Tag: Canning

I have converted this recipe (because I hate recipes that are variable, and this recipe is sooo easy to mess up with their instructions!) from the Ball Kerr website (they must have caught on, as it’s no longer available. I might try this one, though).

• 4 1/4 lbs green tomatoes
• 1 lb peppers
• 1 1/4 lbs onions
• 4 cloves garlic
• 1 cup lime juice
• 20 grams cilantro, stems and leaves
• 4 tsp cumin
• 2 tsp dried oregano
• 2 tsp salt
• 2 tsp pepper

Dump tomatoes, peppers, onion, garlic and lime juice in a large saucepan. Bring to a boil. Add cilantro, cumin, oregano, salt and pepper and simmer 5 minutes.

Ladle hot salsa into a hot jar leaving a ½ inch headspace. Remove air bubbles. Wipe jar rim. place lids and rings.

Process filled jars in a boiling water canner for 30 minutes, adjusting for altitude (you will most likely need less, I live at 5000 ft). Turn off the heat, remove jars and let cool. Check for seal after 12-24 hours.

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This one is also modified in measurement methods. It comes from this website. I have labeled it “small batch” so that I can compare the difference. I will update on which I like better in the future.

• 6 green tomatoes, chopped in large pieces
• 2 green peppers, chopped in large pieces
• 2 small onion, quartered
• 6 cloves garlic
• 20 oz parsley
• 1 long hot pepper
• 2 limes zest and juice (I peeled the limes with a peeler, scooped out the insides, and tossed it in the food processer with the pepper)
• 2 tsp salt
• 1 tsp pepper
• 4 tsp apple cider vinegar

To start off with, I got this recipe from this website (and she says she got it from the Ball canning book in 2014, but I didn’t fact check that), and the author has a lot of good notes, please go check it out. I’m only writing here so that I can remember how I changed it in the future.

I really wanted something with beets because real v8 uses beets, but I can’t find anything I trust, really. And since most of the recipes I found (okay, ALL of the recipes I found) called for waterbath canning methods, I didn’t want to add a very basic (as in contrast to acidic) ingredient without an official recipe to follow.

• 2.5 oz celery. About 2 medium stalks or 3/4 c
• 3 oz bell pepper. A little less than 1 or 3/4 c
• 3 oz carrots. About 2 small carrots (I used 1 small and 1 med and had about 2″ left of the med) or 3/4 c
• 3 oz onion. About 1 small to medium onion or 1/2 c
• 5 g fresh parsley. Which is only about 4 sprigs, or ¼ cup
• 22 lbs tomatoes. The recipe says about 65 medium, but I have so many sizes I only went by weight
• 3 tablespoon salt, to taste (original only had 1 T and that wasn’t nearly enough in my opionion.
• 1/4 c worcestershire sauce (not in the original recipe, but when I did my research, it is more acidic than what the jar needs to be at, so I felt safe adding it).
• 1 T Lemon juice PER JAR
• 1/4 tsp citric acid PER JAR

Prep all the veggies before you weigh them. I did thin slices for the celery and carrots, dices for the peppers, huge chunks for the onions (though my mom would have blended them in the blender to get as much onion flavor as possible), pinched off the heads of the parsley leaves, and quartered the tomatoes.

In a smaller (only in comparison, it was still 5 qts, which – aside from canning – is my largest) pot, place the carrots, onions, and about 5 lbs of tomatoes (don’t know for sure how much it was, because I measured everything out beforehand and then just grabbed enough to fill the pot decently. Squish the tomatoes with a potato masher to get enough liquid you don’t just scorch your carrots. Bring to a medium-high heat and simmer (you don’t want to burn anything) about 20 minutes.

Add remaining ingredients into a large stock pot (It filled my waterbath canner full! But when you mash the tomatoes, it’s not so scary). Start the heat out low so it doesn’t scorch while you’re trying to get enough liquid from the tomatoes to get everything to a simmer. As more liquid works its way out, and as it becomes easier to stir, turn it up to a medium (maybe medium-high, but on my stove, that burns it.

After the 20 minutes for the first (“smaller”) pot, add it to the large stock pot. It will take a while for the big pot to get to a simmer (and you may have to turn your stove up), but the carrots had a head start in the other pot, and the warm liquid will help the large pot get there a little faster. Once it reaches a simmer, let everything stay at a simmer for 20 minutes, giving your carrots enough time to cook down. You’re still going to have to stir frequently! But the longer it simmers, the easier it is to stir.

let cool for a few hours (it took us about 3 hours before we didn’t feel like we were going to burn ourselves), and then send it through the victorio (Food mill). As the bowl collecting juice gets full, place it in a clean stock pot and keep going until all the juice is processed. I like to send the skins and seeds through one more time and then re-mill about 2-4 cups of juice through just to get all the little pieces to work out, but that might be overkill?

Place the now-smooth(er) juice on the stove and heat it, but don’t worry about getting it to a simmer. Ladle juice into warm sterile jars, add the lemon juice and citric acid to each jar, and wipe off the rims. Add lids and rings.

Process jars in a water bath canner for 50 minutes (I’m at 5,000 altitude. You probably need less). Let cool and test for seal after 12-24 hours.

Of note: this recipe is supposed to make 7 qts. I ended up with 12! I processed it anyway, because 1) you add the acid to each jar, so I felt confident in the acid being there, and 2) If anything was extra, it was tomatoes, and not veggies.

Classic apple fruit leather is probably the easiest fruit leather you’ll ever make. It’s a good place to start if you’ve never made leather before. The reason it’s so easy? It’s simply applesauce poured into your dehydrators.

Since this leather is so easy, I’ll take the time here to discuss dehydrators. I have a Nesco dehydrator (no affiliate link. It was actually a wedding present. I’d show you one similar to what I have but every time I try to link to one Nesco changes their links!). I wish it were square. My grandmother’s was rectangular. My mother assures me that round is the best drying power because of the hole in the middle, and an even distribution from that hole. I don’t know. She’s probably right. There’s just no good way to keep a pie-shaped fruit leather in nice rectangular roll. My mom says I’m being silly. Isn’t dried-thoroughly better than cut-square? She’s probably right. But in the meantime, I usually just store mine in pie wedges. I bet if I sliced them a bit thinner, my kiddo would eat them better, because believe it or not, a whole pie shape is a lot of fruit to swallow. She’d probably eat them better if instead of dividing the dry fruit-leather pie into 5 sections, I divided it into 15 sections.

My dehydrator says to dry fruits at 135º. The internet says to make it 140º. Following either instruction will leave me with something rubbery and very undesirable. It dries the outside too quickly and leaves the centers still gooey and moisture-laden. Moisture means mold and spoilage. Bad news. I dried my leather between 115 and 125º, depending on the thickness. It actually took less time to dry at that temperature, because the dry was more thorough. It didn’t have to fight a hard crust to get to the moisture.

That brings up another point… Most ovens don’t go below 170°. I’ve never made fruit leather in an oven. I have heard it can be done, but I don’t know what happens to shelf-life. From what I can understand from the process, it will either shorten self-life greatly or it will give you a tough hart-to-chew product. The internet is full of how to dehydrate in an oven. Most say cook at 175º for 2-4 hours, checking after 1 hour. I think the oven is good in a pinch, but you really should consider a dehydrator if you like the idea of homemade fruit leather. It will give you safer results.

Also note, these recipes are the right size for my dehydrator trays. You may need to adjust the amounts for your own individual trays/drying methods.

Now, on a more specific note, classic apple leather is my daughter’s favorite. She likes things plain and simple. I personally think it’s kind of… boring. But if your kid (or you) like boring, you may love this leather.

The recipe? Just 1 1/2 c of applesauce. Smooth it onto the tray in as even layer as you can get. The smoother you can get the applesauce, the better it will dry. I think it’d be perfect for getting the layer smooth. My spatula doesn’t quite cut it for me. It works for now, but I’d like an upgrade.

I don’t have any fruit leather trays, and I am on the fence about getting them. Sometimes the food just sticks to them. Instead, I take a square section of parchment paper, place it over the dehydrator tray to mark where I need to make a few cuts to fit over the center vent and then mark the edge of the tray, as well. (I just set it on the tray and rub my fingers over the tray and let a crease form, then I use that as a guide to cut. It’s an imperfect art, but I like the results. I also don’t cut the center all the way off, but make lots of slits, so that if anything is runny, it has less of a chance of falling through the layers. That’s a mess.