Canning and food processing thread

[smurfy]

a thread to talk food processing and canning. can be garden stuff...........anything!!!!!! include reciepes, whatever. and I gotz da bosses approval!

[smurfy]

here i'll start.................about 10 das ago I put 20 qts of pickles up. this past Tuesday I did another 19 qts. 10 of those qts are a hot pickle, same brine reciepe except ya throw in 4-6 thia chili peppers.

this weekend I will do some of what I call millies pickles.................there larger cukes washed, sliced the long way stuffed in 2 gal jars. ingredients are dill onion and garlic. brine is qts water, 2 cups vinegar and 1/2 cup pickling salt. let them set a good month!!!!!

[Boar]

anything huh, hmmmmmmmmmm ill get back to u on that smurff.....yes i will.

[RebelSS]

I'd like to see a recipe for "refrigerator pickles" or one you don't have to heat and sterilize things.....

[smurfy]

2 minutes ago, RebelSS said:

I'd like to see a recipe for "refrigerator pickles" or one you don't have to heat and sterilize things.....

ok I got like 4 different ways one can do pickles/cukes. which one ya want??????

[RebelSS]

Dill pickles! Crunchy ones!

[smurfy]

3 minutes ago, RebelSS said:

Dill pickles! Crunchy ones!

the best one I posted the reciepe above!!!!!!!

here is another one I love. no dill though. take 7-8 cukes. skin, slice real thin. add as much onion as you like. put salt over them, generously. stir let set for 2-3 hours stirring ocassionally. after time frame rinse real good. add 1/2 and 1/2 till moderately mixed. I add 1 tbls sugar.........then add vinegar to taste. I like mine tart so I add less sugar and more vinegar.

[RebelSS]

10 minutes ago, smurfy said:

the best one I posted the reciepe above!!!!!!!

here is another one I love. no dill though. take 7-8 cukes. skin, slice real thin. add as much onion as you like. put salt over them, generously. stir let set for 2-3 hours stirring ocassionally. after time frame rinse real good. add 1/2 and 1/2 till moderately mixed. I add 1 tbls sugar.........then add vinegar to taste. I like mine tart so I add less sugar and more vinegar.

Add 1/2 and 1/2 what??!! How much salt? What kinda salt? I'm way lost..................

[deadgooses]

24 minutes ago, RebelSS said:

Dill pickles! Crunchy ones!

Go to the search bar and type in Easy Crunchy Pickles.  You should get a recipe posted by Dark Cloud a few years ago.  That is my go to for refridgerator pickles.

 

[smurfy]

37 minutes ago, RebelSS said:

Add 1/2 and 1/2 what??!! How much salt? What kinda salt? I'm way lost..................

Half and half is a dairy product like cream , usually in pint containers . The salt ya just add till ya think it is enough. And I found table salt pickling . Seems to rinse more gooder!

[RebelSS]

I know what half and half is, it goes in my cawfee! WTH are you babbling about????!! I still can;t follow you! What's halfl and half got to do with pickles??!?!

[RebelSS]

On 7/28/2016 at 4:12 PM, deadgooses said:

Go to the search bar and type in Easy Crunchy Pickles.  You should get a recipe posted by Dark Cloud a few years ago.  That is my go to for refridgerator pickles.

 

Ok....I get "no results found"....

[delcecchi]

I think this is one of those creamy dressing on cuke things.  Ugh.  Only like cukes in tzatziki  and real pickles. 

[deadgooses]

9 hours ago, RebelSS said:

Ok....I get "no results found"....

Hmmm, still works for me.  Here's the cut/paste.

 

The gardens overflowing and im making my favorite thing about every other day - "crunchy, salty, vinegar, dill, garlic pickles"

Im a big fan of pickles and this is my base recipe I have settled on after lots of expermenting. These are crisp and ready after 2 days in the fridge. You can eat them after one, but are better after another day...

In a sauce pan combine

A few slices of onion

1 cup white vinegar

2 cups water

3 teaspoons salt - you can go 50/50 on the liquid or more or less salt. This is what I settled on and its easy to remember with the 1,2,3...

I dont let this boil - just get up to a decent temp(starting to steam a little) looking to dislove the salt and soften the onions a tad while releasing some onion flavor. Heres the key to cripsy - Let this brine cool completly!

Ok on to the cukes. I use "straight 8s" and "pickling" ones. No real preference. Usually have a mixture in each jar...

The smaller and fresher the cuke the better. I try and make em the day they are picked. Most batches have a mixture of slices, rings, halfs, and baby wholes in em...

Also needed...

3-4 peeled cloves of garlic

1 teaspoon pickling spice

1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper

1 or 2 heads of fresh dill - when not available i'll use 1/4 teaspoon of the stuff in the little shakers

This makes roughly a quart to a quart and a half sized container. I have a bunch of the quart and a half glass jars that are my favorite. All the diff size containers is a pain! I have a plastic one that I use alot that is a pint and 5/8th's. My brine ratio always stays the same but i'll adjust other stuff as needed. Its not an exact science and can be played with to suit your tastes...

Add all the stuff to the container. I dont pack the cukes tight. Full but I want things to move around a bit when topped off with the brine and shaken around...

Put em in the fridge and patiently wait two days, shake them a little after a day if you remember...

I snack on them all the time and they go on sandwiches and with meals. Also try chopping them up with a jalapeno and topping a hotdog with it or in some tuna salad! Rarely do they last more than a week so im not sure on shelf life. I did have a jar I found in the fridge that was about 3 months old and they were still good, not as crunchy but still quite good. Enjoy, I hope...

[RebelSS]

Excellent! Just what I wanted!  Thanks, deadgooses! 

[Crow Hunter]

Dark Cloud's recipe is my go to also, but I add three habanero peppers cut in half to a quart jar, gives them a nice bite. I have a half gallon jar of horseradish pickles fermenting right now, I will be able to sample those pretty soon, first time I have made them. They don't go in the refrigerator until one week to one month fermenting, like sauerkraut.

[ThunderLund78]

Hi all, I'm new to canning this year and decided to make my own tomato sauce for the first time in a water bath set-up.  All worked well, jars all sealed and I'm pretty happy with the process outcome.  However, I realized one error; the recipe called for 1 TB of Lemon Juice in the bottom of each pint jar to ensure the PH is high enough to kill all the bad guys like Botulism that would otherwise survive the canning process.  It wasn't until I was done that I realized read it too fast and should've doubled the lemon juice because i used Quart jars, not pints.  So each jar only got half the dose of lemon juice for the amount of sauce I put in.

I've read up a lot on canning and some say no big deal and the acidity is likely fine while other say it's the most important step and proper amounts should be followed to the tee.  Anyone have any opinions?  I hope I don't have to lose an entire afternoon of work, but I also like my family and kind of don't want to kill them . Being dramatic for the humorous effect, but would appreciate honest responses on "What would you do?" knowing I take full responsibility for the final decision.

[smurfy]

I don't make tomato sauce but I do make lotz of stewed tomatoes, tomato juice, salsa and a soup starter with alot of mater's and never put lemon juice in it.

On the other hand adding some lemon juice to a glass of homemade mater juice... . Now that's nummy!!!

[DrJill]

I would open them, re-heat the sauce, and then re-can. With 2 Tbls lemon juice per. Better safe than sorry.

[ThunderLund78]

Smurf,

Do you add anything like vinegar to up the PH?  I assume you do water bath and not pressure canning?

 

DrJill,

They've been siting sealed as is or a day, I assume that's OK?

[smurfy]

Thunder .... yea I do the hot bath thing on the soup mix and stewed tomatoes. Salsa I just started to assure the seal but only to boil for couple minutes. Tomato juice I boil but in jars. Heat the lids in boiling water, but cap on and for extra insurance I set the jar upside down on the kid for a bit.

[smurfy]

46 minutes ago, ThunderLund78 said:

Smurf,

Do you add anything like vinegar to up the PH?  I assume you do water bath and not pressure canning?

 

DrJill,

They've been siting sealed as is or a day, I assume that's OK?

Yes they should be.

[delcecchi]

You want low pH, as in acid.  The fact that they sealed doesn't mean they are safe.  They either have to be acidic enough or have been heated enough to keep botulism from growing in the oxygen free inside of the jar. 

But I canned a lot of tomatoes using a water bath and am still alive.  I didn't add vinegar or lemon.  

Extension and USDA recommends adding acid since some varieties might not be naturally acidic enough.   Citric Acid powder at 1/2 tsp per quart is top recommendation.  Or you can boil the sauce for 10 minutes after opening to destroy the toxin.

[DrJill]

On ‎8‎/‎8‎/‎2016 at 7:48 PM, ThunderLund78 said:

DrJill,

They've been siting sealed as is or a day, I assume that's OK?

They should be just fine.

[ThunderLund78]

15 hours ago, DrJill said:

They should be just fine.

OK, I'll probably do this tonight as it's the first chance I'll have time to do it.  It's been three days but they've remained sealed so there should be no spoilage.