My Canning Pantry is pretty full right now. I took a quick inventory this morning to help decide what to plant for this year’s big garden. I’m in Florida, so our planting season is really all year around, although it’s usually too hot to grow much in July and August.
Green beans are one item that I always can. I don’t like commercially canned beans because the texture is very different. But, I will always can green beans. I like them even better if they are canned with potatoes, so there is another item I will can again this year. I don’t like pickled green beans, even home-canned, so the three jars of them in my pantry will probably be fed to the chickens.
Carrots are on my yes list as well. I did have a couple of jars of rosemary flavored carrots that we didn’t care for. I cooked them into some spaghetti sauce so they didn’t go to waste. So, yes to carrots and no to flavored carrots.
Potatoes are a yes, with a caveat. I’ve always just quartered my potatoes and canned them, but I learned this year that the skins can harbor botulism, even after washing and blanching. No one here has ever gotten sick, but I will always peel my potatoes from now on. I love canned potatoes and they are good in so many things, from mashed potatoes to potato salad.
Cowboy Candy, which is basically candied jalapenos, is a resounding yes here. Neither of us really loves super spicy food, but Cowboy Candy is awesome! I like to put a bit of it on a salad, or mix it up with cream cheese as a dip, or add a bit to my tacos, etc. I can’t keep up with this, but it is definitely in my permanent rotation.
Chicken/Beef/Pork are all a YES here. A pint jar holds about a pound of meat, which is the perfect amount for a meal for two with a little leftovers. I usually raw pack my meats for canning. The Ball Blue Book suggests adding 1/2 teaspoon of salt to each jar, but I don’t do that anymore. It makes the meat too salty, I think. The salt is only for flavor, so it’s not required to preserve the meat. We use the canned meat in a ton of different ways: salads, pizza, stir fry. Much better flavor than the stuff one can get commercially canned.
Sloppy Joes are a maybe for me. It’s nice to have the convenience, but a pint isn’t quite enough for the two of us for a meal.
Dilly Beans/Pickled Beans are a no. I don’t like the texture. I find them rubbery and the green beans absorb too much of the brine flavoring. I even did a few jars of green beans with the Cowboy Candy juice and was not impressed.
The sweet potatoes we canned have a mushy texture that we don’t really like. The taste is fine, but the product is so mushy that it’s really only good for something like a pie. I did can them in chunks, but the results are super soft. I will probably either freeze or dehydrate sweet potatoes going forward.
I used a recipe from the new Ball Book to make a Strawberry Balsamic Jam. It’s good, but, in my opinion, the spices are a little too much. If I make it again, I will either reduce the spices and the amount of balsamic vinegar, or can it only for a meat glaze. Thank goodness I only made 4 jars of that!
Most of the things that we don’t like after canning have one thing in common: strong flavors. Canning, whether water bath or pressure canning, intensifies flavors. Things like the carrots with rosemary really become intensely flavored, so use caution when using those recipes. Also, always do a small batch of new recipes. I like to do a 4 pint jar batch when I try new recipes, then let them sit for at least a month before opening one of the jars.
