Hey, Food52 Faithful, what are you canning this summer? ;o)

I'll post my current list (mostly yet to-do) after a few of you have replied. I plan to take advantage of the long holiday weekend to put up at least a few different small batches, plus one or two larger ones. Would love your recommended all-stars. Cheers. ;o)

AntoniaJames
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38 Comments

Diana B. July 26, 2015
Yesterday alone, 4 jars pineapple-peach jam with mint, 6 jars plum jam with cardamom, 8 jars fig jam with cardamom, 6 jars vanilla balsamic fig compote, and 4 jars fig lime jam.
 
creamtea July 26, 2015
Sour-cherry jam.... which decided it wanted to be sour-cherry ice-cream topping bc it didn't thicken enough...
 
Midge July 23, 2015
It's nice to know that there are others out there who spend their summers obsessing about what they're going to put in jars next! I've got a 10-lb tub of frozen sour cherries that my husband lugged home from northern Wisconsin that I'm going to turn into mrswheelbarrow's sour cherry jam sometime soon. I've a question for fermentation folks: How long can you keep lacto-fermented sour/half dill pickles in the fridge? I've read a month but it seems to me they'd last longer? I sure hope so cause I just made a crock-load of them.
 
Droplet July 25, 2015
Midge,
ours last for several months without a problem. Just make sure that you always use a clean utensil when you take pickles out, so as not to contaminate the brine. If something goes off, you will see a white layer on top of the liquid. Chill the vodka well :)
 
Midge July 25, 2015
Thank you Droplet :)
 
AntoniaJames July 22, 2015
Just to update you: I've made pickled beets several times, once with Paul Virant's red wine and rosemary recipe, the other times making Kevin West's pickled beets with ginger and sweet spices. I just finished processing Mme Ferber's 2-apricot jam, using a combination of white peaches, yellow peaches and nectarines, because apricots are long gone. I did not have an orange so I used 2 lemons. The recipe has you macerate the fresh fruit overnight, while you soak the dried fruit in the Gewurz. I had a lot else going on, so I let the fruit macerate in the fridge for three days instead of one. Friends, this jam is amazing. I strongly recommend it. I see that Cathy Barrow posted it on her site, if you are interested: http://www.mrswheelbarrow.com/2011/07/my-admiration-of-the-apricot-four-preserving-projects/
I've also canned a dozen jars of blueberries in light syrup. That's all I'll do, given our meager crop this year. Those should suffice for special occasion breakfasts.
Next up: I'm looking forward to trying Kevin West's kosher dill pickle recipe. (We go through at least two pints a month, so I have to make a lot of them!) It will be fun to compare the two versions. Stay tuned.
Also, I plan to can several quarts of stone fruit slices for crumbles and cobblers mid-winter.
My son wants to pickle some hot peppers, so we'll be doing that too over the next few weeks.
Cheers,
AntoniaJames
Next up
 
Bevi July 23, 2015
I use the bread and butter pickle recipe from Amanda and Merrill's updated NY Times cookbook, but reduce the kosher salt in the ice bath by half.
 
Summer O. July 10, 2015
Brandied cherries! Love them in a French 75. Half Sour slices and this weekend my husband will be attempting ketchup. I was hoping for just canned tomatoes but he is hell bent to make his own ketchup.
 
AntoniaJames July 7, 2015
I must say, you all are so impressive! I'm inspired.

In addition to the blueberries from our bushes which will all go in jars in light syrup, given how tiny the crop is, thanks largely to the drought, I have these on my dance card:

Yellow Plum and Riesling Jam (from Paul Virant’s “Preservation Kitchen,” page 74) (I often use Gewurztraminer) Beautiful and great tasting. I’ll also make a plum + nectarine variation.

Dill Pickles (Virant, page 30; my notes: brined for 12 hours, 3 tablespoons kosher salt/quart water; cut into spears, slices) Best Kosher dills I’ve ever made, hands down. I’ll make at least two dozen pints.

Two Apricot Jam from Mme. Ferber’s “Mes Confitures.” I make it with all kinds of other stone fruits, given the ephemeral apricot season here in Northern California + dried apricots (Frog Hollow Farm dried apricots – without any question, the best ever)

Pickled Golden Beets with Ginger (Kevin West, “Saving the Season,” page 143) Best recipe in that book full of good ones. I’ve already put up five pints, including a few made with red beets, because one week the reds just looked better than the gold ones. Incidentally, one red beet slice in the bottom of a jar of golden beets turns them the most luscious shade of orange.

Sweet Pickled Damsons (Pamela Corbin, “The River Cottage Preserves Handbook,” page 112) So pretty when made with the Emerald Beauty plums we'll see in September.

Stone Fruit Chutney, from the Williams-Sonoma site. We made this at our preserving potluck a few years ago and it was such a hit!

Dilly Beans! (A wonderful addition to "3-bean salad")

Green Tomato Chutney, my recipe here on Food52, in the fall when green tomatoes arrive at the farmers’ market

Raspberry Jam, standard ratios, spiked with Slivovitz

In the fall I’ll make:

Roasted Applesauce (roast with spiced pear cider, no sugar; after roasting, blitz in food processor; cook at low boil stovetop for 5 minutes, process 10 minutes. I’ll take this over candy any day of the week.)

Paul Virant’s Pumpkin Butter (now a Genius recipe)

Rachel Saunders’ Valencia orange marmalade (my father’s favorite, and he does appreciate a good marmalade!)

I'm making all kinds of flavored red wine and white wine vinegars, too. I am fortunate to be able to buy excellent wine vinegars by the four-liter jug for a song at our local winemaking store. I always have a bit left over after my pickling and chutney adventures.

I'll be trying some of the many excellent suggestions on this thread, too.

Thank you so much, everyone!

(I do hope that more people will chime in. What an amazing resource this is.)

Cheers,

AntoniaJames ;o)
 
petitbleu July 6, 2015
So far, I've done cherry-Maraschino jam, pickled cherries, apricot jam (with noyaux), apricot butter, apricot jelly, pickled garlic scapes (Marisa McClellan's recipe is wonderful), pickled asparagus, cornichons, several batches of dill pickles, and some fermented half sours. I was going to do a sour cherry jam as well, but then we had a long spell of 90+ degree weather and I said "uncle" and just ate all the sour cherries out of hand! Hopefully, the weather will let up enough for me to can some tomatoes and do something with plums.
 
Bevi July 5, 2015
So far this season: Strawberry balsamic black pepper jam, strawberry rhubarb, strawberry lime, blueberry cherry lime, cherry cardamon, Ranier cherry lime. I skipped making apricot jam last year, but am going to make sure I put some up this year. I will make various plum jams, go wild blackberry picking and put up blackberry sage jam, and make fig cognac jam.
 
Meaghan F. July 6, 2015
Just made apricot jam yesterday! Apricots are probably my favorite fruit, and it seems like they're extra flavorful in my area (outside Philadelphia) this year. Followed the general jam recipe out of Mrs. Wheelbarrow's book, is there an apricot-specific recipe you use regularly?
 
Bevi July 6, 2015
Meaghan F, I use David Lebovitz' recipe, or Food in Jars minus the herbals. I like to put Apricot kernels in the jam, and when I follow through on this idea, I use Rachel Saunders Blenheim Apricot jam recipe as a guide. Apricot jam is probably my favorite flavor.
 
Meaghan F. July 6, 2015
I love DL so I'll definitely check that out. (I'm using my kernels for vinegar though, excited for the results.) FYI, if you're looking for a way to use that jam, his Quince Tart recipe is fabulous and can be made with any type of fruit jam: http://www.davidlebovitz.com/2008/07/jam-tart/ The crust has cornmeal, and the texture is just great.
 
Diana B. July 5, 2015
So far, peach jam w/saffron; peach jam w/rose geranium; and plum jam with star anise. I have a few pounds of white peaches on the counter right now, waiting for me to decide whether to make jam w/spiced rum or can them in lavender-flavored syrup. ;)
 
Em July 5, 2015
I've loved many recipes from Sherri Brooks Vinton's book "Put 'Em Up!", especially the Picnic Relish and Dilled Carrots. Another favorite is fruit jams with herbs. You can buy strawberry jam in any store, but you'll never find such gems as Blueberry Basil, Chocolate Raspberry, or Peach Lavender.
 
aargersi July 3, 2015
My neighbor showed up last night with FOUR giant bags (like, trash bags) of mustang grapes so mustang grape jelly is happening. Two bags of wild plums, so plum jam. PEACHES are here. I made double peach jam (the Mrs Wheelbarow way) and feral plum jam (half wild half domestic plums - yuk yuk) Also Mrs W's dilly green beans. Corn chow-chow. Peach chutney. Mother in laws figs will be ripe in a couple weeks then it's fig jam time.

And who knows what else? Fun!
 
judyschwab July 3, 2015
We call it canning fever at our house! Fancy Pantry by Helen Witty is a wonderful resource for all kinds of little put up jobs. An excellent recipe for bread and butter pickles. Add dried red peppers for a spicy version. And my favorite pickle relish ever. Great in cocktail sauce for seafood.
 
Horto July 3, 2015
I warmed up with pickled jalapeños, then some quick pickled ginger and rhubarb chutney (Ashley English)
Currants and gooseberries are next!
 
Melinda F. July 2, 2015
I think I might can some Bread & Butter pickles, if I have enough cucumbers to do a batch.
 
AntoniaJames July 2, 2015
Bread and butter pickles - yes! Do you have a favorite recipe, Melinda? Thank you. ;o)
 
Melinda F. July 5, 2015
The recipe I use for Bread & Butter Pickles are from "The Big Book of Preserving the Harvest", By: Carol W. Costenbader.
 
Nancy July 2, 2015
all time favorites: apricot juniper preserves (serve with meat), lemon or lime chutney (Laurie Colwin), giardinara Italian vegetable antipasto, mango or peach chutney, vodka infused applesauce (aka applesauce for grownups).
new to me: ginger marmalade, in the process of making it, so don't know outcome
 
AntoniaJames July 2, 2015
Nancy, do tell us about that ginger marmalade! Apricot + juniper? So intriguing. Like a really nice chutney. What recipe do you use? Apricots are waning quickly here. Not sure that's even an option now, but I could certainly do any other stone fruit. Thank you. ;o)
 
Nancy July 2, 2015
The ginger marmalade is simple...just ginger, sugar and water... to replicate some good British ginger marmalade I tasted. The apricot-juniper preserve uses dried apricots, so no urgency for fresh. Could use another dried fruit, I suppose. It was published in Cooks Illustrated magazine Feb 1995 (not readily findable on web, possibly available behind a pay-wall, or I could message it to you).
 
Nancy July 2, 2015
The ginger marmalade is simple...just ginger, sugar and water... to replicate some good British ginger marmalade I tasted. The apricot-juniper preserve uses dried apricots, so no urgency for fresh. Could use another dried fruit, I suppose. It was published in Cooks Illustrated magazine Feb 1995 (not readily findable on web, possibly available behind a pay-wall, or I could message it to you).
 
Nancy July 3, 2015
Antonia, maybe misread your question, and you wanted the chutney recipes, not the apricot juniper. Which was it you wanted...
 
Diana B. July 5, 2015
Oh, Laurie Colwin's chutney is simply to die for, isn't it!?
 
PieceOfLayerCake July 1, 2015
I'm all about experimenting with kimchi this summer, using various vegetables like radish, spring onions, eggplant, zucchini. Its not really canning per se, but its preserving!

I had a friend who canned fruit for the express purpose of making pie...and anything involving pie gets my heart racing. I was thinking of peach with ginger and chile. I canned apricot and boysenberry jam a couple years back, but I gave nearly all of it away as gifts, which I later regretted.

I love the idea of canning salsas! Nothing compares to homemade salsa. I eat salsa verde like its ketchup.
 
Chocolate B. July 2, 2015
Fruit kimchee, using whatever is in season, is absolutely delicious as a summertime treat. Can't remember where I saw the recipe (probably Katz).
 
AntoniaJames July 2, 2015
Have not made kimchi yet. I made blueberry pie filling last year and it turned out great. I plan to try peach and other stone fruit pie fillings this year. So convenient for crisps in the dead of winter. ;o)
 
AntoniaJames July 2, 2015
Fruit kimchi? Whoa. I need to run down Katz's book. I had no idea . . . . ;o)
 
Nicole S. July 1, 2015
Salsa and relish taste way better than store-bought. Best of luck to you!
 
Nicole S. July 1, 2015
Forgot to include that the Best of Bridge cookbook series has a canning/preserves edition and it is fantastic. If you can get it on Amazon, I wholeheartedly recommend it.
 
AntoniaJames July 2, 2015
Thanks for the tip about "Best of Bridge," Nicole. Never heard of it. Must check it out! ;o)
 
Meaghan F. July 1, 2015
Thank you for this!!! I'm pretty new to "serious" canning and am feeling very enthusiastic but my husband's sick of hearing about it. :) In the past couple months: strawberry and blueberry jams, Meyer lemon marmalade, candied clementine slices (sooooo good...), spicy radishes, dill pickle spears, and sweet n' sour pickle slices. I'm not sure what to do next and am looking forward to hearing from everyone else!!
 
AntoniaJames July 2, 2015
Meaghan F, do you have a recipe for sweet and sour pickle slices? They sound so good! My mouth is watering just thinking about them. I've made the Luvey Sweet pickles posted here on the site, but my family really goes for good kosher dills, so I always make at least a dozen pints of those. Sweet + Sour, though? Tell me more!! Thank you. ;o)
 
Meaghan F. July 3, 2015
I've been using the recipe below as a jumping off point for my pickle experiments (it's called "Spicy Dill Pickles" but I had to add a LOT of extra dried red pepper to get it anywhere near what I consider spicy!) I made a batch with 1/2 tsp dehydrated lemon peel; replaced the pickling spice with dashes of nutmeg, cinnamon, and ground black pepper; half the called-for sugar; and good-quality apple cider vinegar instead of distilled white vinegar, and really loved the results... Sweet n' sour is just my name for it. :) http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/spicy-dill-pickles-2318
 
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