Recently, my daughter canned 20 pounds of peaches. She came up with a lovely recipe that did not include sugar. Last year, when I canned the pears, I did use sugar. I've been trying to get away from that as much as possible, so was intrigued with her recipe. Her "syrup" has water, honey, lime juice and vanilla. Here is the combination I came up with. I peeled the pears, cut them into chunks, filled the jars with the chunks and then with the boiling "syrup" that had:
18 cups water
3 cups honey
juice of 2 lemons
1/4 cup vanilla extract
I processed the jars for 35 minutes in quarts - 8 of them. Probably about 1/3 of the "syrup" is left over, so I will do some more tomorrow.
A few weeks ago, a friend offered to let me in on a really good sale of boneless, skinless chicken breasts (all hormone and antibiotic free.) I picked up my order yesterday and came home and canned it. There was 20 pounds of meat and I got 18 1/2 pints.
Canning meat is much easier than fruits and vegetables! I will use this chicken breast meat to make chicken salad.
I guess canning season is never really over... I know that many things that I can would be better for us if frozen. We used to move a lot. I got in the habit of canning so I could take the food along. And then there are the inevitable power outages... and I've lost many things in the freezer. I do dry some of our things. We also have our unheated greenhouse, so we have fresh things through the cooler months.
I don't plan to give up canning.
Ha! Canning season is never over. it just changes focus with the seasons.
ReplyDeleteLet me know how the pears turn out. I let mine sit for two weeks to see how the flavor/texture would be. They turned out SO good!
ReplyDeleteThat's so true, Grace...
ReplyDeleteApril, I will wait for a couple of weeks and try them and let you know! I'm glad your peaches are nice.
What a blessing. I too am interested to hear how the pears taste.
ReplyDeleteMy mom would can year round if she could find things to can and I think I take after her.
I love canned meat. I am getting low on canned beef so I need to watch for a good deal.
Take care.
debbieo
I have never heard of canning meat! How the heck do you do that? LOL
ReplyDeleteWell... you need to start with a good canning book, like this:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.amazon.com/Ball-Blue-Book-Guide-Preserving/dp/0972753702/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1320420305&sr=8-1
Of course you have to use a pressure canner. For the chicken breast, I just cut it up in large pieces and stuffed them into the jars leaving 1 inch head space, and processed at 11 pounds pressure for 75 minutes for the pints. But please do consult an authoritative guide before you attempt canning, if you are not familiar with the process!
I wonder how canned meat taste. Now you have me guessing. :)
ReplyDeleteMely
Mely, it tastes just the same as meat that is not canned, but it is very tender.
ReplyDeleteMy grandson is a Type 1 diabetic, and I want to know if I van can pears in just a water bath- no sugar or honey?
ReplyDeleteLiz hill, Nannyliz99@gmail.com
Yes, you certainly can do that, but it will dilute the flavor. I would suggest that you extract the juice from some of your pears to use.
DeleteThanks for answering so quickly. Should I puree a few pears or will the "pushing down on them in the jars", work as well as it does for the peaches? Thanks again.
ReplyDeletePears are not juicy enough to work being pushed down, but if you wanted to puree them, and use that to fill in the spaces, that might work! I never thought of that. I've used an electric table top juicer, or a steam juicer to get juice for canning fruit. Here, look at this post. And good luck!
Deletehttp://simplyhomemaking60.blogspot.com/2012/10/canning-clingstone-peaches-without.html
Thank you- I will try that and let you know how it worked out!
ReplyDelete