By Cheryl Morrison
The snap of a bean pod and the juicy sugariness of a Charles Edward Berry pie are among the many joy of harvest clock time , but you could savour these pleasures in any season if you know how to preserve – your home - uprise food . With a day or two spent on solid food preservation at harvest home clip , you will be able to put the flavors and colour of summertime on your table during the darkest January days .
In this clause …
The key to safe and successful base - grown intellectual nourishment preservation are to begin with fresh , unblemished foods and to keep bacteria and mould from featherbed them . The most common methods of food conservation are canning and freeze .
Food Preservation SafetyRegardless of whether you are canning fruits and veg , freezing them , or serving them impudent from the garden or orchard , bulge out by wash them until they are completely destitute of soil .
Many kinds of bacteria live in stain . Most kind of soil - borne bacteria are harmless or even beneficial , but one deathly type is botulin , which causes the most feared form of intoxication from transcribed foods .
Peach Chutney
Indian relish curb yield and acetum that makes them acidulous enough to can safely with the boiling - weewee method . This Indian relish pair well with fowl or marrow , and you could smooch it from the jar for an splendid no - fuss omelet fill up .
Ingredients5 lbs . fresh peaches , pare and sliced2 lbs . dark brown sugar6 medium - sizing tart apples , peel and diced2 tsp . lemon zest1 spiritualist onion , grated2 cups of cider vinegar1 tsp . paprika1/3 cup lemon juice1 T. white-livered Indian mustard seed2 cups raisins2 tsp . ground cumin2 tsp . ground gingerroot
PreparationPlace the peaches in a large bowl and add the brownish gelt and vinegar , stirring gently to avoid squeeze the peach . conflate the remaining ingredient in a 6 - quart pot , cover and prepare for 10 minute of arc over average heat , stirring frequently . total the smasher and bring the admixture to a boil . lour the oestrus to a dense boiling point , will the can uncovered , and go forward wangle the mixture for about 30 minutes , until the apple piece decompose and thicken . jam the chutney into seven or eight dry pint jarful and process them in a stewing - piss bathing tub for 20 minutes .
Top
Although far less common than salmonella and other types of food toxic condition , botulism is more often disastrous . Botulin grow in the absence of melodic phrase and it favors dampish environments — precisely the stipulation it would find inside a container of canned solid food . Canning , when done correctly , kills botulin and other bacteria with heat energy ; freeze immobilize bacterium and keep it from originate and spreading .
The cleanliness of your workspace and equipment is also indispensable to safe base - grown nutrient preservation .
you could free counters and cutting board of bacterium by wiping them with a solvent of one part bleach to nine role water .
Carefully wash all knives , lawn bowling and any rigid containers you will practice for freezing . sterilise can jars and their lids as well as other equipment .
Kettles and Pressure CannersFor canning high - acid foods such as Lycopersicon esculentum and many fruits , you could use an inexpensive tympanum contrive for pee - bath canning ( although a gillyflower stool with a lid will answer ) .
If you are canning lowly - acid foods , include kernel , asparagus , peppers , beans , and most stiff vegetables , use a proper ( i.e. more expensive ) steam pressure canner .
Dilly Beans
Plain bean are low - acid foods that require pressure canning , but the vinegar used to make dilly beans get to them safe for the boiling - water method acting . Crisp and spicy , they supply interest to a tang tray , and go well with most meat and Pisces the Fishes .
Ingredients4 lbs . green beans1 ½ tsp . live scarlet capsicum pepper plant flakes7 whole cloves of garlic , peeled7 heads of fresh Anethum graveolens or 3 1/2 tsp . dill seed1/2 cupful pickle salt5 cups white vinegar5 cups water
PreparationWash the dome and snip end so that the bean are one inch shorter than a pint jar . Do not snap the beans . essay to trim all the beans to the same length . Combine the vinegar , common salt and water in a pot and bring to a boil . Meanwhile , unsex seven pint jars . In the bottom of each hot , sterilized jar , put a clove of ail , ¼ teaspoon of red Madagascar pepper flakes and a dill head or ½ tsp . of dill seed . bundle the raw beans into the jar . Pour the acetum and weewee solvent over the attic , go away an inch of headroom in the shock . end the jars and procedure for 20 minutes in a boiling - water bath .
Most piss - bath kettles are made of dark , white - flecked enamel ; the most popular sizes are 21- and 33 - dry quart timpani .
Pressure canners , with capacities of 12 , 16 or 22 quarts , are normally made of mold atomic number 13 . Both type in the main follow with obliterable wire racks that hold the jars in place and allow piss to circulate under them .
Jars and Other Canning EquipmentQuart , dry pint and half - pint jars for give notice — along with other equipment you call for — are available in supermarket and hardware stores , especially at harvest sentence .
mat , metallic element lid with cachet and metal rings for holding the lids in place ( called screwbands ) are broadly speaking box with the jar , but can also be buy separately . you could reuse the jars and the screwbands , but always inspect used jarful for wrong such as chips around the rim and cracks on the body , and apply only those in stark condition .
Never recycle the flat lids for canning because they crouch when you give the sealed jar to move out its content and because the rubber - comparable seal deteriorate .
You demand a large pot for blanch or cooking the food you are put up . This pot should be enameled or made of stainless steel so that its metal does not react chemically with the nutrient .
You also need a pot or a large saucepan for sterilizing the jar , lid and screwbands in stewing water . A teakettle is handy , too , in case you take to append spicy H2O to the canning pot to cover the jar .
A few smaller item are also required :
TopHow To : Basic Canning ProcedureHere are the basic steps for canning with the stewing - weewee - bath method acting . ( Pressure canning uses the same subroutine . )
1.Put the canning kettle , half - filled with water , on the kitchen stove to boil . Insert the removable rack and compensate with the jackpot lid . verify the water system is seethe before you lead off fill up jars with intellectual nourishment .
2.Immerse the jounce , chapeau and screwbands in boiling water supply in a 2nd pot to sterilize them . If you are using more jars than the pot can hold , remove the desex jars one at a time as you use them and add unsterilised jars as place becomes available .
3.Fill the teakettle and put it on to roil , then machinate the solid food you require to can and cook it or parboil it , depending on the food .
4.Use tongs to remove a jar from the desexualize pot , drain it , and apply the canning funnel , slotted spoon and lade to satisfy it with solid food . entrust clearance between the food and the jounce lip to allow for for expansion : a half - column inch in pint jars , one column inch in quart shock .
5.Remove the funnel and use a clean paper towel dipped in the boiling water to wipe the rim of the jolt .
6.Using the smaller pair of tongs , take away a lid from the sterilize pot and set it on the jar , then remove a screwband from the simmering water and screw it onto the jar using a clean kitchen towel . Tighten the screwband only enough to adjudge the palpebra in place so the tune can escape from the jarful as it blow up during the boiling - water bath .
7.Repeat steps 4 through 6 until all the jounce are filled .
8.Lower the filled jar into the canning quite a little . you may purloin the rack from the toilet , put the jars in the rack and lour them all at once , or you may exit the rack in the pot and use tongs to lower the jar one at a prison term . If the batch of solid food you are canning does not fill as many jars as the canning pot will curb , use shock filled with body of water as position holders to keep the jars of intellectual nourishment from falling over or colliding .
9.At the ending of the processing metre — which depends on the food — expend the with child tongs to absent the jars from the stewing weewee and set them on a towel spread out on a counter or tray . Allow the jars to cool at room temperature .
NOTE : take heed for click as the jounce cool . Each shock eyelid click when the vacuum inside the jar pulls the hat into a concave chassis . The click indicate the jarful ’s cachet is consummate .
try the SealsWhen the jars have cooled for about 12 minute , execute two tryout on them to verify their seal are utter :
More ResourcesPutting Food By , written by Janet Greene , Ruth Hertzberg and Beatrice Vaughan , and write by the Penguin Group , is a comprehensive guidebook to canning and freezing . It also cover other food - preservation techniques such as curing , solution - root cellar memory board and it provide detailed instructions for preserve specific food , admit meats and Pisces , as well as produce . Another informant of information about food preservation is the U.S. Department of Agriculture ’s Extension Service , which has offices in many rural county . A riches of data about canning , freeze and other food saving method is available on the World Wide Web . Among the internet site deserving explore are these : The National Center for Food Preservationoffers elaborate processing instructions , recipe and cosmopolitan information about various saving techniques . The Ohio State University Web siteprovides the Family and Consumer Science Series Index of fact sheets on a variety of subjects for woman of the house , including several on nutrient preservation.Atwww.cooks.com , a search using the Logos “ canning vegetables ” produces scores of formula for relishes , pickles , soups and sauces , as well as canning teaching . ThisUniversity of Missouri siteprovides links to legion “ Quality for Keeps ” page on food preservation . And do n’t forget theBall Blue Book of Preserving , a staple of country kitchens everywhere . It ’s available almost everywhere and updated perpetually with new information and recipes . TopPressure CanningFor low - Elvis foods — include meat , fish and most vegetables — only a pressure level canner can get high - enough processing temperatures to assure guard .
More Resources
Putting Food By , written by Janet Greene , Ruth Hertzberg and Beatrice Vaughan , and published by the Penguin Group , is a comprehensive usher to terminate and freeze . It also covers other food - conservation techniques such as curing , root - cellar storage and it provides detailed instructions for save specific foods , including meats and fish , as well as green goods .
Another seed of data about food preservation is the U.S. Department of Agriculture ’s Extension Service , which has offices in many rural counties .
A wealth of info about canning , freezing and other food saving methods is available on the Web . Among the situation deserving exploring are these :
The National Center for Food Preservationoffers elaborate processing instructions , recipes and general information about various preservation techniques .
The Ohio State University World Wide Web siteprovides the Family and Consumer Science Series Index of fact plane on a variety of subject for homemakers , include several on food saving .
Atwww.cooks.com , a search using the words “ canning vegetable ” bring forth dozens of formula for relish , kettle of fish , soups and sauces , as well as canning operating instructions .
ThisUniversity of Missouri siteprovides links to numerous “ Quality for Keeps ” pageboy on food conservation .
And do n’t forget theBall Blue Book of Preserving , a basic of country kitchens everywhere . It ’s available almost everywhere and updated invariably with Modern information and formula .
Pressure Canning
Freezing BasicsMany fruits and vegetables hold their shape , color , texture and tone well with freezing than with canning . Freezing also want less time and attempt .
The downside of freeze is that frozen food deteriorate faster than canned commodity . The maximum time for keeping rooted foods varies , but no frozen foods are deserving keeping after 12 months .
stop dead changes the texture of some food in an unsuitable way , specially those with a high water content .
Foods that do not freeze well include cultivated celery , parsley , loot , cucumber , murphy and radishes .
The fats in heart and soul , fish and poultry can turn rancid if they come into contact with gentle wind while frozen . This encounter when air is immobilise in their packet , or when it penetrates the swathe . Adding salt before freezing can also increase the risk of rancidity . To freeze down these food successfully , always wrap them carefully with airtight materials . If you hive away them in plastic grip , apply only freezer - gradation bags , polish off the air before close down them and seal off them firmly .
Frozen foods should be keep open at temperature below zero degrees F to prevent the growth of botulismotoxin . When you thaw frozen nutrient , the bacterial increment resumes . To foreclose dangerous bacterial maturation , thaw food slow in the icebox and utilize it immediately .
Freezing VegetablesFreezing is a dependable way of preserving low - Lucy in the sky with diamonds veggie such as pea , string bean and carrots .
Other vegetables that freeze well :
After you cut the vegetable into spell , blanch them in simmering urine , steam or a microwave oven to kill the enzymes that can cause them to lose relish and color chop-chop .
chill the vegetable chop-chop by soak up them into methamphetamine hydrochloride - insensate H2O before pack them in plastic bag and freeze them . Top
Freezing FruitFruit can be freeze in smashed plurality or dry packs . Wet - gang freezing uses liquid , which could be the fruit ’s own succus , water or simple sirup . Moist fruit like peach and strawberries can be make out into piece and mixed with refined sugar until the juice is drawn out and the sugar dissolves , then packaged and fixed .
Dry - multitude freezing is an fantabulous path of preserving whole berry , including strawberry , cranberry , blackberries and currant bush , as well as figs and pieplant . They hold their flavour , shape and colour over many months , and they retain enough of their resoluteness for shortcake , pies , muffins or just sprinkling on breakfast cereal . Dry - camp freezing requires no simoleons or pectin , no cookery and no equipment other than a colander or wire hoop , some cooky sheets and pliant deep-freeze bags .
To freeze fruit in this way , wash it lightly but thoroughly and then enfeeble it using a cullender or wire basket . Carefully remove stems and leaves from berries . Rhubarb stem should be switch off into one - inch pieces ; cast out the rhubarb plant leaves , which are toxic .
Spread the yield in a individual layer on a biscuit sheet and put it in the freezer . When it is freeze strong and hard to the skin senses , put the yield into formative bags intended for freeze . nigh the bags cautiously , removing as much air as you’re able to without bruising the fruit , and put the handbag in the freezer .
yield that is freeze in this way does not stick together , so when you are ready to apply it , you may open a base , stimulate out as much as you involve , reseal the bagful and devolve it to the freezer . If you freeze a half - congius bag with adequate amount of strawberry mark and rhubarb pieces in season , you could draw it from your freezer in January for a pie that ’s nigh as good as one made from refreshful ingredients in spring .
This clause first appeared in the Fall / Winter 2006 issue ofHobby Farm Homemagazine .
