Canning thread pt 2 (thanks Littlejo)

[Brendasm1]

8 MORE pints blackberry jam
16 pints diced tomatoes
5 quarts tomato juice

anybody have some fresh ideas for tomatoes??

[lfaivre]

Originally Posted by Brendasm1

8 MORE pints blackberry jam
16 pints diced tomatoes
5 quarts tomato juice

anybody have some fresh ideas for tomatoes??

Brenda, do you mean ideas for using fresh tomatoes or fresh ideas for canning those tomatoes?? I made a BLT salad last night that was very good. If you mean for canning, how about pizza sauce, ketchup, barbecue sauce? I don't have specific recipes for ketchup or barbecue sauce, but I can post a really good recipe for pizza sauce. That will be my project next weekend (I hope ... my nephew is getting married on Saturday, so I hope I can get it canned on Sunday). I found that a pint sized jar was perfect for 2 pizzas (9 x 13" pans), so I always made 2 pizzas and put one in the freezer. The 9 x 13" size fits into a large (11") food saver bag for the freezer and it was so nice to have a homemade frozen pizza for those nights you just don't feel like cooking.

[Brendasm1]

I made a peach bbq sauce, I am very interested in a more tomato-ey one....Also if you could pretty please post the ketchup recipe you use, I would be indebted...
I have never canned and frozen ("put by") so much stuff. We invested in garden expansion (soil and fencing, we are in deer country)...
I was looking at my full shelves in the basement, I have literally hundreds of jars of jelly/jam (several different fruits), tomatoes, pickled peppers. spaghetti sauce, salsa, pie filling, apple sauce, pizza sauce, chutney, chile, tomato juice home made fruit syrups, etc. DH has been helping me....
Cant help but say I am proud of all.
besides everyone here, I have been getting help from is a homesteading.com website (try it with the www) that has helped me immmensely.
Thank you!!!

[LBeadle]

Brenda care to share the peach bbq sauce???? Sounds good for pork . . dang it now I am hungry.

[Brendasm1]

I tried it so far on chicken and pork...I used this recipe, quadrupled, and added a small tomato paste

Zesty Peach Barbecue Sauce
Makes about 8 (8 oz) half pints


You will need:
 6 cups finely chopped pitted peeled peaches (about 3 lb or 9 medium)
 1 cup finely chopped seeded red bell pepper (about 1 large)
 1 cup finely chopped onion (about 1 large)
 3 Tbsp finely chopped garlic (about 14 cloves)
 1-1/4 cups honey
 3/4 cup cider vinegar
 1 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce
 2 tsp hot pepper flakes
 2 tsp dry mustard
 2 tsp salt
 8 (8 oz) half pint glass preserving jars with lids and bands


Directions:
1.) PREPARE boiling water canner. Heat jars and lids in simmering water until ready for use. Do not boil. Set bands aside.
2.) COMBINE all ingredients in a large saucepan. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer, stirring frequently, until mixture thickens to the consistency of a thin commercial barbeque sauce, about 25 minutes.
3.) LADLE hot sauce into hot jars leaving 1/2 inch headspace. Remove air bubbles. Wipe rim. Center hot lid on jar. Apply band and adjust until fit is fingertip tight.
4.) PROCESS in a boiling water canner for 15 minutes, adjusting for altitude. Remove jars and cool. Check lids for seal after 24 hours. Lid should not flex up and down when center is pressed.

[Brendasm1]

Today I made 12 pints home made sloppy joe sauce, 10 quarts diced tomatoes. 4 quarts tomato juice, 10 pints apple sauce

[Shann7]

Made 7 pints of apple butter this afternoon. DD wants to use the rest of the apples to make applesauce this evening so will probably do that.

Brendasm1, how do you make your sloppy joe sauce?

[Brendasm1]

I used this recipe, added a small can of tomato paste

Sloppy Joe sauce


I found the recipie on this forumn I belive actually - but just in case I didn't here it is:
24 large tomatoes, diced
4 green bell peppers (diced)
2 red bell peppers (diced)
5 large yellow onions(diced)
3 tbsp salt (heaping)
1 tsp fround cinnamon
1 tsp allspice
1 tsp ground cloves
1 tsp dry mustard
1 tsp ground nutmeg
3 12 cups vinegar
2 12 cups brown sugar
1 cup celery grated
Combine all ingredients in non-alumnim stockpot (recipie is acidic).
simmer ingredients over medium heat, stirring occasionally and slightly mashing vegetables as they cook.
cook until thickened (about 2-3 hours)
water bath process 30 minutes for pints
(makes about 13 pints)

[Shann7]

Thanks for the recipe

Just made 2 qts of peach pie filling, ran out of lemon juice so couldn't do the rest, will do those tonight or tomorrow.

[Brendasm1]

I just made home made fresh mozzerella!! Wow, is it good!!
Canned 10 more pints pizza sauce.
I should be set for pizza and spaghetti and sloppy joe sauce. also plenty of tomato juice (think bloody mary's )
we still have scads of tomatoes, I might try ketchup this week

[lfaivre]

I have 4 quarts of tomatoes in the boiling water bath now and a big pot of the juice and leftover pieces of tomato simmering down to a sauce consistency.

Brenda, would you share your recipe for the mozzarella? Do you use rennet? I just bought a gallon of 2% milk because I had a coupon to get it for $1.98. Guess who forgot to use the coupon??? So now I want to go back and buy another $10 of groceries so I can get the milk at that price! And we really don't drink much milk. I'm thinking making cheese would be a great way to use it. Somewhere in this house I have a book with cheese recipes. But after a bunch of remodeling, I have NO IDEA what box that book might be in. I'd love to try one that you've already made and tested!

[Brendasm1]

This is how I made it

1 gallon of milk (2% is fine, skim might be dry)
2 tsp cirtic acid
1/2 cup unchlorinated (bottled or well) water
1/2 junnket rennet tablet

dissolve rennet in a dish with the water and set aside. Warm milk to 88 degrees in a non aluminum pot, add cirtric acid. The milk will start to curdle. Add rennett/water and raise temp to 115%, stirring slowly and occaisionally. turn off the heat. the curd will begin to separate from the whey. this is actually ricotta.
I used a really fine seive to scoop out the curd, pushing as hard as I could to remove the water (whey). put the curds into a glass bowl, pressing with your hand, squeezing off as much liquid as possible.
(It said to just keep pressing, but I used a jelly bag to squeeze the daylights out of it)
Microwave on high for one minute, squeeze out more water, and repeat this process twice more, microwaving for 40 seconds each time. keep the whey in the pot warm. keep kneading and working into a ball. if it gets too stiff, put it in the warm whey to soften it. you can form into small balls, a log or a large ball (I rolled mine into a ball and used it on tomato.fresh basil/garlic pizza )
I will do this again, as it is MUCh cheaper than fresh mozzerella. I weighed mine, it was 18 oz (from 1 gallon whole milk)
I plan to make my ricotta this way when I make manicotti next (dh makes his own crepe-like shells for manicotti, yum)

[lfaivre]

Thanks, Brenda, I'm going to try this. Where do you get citric acid and the rennet? I think maybe I remember seeing rennet somewhere at a grocery store (maybe with the spices)? But I don't think I've ever seen citric acid (although it would make sense that it would be with the canning stuff).

[LBeadle]

I added 4 1/2 pints of wild grape jelly. Put a couple more peppers in the freezer with the others.

[Squeak]

I just shucked a half a gunny sack of corn, I'm going to freeze it in foodsaver bags, I prefer frozen corn to canned!
tomorrow I'm going to can up a bunch of apple pie filling!

[littlejo]

ok, i know I started thead number one for whos canning what and then I did the vanishing act. lol. sorry! I am still canning stuff!!
today I made homemade easy to make in the crock pot apple butter that is soooooooo gooooooddddd!!!!!! then I decided , after peeling a couple of 5 gal buckets of apples , that I needed a treat! so I walked out to the grape vines and while eating and eating, looked over at the garden and there was tons of green peppers! Lord I thought I had gotten all of them already stuffed or cut up in the freezer. So I got a basket and went for the peppers. While picking peppers, I heard something calling me and saying pick up pick me!!!! Got to lookin around to see what was wanting picked and lands sakes! There was tons more of green beans. so picked 5 gal of them and came in and sat down and began to string and break them. Just now got them outa the canner. I stopped listening for something to call my name when I finshed the beans!!!!!!!!!!!
I got the soup canned also. already ate one qt of it. lol. I just couldnt wait!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[littlejo]

crock pot apple butter reciept

peel , slice and fill up the crock pot. stuff it full as you can get it
add 1 cup water, 2 cups sugar , cover the top of the apples with ground cinnimon . I dumped in 2 containers of red tick tacs.
cover and cook on low alll nite.
next day. put in pints and heat lids and put on jars.
you can put them them in a hot water bath for 10 min. of boiling if they dont seal but usually they seal just from the lids being hot and the apple butter being even hotter.
this stuff is soooo good.
you dont have to put the tic tac's in unless you want to , just gives it a little spicier taste.

[Brendasm1]

Littlejo, I didnt get a single green bean...bunnies ate them all. Also on the lookout for grapes...I cant complain, we got lots of free elderberries. I also planted a bunch of grapevines.

I found the rennet on the high shelf in the pudding aisle (after visiting 4 stores), make sure it is just rennet, not :vanilla dessert". I think people make custard out f it. I already had the citric acid to keep my fruit from browning....If there is something you cant find, pm me, the stuff is light and I could send you some in a padded envelope

[Brendasm1]

Littlejo, just read your applebutter recipe...my MIL makes it with the red cinnamon hearts candies instead of tic tacs...Interesting variation!! Sometimes I put in pumpkin pie spice instead of cinnamon just to walk on the wild side

[littlejo]

the bunnies ate the plums, we had drunk bunnies in the front yard from them eating the rotten ones off the ground. it was sooooo funny watching them trying to hop around after they ate them!
the deer should be big and fat this yr, they ate 8 rows of corn. the good kind too! the peaches and cream i think it was called. its white and yellow both on the same cob. i bought some at the flea market and it was so good! I jsut hope it gave the deer the runs like it did us!!!!! lol

[littlejo]

Originally Posted by Brendasm1

Littlejo, just read your applebutter recipe...my MIL makes it with the red cinnamon hearts candies instead of tic tacs...Interesting variation!! Sometimes I put in pumpkin pie spice instead of cinnamon just to walk on the wild side

i use the red hots too when I can find them! seems lots of folks use them and they are none to be had around here this time of the yr. like canning jars! Good lord , everywhere I went, they were out ! I finally found some at food lion. I have tons but they all have stuff in them.
looked on craigs list and there wasnt any and posted to freecycles and no one replied. but others posted that they were looking for them also.
still saving my mayo jars for next yr.

[Shann7]

canned 3 more qts of peach pie filling this morning and just finished the 1st batch of red raspberry jam, ended up with 4 pints, 1 half pint and 1 tiny jar.
need to wash the pot and funnel and start on the next batch.

[janenga]

I got 3 qts of spaghetti sauce canned this past weekend. I would have more, but my tomatoes are coming in slowly but surely, so I have to take what I can get. Going to make another big batch tonight tho, so that should give me 4-5 more qts. (I still had 6 qts from last year so we'll have plenty for this winter) Most of my beans are picked, shucked and jarred, still have a few left on the plants, but in a week or so all those will be done, just leaving me the tomatoes to deal with. Oh I almost forgot, we're going to pick a bunch of corn at teh neighbors to can as well, guess we're doing that this weekend.

[Shann7]

finished my second batch of raspberry jam, got 4 pts and 1 half pint from that batch . Have 2 qts of tomatoes in the canner now

[littlejo]

11 more pints of apple butter on the shelve and the crock pot is full again. this is the last of it. I have enough now for my family and to give to my clients.
am soooo tired of peeling apples!

[Brendasm1]

I am sick of apples too. We have a tree with late apples that wont be ready until october, but a neighbor gave us some small not so great rambos. It took me forever to peel and prepare enough for 4 quarts of pie filling...I think I am going to do applebutter with the rest.