Doris and Jilly Cook » preserving

Sour Cherry Heaven

dorisandjilly — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 13:05:10 +0000

Sour cherries are one of those ephemeral gifts of nature: if everything goes right, and it’s not too hot, or too cold, and it rains just enough, but not too much, and it doesn’t hail, cherry growers (and eaters) are rewarded with about two weeks of sweet-tart perfection. Because they are so precious, I had never tried to preserve them before this year—I have yet to arrive at the U-Pick the appropriate week, and they’re quite expensive at my local farmer’s market in Clark Park. Last year, though, Marisa over at Food in Jars gave me a rather extraordinary jar of her sour cherry preserves. I wanted some of my own, and, by God, I was going to have some.

But then I went on vacation and missed the harvest at Mood’s. Yet again.

Oh well, I thought. Isn’t eating locally all about learning that food is all about timing?

But to my surprise, some of our market’s Pennsylvania farmers showed up with a few boxes of sour cherries. I bought three pints for $3 each and dived in. I ended up with 4 pints of absolutely divine sour cherry preserves, then promptly opened one jar back up to serve to friends. And next year, I’ll pick my own and can all I want. Really.

Sour Cherry Preserves

3 pints sour cherries, pitted
2 1/2 c. sugar
Juice of one lemon
1 T real vanilla (or use a bean)
1 cinnamon stick

1) Combine all of the ingredients in a pot and bring to a boil. This is never going to gel, but bring it close to the gelling point. I used a candy thermometer and cooked it to 214°F (at sea level). Fish out the cinnamon stick and the vanilla bean, if you’re using them, and turn off the heat.

2) Meanwhile, bring a large pot of water to a boil and prepare 4 half-pint jars. Prepare your lids. Transfer the hot preserves to the hot jars and adjust the two-piece lids. Process in a boiling-water bath for 10 minutes.

Tomato Canning Class

dorisandjilly — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 12:55:43 +0000

OK, all you beet doubters! I’m offering a tomato canning class on Sunday, July 25, at 1 PM. We’ll make some salsa and stuff some tomatoes in jars. You’ll learn the difference between a hot pack and a cold pack. We’ll also discuss pros and cons of water-bath versus pressure canning for tomatoes and how to can sauce safely. And yes, you’ll leave with a jar.

When: Sunday, July 25th, 1 to 3 PM
Where: Doris’s house in West Philadelphia (details upon registration)
Cost: $25 includes all supplies

To register, just send an e-mail to dorisandjilly@gmail.com.

Pickled Beets with Fennel

dorisandjilly — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 12:55:16 +0000

I had no idea that so many people had such a strong aversion to beets. My beet class last weekend was somewhat under-enrolled, and I kept getting e-mails that said, more or less, “I really want to come and learn how to can, except that I can’t stand beets!” How can I convince you that beets are delicious, nutritious, and beautiful to boot? Will this post help?

Picked beets were a staple in my house as a kid growing up. My mother always goes for your basic pickled beet: nothing but white vinegar, water, and sugar. I usually do, too, but on Saturday my CSA included several heads of fennel. Fennel and beets are a natural pair, so the few dedicated beet-loving souls who attended the Saturday class left with a slightly more sophisticated product. If you don’t like fennel, no problem—just leave it out. If, on the other hand, you like a spicy pickled beet, feel free to add any of the following (but probably not all at once) to your pickling jars: peppercorns, cloves, allspice, star anise, dill heads, garlic, or strips of hot pepper.

Beets are a low-acid food, so please don’t change the proportion of vinegar to water. You can, however, use cider vinegar, so long as it’s at least 5% acidity. Finally, the purpose of the sugar is merely to counteract the tartness of the vinegar and preserve the color—it’s not really involved in the safety equation. Feel free to add more or less, depending on your taste, or to substitute brown sugar, raw sugar, or a sugar substitute. I can’t predict what making all of these kinds of changes will do to the color and texture of your beets, but so long as your acid is 5%, it’s safe for water-bath canning. Finally, be sure to wait several weeks to let the beets develop their full flavor. Then devour at leisure.

Pickled Beets with Fennel

About five pounds of beets
One long fennel frond, cut into seven pieces
7 peppercorns
3 1/2 c. distilled white vinegar (5%)
1 1/2 c. water
1 1/2 c. sugar

1) Wash your beets, leaving the roots and 1″ of stems attached. Cook your beets your preferred way. Some options: pressure cooking, boiling, roasting, or wrapped in foil in the crock pot. Cool. If your beets are thoroughly cooked, the skins should slip right off. Leave small beets whole, but cut larger beets into bite-sized pieces (or slice, or quarter, or whatever appeals to you).

2) Make your canning solution. Combine the vinegar, water, and sugar in a small pan and bring to a boil. Meanwhile, heat water for a boiling water bath, warm your jar lids, and have 7 pint jars ready.

3) Place a piece of fennel and a single peppercorn in each jar. Transfer the beets to the jars and cover with hot syrup. Remove air bubbles and add more syrup if necessary, leaving 1/4″ headspace. Adjust two-piece lids. Process in a boiling-water bath for 30 minutes.

4) After the jars have cooled and you’ve checked for seals, be sure to remove the rings. The syrup is sticky, and the rings become difficult to remove if you leave them on too long. Once you’ve opened the jars, you might want to switch to a plastic lid, as the vinegar will quickly corrode a standard canning lid.

Learn to Can Beets

dorisandjilly — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 12:00:39 +0000

Hey kids! There’s still time to sign up for the “Beets Two Ways” class on Saturday, June 26th, at 1 PM. Beets can well, but because they’re a low-acid food, you can’t just pop them in a water bath. In this introductory class, we’ll cover how to pickle beets (making them safe for water-bath canning) as well as how to pressure can them. $25 covers all materials, and you’ll leave with a jar of beets.

What: Beets Two Ways Class
Where: Doris’s house, West Philadelphia
When: Saturday, June 26, 1 PM
How to Register: Send Doris an e-mail

See you then!

Beets for Everyone!

dorisandjilly — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 21:57:43 +0000

Beets! They’re beautiful! They’re delicious! They’re in season! And they’re red!

It’s been a veritable beetfest over here at goat central. We’ve been shredding them, pickling them, and pressure canning them. And, very importantly, teaching other people how to do these things, too. I love a good beet salad in season—one of my favorites follows below—but if you want to eat them in January, you’ve got to think ahead. Hence, the pickles and pressure canning.

Recall that beets are a low-acid food. That means that if you want to can them in a water-bath canner, you’ve got to douse them in acid—that is, pickle them. But if you don’t like pickled foods, you can still preserve them with the help of a handy dandy pressure canner. It’s a bit tricky, but not impossible, to explain this over a blog. I’ve tried to cover the basics in this detailed post on chicken broth. Put the beets into pint jars, cover them with water, and process for 35 minutes at 10 pounds pressure. If this sounds mysterious or scary, though, consider joining me for a “beets two ways” class on Saturday, June 26th, in West Philadelphia. If you want to know what you’re getting into, check out these two great Flickr sets by two adventurous souls who tried it a couple of weeks ago. (That’s me, Doris, in the blue and green flowered apron.)

Details for Beetfest 2! Pickled and Pressure Cooked

When: Saturday, June 26th, 1 PM
Where: Doris’s house in West Philly (details upon registration)
What: Learn to pickle and pressure can beets
Why: Why not?
Cost: $25/person
How to register: Send me an e-mail at dorisandjilly@gmail.com

Beet Salad with Walnuts

Beets
A handful of walnuts
little bits of blue cheese
chopped herbs from the garden
a splash of balsamic vinegar and twice that much olive oil
salt

Cook your beets however you like: boiled, roasted, or, my new favorite, pressure cooked for 10 to 15 minutes (depending on size) at 15 pounds of pressure. Peel and cut into bite-sized pieces. Let cool, then combine with everything else. Devour.

Rhubarb Compote

dorisandjilly — Sat, 22 May 2010 02:29:46 +0000

Sorry, folks, no pictures. This month’s can jam gave me an excuse to do two of my favorite things: eat stuff from the freezer and experiment with rhubarb. Everybody loves strawberries and rhubarb together, right? And since strawberry season has already started, it’s time to clear out the rest of the berries from the freezer, right?

I find myself asking these same questions mid-May each year…so much so that I wrote almost the same post almost exactly a year ago today. Yet the answer is always the same: strawberry rhubarb compote. Last year I froze it, but the texture was, frankly, a bit weird. Canning is almost as easy, with more predictable results, and you don’t have to remember to thaw out the jars. Just head down to your canning stash, pull out a jar, and spoon it over whatever you like to eat. For me, that means yogurt.

Strawberry Rhubarb Compote

2 pounds rhubarb stems, cut into 1/2″ slices
1 quart frozen strawberries
about 3/4 c. sugar (more or less to taste—remember to use less if your strawberries are sweetened)
1/4 c. orange juice

1) Combine everything in a pot and stir until the sugar is dissolved. Bring to a boil, then simmer until the rhubarb breaks down complete. Taste for sweetness, adding more if necessary.

2) Meanwhile, prepare your jars, lids, and a boiling water bath. You’ll need about 3 pints or 6 half-pints.

3) Transfer the hot compote into the hot jars and adjust the two piece lids. Process in a boiling water bath for 15 minutes.

I haven’t tried it, but wouldn’t this make an excellent pie?

Dried Papaya

dorisandjilly — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 14:55:11 +0000

I like papayas. They remind me of the Dominican Republic, where I spent a week two years ago sitting on the beach, drinking rum cocktails, and watching people kite surf. (No kite surfing for me, thanks. I like my neck.) Here in West Philly, where we’re blessed with a large immigrant population, you can find papayas, mangos, daikon radish, bitter cucumbers, and other random produce at dirt-cheap vegetable trucks. I’m not sure that I would buy slightly damaged or B-grade produce off the back of a truck in any other city, but here, the stuff that you find on the truck is the same stuff that you find in local supermarkets because it’s all coming straight off the barge via the Philadelphia Food Distribution Center. I no longer buy anything from the truck that I can get locally, but with papayas I figure: hey, what the hell. No one’s growing those in Lancaster County, and everyone needs a treat now and then in winter, so why not? If you have the willpower to walk away from a $2, 3 pound, good-looking papaya, I salute you.

On a whim, I cut one up and stuck it in the dehydrator. I cut them into 1/3″ strips and dried them at 105°F overnight. After 15 hours, about half of them were done; the other half needed somewhere between 4 to 6 additional hours. The flavor is a little odd. I sort of like them, but my husband thinks they taste like cardboard….coral cardboard. Some foods just don’t dehydrate well on their own—my attempts at strawberries and raspberries were equally weird. If I were to do it again, I think I’d blanch them in a sugar syrup first, and maybe dunk them in coconut. Because, you know, if you’re going to fall off the local foods wagon, why not go all the way?

I do love the idea of dried papaya. Any suggestions on how to make it better?

February Can Jam: CARROTS!

dorisandjilly — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 13:58:31 +0000

(Photo from Chris Campbell’s Flickr photostream)

Attention all canjammers! The focus of the February Tigress Can Jam is CARROTS.

Got that?

Yes, carrots.

The Tigress and I made this choice with both excitement and trepidation. The excitement because vegetables are new territory for many water-bath canners; the trepidation because carrots are a low-acid food, and therefore come with certain rules. So. Let’s be clear. No matter what you find on the internets, you absolutely have to add acid to carrots to make them safe to can. In fact, a lot of acid. So much acid, in fact, that the Tigress and I strongly encourage you—nay, insist!—that you start off with a published recipe, and tweak from there. (If you have a home pH meter and/or are a master food preserver, you get a free pass.) Think pickles, relishes, and chutneys. Once you’ve found a recipe you like, feel free to tinker with the spices, the balance of salt and sugar, the exact combination of vegetables, etc. HOWEVER, be sure that you are not reducing the proportion of acid to the food.

Let’s give an entirely hypothetical (as in, don’t try this at home) example. Say you have a recipe that includes 5 cups of carrots, 2 cups of cauliflower, a handful of herbs, 1 T of salt, 1/4 c. of sugar, and 3 cups of vinegar. It would be fine to reduce the cauliflower to 1 cup and add 1 cup of peppers, throw in some mustard seeds, and add more sugar. It would not be OK, though, to just add a cup of peppers without adding more vinegar, because then you’ve lowered the acid content (that is, raised the pH).

Um, if this is at all confusing, that means you should stick with the recipe.

Have fun, be careful, and remember to post your fabulous creations between Sunday, February 14 and midnight, Friday, February 19.

Happy canjamming!

Strawberry Lemon Marmalade

dorisandjilly — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 17:16:40 +0000

Herewith begins my contribution to the Tigress Can Jam! If you’ve missed it, the canjam is a yearlong canning challenge. Each month, canjammers will be asked to create a water-bath friendly recipe based on a seasonal ingredient. Tigress started us off gently, with citrus. I assumed—rightly as it turns out!—that this would turn into a giant marmalade fest, so I was looking for something just a little bit off-center. I found my inspiration in the freezer: a bag of sugared strawberries I put away last May. Technically, I guess that means I’m in violation of the seasonality rule, but given that these were local berries that I picked and stored myself, I hope you’ll agree that it’s in the spirit of the game.

I *love* the way this turned out. I started with a recipe in the Ball Blue Book, but reduced the sugar (I wanted it tarter), added more lemons, kept the peels, and eliminated the pectin…which makes it not really a Blue Book recipe at all. It’s more in the spirit of the tangerine marmalade I made last month, but with lemons and strawberries instead. Now, if you do the Twitter Thing, you’ll know that sugar has recently been a subject of much controversy. I tell you, people: yes, you can reduce the sugar in a marmalade. The safety question in water-bath canning is about acid. Lemons and strawberries have plenty of acid. As both the National Center for Home Food Preservation and the Ball Corporation’s Fresh Preserving Guide make clear, it is not a safety issue to reduce the amount of sugar in fruit preserves. Now, this is not to say that sugar isn’t a preservative—it is, my friends, it is!—but preservation is fundamentally a different question than safety. Sugar preserves taste and helps you get to the gelling point faster. It also prevents mold, which is why jams and preserves that are high in sugar will last longer once you’ve opened them. Sometimes low-sugar preserves aren’t as pretty as high-sugar preserves, and they often have a softer set. Some people, such as the USDA, say that you need to process low-sugar foods longer than high-sugar foods. (But keep in mind that the French don’t process their canned jams at all, and they’re still here.) In this case, though, there’s so much pectin in the lemons that I achieved an excellent set, without pectin and with less sugar than the recipe called for. And since the product is mostly lemons, it’s plenty acidic.

Tweaking canning recipes is a topic that gets plenty of food educators exercised. Those who object are, quite rightly, concerned about your safety. There is a growing consensus among some in the “new” canning community, however, that some of these rules are a tad too rigid. The spirit of the canjam is to improvise within the limits of safety. Part of the challenge of this exercise is to figure out what you can change (spices, fruit combinations, sweeteners) and what you can’t. If you change the recipe, there is, in fact, a chance that something will go wrong. Maybe your jam won’t set. Maybe it will grow mold in 3 months. But you know what? If you see mold, throw it out. Live and learn. And if you’re worried about botulism, don’t, so long as you’re working in a high-acid (i.e., fruit-filled) environment. My personal opinion is that the USDA rules should be taken as a guideline, not as hard and fast rules. Keep in mind that the USDA also recommends that you not eat raw fish or raw eggs, and that meat should be cooked through. Nevertheless, for the record, when you change a recipe, you are doing so at your own risk.

Now that that’s out of the way, let’s get down to business!

Strawberry Lemon Marmalade

1 qt frozen strawberries, in sugar
4 medium lemons, chopped
3 c. sugar
about 3 c. water

1) Wash your lemons. Slice them as thinly as possible, then chop them into pieces. Put them into your jam pot, cover with water, bring to a boil, and simmer 5 minutes. Turn off the heat and let the pan cool. Put a lid on the pan and walk away. Meanwhile, take your berries out of the freezer.

2) The next day, mash the berries and their juices (I use a potato masher). Toss them into the pot along with the sugar. Bring to a boil. Boil it until you’re just at the gelling point. Be careful: there at the end, it gets quite thick rather quickly, and my last jar is a bit thicker than I might like. There’s *lots* of pectin in the pith.

3) Meanwhile, sterilize 4 or 5 half-pint jars and bring your water bath to a boil. Heat new lids. Transfer the hot jam to the hot jars and adjust the two-piece lids. Process in a boiling-water bath canner for 10 minutes.

My version made 4 half pints and 1 4-oz jar, which I’m giving away! Leave a comment by Monday at 8 AM and I’ll select a winner by random number generator. Happy canning!

Canning Beef Stock and Vegetable Soup

dorisandjilly — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 19:41:13 +0000

A belated Happy New Year to all! I am finally beginning to unfurl from my winter break hibernation. What better way to start the new year, I thought, than with a canning double feature: beef stock AND beef-vegetable soup? As an added bonus, the soup is the perfect vehicle for any number of vegetables that you froze or even canned last summer. If you planned ahead, this is a total local foods/seasonal winner…and it means that you’ll have jars of delicious, warming soup ready for cold days.

One note: you will save time if you make the soup and the stock together, but it will require some coordination and several large pans. You will also need a large pressure canner, not just a small pressure cooker. For the difference, see this refresher post on pressure cooking 101. And remember, kids: it is not remotely safe to attempt to can meat products in a water-bath canner. Don’t even try it.

You’ll work in several steps. First, you’ll make the stock. Then, you’ll make the soup. Next, you’ll can both the soup and the stock at the same time. You’ll want to assemble your soup vegetables while the stock is cooking in the pressure cooker. Then, when you’re warming up the soup, clean out the pressure cooker so it’s ready to use to can the jars. Got it?

Beef Stock

1–3 pounds beef bones (the more you use, the richer the stock)
1 or 2 small onions, cut in half
2 cloves garlic
some leek parts (rescued from my freezer morgue)
2 carrots, scrubbed if organic, peeled if not, cut into 2 or 3 pieces
2 stalks celery, cut into 2 or 3 pieces
A few sprigs of parsley
1 t salt
6 peppercorns
A bay leaf of two

1) Throw everything into a large pressure cooker with 6 quarts of water. Remember, if you want a richer stock and only have 1 pound of beef bones, just use less water.

2) Lock the lid and bring the pressure cooker up to 15 pounds pressure. Cook for 20 minutes (if your bones are frozen, cook it longer). Let the pressure release of its own accord.

3) Drain the stock through a large colander into another pot. Remember, it needs to be big enough to hold 6 quarts of liquid. If you plan to make a soup, rescue the carrots, celery, and meat parts from the food bits and set them aside. Discard everything else.

4) If you want to freeze your stock, transfer it to freezer-safe containers and stop here. If you want to can it, keep reading.

Beef Vegetable Soup

1 1/2 quarts beef stock
Meat bits from the bones
2 carrots (salvaged from the stock), cut into pieces
2 stalks celery (salvaged from the stock), cut into pieces
1 quart jar homemade canned tomatoes, in water or juice
1 quart bag frozen corn
1/2 quart bag frozen green beans, cut into pieces
1/2 quart bag frozen greens (beets, turnip, kale, etc.)
1 potato, cut into cubes
1 turnip, cut into cubes

1) Put everything in a big soup pot (note you’ll still have another stockpot full of stock, so you’ll need a second big pan) and bring to a simmer. Just simmer it for 15 minutes. Some of the vegetables may still be hard, but don’t worry about it—you’re going to pressure cook them, after all.

2) Meanwhile, prepare a total of 6 or 7 quart jars for canning. They don’t have to be sterile, but they should be clean. Heat the lids. Clean out the pressure cooker and put a rack in the bottom of it. Have 2 quarts of water boiling on a separate burner.

3) Transfer the soup to the jars. Adjust the two-pieces lids and transfer the jars to the pressure cooker. ****If you’re also canning beef stock, fill those jars and put them in the pressure cooker at the same time. Add the boiling water to the pressure canner. Note to experienced water bath canners: it is not necessary for the water to cover the jars. It’s only there to create steam.

4) Cover and lock the lid. Evacuate the steam for 8 minutes (this means run it without the regulator—see the picture below):

5) CAREFULLY set the regulator on the vent. Process quarts 1 hour 25 minutes at 10 pounds pressure, or pints 55 minutes. After the pressure drops of its own accord, let the pressure cooker sit another 10 minutes or so before opening. Cool and label. These will keep in a cool, dark, place for about a year.

Canning Beef Stock

What’s that? You don’t like vegetable soup? No problem. Just can the stock on its own. Beef stock only needs 25 minutes for quarts or 20 minutes for pints, both at 10 pounds pressure. The longer time above is simply to take advantage of the fact that you’re running the pressure cooker anyway, and a little extra time for the stock won’t hurt a thing.