Canning Fevah

Today we have a special guest star on the Greaser blog. Give it up for my beautiful little sister Megan Greaseball- Canning Extraordinaire...yeah, woooooo!   

 

On my recent visit home to Ohio, all my lady friends and family were in the midst of a canning craze. Once my little sister taught me how to can, (which is how I've learned most things in life), I could totally understand why one would spend hours in front of a stove with multiple steaming pots of boiling water and cooking fruits which require constant stirrage. I'm serious, canning is fantastic. There's something really fun about the precision and sterility required to safely preserve something you've grown or made.  
Also, in order to maximize the canning experience, you should have a partner to help you, which equals FUN. I'm not much help, but Megs is letting me do a bit while she teaches me how to can!



The recipe today is for peach jam, but the technique of canning is very versatile.
Since coming back to Salt Lake I've tried salsa, soups, and pickling, but more on that later.



First you need 10 peeled peaches. To peel: cut in half and then working from the stem area on top towards the bottom, use a paring knife and cut the skin off (don't pull).

Go shopping for some cute little jars!

Aww, you're so cute!

It's always good to "consult" a recipe. We decided the ideal ingredients were 10 peaches, 2 Tbsp lemon juice, 2 cups of sugar, one package of pectin, and a pat of butter.

Megan peeled all the peaches and added the lemon juice to the bowl to keep them from oxidizing.

Then she works in shifts to blend them into a liquid with some chunks in it. A blender also works, but the Magic Bullet is are awesome.

Add a bit o butter to a large pan, turn the heat on high, and add the peach puree. The butter minimizes foaming when the fruit is boiled.

That's right, I said high heat! Make sure to make your sister or canning partner stir this constantly for about 5 minutes before you start adding the sugar and pectin.

The mixture will bubble a lot and thicken a bit.

"I whip my hair back and forth!"

That little package Meggy is holding is fruit pectin. She adds that about halfway through the total cooking time of 10 minutes.

This package is 1.59 oz. There is also a sugar free kind made by Jello, but it's extremely difficult to make jam without sugar because it is both a thickener and preservative. Check out recipes if you're going to mix it up.

Back to those jars... it sucks, but they have to be completely sterile. The idea is to put something hot in a hot jar, and then boil it immersed in water to activate the seal that allows these little jars to stay good in the cupboard all year.

So remove the bands and lids and throw them in a small pan of nearly or boiling water.

Keep them super hot/boiling for at least 5 minutes before using them.

Add the 2 cups of sugar. Our recipe called for 3.5 cups but we wanted it tangy, and not horrible for you. We could have added a little more, but we loved how it ended up anyway.

After you add the sugar, cook for one minute. This is our jam all set to can.

About now your stove top is going to get bananas. You need to have a large stock pot with enough boiling water to cover the jars an inch.

Hank the Cowdog is always at work guarding Megan.

Just kidding.

Wash the jars in hot water right before you fill them so they are still warm.

Spoon the jam into a measuring cup to pour it cleanly into the jars or use a canning funnel.

Fill it's jar, leaving a little room in the top for expansion. Also make sure the rim of the jar is clean so that the lid can seal tight.

Fish the jar lids out of the boiling water with tongs, a fork, or a magnetic wand (which our store was sold out of!)

Place the lid on top.

And tighten the band onto the jar.

Rinse and repeat, but skip the rinse, and just repeat over and over, as quickly as you can.

Prefecto.

Unlike the magnetic wand, this canning tool is essential. It is used to lift the jars in and out of the boiling water.

I believe this part is the actual "canning" part of canning.. French for drowning one in a boiling water bath.

Once you get all your jars in, throw on the lid and let it boil for 5 minutes. Some things that are canned need to boil longer to seal so make sure you check a few recipes out if you're going to try doing veggies or sauces.

After they're in, you just have to stand there and look pretty, like so.

After 5 minutes, remove the jars to a cooling rack.

It helps the sealing process if you stare at them anxiously.

After 5-10 minutes you should start to hear little pops as the sealing process completes, and the middle of the jar "pops" out. If you don't want to count all the pops you can push in the middle of the jars and hour or two later, and if they still move, then they aren't sealed and you want to use those up first because they won't preserve.

The finished product! Merry Christmas everybody.

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As I mentioned, I've got the canning fevah. Luckily my awesome pal Alex, who is very talented and German, agreed to not only can some stuff with me, but share some old family recipes. 

Alex made pesto! We used the boiling water to sterilize the jars, but we didn't actually can it because we had no problem consuming it quickly.

I made bruschetta, (Italian salsa for bread) and we did boil those jars to preserve them.

Our spoils! The bottom jars are pickled tomatoes. We left the grocery store at 9pm and took these final pictures about 2am. With that as your final warning- go get canning!