Check out the link below.... A Ball Blue Book is also a good investment - just be sure to get a recent version of it because there have been changes in home canning. You will also need to know your altitude so that you can process foods for the correct amount of time.

It's best to only use tested recipes, for food safety.

-Grainlady

Here is a link that might be useful: National Center for Home Food Preservation

I can tomatoes, but prefer other vegetables frozen. They just taste fresher to me than canned.

I agree with Grainlady about the Ball Blue Book. I use mine every year and there are lots of good recipes and good information in it!

Linda

You also might want to check out the Harvest Forum. Lots of good info here as well as good folks to ask!

Here is a link that might be useful: Harvest Forum

Oh, yes.............come on over to the Harvest Forum....

(evil grin)

We are waiting to create another addict!! LOL

Lots of great info!

Deanna

Ditto the blue book. Indispensable.

Only acid fruits and vegetables can be canned with a boiling water bath; low acid items MUST be canned with a pressure canner. No exceptions.

If you think you might be getting in to this seriously, bite the bullet and get good equipment. A jar lifter is a handy item to handle hot jars. Well worth the cost. A magnetic wand is a gadget which fishes the lids out of simmering water--also helpful. If your local hardware store doesn't carry canning stuff, a good place for such items is Lehmans--see the link.

I have had great results from my All American pressure canner. Love it.

Here is a link that might be useful: lehman's canning supplies

I'll add my vote for the Ball Blue Book, they are inexpensive and pretty readily available.

Tomatoes can be waterbath canned, herbs freeze and/or dehydrate well. The other low acid vegetables eill require a pressure cooker, or you can pickle 'em. I've had no luck canning broccoli, it gets too mushy and tastes "strong". It can be canned safely but the quality is a definite problem.

Annie

Annie, how does canning cream of broccoli soup fare? I don't have a pressure canner and doubt I'll venture there soon but I'm wondering if you've done anything like this?

I only can high acid or high sugar foods than can be Hot Water Bathed. I'm not into pressure canning veggies, soups etc. Would rather have them fresh or frozen.

Stewed tomatoes (great for soups, as is as a side dish, or chile con carne), tomato sauce for pasta dishes, dill pickles, bread and butter pickles, sweet pickles, salsa, chile sauce, pepper jelly, raspberry, blueberry, strawberry and peach jams and cucumber relish are my usual suspects but every year I rty a new recipe or two.

As others mentioned pop over to the Harvest Forum. They are "canning crazies"! LOL Lots of experience, talent recipes and they love to help.

You couldn't can "Cream of Broccoli Soup" as such. The USDA doesn't approve recipes with thickeners or dairy products. (Barring a couple of mustard pickle recipes that are thickened.)

The problem is that thickeners increase the density of the product so there are heat penetration problems. You'd have to pressure can the product so long to be sure of adequate heat penetration (i.e. making sure you got it hot enough all the way through to kill botulism spores) that what you'd be left with would probably be a disgusting olive drab mush.

Fats in dairy products like cream are also a problem. The fat coats the botulism spores and "insulates" them from the heat. The only way around that is to add lots of acid to compensate, which you obviously don't want in a cream soup.

You could process broccoli, onions, herbs, in a chicken broth base then add cream and any thickeners (if desired) when heating. But you have to have a pressure canner (not a pressure cooker) to do that.

I wouldn't recommend it as a beginner project. Cooking may be an art, but canning is a science.

I hope you do get into canning and like Deanna I encourage you to visit the Harvest forum. Also, if you check Grainlady's link to the NCHFP site, if you scroll down the home page you'll see they offer a free self-paced course on home food preservation that can teach you a lot of the fundamentals.

Once you've made some jams, some pickles, canned some peaches or other fruits, you'll be hooked!

Carol

I'll stick to jam...

Barnmom, jam is a good start but pretty soon you'll be branching out into things like pickled green beans with lemon and tarragon, plum sauce, even Jessica's lime and cilantro marinade can be safely canned while I have a bunch of cilantro (just have to find cheap limes, they don't grow in Michigan, LOL).

The basic safety rules say no dairy and/or fats. That means no garlic packed in olive oil or cream soup. I do can KatieC's roasted tomato and garlic soup and just add cream when I open the jar and heat it, so something similar could be done with cream of broccoli, I'm sure. However, since broccoli gets so strong when canned, I don't think it would be worth it, in all probability.

The rules also say no thickeners, some of it is for safety and some just quality. Cornstarch will break down and get watery, making your product "icky". The "ick" factor does it for me, I don't see any reason to can something that just doesn't taste very good or have a decent texture, I'm not going to can something I won't eat.

Annie

As Annie mentioned, KatieC's roasted tomato and garlic soup is excellent. What a treat in the winter.

I don't have statistics, but I'd guess a big percentage of home canners also have freezers. Some things can well, some are more suitable for freezing. Broccoli falls into the latter category.

Carol

Yep. What Carol and Annie said........

You "might" be able to find a Cream of Broc soup recipe that would freeze. Most, however, will have separation issues.

Freeze the broccoli, make soup in the winter so you can "freshen the house" with the aroma!! LOL

Deanna

I might want to do some 'maters. But honestly, I'm in a spot where I can buy great canned tomatoes and get decent fresh tomatoes year 'round.

I might try pickles someday but I still recall the batch of bread and butter pickles my grandmother made when I was 8. There were still jars and jars in the pantry many years later... we just couldn't look at another one.

That is a huge issue. There's something about canning that seems to bring out "hoarder" tendencies, LOL, and if you don't watch it you can end up with ten years' worth of pickles sitting on the shelves.

As with anything else, when you find something you like and want to can regularly, it's important to keep track of how much you consume in a season (or two) and process accordingly.

One reason I really like Small-Batch Preserving is that all the recipes are sized for small amounts. The recipes are excellent, you can try a lot of different things without being stuck with a gazillion jars, and for gifting you can easily make a variety of "gourmet" items for baskets.

Of course it's also worth mentioning that any canning recipe can be halved or quartered. Just keep everything in proportion.

Carol

Annie - can you share the lime and cilantro marinade? That sounds like something I'd use a lot.

thanks!
Jen

In case Annie doesn't come online over the weekend, this is the recipe she mentioned.

It comes from Sunset, was posted by Jessy and then KatieC came up with canning times.

Lime-Chipotle Sauce

Recipe By :Katie
Serving Size : 0 Preparation Time :0:00
Categories :

Amount Measure Ingredient -- Preparation Method
-------- ------------ --------------------------------
1/2 cup honey
2 tablespoons minced canned chipotle chilies in adobo sauce
3 tablespoons brown mustard -- or dijon
1/2 cup lime juice
1 1/2 tablespoons minced garlic
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro
Season with salt and pepper

Blend in food processor. Serve sauce as a marinade grilled meats, poultry, and fish if your guests don't get to it first with tortilla chips. Makes 1 1/2 cups.

Source:
"Jessy- from Sunset Magazine"
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

NOTES : This can be canned in a boiling waterbath for 15 min. at 0-1000 ft., 20 min. at 1001-6000 ft. and 25 min. above 6000 ft.

Carol

Thanks so much Carol (and Jessy, KatieC and Annie)!

One other question, since size matters in canning I would assume the times would be for pint size or smaller or is half-pint the largest recommended?

Jen

Rule-of-thumb is you can always downsize jars but not go up, though in this case I doubt there's much problem with pints.

You might email Katie and ask. Below is the link to KatieC's personal preserving page. Click on any of the recipes and in the upper-right-hand corner you'll see a hyperlink "email Katie."

The other option is to look KatieC up on Gardenweb's member page and email from there.

If neither of those is active, just give a shout and someone on the Forum will be sure Katie knows you have a question.

Carol

Here is a link that might be useful: Preserving - Katie's Recipes