Canning Utensil Set
Vanilla Joy pressure canned chicken for the first time: Canning Chicken. She was using the "hot pack" method which is more work than the simpler raw pack method, which is what I recommend because it is faster and easier. Both methods are detailed by the National Center for Home Food Preservation here: Selecting, Preparing and Canning Meat: Chicken or Rabbit. By coincidence, I'm actually blogging as I listen to the weight jiggle on my pressure canner filled with pints of chicken (raw pack).
This month's "Can Jam", involves citrus (natch) (Welcome to Tigress' Can Jam).
Local Kitchen, a Hudson Valley-based food blog, made lime curd (Can Jam: Lime Curd for Water Bath Canning). It is important to note that curds are an unusual canning recipe in that they contain eggs and a significant amount of butter. The processing is rather unusual, and there are additional steps to take into consideration. Furthermore, canned curds are recommended to be stored for only 3-4 months. If any separation is evident, discard. For more information on canning curds see the National Center for Home Food Preservation (Canned Lemon Curd).
Market Life SF, made clementine marmalade (January Canning Challenge Begins - Clementines). Unfortunately, she tried to waterbath can her marmalade in a bail-and-gasket jar instead of the standard ring-and-lid mason jar. Her rubber gasket jar failed to seal and she ended up refrigerating the result instead. Bail-and-gasket look pretty, but they aren't recommended for canning. Use them for dry storage and refrigerator storage instead.
Keeping Up With K decided to try to do something a little unusual for the citrus can jam and made Honey-Orange Slices and Cranberry-Orange Vinegar (Canning Citrus). Both sound like excellent ideas that I'll have to give a try. That vinegar will certainly come in handy next fall for some lovely salads.
My newsletter this week (if you aren't a member) was about kitchen organization (Taking Stock). By coincidence food storage guru Crystal Godfrey was also talking about a similar sort of kitchen organization on her blog Every Day Food Storage (Are You Organized for 2010?). She even has a nice video. You can also watch a short segment she did as part of a news cast on the hot trend of canning: Studio 5: Hot Trends: Canning.
Hot Water Bath posts a poetic expression of grief that there is little to can in the middle of winter (Mid-Winter Canning Lament):
canning season goneMust not live in California.
spring seems so far away now
empty jars stack up
Love to Pinch Pennies notes that a canning funnel is useful for more than canning (Kitchen Tip: Canning Funnel). She uses her canning funnel to help get things into freezer bags. Good idea!
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Thanks for featuring my wee attempt at poetic expression! No, I don't live in California but rather in southeast Pennsylvania where, after back to back snowstorms, spring seems yet more distant. I keep asking friends to remind me of these days when August has arrived and I'm up to my ears in tomatoes, peaches and blackberries!
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