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ejstheman posted:I thought I'd try canning with blackberries, since the farm where I'm staying has lots of volunteers I can harvest for free. I googled for a recipe and found tons of blogspam-looking stuff. Example: http://bakingamoment.com/how-to-make-seedless-blackberry-jam-no-pectin/ Does anybody have one they've actually tried? Wait, what? Blogspam? What's wrong with the recipe you linked? I misread your post, thinking you were planning to use that recipe if no one had anything different. The only issue is not having pectin, but depending on how much pectin is in your berries, that's often just fine. But if you're looking for a different recipe, use the pectin calculator link I posted in the message above yours. Choose blackberry, jam, then the kind of pectin you'd like to get. Those recipes all have fruit, sugar, pectin, and sometimes lemon juice, which is all you really need. And because they're from Ball they tend to be pretty fool proof for first timers. (And don't be afraid to use Ball or Kerr recipes. It's not like using Campbell's soup recipes or something. Canning is a very particular process and the jar makers want people to be successful so they're often the most tried and true recipes.)
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Jul 15, 2014 18:29
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I just started my first attempt at making some pickles on Monday. I didn't think I did it properly so I tossed both jars into the fridge after they had cooled, and I plan on using them sooner rather than later. On another note, my parents have a USDA canning factbook from the 80's. Would the information in that book be recent enough so that I wouldn't kill myself if I used it as a reference?
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Jul 18, 2014 02:10
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Massasoit posted:I just started my first attempt at making some pickles on Monday. I didn't think I did it properly so I tossed both jars into the fridge after they had cooled, and I plan on using them sooner rather than later. What do you think you didn't do properly on the pickles? Yeah you're probably fine with the book. If you're just talking water bath canning, the main things are sanitizing the jars/equipment, processing long enough and pH level. You can always check out some general canning tips that various universities publish too, they're full of safety info.
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Jul 18, 2014 07:36
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Crusty Nutsack posted:Posting this here because I hadn't run across it before. It's a pectin calculator on Ball's website. Basically lets you scale up and down your jams from 1-10 jars with exact measurements. http://www.freshpreserving.com/tools/pectin-calculator So, you do have a link to this recipe for black forest preserves, right? Right?
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Jul 18, 2014 14:10
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neogeo0823 posted:So, you do have a link to this recipe for black forest preserves, right? I used this version: http://www.food.com/recipe/black-forest-preserves-311518 It wasn't gelling well at all (always seems to be a problem for me with liquid pectin??) so I added a tablespoon or two of powdered after boiling it hard for a couple minutes. It's gotten progressively firmer in the jars, but it started out more as a sauce a day after canning so I was worried. I try to stick to powdered pectin as much as possible, I have way better results with it.
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Jul 18, 2014 19:02
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Crusty Nutsack posted:What do you think you didn't do properly on the pickles? I was trying to preserve them for long term storage, and I'm not sure the jars got hot enough.
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Jul 18, 2014 21:39
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Massasoit posted:I was trying to preserve them for long term storage, and I'm not sure the jars got hot enough. You mean in the boiling water bath, or when you were sanitizing them before you packed them? If you mean before you packed them, you're probably fine. There's very little that can survive the acidity (and salt) of normal pickle brine. Plus the boiling water bath goes a long way to kill anything in the jars once they're packed anyway. Certainly no harm keeping them in the fridge, but you're probably fine.
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Jul 18, 2014 22:08
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Jewmanji posted:https://food52.com/recipes/5038-lacto-fermented-pickles-with-garlic-scapes As a practical matter I imagine you can get away with using fairly low concentration brines in lactofermentation if you check for spoilage (using your nose). But you asked if anything raises an eyebrow, and that's the thing that stood out for me.
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Jul 19, 2014 01:51
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Massasoit posted:I just started my first attempt at making some pickles on Monday. I didn't think I did it properly so I tossed both jars into the fridge after they had cooled, and I plan on using them sooner rather than later. My copy of the Ball Blue Book is copyright 1977 and nothing in it has killed me yet. It originally belonged to my mother and I ate the food she preserved using that book. One thing I do avoid in the book however is sealing jams and jellies with wax. My mother still uses wax for her jams and bitches at me every time I insist on proper lids and bands. I also remember as a kid having to throw out the occasional jar of jam because mold was growing under the wax. People like my mother still use it though because Gulf Wax is sold with other canning supplies.
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Jul 19, 2014 17:57
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Crusty Nutsack posted:I used this version: http://www.food.com/recipe/black-forest-preserves-311518 Yeah, I just did this recipe this morning. I only had powdered pectin, so I looked around online and did a bit of conversion. Following this link, 1 Tbsp liquid pectin translates to 2 Tsp dry. Knowing that, I converted the recipe's 6oz liquid pectin to a half cup dry. I also followed a couple reviews I had read and added the dry in with the sugar and cocoa powder before mixing that into the recipe. I found that once I mixed it in, the whole thing was basically a very dry paste. Then I realized that I was missing the water that would be in the liquid pectin. The math I did said that I should've used 3/4 Cup of water converting the dry pectin to liquid, so I added that in and everything went smoothly from there. The jars are cooling on the counter now, and I'll move them to the fridge tonight and let you know how they set in a day or two.
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Jul 19, 2014 18:29
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neogeo0823 posted:Yeah, I just did this recipe this morning. I only had powdered pectin, so I looked around online and did a bit of conversion. Following this link, 1 Tbsp liquid pectin translates to 2 Tsp dry. Knowing that, I converted the recipe's 6oz liquid pectin to a half cup dry. I also followed a couple reviews I had read and added the dry in with the sugar and cocoa powder before mixing that into the recipe. I found that once I mixed it in, the whole thing was basically a very dry paste. Then I realized that I was missing the water that would be in the liquid pectin. The math I did said that I should've used 3/4 Cup of water converting the dry pectin to liquid, so I added that in and everything went smoothly from there. Mine wasn't dry even after adding the sugar and before adding the pectin. Sugar is really a "wet" ingredient since it melts. Were you heating it as you added the sugar? I suppose your cherries could have been super dry or something, too. Either way, I've never had a problem with jams being too dry in the pot and having to add liquid. But it makes sense that you added the water. I might have just added more amaretto instead lol On a general note, I've seen and used jam recipes that add the sugar and pectin at really different times during cooking. Sometimes it's sugar mixed in before heating, sometimes it's fruit is boiled before sugar...sometimes it's pectin when cold, sometimes when hot, etc. etc. I wonder if there's a best practice for when to add the sugar and pectin? I assume it's different for dry and wet pectin, but there's so much variation in recipes that I wonder if it really matters at what point you add the ingredients, or if it's really fruit dependent.
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Jul 19, 2014 19:35
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I think it was really dry at first because I heated up the cherries(which I should've chopped finer, admittedly) and lemon juice, and then I pretty much just dumped all the sugar, cocoa, and pectin in all at once. So, I likely didn't give the sugar time to melt, and there wasn't really enough liquid to let it start dissolving. Once I added in the water though, a bunch of the sugar dissolved into it right away and everything went fine from there. As far as the pectin, the reasoning that the reviewer used was that adding it in early allows it to incorporate more smoothly and fully do its thing in the recipe while you're doing the actual cooking, while avoiding occasional clumping issues and the like. It seemed sound to me, and it didn't seem to effect the recipe at all. Im anxious to see how this stuff will set. What should I expect? Will it be like a jelly, or more like a very thick sauce?
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Jul 19, 2014 19:47
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neogeo0823 posted:I think it was really dry at first because I heated up the cherries(which I should've chopped finer, admittedly) and lemon juice, and then I pretty much just dumped all the sugar, cocoa, and pectin in all at once. So, I likely didn't give the sugar time to melt, and there wasn't really enough liquid to let it start dissolving. Once I added in the water though, a bunch of the sugar dissolved into it right away and everything went fine from there. How well jams set is dependent on a ton of things, so it's hard to say. It's called jam, so that's what I was going for and that's what I got. It's still a little soft but not really a sauce. So with as much pectin as you put in there, it should be jammy. That is of course unless you didn't bring it to a high enough temp or it didn't all dissolve in there...There's really too many factors to say how yours will end up exactly. But from now on, you can test how well it's gelling before canning it. Just dip a cold spoon in there, or put a little bit on a cold plate and see if it gels or not. If not, keep boiling heavy for another minute or two, test again. Still not gelling? Add another tablespoon of pectin, then boil for at least another minute, and test again. Eventually you'll get the hang of what the jam looks/feels like when it's going to gel to your liking. Also, you don't have to refrigerate the jams at all for storage. And technically you shouldn't really move or disturb them for 24 hours after you can them so the seals don't come lose, but I don't always follow that rule either.
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Jul 19, 2014 23:02
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Crusty Nutsack posted:Mine wasn't dry even after adding the sugar and before adding the pectin. Sugar is really a "wet" ingredient since it melts. Were you heating it as you added the sugar? I suppose your cherries could have been super dry or something, too. Either way, I've never had a problem with jams being too dry in the pot and having to add liquid. But it makes sense that you added the water. I might have just added more amaretto instead lol From what I've seen it goes this way: Powder pectin: Add pectin to fruit while cold, you can do like a 1/4 cup of sugar at this point, but leave all the other sugar to the side. Bring it to a boil, then add all the sugar at once, and bring back to a boil. Liquid pectin: Add sugar to fruit while cold, don't add pectin. Bring to a boil, then add pectin, and bring back up to a boil. The liquid and powder versions essentially reverse the timing of when to add sugar/pectin to the jam. I've personally gotten much firmer jams from powder than liquid, and I think I'm going powder from here on out. The last time I did liquid pectin I had to really boil it and it still didn't set that well.
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Jul 21, 2014 15:24
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Meltathon posted:From what I've seen it goes this way: I could've sworn I've used recipes that add powdered pectin after boiling too, but maybe not. Those rules do seem about right. And I've always gotten better sets from powdered pectin as well. I'm not really sure what the benefit of liquid is.
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Jul 21, 2014 17:39
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I've got an extra 10 lbs of tart pie cherries how do they come out as jam? I don't think I've had cherry jam before.
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Jul 21, 2014 19:03
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Otto Von Jizzmark posted:I've got an extra 10 lbs of tart pie cherries how do they come out as jam? I don't think I've had cherry jam before. Delicious. Tastes like cherry pie filling. Just makes sure you use a recipe specifically for sour cherries and not sweet cherries.
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Jul 21, 2014 19:27
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Crusty Nutsack posted:Wait, what? Blogspam? What's wrong with the recipe you linked? I misread your post, thinking you were planning to use that recipe if no one had anything different. The only issue is not having pectin, but depending on how much pectin is in your berries, that's often just fine. There's this thing on the Internet where people make semi-fake sites with low-effort content to fool search engines into thinking the sites the low-effort sites are paid to link to are important. Usually, sites where someone posts recipes, with a long rambling explanation of how they cooked it once and all this other stuff also happened in their life that day, are of that type. The blogger may well not have tried that specific recipe or done any of that stuff, and almost certainly isn't a practiced cook who would only post good recipes. Such sites turn up in recipe search results, but are not a good source for recipes. Compare the style of that site I linked to with e.g. Kenji's blog. He also talks about the recipe in addition to posting it, but he's not just rambling endlessly about nothing; he's describing the recipe development process and otherwise sharing his expertise as a professional chef, with occasional bits of humor or minor notes about his wife thrown in.
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Aug 5, 2014 14:19
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ejstheman posted:There's this thing on the Internet where people make semi-fake sites with low-effort content to fool search engines into thinking the sites the low-effort sites are paid to link to are important. Usually, sites where someone posts recipes, with a long rambling explanation of how they cooked it once and all this other stuff also happened in their life that day, are of that type. The blogger may well not have tried that specific recipe or done any of that stuff, and almost certainly isn't a practiced cook who would only post good recipes. Such sites turn up in recipe search results, but are not a good source for recipes. Compare the style of that site I linked to with e.g. Kenji's blog. He also talks about the recipe in addition to posting it, but he's not just rambling endlessly about nothing; he's describing the recipe development process and otherwise sharing his expertise as a professional chef, with occasional bits of humor or minor notes about his wife thrown in. So you're saying that every food/recipe blog that's a hobby (for instance, my own, sharkattack's etc.) is just a dummy blog for clicks, and the only good blogs are ones where people are paid to write them, like Serious Eats? I mean sure there's content farms and crap out there that suck, but it sounds more like you just don't trust anyone out there who isn't a "professional chef." There's plenty of good recipe blogs from people who don't blog (or even cook) for a living.
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Aug 5, 2014 18:01
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Crusty Nutsack posted:So you're saying that every food/recipe blog that's a hobby (for instance, my own, sharkattack's etc.) is just a dummy blog for clicks, and the only good blogs are ones where people are paid to write them, like Serious Eats? I mean sure there's content farms and crap out there that suck, but it sounds more like you just don't trust anyone out there who isn't a "professional chef." There's plenty of good recipe blogs from people who don't blog (or even cook) for a living. No, not at all. But if even 20% of them are dummy blogs, I don't want to use a recipe from one for food preservation. The situation is totally asymmetrical. Even a minuscule chance of botulism or whatever is worth avoiding every personal cooking blog out there on the subject. I cook stuff in a skillet from random imgur posts all the time, though, since I can validate it by sight and smell as I go, and don't have to trust that food safety calculations I can't do myself have been done. You are presumably a real person and not a figment of the imagination of some spammer, and so you should definitely feel free to post whatever you want on your blog. 
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Aug 5, 2014 18:56
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ejstheman posted:No, not at all. But if even 20% of them are dummy blogs, I don't want to use a recipe from one for food preservation. The situation is totally asymmetrical. Even a minuscule chance of botulism or whatever is worth avoiding every personal cooking blog out there on the subject. I cook stuff in a skillet from random imgur posts all the time, though, since I can validate it by sight and smell as I go, and don't have to trust that food safety calculations I can't do myself have been done. You are presumably a real person and not a figment of the imagination of some spammer, and so you should definitely feel free to post whatever you want on your blog. I see your point. For things like jams and canning in general though, once you learn the basics (how to sanitize, general processing times, etc.) it's easy to notice weird things in a recipe and then adjust if they don't fit the food safe guidelines for canning.
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Aug 5, 2014 19:07
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Crusty Nutsack posted:I see your point. For things like jams and canning in general though, once you learn the basics (how to sanitize, general processing times, etc.) it's easy to notice weird things in a recipe and then adjust if they don't fit the food safe guidelines for canning. True, but this is my first time canning ever and I want to be honest with myself that I lack that intuition.
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Aug 5, 2014 19:52
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Back from the farmer's market. It's kraut makin' time.  
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Aug 16, 2014 17:31
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 First time canning, made candied jalapenos. Hope they turn out all right.
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Aug 23, 2014 00:06
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Interesting news from Ball's Facebook page: We know there have been some recent questions about our canning lids and wanted to clear the air for our fans. After extensive testing by our Quality Assurance Team we have determined that it is no longer necessary to to pre-warm lids before use. If you desire, it is still safe to “simmer” your lids before use however, you should never boil them. To prep lids we recommend simply hand washing them in hot soapy water. Please let us know if you have any questions or concerns! We always love to hear from our awesome fans.
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Aug 26, 2014 22:42
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Anyone have a tip on how to preserve canned foods color? For example, canning soybeans makes them this weird yellow-green that is not appealing. Anything I could do to keep them that bright green that is so beautiful?
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Aug 28, 2014 03:26
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^^ I'd love to know too, I tried green pepper jelly a few years ago and watching the colour turn from bright happy green to nasty yelloy-green really turned me off. My strawberry jelly came out nicely, I love the colour.  Wild grapes are ripening and making me antsy for grape jelly. Has anyone here made grape juice from wild grapes?  Flaggy posted:
Mine came out great, just let them sit for a few weeks to mellow out. The syrup makes a really nice marinade for BBQ meats and the jalapenos themselves are really nice on a cracker with cream cheese. Re: Fermented pickles, once they've sat for 3 days then opened to check, how long are they good for? Is there any way to seal them to sit on a shelf, or do they always have to go straight in the fridge? Do they hit a point where they've fermented too much and become unedible?
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Sep 1, 2014 18:07
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Ate my candied jalapenos over the weekend and they came out awesome. Did this over the weekend: Jalapeno Jelly, Apricot Habenero Jelly, and Mango Habenero Hot Sauce  Both of the jellies it looks like everything went to the top, is there anyway to prevent this in the future?
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Sep 2, 2014 19:17
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The Mango Habanero Hot Sauce sounds amazing, is the recipe available online?
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Sep 2, 2014 23:24
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Fat Dio posted:The Mango Habanero Hot Sauce sounds amazing, is the recipe available online? http://low-cholesterol.food.com/recipe/habanero-mango-hot-sauce-397737 I used a variation of this. Haven't tried any yet to see how it turned out, I was going to wait two weeks and see how it went.
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Sep 3, 2014 19:50
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Fat Dio posted:^^ I'd love to know too, I tried green pepper jelly a few years ago and watching the colour turn from bright happy green to nasty yelloy-green really turned me off. For jams, try a little citric acid. We use it at my workplace to preserve color in jams. Not sure if it can help soybeans and other non-jam items though.
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Sep 3, 2014 20:09
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Anyone have favorite salsa recipes to can? I tried to do the 10 cups tomatoes, 7 cups peppers, onion, cilantro typical one last year and it was disappointing. Very watery, even after using Romas and cooking it down, mostly because of the large amount of added vinegar/lemon juice to up the acidity. It just tastes like a bland Pace-type salsa that's very acidic. Almost all the salsa recipes seem similar, really, so I'm not exactly sure I can find a garden type salsa that I will like, but I figured I'd ask. Maybe a salsa verde? Roasted salsa? Edit: Has anyone used canned tomatoes in place of fresh in their canned salsa? Crusty Nutsack fucked around with this message at 03:49 on Sep 4, 2014 |
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Sep 4, 2014 03:43
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Tried that fermented pickles recipe, let them sit at room temperature for 4 days and they came out great!
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Sep 8, 2014 02:06
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The kraut started 5 weeks ago is ready to eat.  I'll leave it in there for a few more weeks before putting it in the fridge. We've had lots of cool weather lately and it should be fine in the crock a bit longer. I like to leave it in the crock for as long as possible, and the water seal keeps it sealed up perfectly.
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Sep 21, 2014 15:46
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My friend is wanting to start canning, but he has an induction cooktop and all the pressure canners we can find are aluminum. Does anyone have experience with the induction converter plate things and canning? Is that a viable option? Do you have to use a canner or would a regular pressure cooker work (since you can get those in stainless)? I know they're small and would be a pain in the rear end as far as not being able to large batches at once, but would they be safe to use? There's all sorts of yes/no opinions on the internet, is there anywhere that has actual facts? I couldn't really find anything on the USDA site. He's a nice guy, I don't want him to die!
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Oct 9, 2014 18:02
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Squidder posted:My friend is wanting to start canning, but he has an induction cooktop and all the pressure canners we can find are aluminum. Does anyone have experience with the induction converter plate things and canning? Is that a viable option? Do you have to use a canner or would a regular pressure cooker work (since you can get those in stainless)? I know they're small and would be a pain in the rear end as far as not being able to large batches at once, but would they be safe to use? There's all sorts of yes/no opinions on the internet, is there anywhere that has actual facts? I couldn't really find anything on the USDA site. He's a nice guy, I don't want him to die! I assume you realize this but just in case: you only need a pressure canner for low acid foods. Hot water bath canning works for an awful lot of stuff to get started canning.
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Oct 9, 2014 18:19
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Yeah, I'm trying to get him to ease into it, but he's the type that likes to have the full setup for any possible scenario.
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Oct 9, 2014 18:39
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Squidder posted:Yeah, I'm trying to get him to ease into it, but he's the type that likes to have the full setup for any possible scenario. Does he already have a big stockpot? You can rig together a "rack" with some extra jar bands to keep jars off the bottom of the pot. He could start with some smaller batch jams or something as a trial run. Food in Jars (http://foodinjars.com) is good for this, as is Pomona's recipe section (http://www.pomonapectin.com/recipes/) if he wants to buy pectin from them. If he really is determined to dive in with a big investment, Fagor makes a steel pressure canner (http://www.amazon.com/Fagor-Piece-Stainless-Pressure-Canning/dp/B0027VT92K). I use one of their small pressure cookers for beans on a regular basis and it's holding up quite well.
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Nov 10, 2014 19:11
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Hi all, with Thanksgiving right around the corner, I wanted to try my hand at canning some turkey stock made from the leftover carcass. However, almost everything I looked up seems to indicate that pressure canning is the way to go on stock. I don't have a pressure canner but was hoping to do it with a big stock pot (hot water bath). Is this possible? Also, about how long do you think the canned stock would be good for on the shelf? (By the way, I've never canned before so this whole thing is going to be an interesting experience). Please help me not kill myself or my family with botulism. Thanks!
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Nov 17, 2014 19:15
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Nibblet posted:Hi all, with Thanksgiving right around the corner, I wanted to try my hand at canning some turkey stock made from the leftover carcass. However, almost everything I looked up seems to indicate that pressure canning is the way to go on stock. I don't have a pressure canner but was hoping to do it with a big stock pot (hot water bath). Is this possible? No, you need to pressure can stock because stock it's not low-acid. The other option is freezing.
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Nov 17, 2014 19:56
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