Tomato JuiceRussian Dill PicklesSalsaPickled Beets

Canning Recipes

This week, we have a few canning recipes to try. Canning can take some time and hard work. But there is a huge reward - great-tasting sauces, juices, salsas....that you made yourself, and know exactly what is in it.

If you have a favorite canning recipe that you would like to share, we would love to hear from you! Recipes, with photo (and a short story/history), if available, can be submitted to ads@thedrummer.com.


Tomato Juice

 

Ready In: 4 hrs.

Serves: 30

1 bu. tomatoes (half Roma and half regular)

15 tsp. salt, opt. (recommended as a preservative)

 

Core and peel tomatoes (Often, the day before, I will wash and core the tomatoes and freeze them first. Then just dunk them in a sink full of hot water and the peel falls right off). UPDATE: This year I didn’t even bother to peel them, just core them and continue. The peel will come out in step 4.

Place the tomatoes in a large stock pot and as you fill it, bring them to a rolling boil, stirring regularly (They will burn if you don’t). I usually squish the first few with a potato masher to cover the bottom of the stock pot with liquid in order to get the boiling process kick started.

Sterilize your jars (I do this in the dishwasher).

Once you have all your tomatoes in the stock pot and boiling up a storm, ladle them into your food mill and grind out the mixture into pots, scraping the good stuff off the sides of the cone into your juice.

Throw out the remaining pulp and return the juice to the stock pot.

Bring back to a rolling boil. Add salt. (I usually add 1 tsp to each litre/quart). This is optional of course. Pour into jars leaving 1/2 inch air space.

Place jars into canner and boil for 25 minutes.

 


Fiery Roasted Salsa

 

Yield: 6-7 pints

Prep Time: 30 min.

Cook Time: 30 min.

Total Time: 1 hr.

5 lbs. tomatoes, 1/2 heirloom/regular, 1/2 romas)

2 lbs. bell peppers, plus 6-8 hot chiles like jalapenos, cayenne, haberneros in the mix (depending on how hot you like it)

1 lb. white onions, diced

2 cloves garlic

1 c. apple cider vinegar

2 tsp. ground cumin

1-1/2 tsp. chili powder

2-1/2 tsp. espresso powder (optional, but really adds another layer of flavor)

1/2 tsp. ground black pepper

3 tsp. kosher salt

1/2 c. chopped cilantro

 

Turn the broiler of the oven on. Wash & dry tomatoes, peppers, and chilies. Spread tomatoes and peppers on a sheet pan and roast them under the broiler until their skin is blistered. Flip and roast on the other side. Remove from oven and put bell peppers in a paper bag and seal (this will make them easy to peel).

Blend the tomatoes, their juice, garlic, ½ of the diced onions, and hot peppers (stems removed) in the blender until fairly smooth. (Leaving the skins on gives the salsa that great smoky flavor). Remove the peppers from the bag, peel, and dice.

Add all the ingredients to a sauce pan and bring to a boil. Simmer for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. While the salsa is simmering, prepare the hot water bath and heat the pint jars and lids. Ladle hot salsa into clean, hot pint jars, leaving 1/2” headspace.

Wipe rims and add the lids. Process in a boiling water canner for 15 minutes at a full rolling boil.

 


Russian Dill Pickles

 

Prep Time: 15 min.

Cook Time: 15 min.

Total Time: 30 min.

1.7 lbs cucumbers

3-1/3 c. water

2 T. coarse sea salt

3 stems dill

4 sprigs thyme

1 horseradish leaf, opt.

4 cloves garlic

2 bay leaves

4 slices red chili pepper

1 tsp. black peppercorns

1/4 tsp. allspice

68 fl. oz. canning jar sterilized

 

Wash the cucumbers thoroughly and cut the ends. Prepare the brine: bring water with coarse sea salt to a boil.

Meanwhile, roughly chop the herbs and a horseradish leave (if using), finely slice the chili pepper (you will only need a few slices) and the garlic. Transfer the cucumbers into a fitting sterilized jar, placing herbs, chili and garlic slices, bay leaves, allspice and black pepper in between the cucumbers. When the brine is boiling, pour it into the jar and close the lid.

Turn the jar upside down and let it cool slowly (I usually put it on the couch and wrap tightly with a blanket). Once it’s cooled, let it rest for about 4 days in a cool place. You will see when they are ready when they change the color. Store an opened jar in the fridge for about two weeks.

 


Salsa

 

Prep Time: 30 min.

Cook Time: 60 min.

Total Time: 1 hr., 30 min.

Yield: 7-8 pints

 

9 c. peeled & chopped tomatoes

2-1/2 c. chopped green bell peppers

2-1/2 c. chopped white onion

3 to 4 med. jalapeños, chopped (see notes)

8 lg. cloves garlic, chopped

6 tsp. canning salt

1 c. white vinegar

1 (12 oz.) can tomato paste

 

Remove the skins from the tomatoes. To do this, make an “X” in the bottom of the tomatoes, than place in boiling water for 60 seconds. Then, remove the tomatoes from the water and place directly into a bowl if iced water to shock. The skins should slip right off. (I use my spider to transfer the tomatoes from the boiling water to the ice water without getting splashed.)

Place all of the ingredients in a large pot (you will need a 10qt. saucepan for this batch, or split the ingredients among 2 saucepans) and simmer for 20-30 minutes. Taste! Add more spice as needed.

You’ll then process using a water bath. To do this, bring a large saucepan filled with water to a boil. Your saucepan needs to be tall enough to have the water cover the jars by 2 inches- though the jars will displace some of the water as they are added.

Add the jars to the water bath and cover with a lid. Process for 30 minutes, then remove. I use these tongs to make things easy.

Let the jars sit for 24 hours. Discard any that have a broken seal. The salsa should keep for up to 18 months before being opened. Enjoy!

Notes: For a hot salsa, I use 4 jalapenos with the seeds. For a mild salsa, I seed 1-2 of the jalapenos before chopping. Remember that the heat will lessen as the salsa sits, so I tend to error on being spicy than not. However, you can taste while it’s cooking so if you want more, you can always add more. It’s hard to correct spice level so if you don’t like things spicy, then start with only 1 jalapeno and go from there.

 


Zucchini Relish

 

Prep Time: 30 min.

Cook Time: 30 min.

Soaking Time: 2 hrs.

Yield: 8 half-pint jars

 

4 c. chopped zucchini

2 c. chopped bell peppers

2 c. chopped onions

1/4 c. pickling salt

3-1/2 c. cane sugar

1 T. celery seed

2 tsp. yellow mustard seed

2 c. apple cider vinegar

 

Prepare the vegetables: Add the chopped zucchini, peppers, and onions to a large bowl. Sprinkle salt over the vegetables and toss to combine. Cover with crushed ice or ice cubes and water and let stand for 2 hours.

Prepare your canning equipment: Wash your jars and lids in warm, soapy water and rinse thoroughly. Place jar rack into water bath canner, set jars in the canner, add water to cover jars, and boil jars for 10 minutes to sterilize. Warm your lids in a small pot of water over low heat. Keep jars and lids warm until ready to use.

Cook the zucchini relish: Drain the vegetables and rinse well to remove the extra salt. Add the sugar, celery seed, mustard seed, and vinegar to a large pot. Bring the pot to a simmer and then add the drained vegetables to the pot. Stir to combine and simmer for 10 minutes.

Can the zucchini relish: Spread a kitchen towel on the counter. Use your jar lifter to remove the warm jars from canner. Drain and line up the jars on the towel. Use the canning funnel and ladle the relish into the jars leaving 1/2-inch headspace. Remove air bubbles with the bubble popper and wipe the rims. Use the magnetic lid lifter to lift lids out of the warm water, center lid on the jar, and screw on band until it is fingertip tight. Using jar lifter, place jars carefully into water bath canner on the jar rack leaving space in between them. Once jars are all in canner, adjust the water level so it is 2-inches over the tops of the jars. If adding water, use the hot water from your small pot. Cover the canning pot and bring the water to a rolling boil over medium-high heat.

Process the jars for 10 minutes. When processing time is complete, turn off heat and allow the canner to cool down for 5-minutes. Spread a kitchen towel on the counter. Use a jar lifter to lift jars carefully from canner and place on the towel. Allow the jars to cool for 12 to 24-hours. You should hear the satisfactory “ping” of the jar lids sealing.

After 12 to 24-hours, check to be sure jar lids have sealed by pushing on the center of the lid. The lid should not pop up. If the lid flexes up and down, it did not seal. Refrigerate jar and use up within a few days. Remove the screw on bands and wash the jars. Label and date the jars. Store in a cool, dark location. Allow 4-5 weeks for the relish to develop their flavor. Use within a year.

 


Pickled Beets

 

Ready In: 1 hr.

Yield: 6 pints

 

35-40 sm. beets, unpeeled

2 c. sugar

2 c. water

2 c. white vinegar

1 tsp. ground cloves

1 tsp. allspice

1 T. cinnamon

1 tsp. whole cloves

 

In a large pot cook the unpeeled beets until fork-tender (do not overcook) cool and then remove the skins.

Slice into about 1/4-inch thick or cut into cubes.

Pack snuggly into the canning jars (be careful not to bruise).

In a large saucepan combine the sugar, water, vinegar, ground cloves, allspice, cinnamon and whole cloves; bring to a boil and simmer for about 10 minutes (no sugar granules should remain).

Quickly pour over the beets in the jars, leaving 3/4-inch headspace (the liquid should go no further than the shoulder of the jar!).

Process in a boiling water bath for 12 minutes.

Cool on a rack.

 


Spicy Dilly Beans

 

Yield: 5 pints

Active Time: 1 hr.

Total Time: 1 week

 

3 lbs. green beans

2-1/2 c. white vinegar

2-1/2 c. water

4 T. pickling salt

5 med. cloves garlic

5 tsp. dill seed (not dill weed)

5 tsp. red chili flakes

 

Prepare a boiling water bath and 5 regular mouth pint jars. Place lids in a small saucepan over very low heat to simmer while you prepare the pickles.

Wash and trim beans so that they fit in jar. If you have particularly long beans, cut them in half. Combine vinegar, water and salt in a medium saucepan and bring to a boil. While the pickling liquid heats, pack your beans into the jars, leaving 1/2 inch for headspace. To each jar, add 1 clove of garlic, 1 teaspoon dill seeds, and 1 teaspoon red chili flakes.

Slowly pour the hot brine over the beans, leaving 1/2 inch for headspace. After all the jars are full, use a wooden chopstick to work the air bubbles out of the jars. Check the headspace again and add more brine if necessary.

Wipe the rims, apply lids and rings and process in a hot water bath for 10 minutes. Let pickles sit for at least one week before eating.

 


Quote of the Week:

“The marvel of all history is the patience with which men and women submit to burdens unnecessarily laid upon them by their governments.”

~ President George Washington

 

Publication: 

The Drummer and The Wright County Journal Press

PO Box 159
108 Central Ave.
Buffalo MN 55313

www.thedrummer.com

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