Help with Preserving Grandmother's "Recipe"

[arvanlaar]

Hey All,

First time posting here and I am hoping you can help me with my issue

My grandmother passed away a couple of weeks ago at the age of 97. She was a culinary genius (as all I Italian grandmothers are I think haha) and she had one preserve that I loved to eat with my deli meat sandwiches. It is basically zuchinni, hot peppers and onions fried together in oil (I am unsure if its olive or vegetable oil. I just asked my mom about that now. If using one of the other changes the preservation method, please let me know) and stored in jars. Magnificent!

Now my issue. There is not recipe. Just oral vague instructions from my mom. What I do know is that you chop up the veg, fry it in copious amounts of oil at a fairly low temperature with a good helping of salt, but not enough so the preserve tastes too salty (i strayed from the recipe by pre salting my veg to let them sweat and get some of the water out before frying). You are supposed to fry it until ALL (heavily emphasized by my mom) the water is out of each veg and you are supposed to fry them one at a time in batches (due to the water content being different for each). Then once the water is out, you combine, fry for a tad longer and jar and boil the jars (no time given but I assumed 15 minutes was good. And there you have it. Amazing!

Now my questions as this preserve terrifies me:

1. Frying the water out. How in the world does one tell when this is done? Ive been working off having no more steam showing from the pan as steam is from water and id there is no more steam, there must not be any or very little water? Does this make sense or is there a better way to tell? I made a batch the other day and I fried to this point but I felt like it was over fried. Do I literally need to ensure ALL the water is out? I did a small batch (enough for 2.5 500ml jars) and I spent 6.5 hours frying the veg in 3 batches. It was an insane amount of time and I feel like it shouldnt take that long should it?
2. How much salt? I feel like salting soniya just a little more salty than normal food is soooooo dangerous but my grandmothers preserve was never overly salty. Im trying to figure out just how much salt to use as a ratio to the veg. Is salt the main preservative here? Or is it the frying out of water?
3. Air bubbles in the jar. No matter what I do with this while jarring, for the life of me, I cannot remove the air bubbles in the jar and there is usually a fair amount of them. Is this OK? Air bubbles freak me out because I know they are not good but no matter what I do, I cant seem to get rid of them!

This is a pretty long post ans if you made it this far, I appreciate it If you are able to offer advice I would appreciate it even more! Thank you for your time

 

[taxlady]

There are other people here who know more about canning and will chime in soon. That said, I'm pretty sure that there are no safe recipes for water bath canning food in mostly oil.

And welcome to Discuss Cooking.

 

[Kathleen]

Might it be made something like this? Try the basic process with your ingredients. Just taking a stab in the dark here. That being said, I would definitely process in a pressure canner just because I really do not know what I am doing....

 

[taxlady]

Might it be made something like this? Try the basic process with your ingredients. Just taking a stab in the dark here. That being said, I would definitely process in a pressure canner just because I really do not know what I am doing....

That recipe doesn't look safe to me, not for storing. There isn't even any water bath processing.

 

[GinnyPNW]

Welcome to DC, @arvanlaar! Sorry for your loss...and hope someone can help guide you to help save Grandma's legacy!

 

[taxlady]

Maybe check this site, National Center for Home Food Preservation for zucchini relish or giardiniera.

 

[blissful]

Oil/butter/lard is generally not approved for canning except in some very few tested recipes and then only a teaspoon or two. (for foam in jelly/jam and a few others.)
I've never seen a recipe from a university extension service or the NCHFP for this kind of process or product.

https://extension.psu.edu/caution-canning-with-fats-and-oils (exceptions are listed in the text)

Fat and oil in home canning

In general, you want your home canning to be as fat free as possible for technical and quality reasons.

www.healthycanning.com

Those two references will explain the issues with canning with oil/fat/butter/lard and the exceptions.

In our canning history, families on the frontier layered salted meat in fat (lard) to preserve it and make it through winter. While that is historical we generally don't do that anymore.

Zucchini especially, and onions and peppers are more than 90% water, so they will take a long time to fry the water out of them. I can fit about 8 8-inch zucchinis in a quart jar if I dry them, if that gives you any idea how much water was dehydrated out of them.
I don't think I can suggest a safe canning method for your family recipe that is safe. That's no reason you can't prepare it for a meal in honor of grandmother.

Zucchini is troublesome in canning in addition to the oil. That's a whole different issue.
I believe you can find safe pressure canning methods for onions and peppers.
Welcome to discuss cooking.

 

[Kathleen]

That recipe doesn't look safe to me, not for storing. There isn't even any water bath processing.

I totally agree. I posted it to see whether it was similar to what was being described. It's why I mentioned pressure canning and said that I did not know what I'm doing!

 

[taxlady]

If you make your grandmother's recipe, well follow your mum's instructions for it, you could store it in the refrigerator for quite a while, if there is plenty of acid (vinegar, lemon juice, citric acid, ...)

 

[thymeless]

Sounds like some form of giardinera. But yeah. Skip the fat.

 

[arvanlaar]

Thanks for all the input everyone. It seems strange my grandmother made this for 60 years and it was completely fine. But I guess what you are all saying is the line of safe versus not safe is so slim with this recipe that it is pretty risky. I have 3 small kids and a wife so I think I will make small batches that I can eat within a week and skip the canning process for now I appreciate you looking out for me!

 

[jennyema]

You could make a test batch and freeze it to see how well it does when thawed.

I agree that your recipe as described doesn’t sound safe except for short term storage in the fridge.

 

[arvanlaar]

Freezing it eh? Thats not a bad idea... I wonder if that would hold up texture wise. It doesn't hurt to give it a go! I never thought of that before. Thanks so much for the idea

 

[medtran49]

I make this giardiniera

Homemade Hot Giardiniera

Get Homemade Hot Giardiniera Recipe from Food Network

www.foodnetwork.com

To use in making olive salad for muffalettas. I don't see why you couldn't substitute your vegetables for the ones listed.

I think the soaking in salted water replaces the frying in oil, in that both will take care of any little nasties on the vegetables. I don't think your mother is correct in "frying until all the water is out," as they are going to be way over fried as you noted. You just need to fry until all the tiny nasties are dead, i.e. bad bacteria.

As others have noted, I also do not believe it is considered safe to use the boiling water bath to preserve. I'm not sure if even pressure canning would be safe with an oil based product.

Even though the above linked recipe says to eat within 2-3 weeks, we have kept it for 2-3 months, though that's our choice.

 

[arvanlaar]

Thanks for the recipe Ya what I make can totally keep in the fridge ok, it was the jarring that was the issue for me.

When you say not to use the boiling water method to preserve, do you mean for anything or in particular this?

 

[medtran49]

When you say not to use the boiling water method to preserve, do you mean for anything or in particular this?

This because the liquid is oil.

 

[arvanlaar]

Understood. Thanks!