While at home recovering from my surgery (read about that here) I decided to keep myself busy with a few home projects. You know the usual 50's housewife kind. Cooking, Cleaning...canning. Yup, I said canning.
After a trip to the farmers market I came home with a few pounds of pickling cucumbers and some fresh dill. Can you tell that pickles were on my mind? I spend a few minutes googling pickle recipes online and decided to use a name I knew, McClures. Here is the recipe
I used Ball jars and prepared them as they suggest. Wash in hot soapy water...
...and the boil them to sanitize.
After boiling it is important to keep them hot so when you pour the hot brine its not hitting cold glass.
As the jars were boiling I got my ingredients ready
fresh dill, garlic, pepper corns, and hot chili flakes...I had to make a few jars spicy for the hubby. He likes things spicy.
I don't have a canning pot, so I had to make do with the large pasta pot I got for our wedding
I chilled the cucumbers in a large bowl of cold water in the fridge for awhile- this is suppose to keep them "crispy" and not soggy when it comes time to eat them. I'll be the judge of that once I get to eat them.
Once I got them all quartered and stuffed in the jars (each jar got about 7-8 quarters, 3-5 garlic cloves, 5 or so pepper corns, a bunch of fresh dill, and a tiny pinch of chili flakes) I pored in the hot brine leaving about 1/4 inch at the top and then put the lid on getting them ready to can.
Here they are in the canning process- how pretty?
So I guess these kind of pickles need to sit for about 2 weeks before they can be enjoyed...who knew? Anyway they are currently "cooking" in my kitchen, keeping them in a cool, dry place is key.
Two weeks seems like forever! I will be SURE to let you know how they come out and take more photos of the pretty jars.
So my blogger friends... I have a ton of jars left over what else should I be canning??? I need recipes and links people, please share!
Posts
7 comments:
Why don't you give pickled okra a try? So tasty!
peaches! rhubarb if you can find it...
maters for sauce, berries for jams....
pve
We always canned in the summer when I was a little girl. Everything we could get our hands on or grow.
My favorite pickles are my Mother's Bread and Butter Pickles!
Great job!
xoxo
Karena
Art by Karena
Exciting New Giveaway from Dr Perricone! Come and Enter!
Yum. Can't wait to hear how they turned out. And I liked your post title - very cute.
By the way, I finally used my Joss & Main gift credit from your giveaway. Pop on over and see what I ordered!
Thanks!
Kathy
Ohh yummy! I just bought a bunch of canning jars to make preserves using the delicious ripe summer fruits of the season.
I have a TON of recipes over on my blog, if you'd like to check it out: www.thesillygoosefarm.blogspot.com.
A few tips on pickling: If you can find them, add a grape leaf to each jar. Since you hot-processed your pickles (vs. "fridge-pickling them), they might get mushy. The grape leaf has natural alum that will help keep it crispy.
Also (it's hard to tell from the pictures), did you put a towel in the bottom of your pasta pot for canning? Next time you can, you should put an old towel in the bottom of the pot. Putting the glass on the direct heat like that can cause them to break, the towel prevents this (take it from me, I almost lost the top of a finger from a broken jar!).
Happy canning!
Deanna
Post a Comment