R ~Water bath canning recipes please..........

[mrszouave]

How about your tried and true recipes for Jams and Jellies and Tomatoes........things that are water bath canned.

 

Anybody have favorites that come out well?

I learned to make Jams last year and had a blast using the lower sugar pectin recipes.

 

I sometimes had problems if i had different amounts of fruit than the recipe called for so i fudged....sometimes they came out....sometimes they did'nt.

I tried the low sugar ball pectin but and loved that until i tried the lower sugar recipe Sure jell......the recipes came out better somehow.......

 

What do you use? What are your tips? Teach me please!Tis almost the season....strawberries will be out soon.

Smoooooochies!

deb

[Linda]

for pectin I use rhubarb instead it turns out really good.

[Guest Guest]

**rummaging around trying to find more recipes...**

 

Hang on, blebbie... it'll take me a bit!!

[Guest Guest]

For jellies I usually use the recipe in the pectin box and follow the instructions.

 

On the other hand one that is really easy and fool proof is Rhubarb jam and it's so good.

 

Rhubarb Jam

 

4 cups washed and chopped rhubarb (1/2" squares)

4 cups sugar

1 small pkg. Jell-O (I've tried different kinds and find strawberry, apricot and raspberry are our favorites)

 

Mix rhubarb and sugar in a pan and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and and simmer 10 mins. Stir in Jell-O until dissolved. Put in sterilized jars and seal.

 

How about applesauce, it's another good starter and so good.

 

I peal, core and cut into chunks a Dutch oven full of apples. Put an inch or so of water in the bottom of the pan and 1 cup of sugar. Cook on low stirring periodically, to keep from burning, until apples are tender. Put in sterilized jars, seal and process in water bath 20 mins. for both quarts and pints. You might like to get another batch of apples started while these are cooking, then start cooking them while the others are processing so you'll have another batch to process while you have the mess going and the water hot.

 

I like to add red hots when I add the sugar. It makes it a nice color and good flavor.

 

That should get you started!

[mrszouave]

Thanks guys!

 

HEy Dee......... i love the sound of the rhubarb jam.

Got a question for ya........what do you do when you don't have quite the amount of fruit called for on the pectin recipe? That's where i run into trouble cuz i don't know how much sugar to use...............

 

I tried making apple sauce last year......i have ONE JAR that i Won't let annnnnnnnyone touch.....cuz it took me FOREVER to make it and only got the ONE JAR........hahhaa....(i burned one batch what a waste woof)..i was stupid and cooked apple halves without peeling and coring.......( i heard it makes for a nice pink color that way)...well.......to get rid of the seeds/skins and other parts.....i didnt have a food mill......so i tried squishing it through a colander.....cuz i didnt have a mesh strainer either........what a JOB..........so that's my FIRST attempt.......you way sounds a HECK of a lot easier..........thanks!

 

I see Mare posted Great sounding Jam recipes under the Y2K thread...........

[Guest Guest]

This is one of my favorites that I make every year. It's great over pound cake, pancakes, or ice cream. It's out of the Ball book.

 

Blueberry Conserve

 

2 C water

4 C sugar

1/3 C thinly sliced lemon (about 1/2 of a large lemon)

1/2 C thinly sliced orange (about 1/2 of a medium orange)

1/2 C raisins

1 Qt blueberries

 

Bring water and sugar to a boil; add lemon, orange and raisins. Simmer 5 minutes. Stir in blueberries. Cook rapidly until thick, about 30 minutes. As mixture thickens, stir frequently to prevent sticking. Ladle hot conserve into hot jars, leaving 1/4" headspace. Adjust two piece caps. Process 15 minutes in a boiling canner. Yield: about 4 half pints.

 

Last year I also made the Peach Conserve with Rum, and forgot about it until I saw the recipe in the book. Hmmm........we better try it so we can report back on it.

 

[Guest Guest]

Sorry Debbielee I didn't see your post until just now when Mare's showed up!

 

If you're a little short...say 1/2 cup....on juice you can just use water. It will still taste fine and set up w/o any problem.

 

When I make applesauce for company I do it the way I wrote above. When I make it just for us I do what you did, it's so much quicker, but I have a food mill. It separates the skin and seeds from the applesauce but it also makes it so smooth that it's really a little strange. I also don't put sugar in ours but it's still sweet enough just not fancy like company sauce!

 

As to ending up with one jar I'm not suprised. It was so amazing to me when I first started canning how much time, fruit/vegetables/meat and effort it took to can. I cannot imagine how much food a family would need to put up to survive a winter if we didn't have grocery stores. I've always said I put up enough to get us through maybe the middle of Nov. if there was no other access to food

 

How about salsa? If you'd like to make some good salsa buy Mrs. Wage's salsa mix. It's much easier than cutting up all the vegetables and makes really good tasting salsa. I tried for years growing all my vegetables, cutting them up and still couldn't make decent salsa. Now I buy Mrs. Wages and grow my own tomatoes and that's all I need except vinegar. One thing I did learn is that even with Roma's tomatoes are just too juicy so when I get it all ready to can I put it in a sieve and let the juice run off. I then can up the salsa and also can up the juice and give it to DH to drink. He thinks it's great but I do need to remember to tell him what it is when I give it to him, otherwise he thinks it plain old tomato juice and about chokes!

 

Mare, your recipe sounds delicious and I love blueberries but there's just none around here!

 

 

[mrszouave]

Thanks Ladies!

[Guest Guest]

I'm in the middle of cooking up 2 batches of rhubarb jam because I have 3 boxes of Jell-O and all 3 are different kinds. I don't want to mix them because I'm afraid of what I'll end up with BUT I realized I didn't tell you that you can double, triple or quadruple the rhubarb jam recipe. I've never gone bigger than quadruple because my pan isn't big enough but if you've got a larger pan you probably could go bigger.

 

Anyway, back to my 2 separate batches but thought I'd tell you that while I remembered. Most other jams CANNOT be doubled, so the recipes say. I've really never tried it.

 

Find some rhubarb, experiment and have fun!!!

[Guest Guest]

Well, I ended up with 6 pints of liquid jam. I've made this for years and NEVER had a problem. The only thing I can figure out is I have 2 recipes and one says simmmer the other boil. I simmered didn't boil!

 

If I had more Jell-O on hand I'd open them and reboil but I don't have any and I don't think it's worth a 30 mile round trip to get more.

 

I'll keep it and warm it up for pancakes/waffles and also use it for topping on ice cream. It's good that way but 6 pints is sure a lot.

[mrszouave]

Thanks for letting us know how things came out.......ya think it was more liquid cuz it needed to be boiled then?

All i know is .......i have quite a few jars of blueberry PANCAKE SYRUP cuz it's way to liquidy for Jam.....and Lemon Marmalade too now that i think of it.....(Lowies recipe and my first adventure)..........it's good to know that even Seasoned canners still have goof ups now and again......so that sure makes me feel better.....thanks!

 

btw.....what jello flavors did you make with the rhubarb?

[Guest Guest]

Living in a valley where Cherries are grown in U-pick orchards, Cherries is something I can alot.

 

I refrigerate the cherries overnight after washing so they harden making them easier to pit.

 

I put the pitted cherries in a sterilized jar, pour a light syrup over them and water bath them for 10 minutes. (you don't have to pit them, but it is so nice to just do it and have it done and over with (seeds tend to make things a little bitter). This way the kids aren't spitting pits at each other when I'm not looking!)

 

If there are any really soft over ripe cherries, I pit and put them in a food processor or blender and pulverize the cherries. I strain and use the juice, replacing the water with the juice in the syrup.

 

By using the light syrup (Light Syrup- 2 cups water to 2 cups sugar. Boil sugar and water together for 5 minutes. Skim if necessary. Fruit juice can be substituted for all or part of the water [medium syrup- 4 cups water and 3 cups sugar, heavy syrup-4 cups water and 5 cups sugar]) I am able to use the cherries in all sorts of thing from eating them out of the jar to pouring over ice cream to thickening the juice with corn starch (or other thickening agents) and making cherry pie! use in muffins, cakes, frostings, yoghurt, your imagination is your only limitation.

 

Cherry Conserves is something else you can do with the broken pieces of cherries after pitting. Cherry Conserves is Like Jam but thickens or gels without pecktin. Use on toast or muffins, over ice cream, in a in a pastry, cakes, again the possibilities are endless.

 

1 1/2 pounds cherries (aprox. 3 cups pitted)

2 cups sugar

2 tablespoons lemon juice

1/4 cup water

 

Cut up cherries and place 8-10 quart kettle or dutch oven, add water. Bring to boil and simmer 15 minutes. Stir in sugar and lemon juice, mix well.

Bring mixture to full rolling boil stiring constantly. Boil, uncovered, till thick, 7-10 minutes. Remove from heat; quickly skim off foam with metal spoon. Pour at once into hot sterilized jars; seal, water bath 10 minutes. Makes 3 half pints.

 

optional: a teaspoon of almond extract does help enhance the flavor but not necessary.

 

 

 

Pickled Cherries

 

Wash, seed, drain cherries. Cover with vinegar, let stand 12 hours.

Measure both cherries and juice and add an equal amount of sugar. Let stand 10 days, stirring each day. Pack cherries into hot jars. Heat the syrup to boiling. Pour hot syrup over cherries and seal at once. Water bath 10 minutes.

 

Cloves, cinnamon stick, star anise are spices that compliment cherries.

[Linda]

just a side note about cherries they are helpful in relieving pain.