Making Pickles is fun and easy. Of all the canning projects, making pickles is the simplest. It's a high-acid process, so it is difficult to screw it up. Pickling is a fun project to do with kids over the age of five, as long as you keep them away from the hot water (let them fill the jars with veggies and spices, you do the canning part!).
This Instructable is to provide basic pickling instructions to people who like to play with flavor, as opposed to a pat recipe that must be adhered to.
Basic Pickling Recipe (These are the proportions, make it larger or smaller as needed!)
4 lbs any vegetables (harder ones work better)
2 3/4 C vinegar (preferably apple cider, but rice, white or red wine are fine too!)
3 C water
1/4 C sea salt (make sure it's not iodized, because that makes the pickle juice cloudy!)
This Instructable is to provide basic pickling instructions to people who like to play with flavor, as opposed to a pat recipe that must be adhered to.
Basic Pickling Recipe (These are the proportions, make it larger or smaller as needed!)
4 lbs any vegetables (harder ones work better)
2 3/4 C vinegar (preferably apple cider, but rice, white or red wine are fine too!)
3 C water
1/4 C sea salt (make sure it's not iodized, because that makes the pickle juice cloudy!)
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Signing UpStep 1: Safety First: Sterile and Clean
The essence of canning is to make sure that everything gets sterilized at the start of the process, and then keeps sterile throughout the process. So, use clean kitchen towels, rinse your utensils with boiling water, and boil your jars and lids for a few minutes before starting. Use thin foil to or lid to preserve heat.
Optional: You may blanch your vegetables to get the germs off, but his may make your pickle squishy, so pick your battles!
Optional: You may blanch your vegetables to get the germs off, but his may make your pickle squishy, so pick your battles!
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Then when you open the canning container, the top should still be under a vacuum. If the top has expanded outward and is no longer concave but convex, then your canning has bacteria or botulism growing inside and created gas which has expanded the top. DO NOT EAT ANYTHING canned that is from an expanded container.
The USDA recommends agains using traditional recipes because they have increased risk of contamination. As I said in the instructable, pick your battles; I'd try it.
You're correct about sugar being a preservative. But boiling the fruit and berries to make jam/jelly is what kills the bacteria. With the exception of Asian pears and figs, fruits have a pH lower than 4.6 which keeps C. Botulinim at bay. Asian pears and figs must be acidified before canning in a boiling-water-canner.
Here's a link for more info re. pH vs time vs temp.
http://www.uga.edu/nchfp/how/general/ensuring_safe_canned_foods.html
Now I can everything I make if it's feasibly possible and since now it's only the two of us. But when people come over there's nothing like homemade food.
(they like to raid the larder and take some home too but they have to give me the jars back or their on the "no 'can' do list".
The Low Temperature Pasteurization method can be used in most pickle recipes to yield a more firm product. Here's a link for how to do it: http://www.uga.edu/nchfp/how/can_06/low_temp_pasteur.html
USDA recommends that only 5% acidity vinegar be used in pickle recipes. Most rice vinegar is less than 5% so check the label.
Here's a link for The National Center for Home Food Preservation's (NCHFP) homepage. They are USDA's official rep for home food preservation. It's the Cooperative Extension Service at University of Georgia, Athens, GA. There is a lot of useful info at the site and it's all laboratory based research. http://www.uga.edu/nchfp/
In most non-sweet pickle recipes, quarts of pickles are canned 15 minutes and pints 10 minutes (1,000ft and below). Five minutes are added for 1,001 - 6,000 and 10 minutes above 6,000. Sweet pickles recipes which use no water, just vinegar and sugar plus spices in the "pickling" brine, are canned for a shorter time.
Another tidbit I picked up at NCHFP is that the initial water temp for for boiling-water-canning should be no more than 180F. Their recommended canning times use that as a reference.
The USDA's Complete Guide to Home Canning can be found here: http://www.uga.edu/nchfp/publications/publications_usda.html
It's in downloadable pdf format. I've downloaded it and put it in a 3-ring binder. I also put all their Fact Sheets found here in the binder: http://www.uga.edu/nchfp/publications/publications_uga.html
My neighbor has purchased the It's So Easy to Preserve book that NCHFP publishes. It has all the info from the USDA guides plus most of the info from the Fact Sheets from NCHFP. I'm thinking I'll buy one since it also has info about drying foods and making jerky.
Happy Canning folks. It's great to have home preserved foods to tide you over until the next growing season.
Note:
-Half the times for pints (these look like quarts). My risk/reward ratio makes my pints 4 min and quarts 8 min.
-Rice wine is fine if you keep refrigerated, but it's not usually 5% acidity which is recommended for canning. I like the sweetness of apple cider, but usually use white myself. I'm interested in trying the wine ones...
I would recommend this instructable to anyone.
Great job Neighborhoodfruit!!!
I agree that smaller jars need less time. The problem is that they are so delicious, that it doesn't make sense to make small containers.
Thank you for the great instructable!
Once you open the jar, it should keep in the fridge for a month or two, providing you use a clean fork to take the pickles out of the brine. If the fork is dirty, you will introduce bacteria into the mix, and a scum will form on top of the brine. When you've eaten all the pickles, you can use the brine to make "refrigerator pickles", by adding more clean veggies to the water.
OooooOooooh, next time I have someone's overflow of okra... That happens a lot in Alabama! Green tomatoes, or banana peppers...
If you're looking for something to do with bananna peppers, why don't you try to make Ajvar? We made another instructable about it. Here''s the link. Ajvar is totally the best ever.