Canning and Preserving For Dummies (20 page)

Stoneware crocks are excellent choices for brining food. You can find them at specialty cookware stores or where canning supplies are sold. But there’s an important caveat: Don’t use a crock that you’ve gotten from a thrift store or other secondhand store. Without the original packaging, you have no way of knowing whether it’s lead-free and suitable for brining.

Old-time canning recipes may instruct you to “soak your pickles in salt brine strong enough to float an egg.” This equates to a 10-percent brine mixture of 1 pound (about 1 1/2 cups) of salt dissolved in 1 gallon of water.

Adding crunch to your food

The best method for maintaining crispness, crunch, and firmness in your vegetables during the soaking period is to add ice, preferably crushed ice, to your soaking solution. This works best for short brine soaking.

After the soaking period, drain your vegetables in a colander, following your recipe instructions for any rinsing. Some recipes instruct you to roll the drained food in clean kitchen towels to dry it. This works well for larger pieces of food (it isn’t for finely chopped relishes).

Note:
In older pickling recipes, you may see the addition of alum or pickling (slaked) lime. The recipes in this chapter don’t add either of these products because they aren’t necessary when you’re using modern canning methods.

For the best tasting pickles, follow these four tips:

Pick produce that is blemish free and pickle your produce within 24 hours of harvesting. Never use vegetables that you have to trim off spoiled or moldy parts.

To ensure that every piece is pickled at the same time, always pack your jars with uniformly sized vegetables.

Scrub the vegetables well to get rid of any dirt, which contains bacteria, and trim 1/8 inch from the blossom and stem ends of cucumbers. These ends may have enzymes that will spoil or soften your pickles.

Pack your jars tightly. Because pickling causes vegetables to shrink slightly, having them tightly filled helps prevent them from floating.

Pickling Equipment and Utensils

In addition to the basic equipment for water-bath canning (refer to Chapter 4), you need nonreactive utensils and equipment for handling, cooking, and brining your food.
Nonreactive
items are made of stainless steel, nonstick-surfaced items (without a damaged nonstick surface), enamelware, or glass.

Don’t use enamelware with chips or cracks or equipment or utensils made from or containing copper, iron, or brass. These items react with the acids and salt during the pickling process, altering the color of your food and giving the finished product a bad taste.
Definitely
don’t use galvanized products, which contain zinc. These produce a poison when the acid and the salt touch the zinc, which is transferred to your food causing serious illness (or worse).

Pickled Toppers

Relish is a staple in many kitchens. Use this pickled treat anytime you’d use a relish, on a hamburger or hot dog, in tuna salad, or anytime you want to add flavor to a sandwich.

Sweet Pickle Relish

One advantage of homemade relish is mixing flavors you don’t find in commercially produced relishes. Make more than you believe your family will consume in a year because this relish has a way of disappearing. Try it in homemade Thousand Island dressing.

Preparation time
: 55 minutes plus 2 hours soaking time

Processing time
: Halp-pints and pints, 10 minutes

Yield
: 7 half-pints or 3 pints

5 to 6 medium cucumbers

3 to 4 green and/or red bell peppers

3 to 4 medium onions

1/4 cup kosher or pickling salt

Cold water, about 4 to 6 quarts

3 cups granulated sugar

2 cups cider vinegar

2 1/2 teaspoons celery seeds

2 1/2 teaspoons mustard seed

1/2 teaspoon turmeric

1
Peel the cucumbers, cut them in half lengthwise, and remove the seeds (see Figure 8-1). Finely chop the cucumbers in a food processor fitted with a metal blade, to measure 6 cups. Remove the stems and seeds from the bell peppers. Finely chop them in a food processor fitted with a metal blade, to measure 3 cups. Remove the skin of the onions. Finely chop them in a food processor fitted with a metal blade, to measure 3 cups.

2
Combine the vegetables in a 5- to 6-quart bowl. Sprinkle them with salt and add cold water to cover them. Cover the bowl; let the veggies stand at room temperature for 2 hours. Rinse the vegetables with running water in batches in a colander. Drain well.

3
Combine the sugar, vinegar, celery seeds, mustard seeds, and turmeric in a 5- to 6-quart pot. Bring the liquid to a boil over high heat, stirring occasionally to dissolve the sugar. Add the drained vegetables and return the mixture to a boil. Reduce the heat to medium-high and simmer, uncovered, stirring occasionally, for 20 to 30 minutes or until most of the excess liquid has evaporated.

4
While your relish is cooking, prepare your canning jars and two-piece caps (lids and screw bands) according to the manufacturer’s instructions. Keep the jars and lids hot. (For information on preparing your jars, see Chapter 4.)

5
Spoon and lightly compact the hot relish into the prepared jars. Release any air bubbles with a nonreactive utensil (refer to Chapter 3), adding more relish and liquid as necessary to maintain the proper headspace. Wipe the jar rims; seal the jars with the two-piece caps, hand-tightening the bands.

6
Process your filled jars in a water-bath canner for 10 minutes from the point of boiling.

7
Remove the jars from the boiling water with a jar lifter. Place them on a clean kitchen towel away from drafts. After the jars cool completely, test the seals (see Chapter 4). If you find jars that haven’t sealed, refrigerate them and use them within two months.

Tip:
This recipe is ready to eat as soon as you’re done precooking it. So save one jar to cool for dinner the night you make it.

Per 2-tablespoon serving:
Calories 51 (From fat 1); Fat 0g (Saturated 0g); Cholesterol 0mg; Sodium 499mg; Carbohydrates 13g (Dietary fiber 0g); Protein 0g.

Pickled Cucumbers Are Just Pickles

So what’s so important about what kind of cucumber you use for pickles? After all, a cucumber is a cucumber, right? This is definitely not the case. The common salad cucumber has a thick, dark-green, waxy skin. Don’t use this cucumber for making pickles because the brine solution won’t penetrate the waxy coating. Use this cucumber when your recipe doesn’t specify “pickling cucumbers.”

A pickling cucumber is the only cucumber to use for making pickles. The skin of a pickling cucumber is thin, not waxy, and is left on the cucumber. Pickling cucumbers are about 4 inches in length, smaller than salad cucumbers. Don’t eat pickling cucumbers raw; their flavor can be extremely bitter. Some varieties are now sold for both pickling and slicing. These are fine to use. For pickling, use the smaller size of this variety; for slicing, use the larger size. Always look for cucumbers that are recommended for pickling, such as Kirby or Boston Pickling.

Speedy Dill Pickles

This recipe makes an old-fashioned dill pickle in almost the blink of an eye. It’s an excellent confidence-builder for the beginning canner. Try it!

Preparation time
: 35 minutes

Processing time
: Pints, 10 minutes; quarts, 15 minutes

Yield
: 6 pints or 3 quarts

4 pounds pickling cucumbers

6 tablespoons kosher or pickling salt

3 cups distilled white vinegar

3 cups water

1 tablespoon whole mixed pickling spices

18 black peppercorns

3 tablespoons dill seed

Fresh dill springs (optional)

1
Wash your cucumbers. Leave them whole if they’re smaller than 4 inches in diameter. For larger cucumbers, cut them into slices or lengthwise, in halves or quarters.

2
Prepare your canning jars and two-piece caps (lids and screw bands) according to the manufacturer’s instructions. Keep the jars and lids hot. (For information on preparing your jars, see Chapter 4.)