Canning this year?

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Another thought/use for the caramelized onions is onion gravy. My most used recipe from Kadesma was her pork chops with onion gravy. I'm thinking onion gravy over mashed potatoes will appear on our menu soon.

An absolute favorite in our house. All my kids loved caramelized onions on their plate every time I served them. And if I was making a gravy from the meat of the meal, it had to have onions!
 
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3 jars garlic dills, marinaded tomatoes, a.k.a. 3 days tomatoes, though I think it needs at least 5 days and pickled lettuce. Russian thing. My parents eat lettuce, I only drink the juice.
 
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3 jars garlic dills, marinaded tomatoes, a.k.a. 3 days tomatoes, though I think it needs at least 5 days and pickled lettuce. Russian thing. My parents eat lettuce, I only drink the juice.

Looking good Charlie!!
Im really curious about the pickled lettuce and the 3 (5) day tomatoes.
What kind of lettuce are you using, and can you go into a little more detail on both.
 
So what equipment do I need to get to start canning? Is there complete set up I can purchase? If so, does anyone have any recommendations ? I want to give it a go.

Thanks
Start small, not everyone that starts canning continues to can. My aunt bought a top of the line huge pressure canner, then found it to be too heavy to deal with at her age.



Minimum:
21.5 qt canner ($21)
Jar lifter
Jar funnel
pint and quart jars are currently on sale from $5-7 for a dozen
(and they come with lids and rings) ball, kerr, mason, anchor hocking.

lids (large mouth or regular mouth are on average $3 / dozen)


If you frequent craig's list, facebook buy/sell/trade marketplace, goodwill, salvation army, you can find used supplies at super low prices. Don't pay more than $.25/jar for used jars. Don't buy special jars (blue, old wire bale type, zinc lids--unless you are a collector).


For tomatoes, I cook them down in a roaster (electric 18 qt), then use a hand blender on them, leave in the skins and seeds, or take them out with a sieve or food mill, or peel the tomatoes first. You'll need bottled lemon juice and salt.
 
I canned 10 half pints of caramelized onions yesterday and have 6 pints and one half pint in the canner right now. This has been absurdly easy to make and process. If you have a food processor, crock pot and a pressure canner, oh, and a lot of sweet onions, this is one of my best projects yet. I grew about 150 Sierra Blanca sweet onions this year. I use about 10 pounds of onions per batch. Slice and put the onions in the crockpot before you go to bed. In the morning start canning it.

It is divine.


We had just harvested a few hundred onions this past week, so we cleaned up about 10 lbs of the smallest onions and chopped them, added some butter and salt to the slow cooker last night. It looks just like yours! We'll be pressure canning them today. Thanks so much for sharing.
 
Start small, not everyone that starts canning continues to can. My aunt bought a top of the line huge pressure canner, then found it to be too heavy to deal with at her age.

Minimum.
21.5 qt canner ($21)

You can start even smaller than that. I do small-batch canning because I'm not aiming to feed my family for the year with it. I make four or five half pint and 4-oz. batches in a saucepan because it's fun and to preserve what comes from my relatively small garden. And since we harvested five gallons of honey a couple weeks ago, I want to use it in my canning.

This book has lots of recipes and tips on how to do it.
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Here's a review of the book: https://www.thekitchn.com/preserving-by-the-pint-by-marisa-mcclellan-new-cookbook-202873

And some strawberry-balsamic freezer jam with honey and Pomona's Pectin I made recently - 6 half pints and 2 quarter pints.
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Just wanted to let people know that they don't have to make 25 pounds of produce at once in order to start canning [emoji2]
 
Looking good Charlie!!
Im really curious about the pickled lettuce and the 3 (5) day tomatoes.
What kind of lettuce are you using, and can you go into a little more detail on both.

Larry, here it is:

Pickled/Marinated tomato.

3 days Recipe

Not really sure what to call them. They are not really pickled, that takes 2 weeks. They are not really marinated, that takes vinegar.
But here it is.
4 cups of water
2 Tablespoons honey
1 Tablespoon Pickling salt
1 Head of garlic
1 Bunch of Dill
Couple of stalks of Celery
Pinch of hot pepper flakes or to taste
Tomatoes to fill whatever container you have
Use very ripe tomatoes. I cut the big ones. I used a gallon size jar. Dissolved honey and salt in a little bit of hot water then filled the rest with cold tap water. I did not have celery, I'm sure it will be just fine. I end up using 5 cups of water. Keep on the counter for 3 days, then put in refrigerator.

Though honestly, I think it takes at least 5 days for my taste.


and here is the lettuce:

Summer time is time for pickling. Here is some less traditional thing to pickle. Lettuce. Yes lettuce. Was very common at least in Kyiv. Not sure about rest of Ukraine.

For a gallon size jar:
About a half of the head of leaf lettuce. I think that's the name.

2 table spoons salt.
1 small head of garlic.
1/2 of a bunch of dill.
1-2 pieces of rye bread.
Fill with tap water to the top.
Cover with cheesecloth.

It will be ready in 3-4 days.

My parents eat lettuce and drink the juice. I only like the juice.
Try it, you might like it.
 
Pressure Canners
I have a Magic Seal, $10 used, replaced the seal, button, and dial gauge.


I saw this and thought that if anyone was thinking of getting a pressure canner, this would be useful information.
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Pressure Canners
I have a Magic Seal, $10 used, replaced the seal, button, and dial gauge.


I saw this and thought that if anyone was thinking of getting a pressure canner, this would be useful information.
39521776_1075789315905255_6963131182208778240_n.jpg


Thanks, Blissful! That's exactly what I was thinking about, know all the pieces parts before making a thrift store purchase. It's all good to know about gaskets, but pressure plugs, etc. Need to make sure it's all there or how to replace.
 
Though it’s not a true canning, I’m making this for refrigerator storage, nevertheless. Here is another picture. IMG_4949.jpg
Eggplant salad or as it’s called in Ukraine “caviar” and pepper relish.
 
Busy day today. I took the day off work and my wife and I made:

33 x 1L jars of peaches
33 x 500mL jars of Salsa
6 x 1L jars of pasta sauce

Ran out of tomatoes at that point, so will need to wait another week or so to make more pasta sauce.

Tomorrow my wife plans on making more pickles. I may make pepper jelly after work too, we still have a bunch of peaches left.

One downside, house is a sauna now. A/C has been set to 22.5 all day but it's 29.5 (celcius) in here. Good thing we kept the bedroom door closed so it's nice and cool. If not I'd be out in the camper.

Having a glass of bourbon and off to bed.
 

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CharlieD, thanks for sharing your fermented recipes. I'm going to try some with my chard instead of lettuce.


I'm currently cooking down 7 gallon containers of fresh tomatoes. As they soften, I add more, and by tonight they'll be ready to put in quarts with tattler lids. Then waterbath canning.
 
Starting tomorrow Aldi's has the 21.5 qt canner w/lid and rack, for $17.99.
 
We bottle that stuff down here, you guys prefer canning. Why is that?

Russ
Canning, bottling, both seem inaccurate when the containers we use are called jars. Why aren’t we “jarring” our pickles, salsas and jams?
 
I call it as it is, jars of tomato relish, bottles of plum sauce and bottles of tomato sauce. But I also freeze in plastic containers tomato pasta sauce.
I guess we recycle more than you guys do? My grandparents were great preservers.

Russ
 
Used our pressure canner for the first time yesterday. The pasta sauce I made on Monday I didn't trust the recipe was safe for water bath canning (no acid added), so re-processed it in the pressure canner. Works well, doesn't heat the house up nearly as much which is nice.

Still don't like that there is no added acid in this recipe, so we'll use these jars up first.
 
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As I mentioned before we can lots of stuff. Green bean, tomatoes, jelly, preserves...on and on. Many years ago I found it much easier and cooler in the house to do my canning on my desk with the side burner on my grill. Since then the last grills I bought, absolutely had to have a side burner. Plus I use it to sauté fish too. When you do 8 quarts in a pressure canner that is lots of heat you put into your house.
 

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