Canning Recipes

Okay, so like I said, yes I will provide the recipes that I used to preserve the fruit and fruit.  Now first thing, I have to say, not a single one of these recipes are mine.  These are all borrowed from numerous places on the web.  I've provided the link to the website that I borrowed the recipe from.  Our first canning of the season was the strawberries we picked at Brad's Produce.

Strawberry Chipotle Jam

Ingredients

• 1 quart strawberries (about 1 ½ lbs.) Try to select 1 cup of slightly-unripe berries
• 1 large juicy lemon, zested and juiced
• 3 cups sugar
• 2-3 chipotle peppers, minced (canned)
• ¼ tsp. salt

Instructions

1. Chop half of the berries into small pieces and smash the rest of the berries. You should have approximately 3 cups—a little extra is ok.
2. In a saucepan combine the lemon zest, juice, sugar and salt over medium heat. Stir the mixture occasionally, until the sugar dissolves.
3. Add all the berries and minced chipotle peppers to the pan. Bring to a low boil. Simmer for 10 minutes.
4. Then, check the gel consistency by placing a small amount on a frozen surface. Run your fingers through it. If it separates and is not runny, remove the jam from heat. If it is still runny, simmer another 5-10 minutes and check again. The jam could take 10-40 minutes to gel properly.
5. Place the hot jam in sterilized jars. Either seal in a hot water bath (according to proper canning technique) or refrigerate immediately.

Preparation time: 15 minutes
Cooking time: 10-40 minute(s)

This one is awesome!!!  Sweet and spicy with a nice smoky flavor from the canned chipotles!  I can imagine even cooking with this jam will be a treat! 
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The cherries we picked from Milburn Orchards up in Elkton Maryland.  This is always a fun trip for us as we pack a picnic lunch, spend the morning picking and then relax and enjoy our picnic afterwards. 

Chocolate Cherry Jam
Ingredients:

Ingredients

• 6 cups prepared fruit (black cherries)
• 3 unsweetened chocolate squares
• 4 cups granulated sugar
• 1 (8 ounce) box Sure-Jell
• 1/2 teaspoon margarine or 1/2 teaspoon butter

Instructions:
Prep Time: 30 mins
Total Time: 2 hrs
1 Pit the cherries if necessary, then chop them up. Crush the remains thoroughly, 1 cup at a time. If using frozen berries, use both liquid and solids; they all were part of the original fresh berry. Measure 6 cups of crushed fruit into 6- or 8-quart heavy saucepan. Break the chocolate squares into smaller pieces and add them to saucepan. 2 Measure sugar into separate bowl. Mix 1/4 cup sugar from measured amount with pectin in small bowl. Stir pectin-sugar mixture into fruit in saucepan. Add butter. Bring quickly to full rolling boil and boil exactly 1 minute, stirring constantly. Remove from heat. Skim foam and ladle into pint or half-pint jars, leaving 1/4 inch headspace and process 10 minutes in boiling water canner.

Think CHOCOLATE COVERED CHERRIES!  Decadent, truly decadent.  We were blown away by the flavor of this!  This one we'll definitely be making again! 
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Our cucumbers are just starting to produce however we have gotten so many pickles lately from the CSA that we had to use them up one way or another.  Since my son has developed a taste for low sodium dill pickles I decided to make him some.  Later on I'll be making more bread and butter and pickle relish. 

Low Sodium Dill Pickles

Ingredients

• Cucumbers - 4 or 5 lbs of fresh, crisp pickling cucumbers - not wilted, soft or overripe!
• Sugar - 2 cups - (Splenda if you are diabetic)
• Pickling salt - 2 tablespoons - (available at most grocery stores)
• 2 tbsp whole mixed "pickling spice"
• 7 heads of fresh dill (1 head per pint jar) or, if you can't get fresh dill just use 2 tbsp dill seed per pint jar.
• Cheesecloth or a spice bag, or even a small piece of a old, but clean cotton shirt - to hold the spices
• Clear vinegar - 6 cups of 5% vinegar, apple cider vinegar works well. Store brand is about $1.25 for a 64 oz bottle

Instructions
Put the spices in the spice bag
Tie the 2 tbsp whole mixed "pickling spice" in the spice bag or a 6 inch by 6 inch piece of cheesecloth or a cotton shirt.
Again, it's available from Kroger, Publix, local "big box" stores and large grocery stores. This is NOT a Mrs Wages or Ball packet, it is natural pickling spices, just pre-mixed.


Mix the sugar, salt and vinegar in a pot and bring to a near boil

Heat the pickle mix
Add the spice bag! Bring the mix to a boil!

Be sure to use a NON-metal pot - or a coated metal (teflon, silverstone, enamel, etc.) without breaks in the coating. the metal reacts with the vinegar and makes the pickle solution turn cloudy.
Fill the jars with cucumbers and put the lid and rings on
Pack the raw cucumbers from step 3, whole or slices in and pour the simmering pickle mix liquid over them. Fill them to within ¼-inch of the top, seat the lid and hand-tighten the ring around them.

Boil the jars in the canner
Put them in the canner and keep them covered with at least 1 inch of water. Keep the water boiling. Boil them for 15 minutes

Done
Lift the jars out of the water and let them cool without touching or bumping them in a draft-free place (usually takes overnight) You can then remove the rings if you like. Once the jars are cool, you can check that they are sealed verifying that the lid has been sucked down. Just press in the center, gently, with your finger. If it pops up and down (often making a popping sound), it is not sealed. If you put the jar in the refrigerator right away, you can still use it. Some people replace the lid and reprocess the jar, then that's a bit iffy. If you heat the contents back up, re-jar them (with a new lid) and the full time in the canner, it's usually ok.

When can you start eating the pickles? Well, it takes some time for the seasonings to be absorbed into the pickles. That's at least 24 hours, but for best flavor wait 2 weeks!

I've never made this one before so I have yet to taste the end result.  Looking forward to it! 
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Once again this was a recipe that we ended up using because we simply got too much from the CSA for us to eat in one week.  I try to preserve anything extra either by drying or canning so come the cold winter months we won't have to purchase as much from the grocery store.

Amish Chow Chow Recipe

Ingredients:

• 1 small head cabbage, chopped
• 3 cups Chopped cauliflower
• 1 cups chopped green tomatoes
• 2 sweet green peppers, chopped
• 2 large mild onions, chopped
• 1/2 cup salt
• 3 cups vinegar
• 2 1/2 cups brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon dry mustard
• 1 teaspoon turmeric
• 2 teaspoons celery seed

Instructions:

1. Combine vegetables. Sprinkle with salt. Let mixture stand 4 – 6 hours in cool place. Drain well.
2. Combine remaining ingredients. Simmer 10 minutes. Add vegetable mixture and simmer until just tender.
3. Pour into hot sterilized jars; seal. Process 15 minutes in boiling water bath. Let stand at least 2 weeks before opening.

This was unlike any relish I've made!  Sweet and savory!  I can imagine this would be great along with grilled ribs or hamburgers!  Or even simply just along side a sandwich! I can't wait to try this in another few weeks after the flavors have really mixed! 
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On the same day as we went cherry picking we decided to just go ahead and pick some blueberries since we were at the Orchard and it is a long drive there and back.  Unfortunately we didn't pick enough to actually freeze.  The syrup used up every single blueberry we picked so I'll be buying frozen blueberries later in the season. 
Blueberry Syrup
Ingredients

• 6 1/2 cups fruit
• 7 cups sugar
• 2 tbsp lemon juice

Instructions:

• Wash the berries and sort through to catch any of the stems. 
• Crush the berries using a potato masher or simply a slotted spoon.  I could've actually used my juicer or food processor but since I was processing cherries and blueberries at the same time I didn't feel like adding all the extra dishes that I would have to wash. 
• Add lemon juice and cook to a full boil.
• Strain the cooked berries(I froze the remaining pulp that I plan to use in muffins, scones or breads later.)
• Add the sugar to the syrup in a pot, allow to come to a full boil.  Remove from heat and skim off any foam. 
• Fill jars with 1/4 to 1/2 inch headspace. Put lids and secure the rings tightly.
• Process in hot water bath for at least 15 minutes. 
• You know they're good when you've pulled them out of the water and they pop shortly there after.  This means you've got a good seal.

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This one I haven't tried yet but when hubby and I noticed this recipe we both agreed ardently that we had to make this. No if's, and's or buts.
Raspberries will be in season around early to mid August so we have some time before we have to plan for this one. 

White Chocolate Raspberry Jam
Ingredients
5 cups raspberries, crushed (use a potato masher or other implement to crush the berries)
6 cups sugar
1 pack pectin
1 cup white chocolate chips (spring for the Guittard or other gourmet chocolate if it's available in your area)
1/4 cup coffee liqueur (Starbucks or Kahlua)

Instructions

Heat raspberries while slowly adding in the pectin. Once the raspberries are at a full boil that you cannot stir down, add in the sugar. Return to a full rolling boil, stirring for one minute. Take the raspberry mixture off the heat and add in the white chocolate. It will take awhile to melt, so be patient (unless you want chunks of white chocolate in your jam).

After the white chocolate has melted, add the coffee liqueur and stir until well blended. Because the raspberry jam is quite hot, the alcohol will burn off, so if you want to have more of the alcohol flavor, add it in at the very end. Pour jam into sterilized canning jars and process in a hot water bath for 10 minutes. That is, assuming you haven't eaten half of it already.

Yields 10 pints.
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A few years ago I decided I really wanted to make sauerkraut. The real stuff, not the vinegar salt junk that always tastes too salty to me(that's me a salt addict actually talking!)

Traditional Fermented Sauerkraut
Lacto-Fermented Sauerkraut

Supplies Needed:
1- 1 gallon glass jar, with lid
1 zip lock type bag, gallon size
Large wooden spoon
A potato masher

Ingredients

• 1 large head of cabbage, fairly heavy and dense or 2 medium heads of cabbage
• 2 T sea salt
• ½ cup whey

Optional Ingredients:

• 1 carrot, peeled and grated
• 1 onion, sliced thinly

Instructions

• Core and slice cabbage into thin shreds. I like this better than grating. I discard a few of the outer leaves of the cabbage. Then I cut it in quarters and core it. I take each quarter and run it through my food processor with a slicing disk.
• Put cabbage into a large bowl. Add extra veggies if you are using them. Stir them up to mix up the extra veggies.
• Sprinkle salt over cabbage.
• Sprinkle the whey over the cabbage
• Using a large spoon mix well. Now take the potato masher and begin pounding and mixing and pounding the cabbage. You will notice that soon the volume begins to reduce.
• When this process is done spoon cabbage mixture into one gallon jar. Having a nice wide canning funnel sitting on top of the jar helps this process. Use a wooden spoon to pack and push the cabbage to the bottom of the jar and let any liquid that is there rise to the top.
• After all the cabbage has been put in the jar and packed down you can add more water if needed. You need to make sure water is covering the top of the cabbage.
• Ready after 3 days. 

We'll be putting ours into smaller size mason jars.  It should keep for quite a while since it was lacto fermented.
And of course, just remember, when in doubt, throw it out!

Super YUMMY! Crunchy, sweet yet salty.  Not too salty which is really nice.  I've always hated canned sauerkraut because it's always so salty!  This was perfect!  We now have 5 jars of it put in the back of the fridge to keep it cool.