Friday, October 01, 2010

Sweet Pumpkin Pickles and Jardiniere

This weekend, I am teaching a class for Ann Arbor Rec and Ed about making pickles. These two recipes are the ones we are going to make in the class...both inspired by recipes I saw in the Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving.  and The Joy of Pickling. I've tweaked them a little to make them work out for my class of 6.

Sweet Pumpkin Pickles
Makes about 6 pints

Brine:
2 cinnamon sticks, halved
12 whole allspice
10 whole cloves
1 lemon
6 c. granulated sugar
4 c. white vinegar

Pumpkin
6 lbs pie pumpkins (depends on size) to make 24 cups peeled seeded pie pumpkin cut into 3/4 inch cubes

Tie spices in a square of cheesecloth; set aside.  Zest lemon, remove pith and separate sections from the membrane and coarsely chop.  Squeeze any juice from the membrane into a stainless steel pot, and add zest and sections.  Add spice bag, sugar and vinegar and boil for 10 minutes.  Add pumpkin and heat through, about 3 minutes.

Pack pumpkin into hot pint jars, leaving 1/2 inch headspace.  Ladle hot syrup into jars leaving 1/2 inch space. Process for 20 minutes in a boiling water bath.

Jardiniere
Makes about 6 pints

Prepare 12 cups fall vegetables, including pepper strips, pattypan squash, carrots, shallots, cauliflower florets.  Prepare 5 pint jars.  Into each jar, place....

a garlic clove
4 peppercorns
4 allspice berries
a fresh tarragon sprig -OR-  a bay leaf
a fresh thyme sprig -OR- a oregano sprig
a fresh hot pepper or two

Fill each jar with vegetables. Prepare a brine with:

2 3/4 c. white wine vinegar or cider vinegar
2 1/2 c. water
5 t. pickling salt

Bring brine to a boil in a non reactive pot, stirring to dissolve the salt.   Pour brine over vegetables, leaving 1/2 inch headspace.  Cap and process in a boiling water bath for 20 minutes.   Store jars in a cool dark space for a month.

4 comments:

Tightwad Mom said...

I wish I lived closer! I would love to take your class! These are great canning recipes.

Anonymous said...

Hi - for the Jardinere, does it only keep for a month, or is a month of storage optimal before eating?

Thanks!

Unknown said...

Can adding citric acid make canned pumpkin pie mix safe?

Unknown said...

No, it is the density of canned pumpkin that is the issue