Friday, August 21, 2015

Home Canning and Pickling









Home Canning
What do we do with an excess of summer fruits? We make jam.  The same can’t be said when courgettes start to take over our kitchen work surfaces. It’s usually all or nothing with these types of vegetables and we can get rather fed up with them after the hundredth search of the internet to find another recipe. Some of the later ones end up unceremoniously into the compost bin when friend start to turn them down. 

There are things we can do to extend the eating season though and with the looks of the Raised Beds Facebook page (we’re up to 14,000 members) our US friends seem to be one step ahead with preserving their “Zuccini’s”  There is a lot of interest about “Canning” their summer crops for later use. This might have come about from a warmer climate and the need for preserving food without a fridge over the years.

What is the Canning Process?
The canning process dates back to the late 18th century in France when the Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte, concerned about keeping his armies fed, offered a cash prize to whoever could develop a reliable method of food preservation.

After this came the idea of preserving food in bottles, like wine. After 15 years of experimentation, it was found that if food is sufficiently heated and sealed in an airtight container, it will not spoil.  No preservatives are necessary. Putting food into metal cans came after by industries in the UK but the simple glass bottling idea spread to America it was easily undertaken by individual growers at home.
Home canning or bottling, is the process of preserving foods, in particular, fruits, vegetables, and meats, by packing them into glass jars and then heating the jars in a larger container to kill the organisms that would create spoilage. Over the years special pressure cookers and jars have been created to get the hotter temperatures to kill off bacteria and microorganisms

Checking for quality
When a jar has cooled and is properly sealed, pressing the dimple on the lid will not make any sound. An improperly sealed jar will allow the dimple to move up and down, sometimes making a popping noise in much the same way a shop bought jar would act.
Older jar variations had a ceramic seal inside a one-piece zinc lid. Another method that is no longer recommended was the use of layer of hot paraffin wax poured directly over the top of the food (especially jams and jellies) to seal it from air, thus reducing growth of aerobic microorganisms like mould.

While it is possible to safely preserve many kinds of foodstuffs, home canning can expose consumers to botulism and other kinds of food poisoning if done incorrectly so there are a lot of recommendations about food safety. We here and closer to home tend to favour the pickling process, which varies quite a bit from the American Canning process.

Pickling
Pickling began 4000 years ago using cucumbers native to India.  This was used as a way to preserve food for out-of-season use and for long journeys, especially by sea. Salt pork and salt beef were common staples for sailors before the days of steam engines. Although the process was invented to preserve foods, pickles are also made and eaten because people enjoy the resulting flavours. Pickling may also improve the nutritional value of food by introducing B vitamins produced by bacteria.

Pickling
The main difference is the food isn’t super-heated but relies on a pH 4.6 or lower, which is sufficient to kill most bacteria. Pickling can preserve perishable foods for months. Antimicrobial herbs and spices, such as mustard seed, garlic, cinnamon or cloves, are often added. If the food contains sufficient moisture, a pickling brine may be produced simply by adding dry salt. For example, German sauerkraut and Korean kimchi are produced by salting the vegetables to draw out excess water. Natural fermentation at room temperature, by lactic acid bacteria, produces the required acidity. Other pickles are made by placing vegetables in vinegar. Unlike the canning process, pickling (which includes fermentation) also does not require that the food be completely sterile before it is sealed. The acidity or salinity of the solution, the temperature of fermentation, and the exclusion of oxygen determine which microorganisms dominate, and determine the flavour of the end product.

Other Ideas
For those of us who aren't into canning or pickling, the freezer is really our best friend. Besides freezing whole fruits and vegetables at the peak of their ripeness, we can freeze batches of summer pesto, containers of tomato sauce and apple sauce, and even garden herbs in olive oil ice cubes. These are the foundation of quick weeknight meals in the busy months ahead.

The process of dehydrating vegetables is worth looking into as well. We won’t need expensive equipment either as a regular oven does the job well. Courgettes dry out really well and can be just like crisps. 
Maybe I’ll start selling them, my latest get rich quick scheme.


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