Pickle Me This

If I had my way, I would be spending the entirety of my vacation this year pickling everything in sight. I am hopelessly enamored with preserved vegetables. If there was fruit in season, I would be making jams as well. As it is, I have already done another five jars of tomato jam and I have plans to do more.



This is a dill pickled cauliflower with carrots, garlic, sweet red pepper and cayenne. When I bought jalapenos for pickling (yes, I did those too) I asked the lovely farmer's to let me have a half dozen or so beautiful cayenne peppers. I ended up with eight pints, so some will be more mild, but I don't care. Cauliflower is more dense than a green bean, so these will need to sit. Despite what anyone in my family may be thinking, these are mine, all mine.

Add also to the list of things I have "put away", four or so pints of jalapenos, half a dozen pints of a salsa that while I do not love, will no doubt make a good base for such things as chili, five more half pints of jam, and as we speak, jars are heating up for pints of tomatoes. They are once again overflowing the kitchen counter, and I just had to do something.

Pickled Dilly Green Beans

Realistically, I won't be eating much of the tomato jam that I made. It just doesn't fit with my new lower sugar lifestyle. I've already figured out what lucky family members will be getting jars of it for Christmas. These however, may never be tasted by another person. I'm pretty sure that I could eat an entire jar in one sitting.

So in love was I that I went and bought a lot more veggies at the market today so that I could pickle more things. That means there will be more posts in this canning series for sure.

I think I ended up with a little too much salt, since I had to make more pickling solution when I realized I would run out, but I am sure they will taste just fine. The proportions here are for 6 pints.

2.5 Cups Water
2.5 Cups Vinegar (One recipe I saw had more vinegar than water, so I leaned a little this way)
.25 Cups pickling salt

Each jar has 1 large clove garlic, 1 full head of seeded out dill. They will be dilly.

I used wide mouth jars that are shorter than standard mouth, mostly because I don't have a funnel for putting in the liquid. I thought it would be easier. That turned out to be a slight problem because the beans were just a wee bit too tall. I had to smush them down and break them to make them close right.

Of the 12 jars I made (one was only half full, hehe) one didn't seal enough. It is in the fridge and I've already tried one. They are good already, but really should sit for a few weeks minimum to soak up all of the garlic/dill goodness.

PS. All ingredients except the salt and vinegar were procured at the Thursday downtown Farmer's Market. Yay local!

We be Tomato Jammin'

A has said that he has no interest in even trying the jam. Apparently I never talked to him about it, I just went for it with a single minded pursuit of a childhood memory. I can get like that. It is why I sew, knit, quilt, and have a garden. It is going to get him some pickled green beans, so he won't be complaining for too long.

My grandmother's recipes for just about everything have gone to some other family member. One I refuse to talk to for reasons I cannot share. There is bad blood there to say the least. I miss my grandmother's recipes. I wish I had been old enough to know that I should have made copies before she passed. Figuring this out required scanning recipes on the Internet, asking coworkers who make these kinds of things, consulting Twitter, and calling my mom to see what she remembered of her mother-in-law's cooking.

I found something close to what I wanted in Aunt Della's Tomato Jam. I also found references to a recipe in the Ball Blue Book of Preserving. My single minded plan didn't have time to find it however. It is quite possible that is the recipe that my grandmother used.

The Aunt Della's recipe gave me the proportions I wanted for a preserved jam. Many others I found were for small batches to be made to go with a specific meal or dish. I altered in slightly, and I offer up for you what I think it will be based on the issues I had.

• 5 Cups tomatoes peeled and quartered - I used 9, and adjusted everything to this. Doubling jam recipes does not work well I learned the hard way. It takes far too long to reduce. Next time, I stick to the original proportions. I used Roma, Early Girl and Yellow Brandywine.
• 4 Cups sugar - Next time, I will reduce this from the original 5 cups. It may take longer to thicken, but I want a stronger tomato taste.
• 1 Lemon, seeded and sliced thin - I used a smaller organic lemon. If I use such small ones next time, I may add an extra half. Thin should be as thin as you can get it, as they have to almost candy in the jam.
• 2 Inch piece of fresh ginger, peeled and either grated or chopped thin - This is what I put in a nearly double batch. Same as the lemon and tomatoes, I think more would serve it well. It also nearly candies in the jam. The original recipe called for Cinnamon, but ginger gives it a better taste in my opinion.
• 2 Tablespoons butter - No idea why this is there, but who can argue with butter.
  
  
• Combine everything except butter in heavy bottomed sauce pan. Bring to a boil and after the foam rises add the butter, reduce to a simmer and cook for 45 minutes until it sticks to the tines of a fork (I gave up because mine took an hour and a half and it wasn't perfectly thick, but will do fine at fridge temp) Fills approximately 6 half pints. Water bath for 15 minutes.

If you have no idea how to can/waterbath, I recommend the Ball book or the back of a Ball/Kerr box o' jars. Seriously the bottom of the box worked for me.

It may be a little runny, but I'm telling you it tastes like I remember it. A may question what I'm going to do with eleven half pints, but I know there will be some very lucky people at Christmas, if it makes it that long.

Peeling Tomatoes

Both of my grandmothers died before I turned 21, and sometimes I wish I had been less of a petulant teenager and actually paid attention. I feel like some part of my history was lost when I compare it to people I know who are 40 and still have grandparents around to learn from.

I remember my grandma Marie standing in her kitchen peeling tomatoes. The water boiling on the stove and her just peeling and peeling. Bushels of tomatoes. The whole back half of my grandparents land was a huge garden. Growing and preserving was something that you did because if you didn't, you wouldn't eat. We pickled beans, beets, watermelon rinds, cucumbers. We made jams and jellies. I cannot think about the end of summer without thinking about putting things away for winter.

Having a garden this year has made me so happy. To even be able to provide a little of my family's food has brought me incredible joy. So far though I've been a little hesitant to really do much in the world of preserving. Despite having a chest freezer, I've opted to give away our excess tomatoes. I've been afraid of the peeling.

I know my grandmother learned to peel a tomato from Julia Child, but not actually owning her cookbook, all I could remember was that the tomatoes were hot, and my grandmother's hands were red. I'm pretty sure now it was just the tomato juice. It turns out that it is incredibly easy. Boil exactly 10 seconds (I have learned from her book, if she says exactly she means it). Peel from the top. I added a cold water bath to make it easier for me. I used a pasta fetcher thing to take them in and out of the water. I now have just over two quarts of peeled and quartered tomatoes. Now all I need to do is go buy some jars and make to make tomato jam.