Canning, Dehydrating and Saving Produce

We bottled our Walla walla onions using our pressure cooker. You've never smelled anything better than these onions right out of the pressure cooker! Wowzers! Super sweet! I seriously think this in my new favorite smell. 

We used the following instructions we found on the internet:

According to the USDA, use onions of 1-inch diameter or less. Wash and peel onions. Cover onions with boiling water; bring to a boil. Boil 5 minutes. Pack the onions into hot jars, leaving 1-inch headspace. Add ½ tsp salt to pints; 1 tsp to quarts, if desired. Fill jars to within 1-inch from top with boiling water. Remove air bubbles. Wipe jar rims. Adjust lids and process.

Process in a Dial Gauge Pressure Canner at 11 pounds pressure OR in a Weighted Gauge Pressure Canner at 10 pounds pressure: Pints or Quarts:40 minutes

NOTE: Sea level pressure is 10 pounds. Pressure has to be increased as altitude increases by ½ pound per 1000 feet.

 I believe since this paragraph was written, however, that sea level pressure has been changed to 11 pounds. Below, pictured is onions on the left, roasted peppers centered, and cucumber relish on the right. 

Roasted Peppers (from Pesto Pressure Canner and Cooker Instructions and Recipes, 2010)

PEPPERS—HOT OR SWEET (INCLUDING BELL, CHILE, JALAPEñO, AND PIMIENTO)

Preparation of Chile peppers—Cut two or four slits in each pepper, and blister using one of the following methods:

 oven or broiler method: Place chile peppers in a 400° oven or broiler for 6 to 8 minutes until skins blister.

 Range-top method: Cover hot burner, either gas or electric with heavy wire mesh. Place chilies on burner for several minutes until skins blister.

Allow peppers to cool. Place in a pan and cover with a damp cloth. After several minutes, peel peppers. Remove stems and seeds.

Preparation of other peppers—Remove stems and seeds; blanch 3 minutes.
Hot Pack: Small peppers may be left whole. Large peppers may be quartered. Pack peppers loosely in clean, hot Mason

jars, leaving 1-inch headspace. Cover with boiling water, leaving 1-inch headspace. Adjust jar lids.

Process at 11 pounds of pressure – Pints 35 minutes. For processing above 2,000 feet altitude, see page 11 for recommended pounds of pressure. 

Altitude and Pressure Chart for Canning Vegetables

Altitude
2,001 – 4,000 ft.
4,001 – 6,000 ft.
6,001 – 8,000 ft.
Processing time is the same at all altitudes.

Pounds of Pressure for Pints and Quarts 

12 lbs.
13 lbs.
14 lbs.

I don't usually blister the peppers; the skins aren't tough enough out in Utah for this to be a concern. It's actually a lot harder to try to get the skins off, and they're not at all unpleasant to eat anyway. 

 Cucumber Relish

(from an old canning book such as a 'ball blue book')

12 lg. cucumbers peeled

4 lg onions

6 green peppers, stems and seeds removed

4 tsp each celery seed and mustard seed

1 tsp salt

1/2 tsp ground cloves

1 Tbsp ground turmeric
3 1/2 c. cider vinegar
2 1/2 c. sugar

Put the cucumbers, onions, and green peppers through a food chopper, using a medium blade or chop. In a 5 or6-quart saucepan, combine vegetables, celery seed mustard seed, salt,chives, turmeric, vinegar, and sugar. Quickly bring to boiling, stirring constantly; reduce heat and simmer for about 3 hours or until reduced to about 5 pints. 
Prepare 5 pint-sized canning jars, following step 1 under Processing with a canner on page 31. (wipe rims, put heated lids on, etc.) Proceed with steps 3-9. Process for 15 minutes. Makes 5 pints. (Don't forget to adjust for altitude.)

Bread and Butter Pickles

6 cups sliced/chopped/speared cucumbers

Mix:

2 cups brown sugar

1/2 tsp turmeric (optional)

1/4 tsp ground cloves

1 Tbsp mustard seed

1/2 tsp celery seed or more

2 cups mild cider vinegar

Bring slowly to boiling point and boil 5 minutes

Put cut cucumbers in a jar, then fill with vinegar brine with 1/2 inch headspace. Clean the top of the jar, put lids on, and water-bath for 10 minutes. Adjust for Altitude. 

1,001-3,000 ft = +5 minutes

3,001-6,000 ft = +10 minutes

6,001 - 8,000 ft = +15 minutes

Yield 4 pints. Store for 4-5 weeks+ before opening for best taste. 

(as I was typing the original recipe, I realized I didn't follow even half of the instructions listed. So, I retyped the recipe to be what I actually do, and included correct water-bath instructions. The original recipe actually says you don't need to water bath it to seal it... so I must of gotten this recipe from an un-reliable source...)

Italian Tomato Sauce

Yield: about 7 pints or 3 quarts

4 quarts chopped, seeded, peeled, cored tomatoes (about 24 large)

1 cup chopped celery (about 2 stalks)

1/2  cup chopped onion (about 1/2 medium)

1/4 cup chopped green pepper (about 1/4 medium)

1 Tbsp basil

1 Tbsp oregano

1Tbsp minced parsley

2 tsp crushed red pepper (optional)

Combine all ingredients in a large sauce pot. Cover and cook 10 minutes, stirring occasionally to prevent sticking. Ladle hot sauce into hot jars, leaving 1 inch headspace. Remove air bubbles. Adjust two-piece caps. Process pints 20 minutes, quarts 25 minutes, at 10 pounds pressure in a pressure canner. (adjust for altitude.)

I tend to vary this recipe from week to week, depending on if I have celery, onion or peppers. Most weeks, I have left all 3 of those out, and added 1-2 cups of shredded zucchini to each quart jar. I also don't usually blanch (peel) my tomatoes or de-seed them when making it into sauce; rather, i run it through a food processor and can that extra fiber into my meal. 

I've also noticed that tomato varieties play a large role in how runny your sauce is. Celebrity tomatoes tend to be very meaty, so there is no need to extract any juice before putting it through a food processor. Other varieties seem to have a lot of juice. Methods to take some of that extra juice out (and possibly can the tomato juice separately), is streaming the tomatoes in a juicer first; or, mashing quartered tomatoes in a colander while catching the juice in a bowl under it; or, after it's all been through a food processor, cooking it down in a pot for an hour or 3 (without the lid) so the extra juice can evaporate out, or else, in a crockpot (without a lid) over night. The last resort - say you've sealed that sauce into jars and it's still too runny - add that water/cornstarch combo to thicken that sauce right up, as you use your jars for dinner meals. 

We have zucchini coming out of our ears, so we tried drying some zucchini for food storage. I did some sliced (for use in lasagna and meaty casseroles), and some grated (for use in spaghetti and casseroles). There's instructions out there for how to re-hydrate these veggies before, use, but I have yet to go look for those...

Lastly, I dried my cheyenne peppers. I got a needle and thread and just strung it through the peppers, then left them to hang in my kitchen. I don't have an A/C, so my kitchen is plenty warm enough for them to dry properly, but if yours isn't, or you're in a more humid area, hang them outside in the sun, or use a food dehydrator. Station the dehydrator outside your house, though, so you're eyes aren't burning in a couple of hours. 

Drying (thin-skinned) Peppers and Chiles

Drying, Smoking, Powders, and Spice Blends

Drying is the oldest and most common way to preserve pepper pods and works well for most peppers—except for the very meaty ones such as jalapeños, which are smoke-dried and called chipotles (see below). To dry peppers, select those that have reached their mature colors, or are just starting to turn. If they are picked while still green, it is very likely that it will never turn the mature color. Avoid any pods that have black spots, because these will mold or rot. On dry days, the peppers can be placed on metal racks and set in the sun. Placing them on a surface that collects heat, such as a car hood or roof, accelerates the process. They can also be hung individually on a clothesline. Another method to use is a home dehydrator—just follow the manufacturer's instructions. Jalapeños and several other chiles will dry well in a dehydrator. Cutting the thick-fleshed chiles in half, or into several pieces helps to speed up the process. Some of the larger growers use forced convection solar dryers, which reduces the time for sun-drying by 65 percent.

Dehydration also works for fresh New Mexican or poblano peppers which are first roasted and peeled (either green or red), and then placed in the sun to dry. Lay long strips of the peeled pods on nylon window screening, cover them with cheese cloth, and place them in semi-shady location with good air circulation. The more humid the climate, the more sun that should be applied to the drying pods. This process makes chile pasado (chile of the past, see below), which will turn an unappetizing dark color, brown or almost black. However, when the chile pasado is rehydrated in water for about 30 minutes, it regains its green or red color. One ounce of this chile pasado is equivalent to ten to twelve fresh pods.

http://www.fiery-foods.com/chile-pepper-gardening/189-processing-and-putting-up/3000-drying-smoking-powders-and-spice-blends

Canning Apricots

Dave and I picked apricots this last Saturday and canned them on Monday. They were perfect! We invited a neighbor couple, Matt and Kim, and taught them how to do it, and they helped us with the process. They got to take home whatever they canned into their own jars.


Dave and I bought a pressure cooker (23 qt, Presto) this year, that has the ability to pressure cook or water bath. But we didn't have a basket, so we did cold packing before sealing them. (Cold packing means we put the seedless apricot halves in the jars, filled it with syrup, aka cooked sugar water, then put lids on before sealing them.) The first batch was pressure cooked, but we forgot to add vinegar to the water, so it got a funny white film on them.


We thought pressure cooking was going to be much faster than water bath, but it actually took about 50 minutes or an hour, even though the actual time cooking at pressure was only 10 minutes. That's because it takes some time to heat up, and even more time to do 'natural pressure release,' which means you turn off/take it off the heat and wait for the pressure to drop to nothing. That part takes abt 30 minutes.


It was frustrating that it was taking so long, so we decided to do the next batch via water bath canning. Getting the water to boiling took forever, but the batches after that took about an hour each. We did 3 dozen quarts (one dozen went to our neighbors).


The last batch consisted of 14 pints of apricot butter, which we did pressure cooking, because we could put all 14 in at once that way (12 pints went to the neighbors). Dave and I were up 'til 4am. We decided we'd better time our canning steps better after that... and start a bit earlier.


Dave was frustrated that after all was said and done, the cold-packed apricots only took up half the jar, and floated on lots of sugar-water. So on Tuesday, I got ambitious, and decided I wanted to try hot packing... so I went and picked more apricots in the hot day's sun. I got 1/3 of what we had collected the saturday before, plus a box of 'on-the-ground bruised' apricots. On our way home, we stopped at The Mending Shed and bought a basket, so that it would be easier to hot-pack them. (Hot-pack means that you fill the jars with apricots, let them cook down in the stream, add more apricots periodically, until the apricot juices have filled up the jar to the top. Then they are sealed.) We also got adjustable weights for our pressure cooker. (They let out the stream when the pressure reaches a certain point, either 5, 10 or 15 lbs.) While we were there, we found a 'scratch n' dent' section and there was a stainless steel Victorio water bath canner for $60. We checked Amazon, and they didn't have it for less than $70. Normally they're about $90 at The Mending Shed. So we were crazy and bought it too. 


On Thursday afternoon we canned the apricots. Many of them were too ripe by Thursday, so they ended up being put in the 'bruised and on-the-ground' pile of apricots - for making jam/butter/preserves. 
We did 7 quarts of hot-packed apricots and 16 pints of Apricot Jam. I did 1/3 less sugar than the recipe called for, because my previous experiences with making jam was that it came out way too sweet. I accidentally added too much lemon juice to them, but I actually think I like it better that way... it gives it a sweet and sour flavor in the same bite. We pressure cooked them... and remembered the vinegar this time. We started at about 5pm and were done by 10:30pm... plus a clean kitchen and all. 


I have a terrible habit of deciding that after canning so much, I'm too tired to clean the kitchen, and it usually doesn't get done 'til the next day (or even 2 days later, which I can still get away with because I don't yet have any kids.) But I have to watch the pressure canner a little closer while it's cooking, so it gave me the motivation to use that time to clean up, since I couldn't be laying in bed, anyway. So by the time the jars came out of the pressure canner, the entire kitchen was gorgeous. What a great feeling. 


Below I'm posting the recipes I used.. and how I did them different. Hopefully they'll be helpful for you. They're from Ball's Blue Book: Guide to Preserving, 2011.


Apricot Butter 
Yield: about 3 pints
2 pounds apricots (about 24 medium) 
3 cups sugar
2 Tbsp. lemon juice


To Prepare Pulp: Wash and blanch apricots. Put apricots in cold water. Peel, halve and pit apricots. We did not blanch them. Combine apricots and 1/2 cup water in a large saucepan. We used a free-standing electric pressure cooker on the saute and simmer settings, since our stove was too full. We decided our apricots were soft and ripe enough that this was an unnecessary step and actually made the process harder. Simmer until apricots are soft. Puree using a food processor or food mill, being careful not to liquify. Measure 1.5 quarts apricot pulp.


To Make Butter: Combine apricot pulp and sugar in a large sauce-pot aka electric pressure cooker. Cook until thick enough to round up on a spoon. As mixture thickens, stir frequently to prevent sticking. Add lemon juice. Ladle hot butter into hot jars, leaving 1/4 inch headspace. Remove air bubbles. Adjust two-piece caps. Process 10 minutes in boiling water canner. 


Apricot Jam 
Yield: about 5 pints
2 quarts crushed and peeled apricots We did not peel it. We took the seeds out and put it through the food processor.
1/4 cup lemon juice My second half of the batch got more like a touch under a 1/2 cup lemon juice
6 cups sugar 4 cups sugar
Combine apricots and lemon juice in a large sauce-pot. I forgot to add lemon juice until after it had cooked and was partially ladled into jars. There is a good chance lemon juice is not needed if you are pressure cooking it instead of water-bath canning. Add sugar, stirring until sugar dissolves. Bring slowly to a boil. Cook rapidly to gelling point. We mixed it in our electric pressure cooker, on low pressure, sealed, for 1 minute. Then did quick pressure release, found it boiling (remembered to add lemon juice), and ladled it into jars. As mixture thickens, stir frequently to prevent sticking. Very little was stuck to the bottom. Remove from heat. Skim foam if necessary. Ladle hot jam into hot hars, leaving 1/4 inch headspace. Adjust two-piece caps. Process 15 minutes in a boiling water canner. 
Originally I had planned to make Apricot-Pineapple Jam, but I was out of canned pineapple nor did I have fresh pineapple. Otherwise I would have just replaced 1/3-1/4 of the apricot amount with pineapple.


I'll have to get back to you on how the thickness and flavor of the products turned out before I can tell you if my own recipe/experiments and or mistakes worked out. Thanks for reading!