Canning and Preserving For Dummies (60 page)

Second, cabbage needs to be stored in a damp area. If you store cabbage in a place that’s too dry, the heads dry out, and the dry, wilted leaves are wasted. Fortunately, you can take care of this tendency with a simple pan of water.

To prepare cabbage for storage, choose unblemished cabbage that has not been picked for long. Remove the tough outer leaves. Wrap each head in newspaper and store it where temperatures are just above freezing, 32 to 40 degrees, and the humidity levels are between 80 to 90 percent. Place a pan of water near the cabbage to provide enough moisture during storage.

Carrots

Carrots are another root vegetable that stores well and tastes sweet and crisp throughout the winter months. Just as you do with beets, pick carrots as late as possible in the season. Avoid any that have grown too large and pithy, however, because these carrots have used up their natural sweetness and will taste bitter.

To prepare carrots for storage, trim off the tops, leaving the carrot itself intact. Don’t wash them; simply brush off excess soil if you want to. Place carrots with beets in coldest storage of 32 to 40 degrees with high humidity of 90 to 95 percent. Carrots do especially well in moist sand.

Garlic

You can never have enough garlic, especially since garlic is so easy to store. If you’re growing your own garlic, simply pull the bulbs once the tops have dried and fallen over. Allow the garlic bulbs to dry thoroughly out of direct sunlight until the outside of the bulbs has become dry and papery. Purchased garlic bulbs have already been dried. Look for the papery outer layer that you always see on a store-bought bulb.

Dry bulbs on newspaper outside during the warm summer days, but bring them in during the cool nights to prevent condensation. Repeat this process for a few days, until the garlic is completely dry.

When the garlic is thoroughly dry, tie bunches of tops together, braid in attractive garlic braids. Alternatively, do what I (Amy) do: Trim tops from bulbs and place them in women’s stockings, tying a knot between bulbs. You can hang this long chain of bulbs on a nail in a cool and slightly damp area. I have luck placing my garlic in a cool coat room, instead of an actual root cellar. They are in a convenient location for cooking, and let’s face it, they make quite a conversation piece! If you do keep them in cold storage, place them in 30 to 45 degrees with a humidity level of 60 to 70 percent.

Onions

Most onions keep very well in cold storage. Some varieties, such as the extra sweet onions, however, don’t last long. When planting, choose varieties that say they work well for storage (you’ll see the term “good keeper”). These onions last throughout the storage season.

Harvest onions the same as garlic. Pull them when the tops turn brown and fall over. Once pulled, they must also be cured, like garlic: Place them on newspaper to dry during the warm days, bringing them in during the cool night hours to avoid condensation buildup. When storing purchased onions, you don’t have to worry about this step. They are already dried for you.

To store, gently place onions in a crate, loose mesh bag, or ladies’ stockings, tying a knot between each onion. To prevent mildew on onion skins, air circulation is vital, so make sure your cold storage has adequate ventilation (see the earlier section “Finding the Perfect Place for Cold Storage”). The ideal storage conditions are temperatures of 35 to 40 degrees and humidity of 60 to 70 percent. If, throughout the season, you find onions with some mildew on them, simply use those onions first. Generally the mildew is on the outer layers, leaving the inside onions fresh.

Pears

Pears store very well and make a nice change from apples. In years when apples are affected by blight or scald and are too expensive, pears can be more available.

Pick pears you plan to store when they’re just ripened. (Don’t choose pears that are too ripe, or soft; simply leaning against each other can cause them to bruise.) To help protect the fruit, wrap each pear in a sheet of newspaper before storing. Keep temperatures cold, 30 to 35 degrees, with high humidity (80 to 90 percent). Pears can keep for several months in this manner.

Potatoes

Potatoes are the easiest of all fruits and vegetables to store. To prepare for storage, harvest late in the season. Don’t wash the potatoes; instead remove excess soil with your hand or a soft rag. Inspect them carefully for bruising or nicks in the skin (fresh potatoes have a more delicate skin than those that have been harvested for a few days). If you find any bruising or nicks, keep these potatoes out of storage and use them within a few days.

Store potatoes in complete darkness at 32 to 40 degrees and 80 to 90 percent humidity. Every week, check them for damage. At least once a month, turn and rearrange them. Finally, don’t let them freeze. A frozen potato is a ruined potato; it can’t be saved.

The most important rule for storing potatoes is to store them in complete darkness. First, the darkness signals dormancy for the potato, and it won’t sprout. Second, potatoes subjected to light become bitter over time. Other than perfect darkness, potatoes really do well in almost all storage conditions.

Turnips

Turnips are an underappreciated root crop. They are easy to grow: You simply plant them early in the season, weed them a few times, and harvest them late in the season, after the nights become freezing cold, sometime in November.

To prepare turnips for storage, don’t wash them. Simply brush off any excess soil with your hand or a rag, and trim off the turnip tops.

Store them in your coldest storage area; just above freezing is ideal (temperatures of 30 to 40 degrees). The humidity should be high; between 90 to 95 percent is optimal. Turnips are another food that stores well in damp sand.

Consider turnips a crop that provides two separate foods: the greens and the root. So, after you trim the tops to prepare the root for cold storage, don’t throw away the greens. You can dry them for use later. To see how to keep turnip tops, head to Chapter 10 for instructions for canning greens and Chapter 18 for info on drying greens.

Tomatoes

You may be surprised to see tomatoes, which are both fragile and juicy, in this list of good cold-storage vegetables. Tomatoes can, however, be kept for a limited period of time in cold storage.

When you store tomatoes, you store the whole plant, not just the individual tomatoes. So at the end of the growing season, select any tomato plants that have fruit with the slightest hint of ripening (any color change, from slight yellow to orange) and follow these steps:

1. Remove any fruits from the plant that are still fully green or too small to ever ripen.

2. Pull the entire plant out of the ground and hang it upside down in temperatures between 55 and 70 degrees, with moderate humidity of 60 to 70 percent.

An unheated garage or cellar stairwell works great for this.

The tomatoes will ripen slowly over time, right on the vine. You will be amazed at the vine-fresh flavor.

Part VI

The Part of Tens

In this part . . .

If you wonder where you can find all the things for food preservation that you need, Part VI provides the answer. Here you’ll also find a handy top-ten list that helps you troubleshoot and solving canning problems.

Chapter 21

Ten (Or So) Troubleshooting Tips for Your Home-Canned Creations

In This Chapter

Jarring results from your processed foods

Understanding your imperfect jelly

Explaining less-than-perfect pickles

Comprehending changes in your fruit and vegetables

Canning and preserving is a science and, like any science, you must be precise when working in your lab, which in this case, is your kitchen. Although you follow your recipe instructions to the letter, accurately measure your ingredients, and properly process your filled jars, you aren’t guaranteed a perfect product.

This chapter fills you in on some problems you may encounter in canning and what you can do to remedy the situation and avoid these troubles in the future.

Jars That Don’t Seal Properly

There may be several reasons your jar didn’t seal after processing: Maybe you didn’t follow the manufacturer’s instructions for using the jars and two-piece caps; maybe a particle of food was left on the jar rim; maybe a piece of food was forced out of the jar during processing; maybe the processing timing was calculated incorrectly; or maybe your filled jars weren’t covered by 1 to 2 inches of water in your water-bath canner.

Eliminate these problems by reviewing and following the manufacturer’s instructions for preparing and using your jars and two-piece caps, cleaning the rims after filling your jars, leaving the proper headspace in the jar, timing your processing after reaching a boil or the correct pressure, and covering your filled jars with 1 to 2 inches of water in your water-bath canner.

But what if your jar seals and then comes open? If this happens, check for hairline cracks in the jar. If you find a crack in the jar, discard the food (just in case there’s a piece of glass in it) and the jar. If your food wasn’t processed correctly, microorganisms may be active. They’ll produce a gas in the jar that expands and forces the seal to break loose. Because this indicates food spoilage, don’t taste the food or use it; dispose of it properly (refer to Chapter 9 for instructions).

Jars That Lose Liquid During Processing

Starchy food absorbs liquid — this is normal, and there’s no way to correct it. Raw, unheated food also absorbs liquid during processing. Eliminate liquid absorption by using the hot-pack method.

Trapped air bubbles released during processing increase the air space in the jar while lowering the liquid level. Always release air bubbles before sealing and processing your jars (refer to Chapter 3).

Longer-than-suggested processing times cause a loss of liquid in your jars. If you’re water-bath canning, prevent this by covering your jars with 1 to 2 inches of water for processing. If you’re pressure canning, keep the pressure constant during processing; then let the pressure drop to 0 and wait 10 minutes before opening the canner.

Jars with Cloudy Liquid

Cloudy liquid occurs from using water with lots of minerals, salt containing additives, or ground spices. Remedy these problems by using soft water, pure salt (like canning and pickling salt), and whole spices.

If you used the right kind of water, salt, and spices and your jar’s liquid is still cloudy, you probably have spoiled food. Dispose of it without tasting it.

Dark Spots on Your Jar’s Lid

Occasionally, naturally occurring compounds (like acids and salts) in some food cause a brown or black deposit, along with some corrosion, on the inside of the lid. This deposit is harmless and doesn’t spoil your food. You can go ahead and eat the food, and, because you dispose of the lids anyway, the spots won’t matter in the future.

Jelly with the Wrong Consistency

Although you can still safely eat a batch of jelly that didn’t set up or is too stiff, you obviously want to avoid the same problems in the future.

If your jelly is soft, runny, or syrupy

The proportions of sugar, acid, and juice may not be correct.
Accurately measure your ingredients.

Work with smaller amounts of juice, no more than 4 to 6 cups at one time.
Working with larger amounts of juice won’t allow the juice to heat fast enough to reach its gel point, which can result in runny jelly.

Store your sealed jars in a cool, dark place with a temperature between 50 and 70 degrees.
Jelly may
break down
(become runny) in less-than-ideal storage conditions.

Stiff jelly, on the other hand, results from using too little sugar or cooking the jelly too long before it reaches the gel point. When your recipe doesn’t call for adding pectin, your proportion guideline for sugar and juice (for most fruit) is 3/4 cup of sugar to 1 cup of fruit juice.

Cloudy Jelly or Jelly with Bubbles

There’s no solution for fixing cloudy jelly, but rest assured, it’s safe to use. Poor straining is the most common cause of cloudy jelly. In the future, carefully strain your fruit through a damp jelly bag (or cheesecloth). This keeps pulp out of the juice. Don’t squeeze the jelly bag; let it drain slowly by gravity.

Another likely cause is overcooking. Overcooking fruit breaks down fruit pulp, and broken pulp is small enough to pass through your strainer. Be sure to cook your fruit just until it’s tender.

And finally, don’t allow your jelly to cool before filling your jars.

Although cloudy jelly isn’t anything to worry about, moving bubbles (bubbles that actually move through the product) in jelly indicates spoilage. This occurs when living microorganisms in the jar break the vacuum seal during storage. Discard your food without tasting it. Review the step-by-step instructions for preparing your food, readying and filling your jars, and processing your food. (
Note:
It’s not uncommon to see a few small air bubbles lodged in a thick jam or butter. It’s the moving bubbles you need to be concerned about.)

Moldy Jelly

Mold on your jelly indicates an improper or a broken seal. Don’t use or taste the jelly — just throw it out (see Chapter 9 for disposing of spoiled food). To avoid this problem in the future, always clean your jar rims, allow the proper headspace, and process your jars for the correct amount of time.

Jelly with Very Little Fruit Flavor

Jelly with weak flavor results from using fruit that’s not ripe or fruit that’s been stored too long after being picked. You can’t add flavor to your jelly, but the next time, use tree-ripened fruit; store your sealed jars in a cool, dark, dry location; and consume your jelly within one year.

Glasslike Particles in Your Jelly

As long as your jar didn’t break, you can safely use your jelly. What you’re seeing isn’t actually glass but undissolved sugar. Slow cooking evaporates liquid and allows particles to form in the jelly. Quickly heat the jelly to its gel point; then ladle, don’t pour, your jelly from the pot into the jars. Pouring transfers any undissolved sugar crystals from the inside edge of the pot into your jars.

Hollow, Shriveled, Discolored, or Slippery Pickles

Occasionally, pickling cucumbers develop hollow interiors as they grow or if they wait too long between harvesting and pickling. You can’t fix hollow pickles, but you can identify them because they float when they’re put in a sink of water. (Don’t throw out the hollow pickles; use them for making relish.)

If your pickles are shriveled, too much salt, sugar, or vinegar was added at once to the cucumbers. Start with a weaker solution and gradually add the full amount of ingredients called for in your recipe.

Discolored pickles may be from using hard water with minerals in it. Use soft water for your brine solution as well as for the liquid for filling your jars. Reactive metals like brass, iron, copper, aluminum, or zinc in pots and utensils cause darkening as well. Use nonreactive equipment such as enamelware with no chips or cracks, glass, stainless steel, or stoneware. Finally, your pickles may have absorbed ground spices. Prevent this by using whole spices rather than ground ones. These problems don’t indicate spoilage, but your pickle flavor may be altered slightly.

Mushy or slippery pickles indicate spoilage. Discard the pickles without tasting them. Prevent these problems by accurately measuring your salt, using a vinegar with 5 percent acidity, and completely covering your pickles with liquid during the brining process and in your filled jars.

Remove the scum from your brining solution daily, use a modern-day recipe, follow your recipe to the letter, and use a heating period long enough to destroy any microorganisms.

White Sediment at the Bottom of the Pickle Jar

Soft pickles in a jar with white sediment indicate spoilage. Don’t taste these; simply discard them. But, if the pickles are firm, they’re safe to eat. The sediment is a harmless lactic acid or yeast that develops in the jar and settles to the bottom.

Food That Floats in the Jar

Fruit weighs less than the syrup you pack it in. If your fruit isn’t packed snuggly, it’ll float to the surface. Use ripe, firm fruit, and pack it tightly — but don’t crush it. Fill your jars with a light to medium syrup. You can’t sink floating fruit, but with practice, you can improve your packing skills.

Raw-packed vegetables shrink during processing. This doesn’t indicate food spoilage. Reduce shrinkage by packing your vegetables tightly or blanching or precooking them prior to packing them in the jars. Floating food is still fine to eat, however.

Food with an Off Color

Fruit near the top of the jar may darken if it’s not covered with liquid. This doesn’t indicate food spoilage. Completely cover your fruit with liquid using the correct headspace for the fruit and the liquid. Too much headspace seals excess air in the jar. Trapped air bubbles change the liquid level in sealed jars when they’re released during processing. Next time, leave the correct headspace and release any trapped air bubbles in the jar before sealing it.

If your fruit darkens after removing it from the jar, active enzymes may be to blame. You can still eat the fruit because it’s in a sterile environment until you open the jar. But to avoid this problem in the future, make sure you process your filled jars for the required length of time stated in your recipe to inactivate these enzymes. Start counting your processing time when the water in your kettle reaches a full, rolling boil, with your jars covered by 1 to 2 inches of water.

You may notice your apples, pears, or peaches turning color during processing. Heat causes chemical changes in fruit that may alter the color of the food. Don’t be surprised if these fruits turn pink, blue, red, or purple — there’s no way to avoid it. So just sit back, admire the colors, and enjoy your food.

Fruits and vegetables turn dark when the natural chemical substances in food (such as acids, tannins, or sulfur compounds) react with minerals in the water. Food making direct contact with reactive utensils (utensils made from brass, copper, iron, aluminum, zinc, or chipped enamelware) experiences a color change. Prevent this by using soft water and nonreactive equipment, like stainless steel, glass, or enamelware with no chips or cracks.

Heating green vegetables breaks down
chlorophyll,
the green coloring in plant materials. If your green vegetables lose their bright-green color, you can’t do anything about it. You have to expose your canned food to heat to produce a safe vacuum seal.