What Are You Preserving, and How Are You Doing It? (2016–)

[blue_dolphin]

I recently made small batches of Curried Peach Preserves and Whole-Fruit Fig and Lemon Preserves and posted about them over in the Deep Run Roots thread.  

Both winners, especially the peaches!

[Shelby]

On 9/16/2017 at 2:56 PM, ChocoMom said:

 

The taco meat is easy.  Brown the ground beef, though it doesn't have to be entirely done.  For every pound of ground beef, add in a scant 5 TBS of taco seasoning.  Pack the ground beef in the pints, use the leftover beef juices to fill the jar with a 1" headspace.  Its going to be salty, but you can always drain and rinse a bit before using.  

You'd have to pressure can pints for 75 minutes, at 10 pounds.  I double stacked them in the pressure canner, and did 14 all at once. =) 

This question keeps haunting me and no matter how or what I google I can't find the answer.  I am at 1,390 feet....do I use 15 lbs?  Other people that I read about in Kansas use 10 lbs.

 

Edited to add that I used 15 lbs to be safe.   

Edited September 22, 2017 by Shelby (log)

[Shelby]

Ok, well, for the first time ever, I canned meat

 

I probably cooked up around 7 lbs of venison and made taco meat.

 

Vat O Meat

 

 

 

Ended up with seven pints.  Had one failure.  Sigh.  But, that's ok.

[ChocoMom]

14 hours ago, Shelby said:

This question keeps haunting me and no matter how or what I google I can't find the answer.  I am at 1,390 feet....do I use 15 lbs?  Other people that I read about in Kansas use 10 lbs.

 

Edited to add that I used 15 lbs to be safe.   

 

AH!  Yes,  above 1000 feet sea level, the pressure needs to be increased, but how much depends on the type of canner you have.  If its a dial-gauge canner - which is what I have, then you increase to 15 pounds; but if it is a weighted gauge canner then 11 pounds. The time stays the same, regardless.  

 

I hope you have great success with it!  Can't wait to hear how it went!!! =) 

Edited September 23, 2017 by ChocoMom
I submitted my post one nano-second after you did, Shelby! Looks awesome! (log)

[Shelby]

1 minute ago, ChocoMom said:

AH!  Yes,  above 1000 feet sea level, the pressure needs to be increased, but how much depends on the type of canner you have.  If its a dial-gauge canner - which is what I have, then you increase to 15 pounds; but if it is a weighted gauge canner then 11 pounds. The time stays the same, regardless.  

 

I hope you have great success with it!  Can't wait to hear how it went!!! =) 

My canner actually has both the weight and a gauge.  I went with 15 lbs. so all is good (I posted a pic above).  Thank you so much for your help!!!

[ChocoMom]

2 minutes ago, ChocoMom said:

AH!  Yes,  above 1000 feet sea level, the pressure needs to be increased, but how much depends on the type of canner you have.  If its a dial-gauge canner - which is what I have, then you increase to 15 pounds; but if it is a weighted gauge canner then 11 pounds. The time stays the same, regardless.  

 

I hope you have great success with it!  Can't wait to hear how it went!!! =) 

 

I just realized I posted this backwards.  Weighted is 15 pounds; Dial is 11 pounds.  

 

I have not finished my morning coffee yet....these things happen. 

[HungryChris]

Mushrooms are on sale this week at Aldi and I have been out of marinated mushrooms for a while now. Two pounds makes about a quart. I will probably do 2 more batches this week.

HC

[Anna N]

 

 I had an English cucumber that was threatening to go south before I was likely to eat it so I just turned it into Danish cucumber pickle.  No seal on the jar because it's going to be refrigerated and will be eaten up very quickly.  

[valereee]

On 10/14/2016 at 4:28 AM, Rudy Foodie said:

I just tried making these picked green tomatoes, according to the recipe of Domenica Marchetti (they are the Calabrian, salt preserved ones). https://www.amexessentials.com/canning-and-preserving-ideas. Almost ready to try them! 

 

 

I am so going to try those! Just ordered the book from my library, thanks for the idea! I LOVE fermenting.

[valereee]

Yow, and I see we've strayed way off topic, lol! So I'll show this jar of fermenting jalapenos, garlic, and onion that I'll soon turn into hot sauce and put into the fridge: 

 

 

[ninagluck]

I bought this at the farmers market, no idea what they are, I learned chinese dates, however I put half of it into vodka and the other half into a vinegar brine. 

[chileheadmike]

Chipotles. I picked a dozen or so red, ripe jalapenos this morning. Made a small fire using lump charcoal with a couple of chunks of pecan in the Weber kettle. I let that smoke for about 8 hours adding charcoal and wood as needed. They took on a lot of smoke but were soft and no where near dried. They're now in the oven set at it's lowest temp (170F) with the door propped open. 

 

The whole house smells like chiles and pecan smoke. I love it. The wife, not so much.

[chromedome]

I've turned about 15 pounds of apples into dried rings with a borrowed dehydrator, and turned another 45 or so into 25 pints of applesauce and 6 of apple butter (the apples were seconds, so there was a degree of waste). Also used the dehydrator to turn roughly 5 pounds of cranberries into homemade "craisins" for the granddaughters. I've canned a few pints of syrup made from red and black currants, as well as the syrup used to sweeten the "craisins," and those will go into colored lemonade over the next few months. The 2 year-old granddaughter loves lemonade with "berry stuff" in it. 

 

My father had wanted a pressure canner in a desultory way for years, so I bought him a lightly used one last year around this time. They'd already frozen most of their harvest so he never used it, and then passed away this spring before getting another chance. I have it on the stove now with a load of freshly made chicken stock and beef stock, and tomorrow I'll put up some beef stew that I've made. This is partly in aid of clearing out my freezer, you understand. In a similar vein I've turned a whole eye of round into jerky in the course of the day. 

 

I'm also playing a bit with fermentation this year, since I have the opportunity. I have a few quarts of lactic-fermented dills bubbling away downstairs, and have bought 10 pounds of cabbage to turn into sauerkraut when I get home from helping my mom move (again) next weekend. Oh, and took advantage of a really good sale on pork shoulder to lay in 40 pounds or so, with the intention of making sausage. Hence the need for space in my freezer.

[JoNorvelleWalker]

23 hours ago, chileheadmike said:

Chipotles. I picked a dozen or so red, ripe jalapenos this morning. Made a small fire using lump charcoal with a couple of chunks of pecan in the Weber kettle. I let that smoke for about 8 hours adding charcoal and wood as needed. They took on a lot of smoke but were soft and no where near dried. They're now in the oven set at it's lowest temp (170F) with the door propped open. 

 

The whole house smells like chiles and pecan smoke. I love it. The wife, not so much.

 

Ask her to bathe.

 

[ElsieD]

12 hours ago, JoNorvelleWalker said:

 

Ask her to bathe.

 

 

You have the best zingers, ever.  I love them.

[ChocoMom]

Apples, apples and more apples!   This weekend was pretty nice here.  After we tied the calf up outside of the pen, I hauled in the ladder, apple picker and some 5 gal buckets then got to work on the Northern Spy tree, and the unknown tree.  Once done, I got hubby to lure Red Bull back into his pen, and I was able to get in outer pen and gather apples. Much to my dismay, the Wolf River tree had dropped all the apples except 2- during the last hard rain storm. =(   But, I found another tree that seems to be a hybrid of the wolf and another type I do not know the name of.  The apples were pretty big, nonetheless.  So, combined with the 2 - 5 gal buckets of Northern Spies, and a bucket of these, plus some from the farm....its apple time here.  I'm quite giddy over the size of these apples. Im posting a couple pics, with a medium sized chicken egg so you can see how big these are.   I love fall! 

[ElsieD]

4 minutes ago, ChocoMom said:

Apples, apples and more apples!   This weekend was pretty nice here.  After we tied the calf up outside of the pen, I hauled in the ladder, apple picker and some 5 gal buckets then got to work on the Northern Spy tree, and the unknown tree.  Once done, I got hubby to lure Red Bull back into his pen, and I was able to get in outer pen and gather apples. Much to my dismay, the Wolf River tree had dropped all the apples except 2- during the last hard rain storm. =(   But, I found another tree that seems to be a hybrid of the wolf and another type I do not know the name of.  The apples were pretty big, nonetheless.  So, combined with the 2 - 5 gal buckets of Northern Spies, and a bucket of these, plus some from the farm....its apple time here.  I'm quite giddy over the size of these apples. Im posting a couple pics, with a medium sized chicken egg so you can see how big these are.   I love fall! 

 

Those apples are huge!

[ChocoMom]

@ElsieD   Yeah!  I love that!!!   The Northern Spies are typically pretty large, very dense,  good for pies because they hold their shape well. A little on the tart side. The Wolf River apples are enormous, fairly soft and good for apple sauce, apple butter and pie- but I mix them with the spies. They're more on the sweet side.  

My Mom loved Northern Spies.   But, in lower south east and south west parts of Michigan, it became increasingly difficult to find them- I think they were dying out or something.  Mom was tickled pink when she found out we had those trees up here.   When she passed away a few years ago, I adopted her love of that apple. I think of her every time I'm out picking them. 

[ElsieD]

@ChocoMom  when I go to the farmer's markets around here the apple growing vendors never have Spy apples and yet when I was a girl they were common.  One wonders what happened to them.

[ninagluck]

small pears in a saffron/vanilla syrup for an upcoming dessert

[ChocoMom]

7 more pints of apple sauce canned and stored in the pantry.   I sweetened it with honey and brown sugar. Added cinnamon, cardamon, and cloves.   Now, what do with the other 200+ apples I've got here.....

[HungryChris]

Four pounds of marinated mushrooms cooling on the deck rail. These repurposed 2 qt kimchi jars are the bomb for this.

HC

Edited October 3, 2017 by HungryChris (log)

[ChocoMom]

Canned 6 full quarts of ...yep. You guessed it:  APPLESAUCE!   and one of those almost-quart jars.   Had the little bit extra for dessert tonight.  If we run out of every other food I've canned or dehydrated....we will have still applesauce. 

[Shelby]

Beautiful beautiful things everyone!

 

@ninagluck  It's time to start eggnog

 

[kayb]

23 hours ago, ChocoMom said:

7 more pints of apple sauce canned and stored in the pantry.   I sweetened it with honey and brown sugar. Added cinnamon, cardamon, and cloves.   Now, what do with the other 200+ apples I've got here.....

 

Am about to start out on my annual hunt for Arkansas Black apples, which make the best apple butter in the world. And I'm low on apple butter. Can't have that happen. That'll about finish up my canning for the year, unless I decide to make more bacon jam, or get some muscadines and make muscadine jelly.