The Preserver's Year

daska

Pitlanepiglet wrote: »

I couldn't get to grips with the whole water bath thingie....

Me neither, whatever I was doing wrong it was enough to turn the air blue when I tried to open the ruddy things, ended up throwing one jar away because after half a dozen people had tried we concluded that the only solution was to break the glass:eek:

thriftlady_2

Chris25 wrote: »

I've shamelessly quoted it from a Waitrose mag that accredites him with writing it.:rotfl:

Ooh, shame on Waitrose You'd think they'd know better;)

ceridwen

Pitlanepiglet wrote: »

Y'see Ceridwen that's where I gave up last year and just bought jam jars, heated them up, filled them with the stewed apple and stuffed the lids on whilst it was all still hot!

A year later they are still fine!

I couldn't get to grips with the whole water bath thingie....

I'm recalling that, at one point, I often used to buy jars of readymade apple puree - as it was just handy to have a couple of spoonfuls per morning to dollop on my porridge. Those jars that it came in are very akin to jamjars and the only thing that came with the apple was the water it had been cooked in. Those jars kept for months unopened and, once opened, I could keep them for weeks in the fridge. But - of course - they would have "canned" them with summat akin to those American-style pressure canner thingies - which we cant do.

Hmmm.....I'm feeling another experiment coming on...:D. Batch no. 3 will be:
- sterilise ordinary jamjars with boiling water run over them and their lids
- stew up apples in water with a bit of runny honey added
- when stewed apple is ready - put it into said jamjars

Maybe it would be just as simple as that - and honey is/is regarded as a form of sugar (ie preservative effect) - so I'd have my preservative effect, without having to use sugar....

Reet....here goes nuthin' a bit later this week....:D

....come to think of it - I could substitute honey with maple syrup (I have some of the "real" stuff) in one jar and I've got some other "natural" type syrup I've never heard of that I could try in another jar.....
-

daska

ceridwen wrote: »

I've got some other "natural" type syrup I've never heard of that I could try in another jar.....-

Agave? I have two bottles of that lurking in my cupboard, it was a bit too runny to be a honey substitute and I fell at the first hurdle. Any hints would be good!

ceridwen

daska wrote: »

Agave? I have two bottles of that lurking in my cupboard, it was a bit too runny to be a honey substitute and I fell at the first hurdle. Any hints would be good!

Yep- think thats it.

Well - I'm quite prone to cooking up something sweet and then adding the "sweet" bit at the end - by drizzling honey over it (so I guess we could use agave instead).

When I make bread - I use honey in it - so I guess I could substitute agave (as I only dilute the honey/salt/olive oil I use in the water anyway - before adding it to the flour/quick type dried yeast).

Penelope_Penguin

Pitlanepiglet wrote: »

Y'see Ceridwen that's where I gave up last year and just bought jam jars, heated them up, filled them with the stewed apple and stuffed the lids on whilst it was all still hot!

A year later they are still fine!

That's interesting Did you add anything to the stewed apple to preserve it, or just being sealed in a sterile jar was enough

TIA, Penny. x

BabyKat

does anyone have a recipe for mango and peach chutney at all please?
i am also looking for a sweet cucumber pickle recipes as i seem to have a few cucumbers growing outside this year.

Pitlanepiglet

Penelope_Penguin wrote: »

That's interesting Did you add anything to the stewed apple to preserve it, or just being sealed in a sterile jar was enough

TIA, Penny. x

Sorry for the delay PP, I can't post whilst at work.

I put a small amount of sugar in, just the normal amount that I would put in stewed apple and I tend not to have things very sweet - certainly not as much sugar as for jam making. I also put some cinnamon sticks in and fished those out when putting in the jars.

I was really worried about it, we had a bad experience with a plastic jar of either apples or plums some years ago went off like a bomb all over the kitchen and I didn't fancy repeating that!

The trouble was I couldn't find any other way of keeping the vast apple crop that we had, there was much too much to freeze.

I made 24 1lb jars, 22 went to the loft as there was nowhere else to keep them but I kept 2 in our cold dining room and kept an eye on them to check that they didn't start bubbling! That worked up until life went off the rails a bit in the New Year when I promptly forgot about the jars only remembering about a month ago whilst remarking on the forthcoming apple crop

Hubby was dispatched to the loft to try to find the jars and they were perfectly OK, no bubbles in the jars, a nice satisfying "pop" when opened and they taste great!

The trouble is that now means I've got last years crop and this years so we really are going to be eating a lot of stewed apple this year! I made "Aunt Sally's Apple Cake" with one of the jars and it was fine - obviously less texture but perfectly acceptable.

Mellika

Does anyone know how to cook and preserve mushrooms in oil? I buy the jars at Aldi and it gave me the idea. Anyone done it themselves??

sassyblue

Hi all, l did my first batch of spiced plum chutney this weekend (a recipe from Delia Smith), but l bought a pressure cooker this year and saw you could make chutney and jam in it so l gave it a go....

Am pleased to say it went really well, only used 1/2 the vinegar l usually do (as per pressure cooker instructions), 12 mins a full pressure, much quicker than simmering in a pan for hours and it tasted gorgeous even before it went into the jars, not as vinergary as usual of course so l guess it will be mellow come Christmas which is fine as the green tomato chutney ones l did before were always a tiny bit too vinegary.

I'm doing the green tomato chutney this weekend :T ( l hope none of you tell me using less vinegar will ruin it!)