Canning Okra help please

11 years ago

I am looking for a semi particular canning recipe for okra. My mother would can them in something, but had a garlic zippy flavor. There were large garlic cloves and long narrow red peppers in the jar. There was no dill, or sweet taste to them.

I would love to ask mom what she used, but she was taken by pancriatic cancer. I have no idea where she obtained the recipe, but I would very much like to duplicate it.

If anyone has a garlic pepper canning recipe that does not have the usual pickle taste, please let me know. I am really missing mom's okra and willing to try different variations.

Please either email direct, or post here.

Thank You,

Jeff

saltreef@gmail.com

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Comments (5)

p_mac
11 years ago
Jeff - have you tried a search of "allrecipes dot com"? I've had great luck finding old tried-and-true recipes there. Found my grandfather's recipe for bread & butter pickles there....long after he was gone and I missed the taste. Thank goodness I'd helped him several times or I might not have recognized the ingredients!

Sorry for the loss of your mom. You missing this okra is just a sign that she left another bit of herself with you. My MIL pickles okra similar to what you described and if I can get her to share, I'll email you. Good luck with your search!

Paula
soonergrandmom
11 years ago
Jeff, I don't know of a recipe, but if you will post your question on the GardenWeb's Harvest Forum, they will know if there is a safe recipe.

Although you don't say pickled okra, I think that is what you are describing. The okra pickles from the Ball Blue Book have okra, salt, water, vinegar, garlic and hot red peppers, but they also have dill seed. If you don't like dill I think you could leave that out, but personally I think that adds to the flavor.

The Ball Blue Book is avaiable at Walmart where canning supplies are sold and is 6 or 7 dollars. It is actually a guide to preserving and has a lot of info on canning, freezing, pickling, etc. If you would like for me to send you the recipe, just email me and I will type it up for you.

Also, if it is a safe pickling recipe, with enough vinegar, you can process it in a boiling water bath canner, which is really just a deep pot with a lid and a rack to set the jars on. Okra, without a lot of vinegar, is a low acid food and would have to be canned in a pressure cooker. Do you happen to remember which she used?

I don't know if you are a canner, but in case you are not, I need to tell you a couple of things. To be safe, canning recipes must be followed exactly and a safe place to start would be the Ball Blue Book or at National Center for Home Food Preservation which I've linked below.

Unsafe recipes are all over the web and in lots of cookbooks and have been handed down in lots of families. Vinegar we use today needs to be 5 percent and that is what you will mostly find today in the supermarket. Our grandmother's vinegar may have been twice that strength. I guess what I am saying is this, just because no one died, doesn't make the recipe safe.

I hope you find a recipe for your mother's okra, but I hope you find one that is approved as being safe.

Here is a link that might be useful: NCHFP
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OMG....I feel so bad. I actually took the opp for a break and went camping this weekend at the Wichita's. Shame on me...I've ignored what's left in my garden and most importantly, my garden family. WELL....not completely. We camped next to a farmer that has grown many kinds of melons in SW OK so I learned something there and I actually mentioned this group like you're family...which in my books, you are. AND...I made a pit-stop at Atwoods in Chickasa that got SeedMama the jelly bag she's been searching for...so maybe I'm redeemed? LOL! And I'm laughing because this year I have been so "okra-challenged" as many of you know. If everything I planted had produced, I'd been over-run with okra and as it is, I'm just about sick-in-tired of picking it! The Good Lord watches over those of us that are just not smart enough to do so ourselves! We're just about ready to let the deer feast on it! When harvesting, I only freeze a small amount just plain. I freeze a large amount breaded because that's my preference for eating. DH is one of those that likes it boiled. Either way, thanks to some advice Dawn gave me last year, I slice and just cover in water and chill. The longer you chill it, the slimmier it gets. I shoot for 2 to 4 hours. Then drain as best you can, bag it & freeze if it's for gumbo or cooking. I've had it keep for over a year this way. If you prefer it breaded, I do it much the same way only after draining, I use staight corn meal, salt & pepper to taste. Toss it around and add cornmeal (fresh or corse ground does better) until it seems it's almost too dry. Then I bag it in quart bags and freeze. This eliminates the freezer space of laying it on trays to freeze, then bagging..which also takes time. At the beginning of this season, I cooked okra prepped this way from last year and it was just as good as if I'd made it fresh. I don't thaw it before cooking. I just pull it outta the freezer and fry it just like I would the Stilwell brand only it tastes so much better. One more thing, my gumbo recipe is from Emeril on the cooking channel. Never had it fail me. That's my 2 cent's worth. Hope someone gleens something helpful from it. Paula Here is a link that might be useful: Emeril's seafood/okra gumbo recipe
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gophermound
Original Author
11 years ago
Thank you for the suggestions. I have been looking and found a lot of different recipes. Now I'm curious about the safety of some of the handed down recipes. I'll make a trip to walmart and pick up a blue book.

Thank You,

Jeff
Okiedawn OK Zone 7
11 years ago
I agree with everything Carol said, Jeff, and I would not use any recipe found at any website other than approved canning websites like the NCHFP website, a state extension service website or the website of a canning supply company like freshpreserving.com or mrswages.com. The risk of death from toxins in unapproved recipes or improper canning procedures is too great of a risk.

I have seen so-called canning recipes on cooking/recipe websites that are not safe in any shape, form or fashion and I would not use any of them unless a Master Canner or canning instructor said they had looked at the recipe and it was safe.

Dawn
mulberryknob
11 years ago
What Carol and Dawn said cannot be taken lightly. Be safe, especially with low acid food like okra.

Canning Okra help please

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