Welcome to canning! If there is a way of screwing things up while canning, I've done it! I've been canning for 6 years now. I do NOT consider myself any type of expert. I seem to learn new things every year. This past weekend I made pepper jelly. I didn't pay enough attention and some of it boiled onto the stove. It was a terrible mess to clean up. I still was able to get 7 half-pints out of it. Persistence, practice, and some good luck is what's needed! Every now and then you'll hear from the people that have been doing this for years still mess up.

Stay calm and keep trying.

Boo

We all make mistakes. Don't give up. If your wanting to use store bought vegetables for home canning, some places do sell overripe produce, which, at best, has a very short shelf life. I had many store bought onions rot within a few days after purchase, as did my garlic. Here, I grow most of my own home canning, as opposed to buying it from other sources. The tomato sauce may have been too watery because of the type of tomatoes. Most supermarkets offer very poor quality for home canning, as they are meant more for show and presentation, as opposed to a type of low liquid tomato suitable for canning. Even though I may use recipes (yes a very few times!) I always taste things whenever I have the chance, and if there is too much of something, I will know this before adding the wrong thing, or too much. I cannot believe how some people who follow recipes without any tasting as they go along, and then just can the stuff, then later find out later after its too late, that its extremely salty, sugary, etc. If it were me, and the item was too sweet, I would have an acid blend here ready to add to bring up the tartness a little more. If it were too salty, I add more of the produce to dilute the salt. We all learn from mistakes. After a few more canning operations, and you will find that things are much easier to work with, with less surprises. I doubt that you would find anyone who posts here that can tell you that everything they can has been perfect, and the process had been done without a single problem. For that lost pulp, I would have run it all through the machine again. I do this with tomatoes and the Villaware strainer as the skins and seeds still have a lot of liquid in them. Once its run through a second time, the waste usually comes out fairly dry.

I'm sorry about your day. I just got home from grocery shopping. My 5 year old was whining about something, so I just tossed some bags of groceries on the stove - which I don't usually do but did this time because I was in a hurry and have very little counter space. When I came back in, I had my watch and wedding ring in my hand to put in the holder by the sink. Then I noticed that the bag on the stove on fire. Apparently I just tossed the watch and ring down in my hurry to take care of the fire/mess. So some of the vegetables that I bought to make chow chow for my FIL are burnt on one side (i'll just cut that side off) I found my watch but I can't find my ring, and the smell of the burnt plastic is tipping me toward a migraine. So opened the windows to get the stink out but it is 66 degrees outside and now I'm getting cold. I just had to leave the kitchen and have a snack before I can face it again. I wasn't planning on making the chow chow tonight, but I think my plans have just changed.

So... am I a bigger whiner than you are?

On a positive note, I was on the internet last night looking for organic and/or local produce. I went by one farm store in my town today. They didn't have much but what I did score was fresh out of the ground red potatoes and some eggs. We bought goat's milk the other day just because we were curious to see what it tastes like. The answer is very much like fresh goat cheese. We don't really want to drink it straight up so some of it will become a leek quiche tonight.

Welcome to the world, both of you. (grin)

I've been canning for over 40 years, since I was old enough to stand on a chair at the sink and peel tomatoes. I've boiled jam onto the stove, I've scorched apple butter, I've had produce spoil before I could get to it. Pits haven't come out of peaches, apples have browned. Things have been too thick, too thin. My syrup has jelled and my jelly has stayed syrup. My peaches and tomatoes float and my applesauce has tiny bubbles. It happens. It's going to happen again. Just last year I overcooked pear preserves and ended up with somethat that really resembled pear taffy and while teaching Jessica to can dilly beans I had a jar break in the canner from thermal shock, right after I told her how it almost never happens. Of course.

Melly, I can't help you with that wedding ring, but it has to be there somewhere. Offer your kid(s) a reward for finding it? Oh, and put on a sweater until you can close the window. (yes, Mom, I'm warm enough now)

Gamecock girl, it's all experience, and you'll know what to not do next time. Take the overcooked salsa and use it as enchilada sauce or bake swiss steak in it, or add it to a meatloaf. If the tomato sauce is too thin, cheat and add a jar of sauce or paste from the store, just this once. It'll thicken right up. Or make spaghetti sauce and simmer it for a while longer before eating it.

The peach butter. Sigh. I always use less sugar than the recipe calls for and then add to taste, a little at a time. Next time you'll know. In the meantime, I'd take a jar, add a squeeze of fresh lemon and see how that works. If it doesn't help, you have a great filling for a yeast bread, maybe along with some cream cheese, or filling for thumbprint cookies. You might be able to mix it with a jar of commercial BBQ sauce and make a sweet and peachy glaze for chicken or pork. Or, get some frozen yogurt and make peach smoothies!

It's all a learning curve, you know, and soon you'll be comfortable. I've got to tell you, though, these days will keep happening, to all of us. That's how we know we're still here!

Annie

Yes, it gets easier. I haven't been in tears yet this year! I understand your frustration so well, I have been there and I'm sure I will be again. This is my third year of canning and it truly is getting easier, but it still is not a simple task. Just on the surface, and without knowing what the rest of your life is like - it does sound like you are trying to do a lot all at once. I personally would not be planning to do something as complicated as roast tomatoes AND make salsa all in one evening. Perhaps roast the toms one evening, then make the salsa the next. (I am assuming you work during the day and only have evenings for your new hobby). I often plan one thing, but have in my mind another simpler task that I could do IF I have time left. For example, last night I made peach salsa (two and a half hours from washing the peaches to jars cooling on the counter). I had some time left so I made brine for pickling cukes - a simple second task.

Maybe it would help if you can figure out points you can stop if you are overwhelmed. I remember making Annie's salsa last year, and partway through realizing I was going to be up very late if I finished it that evening. So I finished chopping everything up, then refrigerated till the next day.

Don't give up - it DOES get easier and it IS fun and the final product is worth all the agony! And the people are here are so very helpful and kind.

I'm sorry both you and Melly had such rough days and Melly I hope you find your ring!

Ann

There was a quote in our local paper recently, I believe from Ben Franklin:

I have not failed, I've simply found the 10,000 ways that don't work.

Hang in there. It's like anything else, practice, practice, practice.

I would try to stick with one project at a time. After 25 years of canning, I still tend to underestimate how long it takes.
Deanna

I want to ditto everything Annie said. I don't think there's a canning mistake I haven't made somewhere along the way.

To add to her list, when I first started making preserves without commercial pectin I was really anxious that it "set." Well, it definitely did. I could have used that strawberry jam for mortar.

Exploding jars, scorched mincemeat (and wasn't that a pain to make only to waste it!), failed seals, forgetting citric acid in tomatoes, doubling cinnamon (had to do another plain batch to make up for that one), it's all kind of par for the course.

Another way to salvage the peach butter, although it would lose you some time and lids is to make a second batch, really cut back on the sugar, open the jars of the original batch, stir it all together, heat just until ready to jar up and re-can. No one would ever know the difference.

Annie's ideas for using the original batch are also great. It all depends on what you want to do.

I always wear gloves when I'm dealing with jars, the yellow kitchen gloves with the kind of fuzzy felted lining. They're flexible enough you can still deal with hot jars and get lids and rings on, but they've saved me many a scorch. In fact, they insulate so well I can just reach in the pan and grab my lids. I don't even bother with a magnetic lifter.

Good luck. Don't give up. It might help to can some really basic things like peaches in syrup or plain crushed tomatoes and give yourself a chance to develop a comfortable routine. Then, with that as a backup, you can move into recipes with more and more steps.

Carol

Thanks, y'all! I really appreciate the words of encouragement and commiserating. I do know that I've learned SO MUCH in the past two days, and I've been writing everything done on my recipes.

Thanks for the options of what to do with the not-so-great results. I am not opposed to thickening up my sauce, so I'm not worried about it. I think calling the salsa more of a picante sauce is an excellent idea. We'll see about the peach butter, I'm not sure it's salvagable. I'm going to have my friend I canned with on Sunday to try it and see what she thinks. I do like the bbq idea, but I'm not sure I like it 6 half pints worth :)!

I will be writing down the adding lemon juice/acid to cut the sweetness, and the adding the sugar a bit at a time for next time. My recipes are going to have lots of 'notes' on them!

I also didn't think about running my 'waste' through the strainer again, but I will for sure do that next time. I do think the sauce mess up was due to the tomatoes. I knew when I got them they weren't the best, which is why they were $6 for 35-40lbs. When I asked about the boxes of canning tomatoes, they said 'oh, they are just slightly bruised'. I didn't realize slightly bruised meant turn to white fungus in 2 days!! It's just so worth the price for me not being able to have a garden...but I did put my own small romas in that came off my vine :).

I tried to make out my schedule by day, so I also know to not put so much on each day. I'm definitely not quitting!!

Thanks again! I don't think I would have been able to even do this without this forum!! I don't have anyone else to ask!!

Paige

Annie, I did put on a sweater right after I posted. I searched the counters but couldn't face the trash can. Wonder husband found the ring in there so all is well. Now that we've eaten the take out chinese that WH picked up, I have to deal with the charred vegetables.

Paige,
I'm glad you aren't too discouraged. It is a bit of a crazy hobby. I'm still trying to figure a way to get to the national jam market next week.
Melly

Annie 1992 made me laugh. I remember sitting on the kitchen floor with a tub of peaches, of course no a/c, just fans, peeling them with the fuzz getting all in my arm creases and face. Do you realize our Grandmothers today could possibily be charged with child abuse?

Melly ~ I'm so glad you found your ring! I would have been a basket case.

Talk about no AC. It was 95F in my kitchen on Sunday with the air going, so last night, I just decided to leave the air off, b/c it was pointless. WOW! It was hot. My dog wouldn't even come in the kitchen eventhough I was dropping stuff on the floor!

What a fun thread. I cannot begin to imagine how our grandmothers kept a garden, canned and cooked dinner all without a/c. Oh, and don't forget the 10 kids. I appreciate everyone sharing your disasters and how you overcame them.

my great grandmother used to say, 'there's not much good about the good ol' days' then go on to describe the long dresses with long sleeves and high necks out in the garden picken beans under the hot florida sun with no a/c to return to, just an even hotter kitchen. 'nope', she'd say 'I'll get my beans from the piggly wiggly, thank you'

oh, if she could see my pantry now. she'd think I'd gone mad.

Paige, there is nothing more heartbreaking than to dump a jar or ten. But no amount of hard work can change the fact that ripe tomatoes are not to be pickled. This I learned my first year canning, what a mess.

I don't have air conditioning here either, and never have had it. I can anyway, and I garden when it's in the 90s. I complain a lot about it, though. LOL

Melly, I'm glad your husband found that ring, I'd have probably torn the trash apart looking for it until I found it! Good girl on the sweater. LOL

Annie

I don't know what wrong with you folks. I have never, ever made any of those errors.

Y'all believe that, right? Right? Come on now; a little support if you please. :>)

Gamecock Girl, when it comes to canning in particular, just remember one thing: Murphy was an optomist!

I may have been lucky to make most of my mistakes when I was a kid. I can remember sitting in the hot kitchen on a sweltering day, watching the pressure gauge for 90 minutes in order to can 10 pts of corn and then, as soon as they were out,putting in another 10 pts and watching for another 90 minutes. That was a big staple for us in the winter so we tried to put up over 100 pts. I must have been about 12. The job I really hated was canning string beans since the finished product was so blah! At least with corn, it went into fritters and corn pudding and chowder and stuff like that. Eating canned string beans even with fried onions added, was a worse chore than canning them! Compared to the two of them, canning quarts and quarts of tomatoes in a water bath was a snap.
One thing I did get down pat was to have all the ingredients and jars and lids organized so it went together smoothly. If the jars were clean and rinsed in hot water and the lids(zinc or glass) and rubber rings were sitting in a small bowl of hot water, then filling the jars and putting them in the canner was a simple procedure. Life sure got easier when they invented the self-sealing lids!

Welcome to the mad mad world of canning.:) I have been canning on my own since I was 16 and now my 3 yr old is my little helper. I can't even think of the number of pans that I have scorched making jam, until a couple of years ago I learned to use an extra pressure cooker kettle because it is so much heavier. Or the lesson about how to can tomatoes, I had 2 dozen jars canned with using water bath all come unsealed and I didn't know for a month or so, just think of the smell. I had to dump them all while holding my nose closed. I then started pressure canning my tomatoes and haven't had a failure yet. Or the time I canned sourkraut and had a jar break in the first 5 minutes of the water bath, didn't want to stop timing so just let it go. Think of the overpowering smell of sourkraut and a DH that absolutely hates sourkraut. The only good thing is that you do learn from these mistakes, and the end product is worth it.

Stacie
who constantly has fruitflies this time of year from all the "ripening" produce

Stacie,
The fruitflies were really bad in my kitchen last week... until I discovered a rotting half of banana that had fallen behind the fruit bowl. Ewwww! Now they are back there regular pesky numbers. Actually maybe they are fewer. I haven't had the windows open as much with the temps in the 60's.) I'm just glad we have the technology to can in a jar. When we visited Yorktown last summer, we visited the "kitchen" in the recreated village. It had long strings of dried stuff hanging from the ceiling. I suppose drying was one of the main preservation methods. I remember pumpkin being of them (without ascorbic acid, they were such a pretty color, not!), but I don't remember what else. The guy manning the kitchen said in the winter, dinner might be a bowl of rehydrated pumpkin mush. I guess if you're hungry enough...

Wow, Annie.. You must be cooking inside that house during the summer months.. Now thats roughing it...

Actually, bananas seem to last a bit longer in the fridge. Yes, they do blacken quickly and by then are a bit soft anyway. I also recall that if they are left out to turn fully yellow, they are actually overripe. A slight green tinge and a little bitterness around the peels seem to be the choice of people who grow them. Pumpkin mush, yuk! Only way I eat that is sweetened, with spices, eggs, and baked in a pie shell..

Melly, drying food is the oldest form of food preservation.

I'm not sure why I enjoy the process of canning but it is really nice to find a group who understands. My Mother canned when I was a little girl but it has become a lost art. I love reading your experiences.

Melly, in colonial times, the big meal was served at midday, and was referred to as dinner. Still is called that in the south, as you know.

Supper was a light meal. Typically, it might just be some cornbread and fresh-churned butter. Another common supper meal consisted of pumpkin slices, stewed and served in milk. During winter and early spring, the pumpkin (actually, "pompion") would have been dried and reconstituted.

I have had it that way, and it's very good.

Lots of things were air dried. Among them: Beans, squashes, peppers, corn, herbs, even meats and fish.

It always amuses me how the names of things affect people's reactions. If I call it cornmeal mush, people go uck. Call it polenta, however, and they pay big bucks for it. And it's precisely the same dish.

What's the difference between a "puree" a "mash" and "mush?"

That's interesting that the pumpkin is good. It just looked so brown and shriveled. Of course, we're still drying most of the same things - well, not me personally. I'm waiting 'til I get back to get a dehydrator. (Don't want to have to run it on a transformer.) Funny thing, I love grits, but polenta doesn't really do that much for me. Go figure. My French friend just couldn't wrap her mind around the concept of dinner at lunchtime. It was funny.

This is my first year for drying foods. Our first garden in this home was more of a trial and we didn't produce many tomatoes or peppers. To few to can but drying worked well. I love having dried bell pepper on hand for winter casseroles. It's a good method for most kinds of produce when there is to little to can and to much to eat. I have never been able to successfully freeze tomatoes. They always smell rotten once defrosted. My aunt tells me she is freezing tomato with veg juice and it is working well.

>Funny thing, I love grits, but polenta doesn't really do that much for me.I was just the opposite, for the longest time. Friend Wife and I eat just about every sort of hot grain you can name. But neither of us could get into grits until the last couple of years. Turns out we had never had them cooked properly is why. They're still not our favorites, but we don't dislike them the way we used to.

But we both enjoy polenta. Even better, start by making some parched corn. Then grind it, and use that half & half with regular cornmeal to make the mush. Incredible!

For the record, I will mention that you seem to be trying pretty complicated recipes ;-)

I'm not proud to admit it, but last year when I discovered a mouse had somehow found my fruitcakes that I had been nursing along for months, I cried. Of course, I did get my revenge.

For the life of me....no matter how hard I try.....and how closely I follow the directions....how much experince I've collected, I can't get anything using Pomona to gell.

Gardenlad, being from KY myself, I've always liked grits, but I didn't LOVE them until moving to SC now NC. There is nothing better than Shrimp and Grits...I'll even order them at fancy restaurants!! Those grits are fabulous and nothing like you get in KY.

I make a shrimp & grits recipe using an actual Gulah recipe that is 1. unlike most versions, and 2. absolutely delicious.

I've ordered shrimp & grits in some restaurants, notably in Charleston. Nothing at all like homemade, and I doubt I'd do it again.

But I always remember what the C&VB director in Hendereson once told me. When describing Kentucky she said, "we're far enough south to observe the basic courtesies, but far enough north so you don't automatically get grits on your plate."

Where you from in Kentucky?

Go to this link and scroll down to the recipe for Shrimp and Grits Crook's Corner Style. It is my fave. Of course, since the first time I ever had shrimp and grits was at Crook's Corner when I was a student at Carolina, it is a nostalgia thing too. Although my friend from Brooklyn was a convert after initially being skeptical.

(Apparently Florida was just a little too far south for shrimp and grits when I was growing up.)

Here is a link that might be useful: Shrimp and Grits

I'm from a small town in Western KY called Princeton, which if you are talking about Henderson, KY, you actually might now where it is.

The Gulah grits are really good. As much as I love Charleston, I really haven't found nice restaurants that aren't really touristy. I've ordered shrimp and grits in nice restaraunts in Chapel Hill and Raleigh that are really good. We'll have to go to Crook's Corner.

However, I will have to disagree with Melly on her 'Carolina' b/c the REAL Carolina is the University of South Carolina...go Gamecocks!

Sure, I know where Princeton is. I've even written about the Ardsmore House and other points of interest in the area.

Friend Wife and I wrote the On The Road column in Kentucky Living for more than ten years. So there aren't too many corners of the state where we haven't poked our noses.

Gamecockgirl,
Do try Crook's Corner. Not sure whether it is still as good since Bill Neal died years ago. It has been quite a while since I have been there. I always liked the black pepper corn bread. I have to politely disagree with you though since my "Carolina" was founded in 1789 and yours was founded in 1801. Which is so puny by european standards. Over the weekend, we visited an abbey in Luxembourg that had manuscripts from the 800's. We wondered where they were hidden when the church was destroyed during the battle of the bulge. (Btw, my husband went to State - NC that is. The restaurants over there must be better now than they were when we were there. Oh, I'm a Gator, too.)
Melly

I've been away so wasn't able to offer you encouragement in your hour of need, gamecockgirl, but I do feel your pain! And have enjoyed reading this thread.

My very first canning experience involved a recipe that was incredibly complicated --- letting clementines sit overnight in a syrup made with a spice bag (after travelling across town to buy cheesecloth and whole allspice berries, because I was going to follow it EXACTLY), then "gently lifting" them out after reheating... GLOP! Result was a mushy mess that DIDN'T EVEN TASTE GOOD.

I mighta given up then and there if not for seeing all the helpful discussion on this forum.

BF still sometimes finds me in tears in the kitchen surrounded by canning jars, mind you. But my, oh, my, when it works, it is so wonderful!

Paige,
My grandmother would think I was insane, too. Her family had worked hard to ensure they could live in the city, where she could be civilized and not HAVE to do nasty, hot things like can. She had to go back to it for a while during the War, and apparently hated every minute of it.

But, hey, as an American patriot, she's already spinning in her grave at the fact that I live on a Canadian road named The Loyalist Parkway....

Zabby

My mom, she should rest in peace, used to say "the good old days are right now!" She couldn't begin to understand my facination with the old-time ways of doing things. And if she'd ever known how much I paid for a jelly cabinet that is the match to one she got rid of in the '50s----well.

Zabby the Tory, eh?

For the ultimate in this, check out the situation between Calais, Maine and St. Johns, NB, during the War of 1812.

OK, I'm back and can't help myself, I've got to get into this grits discussion.

I spent my childhood eating cornmeal mush, I liked it best poured into a loaf pan, left to set, then sliced and fried in butter and topped with maple syrup. Polenta is acceptable, depending on the additions. I've never met a grit I actually liked, including those in various establishments through out the south. The worst were in Georgia. (shudder)

As for dinner, it's still the noontime meal for the old farmers here in Michigan too. Dinner here is always the biggest meal of the day, regardless of time. Supper is the smaller meal you have at day's end, dinner is the big meal at mid-day, while you still need the fuel to work for the second half of the day.

As for canning disasters, KatieC and I just gave some "classes" to Cooking Forum members on various canning recipes. We made Habanero Gold, two batches. Same recipe, same cooks, same ingredients, same day. One batch set, one didn't. (shrug) Katie's been canning 30 years, I've been canning over 40. With a combined 70 years of canning experience, that jelly still is syrup. It happens.

Annie

You may be right on the spelling, Zabby. But the interesting thing is what happened.

St. John was founded by Tories who had fled the excesses of the pre-American revolution (one of the histocical differences with the American revolution is that our bloodbath preceeded independence, rather than following it as is more common). It and Calais are just across the river from each other.

During the War of 1812 (and your rundown is correct, albeit oversimplified---there were a lot of agendas being followed), the people of Calais had no gunpowder with which to celebrate the 4th of July. So the good folks of St. John---who, remember, were not only officially at war with them, but should have been harboring hatreds---sent over a couple of barrels for the celebration.

One of the few places where the myth of the friendly border prevails.

I don't what's wrong with me. Got a bad headache, and maybe that's why I'm confusing myself. Don't know where I pulled the St. John from, though.

Calais is sister city to St. Stephen, not St. John. So, wherever I said "St. John," please substitute "St. Stephen."

And just to make amends, y'all might be interested in knowing that St. Stephen is where the chocolate bar was invented.

> who, remember, were not only officially at war with them

Well, and this is an interesting question in itself when it comes to this war.

z

Well into ten years canning experience. Can't find my jar lifter. Let's use salad tongs, worked once before when I was a novice. Except this time I'm using plastic ones, not metal. What was I thinking. Well, I've now got the scar on my stomach to show for that disaster. Boiling water scalds! But the salsa was good, so good. When it does come together, it is so worth it. As my hero Arlo Guthrie says, "You can't have a light without a dark to put it in."

I have to tell a funny one about jar lifters. I found that I had 3 pairs which do come in handy when I can't find one or the other. I talked to my neighbor who has been canning fo over 50 years and she told me that she has never had a jar lifter in all those years. She cans dozen of jars a year!! I asked her how she got the jars out and she said that she would dip water out of the canner and then lift the hot jars out. So I gave her one of the lifters;)

Stacie
who has 50 pounds of tomatoes 25 pounds of cukes, 4 heads of cabbage and 5 gallons of apples to do something with

I came upon this thread at just the right time ...
a few years back, I returned to canning -- studied a lot, collected a lot of recipes, decided to concentrate on pickles and relishes and converted the open kettle recipes to BWB. went through the hasssle of adjusting to canning on a smooth top electric stove and made some pretty good stuff which I proudly shared.
Since finding this forum, I realize how lucky I was that I didn't send a lot of folks to the hospital, 'cause after studying A WHOLE LOT MORE and picking the brains of a lot of you, I'm questioning a number of my recipes.
Really had me down till I stumbled on this thread .... As the canning season revs up ... it's a good thing to reread.
AND I WILL NOT GIVE UP ... hope you gurus can stand it.

(I DO TRY TO SEARCH BEFORE I ASK QUESTIONS, BUT WHEN I FOUND THIS THREAD I WAS SEARCHING FOR SOMETHING TOTALLY DIFFERENT)

This is such a fun thread, it deserves to be bumped up again.
I tried my hand at canning last year for the first time in (hmmmm)25? years. (and 25 years ago I didn't really learn how)
I learned right away you do NOT pressure can pickles.
They turn to mush! (:
Cream