Ask Mom's Kitchen: Canning questions answered

Readers write, I respond....

I just found your site, and am wanting to can my grapefruit later this week. Can it be done without the syrup and cold packed? I don't want to add more sweet to my grapefuit. Thank you! Trish

Yes, grapefruit can be canned without syrup,  using just water.   Read all about it here in the University of Minnesota's Extension website.  Happy canning!

How long does it take for the fruit to thicken up enough when making Strawberry Spoon Fruit?  Kara

It will take about 45 minutes, depending on the pectin content of the strawberries you are using, Kara.  Strawberries can be unpredictable!  I wish I lived somewhere where strawberries are in season right now.   It's cold and snowy here today in the Mitten!

 I've been looking for ways to modify canning recipes. Is it safe to say that as long as the product is of the same consistency and below 4.6, it's ok for water bath canning? I have a sweet potato BBQ recipe that I really want to make for people for Christmas. Thanks Bethany

Sorry....A sweet potato BBQ sauce wouldn't likely have a pH of < 4.6. Also, I'd worry about the consistency. Did you know it's not safe to can pumpkin butter because it gets too thick? I've never seen a recipe to can anything but boiled potatoes and it is for pressure canning only.  So I'd stay away with anything that had sweet potatoes in it.  

Ask Moms Kitchen: Best BBQ sauce for canning

A reader writes:

I have never canned anything that wasn't a tested recipe, but I have read that you can't can pumpkin puree because of the density, and on here you mentioned pH as one of your indicators on whether or not you could can your bbq sauce. Other than pH and density, what other factors are there in determining whether something is safe to can or not? The reason I ask is that you stated that the woodchick recipe had a pH of 3.8, so I'm wondering why you didn't just can it as is? on Can Jam Aliums: Barbecue Sauce

That is an excellent question!   For those that might not have read my original post, I was trying to come up with a  safe canning recipe for a favorite barbecue sauce we like.  I started out using a canning safe recipe that was similar and tweaked it to get to my recipe.  The original recipe of the sauce contained some ingredients I didn't want to use.  Why not just can it as it is?  As the reader noted, I had tested the pH of the original recipe and it was 3.8, which is well below what's needed to safely can something in a boiling water bath recipe.  The first issue with the original recipe is that it has butter in it.  The USDA doesn't recommend using butter in canning recipes because it can interfere with the sealing process of the jar lid.   Also, I was developing a recipe that I could use fresh tomatoes and costs less than a jar of BBQ sauce you can buy at the store - so I didn't want to use store bought tomato sauce, ketchup or chili sauce.  So when I created my recipe, I used the elements of those items in my ingredients.   For example, I used the things I'd use in a canning recipe for ketchup instead of the ketchup itself, like cloves, and I bumped up the sugar.  The original recipe has such a small amount of chili sauce that I didn't try to duplicate that, but I used hot chili powder instead of mild.  Also, I used real garlic instead of garlic powder.

When I developed that recipe, it was in the middle of winter, so I used canned tomato puree to test it.  I noticed that when I used fresh tomato puree in the summer, the end product came out more watery than the original when I canned it.  I think I probably didn't cook the tomato/onion mixture down long enough or the end product long enough.   I find coring and peeling tomatoes a tedious, labor intensive task, so this year, I plan on employing a technique I learned about in Linda Ziedrich's excellent book Joy of Pickling to make a thick tomato puree without a lot of boiling.   Today looks like it might be an excellent day for canning - the sky is overcast and I am hoping it will rain.  I might pick up some tomatoes at my friend Ann's farm stand on the way home from church to make this year's batch of BBQ sauce. 

Vintage Detroit - D.M. Ferry seed package

Woodchick Style Barbecue Sauce for Canning - 2012 Edition
Makes about 10 half pint jars

10 lb fresh Roma tomatoes (or any other good paste tomato)
5.5 c. finely chopped onions
6 c. white vinegar
3.5 c. brown sugar
1/4 c. dry mustard
1 T. black peppercorns, tied in a cloth bag
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 T. paprika
1/2 c. maple syrup
3/4 c. honey
1 T. ground cloves
2 T. canning salt
1/4 c. Worcestershire sauce
2 T. hot chili powder
2 T. allspice

In a large kettle, drop tomatoes one by one, giving each a squeeze to release some of the seed and liquid. Boil tomatoes gently until they soften.   Our the contents of the kettle into a strainer set over a large bowl.   Let the tomatoes drain a bit.  (helpful hint - don't throw out the juice....it makes an excellent beverage or consomme).  Using a food mill, strain the tomatoes to form a puree.   You can use a Foley food mill, but I use my food strainer attachment on my beloved Kitchen Aid mixer for this task.

In a large stock pot, combine the tomato puree and onions and bring to a boil, boil gently for 30 minutes until onions soften, about 30 minutes.  Using a stick blender puree the mixture until smooth, and then return it to the pot and reduce heat and boil gently until mixture is reduced by half., about 45 minutes    Add remaining ingredients and increase heat to medium and boil gently, stir frequently until the mixture is thickened to the consistency of a thin store bought sauce, about an hour or so. Prepare the canner and lids, and then ladle hot sauce into jars, removing bubbles and leaving a 1/2 inch headspace. Process for 35 minutes. 

Your questions answered about pickles

Hi Mom (hope I can call you that) -

I just came across your blog on canning & McClure's pickles - yum!!

My mother-in-law used to can the BEST pickles but never wrote down the recipe and she passed in 2006.  Needless to say, it's been a LONG time since I've had a decent pickle.  I have been toying with the idea of trying to make some so your blog has intrigued me.

While I can follow most of what you are saying, some of it is very foreign to me - like "place in a non reactive vessel - a pickling crock or large ceramic bowl works great.  Mix 1/2 cup pickling lime mixes with 1 gallon water.  Be careful not to inhale pickling lime dust. "  The bowl - Can I just use a large dark Teflon pot like I make pasta in? Not sure what NON REACTIVE means?  Also I looked up Mrs. Wages pickling lime - comes in a packet.  So I just add 1/2 cup of the packet mix to water?

I'm sure these sound like simple or even stupid questions to you but hey, I need to ask someone.  I want good pickles, don’t I?  Knew you would understand!

Thanks for helping me out!!!

Fran

Hi Fran....don't worry about asking questions - ask away!  What kind of pickles did your mother-in-law make?  There's basically 2 different kinds of cucumber pickles....fresh pickles and fermented pickles.  Fresh pickles are made in a vinegar and salt brine, and they are preserved "fresh" by canning them in a boiling water bath or even kept in your fridge in a jar.   McClure's pickles are a great example of a fresh pickle.  Fresh pickles can be sweet, like bread and butter pickles, or sour.   Fermented pickles are a different species - check this recipe for kosher dills, which are made in a pickling crock and ferment for a long while before they are ready to eat.  When the fermentation stage is done, they can be preserved by processing them in a boiling water bath, or just keeping them in a jar in your fridge.   Preserving them in the fridge slows down the fermentation, but allows you  to reap the naturally occurring probiotics of fermentation.  The bottom line is, you don't buy products like Activia, you can grow your own.   That's what I do - every fall - in a pickling crock in my laundry room.   Examples of fermented pickles are sour kosher dills like you might get in a deli, they are olive colored and generally less crisp, or sauerkraut or kimchi.

To learn how to can food properly, there's no better place than the National Center for Home Food Preservation.  It will take the mystery out of the lingo like "headspace", "process", "adjust the bands", "boiling water bath canner" etc.   

For your first time making pickles, I'd recommend making a fresh pickle, because it's easier.   My favorite recommendation for a first time preserver is to make pickled green beans, because they are simple and beans are easier to pack in a jar than cucumbers.     I don't recommend using pickling lime for a beginning canner, either.   Pickling lime, or calcium oxide, is absorbed into a vegetable or fruit where it combines with it's natural pectin to form calcium pectate and thus a crispier pickle.  However, it requires lots of prep and careful rinsing and using a non-reactive (i.e. non metal) container.   There's a new product out there called "Pickle Crisp" made by Ball that is lots easier to use.   Here's how I'd use it to make a McClure's style pickle:

McClure's Style Fresh Dill Pickles

Printer Friendly

8 lbs small pickling cucumbers, sliced in half or quarters longwise
28 grape leaves
28 cloves of garlic (about 2 heads) peeled
16 dill heads, with sprigs (or 14 t. dill seeds)
Pickle Crisp

Optional 12 small dried hot chili peppers
5 cups vinegar (white or cider)
6 c. water
1/2 c. pickling salt


Place 2 cloves garlic. 2 grape leaves, 2 dill heads and 2 hot peppers and 1/8 t. Pickle Crisp in the bottom of wide mouth pint jars.   Pack with as many pickle halves and spears as possible tightly in each jar.  Prepare a brine with vinegar, water and salt by placing in all ingredients and stirring and heating until brine boils.  Fill jars to 1/2 inch headspace, place lids and bands and hand tighten. Process in a boiling water bath for 10 minutes.

Happy canning!

Your questions answered about pectin

Educate me, please .. .. .. .. what is the function of pectin in jam and jelly recipes? Is it for flavor, texture, thickness, preserving? Thanks ~ Chris

Pectin is what makes jams and jellies gel or "set up".  It's soluble fiber.  Fruits high in pectin are citrus rinds and apples.  I save all my used citrus rinds in the freezer to use again later for jam and jelly making.  I have a zip lock bag in the door, and after I juice a lemon for something, or have a wedge in a beverage, I just throw the rind in that bag.  Also, be sure to save apple cores and peels, which could also be used to make pectin.

Here's how...


Pectin Stock from Citrus

One-half pound peel
1 pint water
4 tablespoons lemon juice.

Cut or grate the yellow from peel for a less pronounced lemon flavor. Pass the peel through a food chopper. Weigh, add lemon juice, mix, allow to stand 1 hour. Add 1 pints water. Let stand 1 hour. Boil gently 10 minutes. Cover, let cool, place in flannel jelly bag and allow to drain. Press to remove juice. Drain juice through a clean bag.

To give the pectin test, pour 1 teaspoonful of jelly stock into a clean cup. Pour into cup a teaspoon of isopropyl alcohol. Gently shake. Pour into a spoon. If the pectin shows a solid clot, your pectin is rich enough for jam and jelly making. (don't drink this - it's poison)  If this mass can be pulled out with a fork and it forms a heaping gob on the tines, it is concentrated enough to jell perfectly. If it can be picked up by the fork, but mostly hangs from it, then it will jell loosely. If it cannot be picked up by the fork in mostly one mass, then the concentration is too weak for it to jell. In this latter case, you just have to boil it down to increase the concentration of the pectin. Note: the alcohol test doesn't work right if the pectin is hot. 
To use in a recipe - use one measure of sugar to one measure of pectin stock. For example, if your recipe calls for 1 cup sugar, you'd use 1 cup of this pectin stock.  This can be stored in the freezer or canned.

Here's a great blog post I found on the subject from a foraging website. 

Happy canning!

Since you asked...

I never get any letters in the mail anymore, but I do get blog comments and they are just as good!  This summer I've got a bumper crop of canning questions questions that need answers....here we go!

I stumbled across your blog by accident, and this cranberry mustard was so delicious! I tend to like spicy mustard though. Do you have a suggestion for how to make this spicier? Prepared horseradish? Do you have a quantity suggestion? Thanks! And I can't wait to try some of your other recipes!

Thank you for the kind words about my blog.   To make this recipe spicier, try experimenting with what kind of mustard you use in it. (don't increase the amount, because you don't want to alter the pH of the final products) I buy all my spices at Penzeys, and they sell an Oriental mustard powder that is hot.   They also sell a horseradish powder you might add in place of some of the mustard.  I had also considered that wasabi powder might be a substitution that would work, but after reading the clever write up about it on Penzey's website, it's best to just try the horseradish powder instead.   I don't have a Penzey's store nearby, so I order my spices from them by mail.  Each order is handpacked and signed by the employee that boxes it up.   Plus, they always tuck in a few extra bottles of things just for a treat.   Their homespun catalog is fun to read, too....kind of like the way "Taste of Home" used to be before it sold out and became what it is today. 

If I don't process Major Grey's chutney and just put it in the fridge, how long will it keep?

The chutney lasts indefinitely in the fridge....however, I'd make a smaller quantity since this recipe makes a lot of chutney.  It made enough for my family for years when I made it last! 

I have a question, do you HAVE to use pectin? I want to make blackberry jam, i am using stevia, and i don't want to buy the Pomona brand, although Akins carry's it, i am frugal to the bone!! **big smile** But my question is, may i use unflavored gelatin to make it set? and will that work or does it alter the taste? This will be my first time making a jam... LOL

You could use gelatin to make a jam kept in the refrigerator.   Here's a great publication from the University of Nebraska extension that has a recipe, plus lots of other information about jam and jelly making.

Hi Mother's Kitchen Can I ask why you are concerned with zucchini in jam? Even taking away my family's history with making zucchini jam, the Classic Zucchini Cookbook among other canning recipe books have a version of this jam in it pg 290, so I wonder why what it is about it that you would consider unsafe to can? Please don't get me wrong, I totally understand you putting a warning on something if you don't consider it safe, hope you don't mind me asking?


That's a great question....while I don't have the cookbook you mentioned available for me to review, many cookbooks include recipes that aren't canning safe.  To be boiling water bath canning safe, a recipe must have a pH of 4.5 or less. The one you posted on your blog had me concerned because of it's potential pH.   The pH of the 8 cups of zucchini is very high - it can be as high as 6.1.   The acidic ingredients in your recipe are the 2 cups apple juice, which could be as high as 4.0.  and the rhubarb, which can be as high as 3.4.  In order to develop a new canning recipe, I always start from a known safe recipe and tweak from there.

A good resource for a canning safe zucchini jam recipe is Linda Ziedrich's Joy of Jams, Jellies and Other Sweet Preserves which has a recipe for marrow jam  (marrow is the British word for zucchini) that I trust to be canning safe, because I know that Linda only publishes proven canning safe recipes.   You will note that Linda's recipe uses 2 1/2 lbs of zucchini and 1/4 cup lemon juice, which has a pH of only 2.6. So reading though it all, it could be that the apple juice and rhubarb might provide enough acidification for your jam, but I wasn't comfortable saying it was because the National Center for Home Food Preservation (USDA) does not recommend canning zucchini at all except pickled.   So, that's why I suggested refrigerating it.   Hope that helps explain my logic. 

Ask Moms Kitchen - food processor, pectin and camping

 

Do we wait anymore for the postman to bring us answers to all of our burning questions?   All I seem to get is junk mail these days.    But I do wait eagerly for comments to my blog posts.   And occasionally, someone asks a question.   So, here are some answers.....

 

Any advice on what to look for in a food processor? Or do you use your beloved Kitchen Aid mixer and call it a day?

 

There are people that use their food processors all the time.   I am not one of them - I prefer to knead bread by hand, and make pastry crust by hand, too.   However, there are certain jobs where the food processor is indispensable - and that's for slicing and grating large amounts of food.   I've owned a Cuisinart and a Kitchen Aid food processor (there are no other brands worth buying, in my book) and I much prefer the Kitchen Aid.   If you monitor the Macy's sales, you can find some good deals on them - I snagged mine for about $100.  That being said, you could use a Kitchen Aid stand mixer with a slicer attachment, but it takes longer to set up. 

 

Can you please tell me how much of your home-made pectin to use in a typical jam recipe (one that would otherwise require bought pectin)

 

Yes, you can find the ratios for typical jam recipes in this blog post.  Also, a great book of jam and jelly recipes that don't require boxed pectin is Linda Ziedrich's Joy of Jams, Jellies and Other Sweet Preserves, and for ideas on flavor combinations, or just fantasizing about taking a trip to France, I like to browse Christine Ferber's Mes Confitures.  However, that book isn't really user friendly. 

 

I would love to see your kaper chart and schedule from Girl Scout camping. I camp with my girls quite a bit, but this year am coordinating a camp trip for the entire service unit (45 girls) and would love to see what worked for others. I would also like to see the egg on a stick info.

Sure!  For those not involved in Girl Scouting, a kaper chart is used to divide up camp duties, otherwise you might end up with what I like to call a "Lord Of The Flies" situation, where there is youth anarchy and no one has fun or eats anything or gets their tent set up.  I made my Kaper Chart back when my Scouts were Brownies....now they are Seniors and they have to figure things out for themselves.   I wrote this post about Girl Scout camping a while ago...it reminds me that I should write about Boy Scout camping sometime....I have a Boy Scout, too.   Boy Scout camping is similar to Girl Scout camping in that there is plenty of opportunity for a "Lord of the Flies" situations, but Boy Scout camp usually involves more axes and knives, which adds a greater degree of parental angst.   But it's fun, too! The adult leader Boy Scout magazine has lots of great info and recipes for camping...check it out. 

To make an egg on a stick, here is what you do:

• First, since I know you are using Leave No Trace principles as a good Girl Scout should...you are not using an actual stick but a metal marshmallow roaster stick.   That's good, because it makes egg on a stick work even better.  
•  Use older eggs because fresh eggs are hard to peel.  Carefully poke a hole in each end with tip of a pocket knife. Stick the skewer straight through the egg longways through the holes.  
•  Keeping the stick parallel to the ground (if pointed up or down it will slide), roast it over the coals like a marshmallow, rotating it to cook evenly.  You can pull the stick out to check for doneness - hard or soft cooked
• When it is done to your liking, carefully remove from the stick (it will be hot) and when it has cooled enough to touch, peel and eat.

Your scouts will be amazed!  Have fun....