Apple Jelly

I generally prefer apple butter over jelly. I like the pulp of the fruit. I suppose I also feel like I am being wasteful if I am just using the juice.

However, some years, I will make jelly just for variety. When I do that I usually have fun adding spices like cloves, cinnamon, or sage to it. You can add a cinnamon stick to the pan or put a few whole spices or herbs in a spice bag or tea ball and let these flavor your jelly as it cooks.


In fact, if your goal is to have fun playing around with spices, rather than to preserve your apple harvest, then you can actually use store bought apple juice.

I walked through the juice aisle of the store a while ago and noticed all sorts of interesting flavor combinations like "strawberry apple" and "kiwi apple." I couldn't help but think that these sounded interesting to make jelly with. Maybe this winter when the gardening is over with, I will try making jelly with one of these juices just for the fun of it.


Preparing Juice for

Slice or coarsely chop apples. Add 2 cup water for each quart of sliced apples. Cook just until soft (about 30 minutes). Strain through a dampened jelly strainer for at least 3 hours.


(Printable Recipe)
For each cup of juice, add 3/4 cup sugar and cook to 220°F. Fill hot jars leaving 1/4 inch headspace. Add lids and process for 10 minutes in a water bath.

High altitude instructions
1,001 - 3,000 feet : increase processing time by 5 minutes
3,001 - 6,000 feet : increase processing time by 10 minutes
6,001 - 8,000 feet : increase processing time by 15 minutes
8,001 - 10,000 feet : increase processing time by 20 minutes

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Quick Pickling - a Great Way to Clean the Fridge

heck, putting vinaigrette on salad is the quickest pickling possible.
I am obsessed with condiments. To me, condiments complete a meal. So when I learned how to quick pickle produce, every weekend turned into an adventure in brining. And that’s all there is to it, mastering a brine and fiddling with flavor. With quick pickling, you can celebrate produce that is in season, but it’s an even better method for preserving what you’d like to hang on to in your refrigerator just a while longer.
A brine is essentially a salt-based soaking liquid originally developed to preserve food. Quick pickling adds vinegar, sugar and water.  That’s it!  Understand the ratio, consider the food pairing potential, and start slicing. All you need is a foundation recipe and flavor enhancing becomes your namesake.
The recipe that jump started my quick pickling craze is David Chang’s...

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Canning Pears

I mentioned a while ago that I was donating my jams to an auction for a girl who had her eye removed. My co-worker (the girls grandmother) said that the auction went well. I don't know the total amount that the auction brought in, but she said that my jams brought in about $100, so I am glad that I did it.

Now on with the topic of pears.

Pears are one of my favorite fruits, so it is exciting when the are ready to be picked. I think they taste best straight off from the tree, but when I don't have that, I still like my home canned ones better than store bought. I also like pear butter on my toast in the morning, so I will have to write a post about pear butter. For now, I am just writing about in syrup.




Once again, soak your fruit in Fruit Fresh as you peel it so that it doesn't turn brown.

I give instructions for light syrup, but you can use a heavier syrup (more sugar) if you want. For a heavy syrup use equal parts water and sugar. For medium syrup use 2 1/4 cups sugar and 5 1/4 cups water.



Pears in Light Syrup
(yield is about 4 quarts)
Printable Recipe


8 to 12 pounds pears, peeled, cored and cut in half.
5 1/2 cups water
1 1/4 cups sugar

Combine the water, and sugar and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium-low. Working in small batches, add some of the fruit and cook till fruit is heated through (about 5 minutes). Use a slotted spoon to fill the canning jars with fruit, and then ladle hot syrup over fruit. Leave 1/2 inch headspace. Add lids and process in a water bath. Process pints for 20 minutes or quarts for 25 minutes.

High altitude instructions
1,001 - 3,000 feet : increase processing time by 5 minutes
3,001 - 6,000 feet : increase processing time by 10 minutes
6,001 - 8,000 feet : increase processing time by 15 minutes
8,001 - 10,000 feet : increase processing time by 20 minutes

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Kiwi Gooseberry Jam

A reader asked me if I had a recipe for kiwi-gooseberry jam. Honestly the answer is, "no." None of my books had such a recipe and I had never thought of that combination on my own. However I figured I could come up with such a recipe.

I figured that I should test it first and make sure it sets. The problem is that my gooseberry picking is pretty much over for the year. I decided to buy some canned gooseberries at the grocery store, and rinse the syrup off. This may not be exactly the same as using fresh berries, but I hope it is a close enough approximation to use for a test batch.


It definitely did set. In fact it was almost too firm for spreading. I think that next time I try it I will either try using a little less sugar or a little more fruit to see if I can get a slightly softer jam.

In any case, it was a very good combination of fruits. I am glad that it was suggested to me, because I don't think I ever would have thought of that combination myself.

For now, I will print the recipe as I made it, but next year when I have fresh gooseberries, I think I will try improving it a little.



4 kiwi, peeled cut into bite size pieces and gently crushed
2 cups gooseberries, crushed
1 package powdered pectin
7 cups sugar

Combine fruit and pectin. Bring to boil over high heat. Add sugar, stirring until dissolved. Bring to a rolling boil. Boil for one minute, stirring constantly. Remove from heat. Skim foam, if necessary. Fill hot jars, leaving 1/4 inch headspace. Add lids and process 10 minutes in a water bath.

High altitude instructions
1,001 - 3,000 feet : increase processing time by 5 minutes
3,001 - 6,000 feet : increase processing time by 10 minutes
6,001 - 8,000 feet : increase processing time by 15 minutes
8,001 - 10,000 feet : increase processing time by 20 minutes

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Canning Virgin Tells All

Sep 30th, 2011by Jeanne.
Honestly, if I had been this nervous about sex, I would still be a virgin. I can proudly say that I am a canning virgin no more. In contrast to other such firsts, this time I was very anxious before, but deeply satisfied later.
This inaugural journey into canning was not pretty. You might say the journey of a thousand tomatoes begins with a single slice. In my case, I was about… oh… maybe, THREE tomatoes in when it happened. That’s three tomatoes in — to the FIVE pounds of tomatoes my first canning recipe called for. When I sliced my finger, I sliced it well. A beautiful u-shaped cut that supplied copious blood. I contemplated a trip to the ER, weighing it against the loss of the produce and against the concept of a failed canning adventure.
I recalled the time a nurse told me that 20 minutes is the point at which the bleeding should stop and if it hasn’t by that time, you go get stitches. In that case, as I recall, it was more like 40 minutes and a roll and a half of paper towels…but this time, I had a mission. And, I had a bunch of fresh tomatoes from the farmers’ market...


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The Verdict on Pickled Carrots

A couple of weeks ago I made pickled carrots for the first time. Now that they have had time to soak up some of the flavor from the spices, I figured it was time to give them a try. I also asked several other people to try them so that there was more than just the opinion of one person who doesn't care much for carrots in the first place.


First let me say that they were much crisper than I had expected. The processing in the water bath really didn't turn them mushy.

The second recipe in the post (the one with cinnamon and sugar in it) definitely went over the best. The reaction to that one ranged from, "that is not bad," to, "that is good." It was definitely my favorite, between the two recipes.

The general reaction to the first recipe (the one with parsnips in it) was that it was too sour. I figured that everyone was just trying them plain when they gave that opinion, so I decided to see how they tasted in a salad. It was an improvement to have a big bite of lettuce and some dressing with them, but I still felt that they were too sour.

As a person who does not like carrots much to begin with, I am not sure if I will try pickling them again. Still I am glad that I started blogging because it lead me to try something new and I think it is good for me to try new things.

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Canning Pear Butter

I was looking at the recipe for pear butter in The Complete Book of Small-Batch Preserving and pondering why they would give instructions that seem to me like the hard way of doing things. It actually took awhile for it to occur to me that people who don't do much canning might not even own a food mill. I was a little slow to figure things out, but I did finally realize that perhaps I should write both instructions.


My recipe for pear butter is reall basically the same as apple butter, except that I use a little less sugar.

Pear Butter
(Yield is about 4 half-pint jars for every dozen pears used)
(Printable Recipe)

Use one of the following methods to prepare the pulp. As always, I recommend using Fruit Fresh when cutting up the fruit.

Method 1: To prepare the pulp, first quarter the pears. Cook pears until they are soft (about 20 minutes) using just enough water to prevent sticking (enough to cover bottom of pan). Run the pears through a food mill.

Method 2: Peel, quarter and core pears. Cook pears until they are soft (about 20 minutes) using just enough water to prevent sticking (enough to cover bottom of pan). Process in a blender or food processor.

Measure pulp. For each quart of pulp, add 1 1/2 cups sugar, 1 1/2 tsp cinnamon, 1/4 tsp cloves, and 1/4 tsp nutmeg. Cook slowly until thick. At first you only have to stir occasionally, but as it thickens you will have to stir more often. The pear butter is ready when it will mound up on a spoon.

Fill hot canning jars leaving 1/4 inch headspace. Add lids and process in a water bath for 10 minutes.

High altitude instructions
1,001 - 3,000 feet : increase processing time by 5 minutes
3,001 - 6,000 feet : increase processing time by 10 minutes
6,001 - 8,000 feet : increase processing time by 15 minutes
8,001 - 10,000 feet : increase processing time by 20 minutes

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