Ingredients: |
Ingredients: 1. To get started, you need to buy glass canning jars and lids (Ball or Kerr are good.) It also helps if you have a big canning kettle, a funnel (for filling the jars without splashing), a ladle, and a metal clamp jar remover to pull things from the canner.
2. There are many ways to sterilize canning jars before filling them. The easiest is to run them through a very hot dishwasher, but you can also submerge them in boiling water for 10 minutes, or wash them in hot soapy water, then bake them on a cookie sheet at 350 degrees for 10 minutes.
3. Lids should always be new, they are not designed to be reused. Prep them by simmering in water along with the accompanying screw tops for about 10 minutes, and then leaving them sit until they are placed on the jars.
4. Though you can certainly can with a pressure cooker, all the recipes here will do well in a "hot water bath." This is easiest to set up by buying a large metal canning kettle with a wire jar holder inside. Get the water to a rolling boil before submerging the jars, and don't start timing the bath until it returns to a rolling boil again.
5. After their bath, set your jars out on a bread board or protected counter. As they cool (this may take a few hours) each lid will make a little pop or click, and suddenly be concave. This means the jar has sealed. If the jar doesn't do that, refrigerate and eat later: something went wrong. Sealed jars should be stored in a cool dark place.
6. Basic canning is easy, but there are millions of variations and tricks. Polly has always used the 1969 edition of the "Ball Blue Book: Easy Guide to Tasty Thrifty Home Canning and Freezing" as her reference. You can still order it on Amazon, and though you will also find more recent editions there as well, this is the one she recommends.
7. Have fun and good luck! There is something especially cheerful about those colorful, glistening jars of fruits and vegetables in the middle of winter.
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