House Works: A Lesson in Canning

By: Taryn Vanderford - Email

Even though we've had a dry summer, some of us still have produce from the garden in a rather big supply. You may remember your grandmother taking that produce and canning it for the winter.

These days, many of us are unfamiliar with the art of canning. So in today's House Works, we get a refresher course.

Canning tomatoes:
1. Read instructions of all the steps first and pull all your materials together before starting.
2. Clean and sterilize all jars - inspect for chips, be sure its tempered glass, and match jars to the lid size.
3. Prepping tomatoes - pick and sort to well ripened fruit, wash, blanch, skin & slice.
4. Pack in quart jars with 1 tsp canning salt - not iodized salt, wipe the lid edge carefully then screw on lids.
5. Have hot water bath heating well in advance so you can put the jars in when finished packing.
6. Process the recommended times - bring to boil then continue heating for 45 minutes for quarts, 30 minutes on pints.
7. Remove and place on towel, cover with additional towels until completely cooled.
8. Listen for the pops - it means the jar has sealed.
9. Clean off the jars with wet rag, label with content and date, option to remove rings before storing in cool, dark place.
10. Use and enjoy in recipes all winter - tomato soup, chili, enchilada sauce, spaghetti sauce, stir fries - the flavor is unbelievably better than store bought.

UNL Extension Publication for all the details: http://www.ianrpubs.unl.edu/epublic/live/ec437/build/ec437.pdf

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