I used to make all of our jams and jellies and chutneys and so forth, and give them as gifts. I mostly stopped doing it when I started my chocolate business, but this summer I’ve found myself inspired again. Everyone is getting this for Christmas this year!
So far I’ve made:
Vidalia Onion pickles (a wildly popular if I do say so myself personal specialty, like a bread and butter pickle w/o the cucumber)
Dilly Beans
Sweet and Sour Pickled carrot sticks (a new recipe, but they sure look cute in the jars)
Corn Relish
Rhubarb Ginger Jam (my personal favorite jam)
Brandied Apricot Jam
Wild Blueberry Jam (lightly spiced with cinnamon and nutmeg)
Peach Pineapple Jam
Peach Conserve/Sauce with Cognac and Vanilla Bean
Chardonnay Basil Jelly
I have to make some Hot Pepper Jelly, because S particularly likes it. I’m going to make crabapple jelly, would love suggestions on whether to do it plain or add some additional flavor.
Anyone have any particular person favorites or off-beat suggestions?
I think I’m going to make some more wine jellies, perhaps mulled wine…definitely going to make some apple pear chutney, flavored like a Mango chutney, another old favorite.
My jams/preserves are award-winning. I earned blue ribbons at the local fair 12 of the past 15 years - we were on vacation and missed entries for the other 3 years.
I stick to the basics because that is what we have around here. Strawberry, Rhubarb, Raspberry, Peach, Apricot, Blueberry, Blackberry, etc.
I always say thanks to my late MIL who taught me how to make these when I was dating DH.
I love making hot pepper / fruit combo jams. Raspberry habanero, strawberry jalapeno, etc. This year I did peach jalapeno, but it wasn’t quite as good as the berries.
And pickles–yes. My favorite ones to make are lemon cucumber dill pickles, or pickled red onions. This past winter I also made a lot of pickled turnips when they our CSA was full of them. I put a slice of beet in the bottom of each jar, which turned the turnips all bright pink.
I admit that I usually just do fridge pickles and freeze jam, though I have learned hot water & pressure canning. I love the idea of doing proper canning so I can give them as gifts, but most of the time it seems like a lot of extra work. Also, even though I know that canning is very safe when done properly, especially the high acid jams, I worry that if I give them as gifts other people might be wary of botulism and not eat it–my mom said this once and it’s made me cautious about gifting canned goods, but I’m not sure how common that sentiment actually is.
I’m another who sticks to the quick refrigerator pickles and jams as opposed to canning. Love to indulge in other’s canning skills through farmer’s markets and such, though.
I like some of the old timey classics like dilly beans, corn relish, chow chow, and bead and butter pickles the best. I’ve always enjoyed pickled watermelon rinds but haven’t seen those in awhile.
Wait…let’s back up for a minute. Did you say you have a CHOCOLATE business?? Can you put us all on your Christmas list?
This year I had a huge crop of raspberries and made jam for the first time–it turned out great. I gave out jars to my relatives when I visited, and got some compliments.
The only other thing I’ve canned is cucumber pickles.
I have an abundance of Amish tomatoes–using them to make paste. I am getting tomatoes (seconds with a few blemishes) from a local organic farm stand to make sauce. I just bought a Victorio tomato and food strainer to make tomato sauce and am excited to see if it makes sedding and skinning the tomatoes easier.
Last year, I grew ghost peppers (seriously hot) and made ghost pepper jelly. It was great, but definitely hot. My favorite was to put it tiny bit on a bagel with cream cheese. I found a recipe on
U-tube, where the guy making the jelly wore goggles. It wasn’t that bad. This year, my ghost pepper plants did nothing–2 peppers. Habaneros were a little better. My only prolific hot peppers were Thai red peppers.
We’ve picked 87 lbs of tomatoes the past two weekends. S2 is saucing into herb & garlic sauce, vodka sauce and red pepper sauce. What a messy (but delicious) job! I do preserves and jelly, but the only kind DH will eat is freezer jam (insert spoon into frozen jam, eat like ice cream).
My youngest sister makes awesome pickles and salsa.
I started making Vidalia Onion pickles because I would buy a (very expensive) jar every time I went through the Atlanta airport on business. I took a jar to a group board retreat once, and a bunch of people just sat there passing the jar around “like a joint” as one person said. B-)
Well, I had my first canning goof of the season today. I added too much water to some crabapples when cooking to extract the juice. Reducing it would kill the pectin, so now I’ll have to figure out what to do with it, or marbe just throw it out. Maybe my chickens would like it…
@CountingDown, I’m considering it. The question being, how much to reduce it by. I’ll have to see if I can find a recipe with one of those “you should have about X cups of juice” statements and extrapolate.
I have never had good results with making big batches. The proportions and heat are never quite right and it never sets the way I want. But Consolation mastered chocolate, though, which is all about the timing and temperature, so she may be fine with that!
I also can a lot of soup - tomato, minestrone, vegetable, chowders, and of course chicken varieties (rice, barley, noodle), as I can better control the sodium. I tend to make the oversized stock pot full, it simmers all day, we’ll eat a couple meals worth, but I typically have 6-8 quarts left to can. When the pups went off to college they each took a couple of jars, so I’d have the peace of mind that if they got sniffles they’d be able to eat some of mama’s magic. Since all (or most) of the veggies come from our garden, it cost pennies per jar, and I always get a real sense of accomplishment when I have a full pantry.
The only problems I have ever had with canning was when I tried to make grape jelly - it always ended up as grape syrup. We ended up using it over ice cream, or reducing it more to add to the mixed-berry pie.
I also had a batch or two of applesauce get too watery, where it separates on the shelf, but shaking it before opening makes it fine, especially when served warm with pork chops.
When DS was newborn, MIL came over the house with a huge box (like 200) of mini-jelly jars, and told me they were for canning baby food. The sentiment was a nice gesture, but I think she had forgotten how little sleep parents of newborns get. My niece (and god daughter) ended up using these jars years later for jam, which she and I made as table gifts for guests at her wedding.
How do you can soup with noodles and rice without it turning to mush? Even when I make a pot of soup, I cook the noodles or rice separately if I know I’ll have leftovers.
I do a variety of pickles, jams and sauces, even apple pie filling one year when we had too many apples. A friend just gave me her family recipe for canning pickles in the oven (putting them in a water bath in a hot oven) has anyone tried this? She swears they are the crunchiest pickles ever.
A lot of trial and error, @doschicos What I do is to use No Yolks noodles, cook them separately and rinse them to remove starch, toss them in butter so they don’t stick, and then I freeze them in a cupcake pan - about 1/2 full. I add one “lump” of frozen noodles (which shrinks to about 1/3 muffin size) to the wide mouth mason jars before I add the chicken soup, I seal them quickly in the pressure cooker. They are slightly mushy, but I think because my soup has a lot of sugar and acid content, they still resemble noodles. I think because I don’t add much salt (due to diet), perhaps it is the salt that accelarates the breakdown. Since I prefer thickened soups, I have added cornstarch, so whatever noodle breakdown has happened is less noticed. I have also used a small amount of uncooked, rinsed, toasted orzo instead of egg noodles, but it inevitably turns mushy.
For rice and barley, I only put in about a heaping tablespoon of parboiled, rinsed rice for each quart jar. I noticed that for chicken soup it does get mushier, but the tomato rice and tomato barley soup comes out perfect - the rice cooks when it is being canned in the pressure cooker.
I used to make the tomato chutney from the Moosewood cookbook.
I don’t like all the bother of sterilizing jars, but recently realized that if you don’t make huge quantities of stuff you can just put the jars in the fridge. Most recently I made one jar of blackberry jam from wild ones growing in Vermont. It didn’t take long and was very tasty.
Reducing it would kill the pectin, so now I’ll have to figure out what to do with it, or marbe just throw it out. Maybe my chickens would like it…