water-bath canning. For the purposes of canning, all foods are either high-acid or low-acid foods. The kinds of food-born pathogens that can live in a high-acid environment can be killed fairly easily with moderate heat, so you can process them in a boiling water bath. Low-acid foods, on the other hand, can harbor botulism spores that are not destroyed at 212°F. Low-acid foods must be processed in a steam pressure canner that can reach much higher temperatures (usually 240ºF).

Remember, only fruits (excluding tomatoes, figs, green mangoes, and white peaches) and certain kinds of fermented pickles are acidic enough for water-bath canning without adding acid. For everything else, you have to either acid—sometimes in substantial quantities—or use a pressure canner.

Pressure can vegetable stock just as you would chicken stock (for step-by-step directions, click here). The Ball Blue Book recommends 35 minutes for quarts at 10 pounds pressure. If you don’t have a pressure canner, you’ve got to freeze it.

In happier news, the winner of the Put ‘Em Up! giveaway is Amanda Nelson, who’s new to canning and expecting twins! I think your strategy to put up as many nibble-ables as possible is an excellent strategy.

Q: When you have a boiling-water bath recipe, how much do you adjust the processing time for different size jars?  Most jam [...]]]> Ask the Goats is a weekly feature in which we, the goats, attempt to answer your questions about growing, making, eating, and preserving food. Got a question? Drop us a line at dorisandjilly@gmail.com.

Q: When you have a boiling-water bath recipe, how much do you adjust the processing time for different size jars?  Most jam recipes have processing times for 1/2 pint jars, but what if I wanted to can pint size jars?  Or vice versa? Sometimes I don’t have all the same size jar for one recipe and I don’t want to over or under process.–MP

A: Great question! When you’re processing the jars, you’re doing two things. First, you’re heating up the air inside the jars and thereby forcing some out. This creates a vacuum when the jars cools. In a good rolling boil, you can accomplish this in about 5 or 10 minutes, regardless of the size of the jars.

The variable processing time for different size jars has to do with the second function of heating up the jars: killing food-borne pathogens like yeasts, molds, and bacteria. The length of time to accomplish this depends on the size and contents of the jars. For some foods, like applesauce or grape juice, the processing time will be the same regardless of whether you’re making half-pints, pints, or quarts. In most cases, though, you have to add time—typically 5 or 10 minutes—for larger jars.

If you’re moving to smaller jars, you’ll definitely be safe using the recommended processing time, but—depending on what you’re making—you map run the risk of over-processing. This isn’t an issue for things that have already been cooked a long time, like ketchups, chutneys, and most sauces. Things get a little more dicey when texture matters, for instance, peaches and pickles.

So, to make a long story short: there is no rule of thumb for whether and/or how much time to add or subtract when switching between jar sizes. With jams,  you should feel free to move between quarter-pint, half-pint, and pint jars. For everything else, you’ll want to check your recipe against a published canning reference. Both the Ball Blue Book and the National Center for Home Food Preservation are pretty good about listing different times for different sizes. And besides, it’s not such a bad idea to check their guidelines anytime you’re using a recipe you’ve found online.

Happy canning!