The Put ’em Up! Preserving Answer Book: 399 Solutions to All Your Questions: Canning, Freezing, Drying, Fermenting, Making Infusions

257 Pages·2014·22.81 MB·English

by  Sherri Brooks Vinton

The Put ’em Up! Preserving Answer Book

The
preserving
answer book
399 Solutions to All Your Questions
Canning • Freezing • Drying
Fermenting • Making Infusions
Sherri BrookS Vinton
best-selling author of Put ’em Up! and Put ’em Up! Fruit
ß
Storey Publishing
The mission of Storey Publishing is to serve our customers by
publishing practical information that encourages
personal independence in harmony with the environment.
Edited by Margaret Sutherland and Molly Jackel
Art direction by Mary Winkelman Velgos
Text production by Liseann Karandisecky
Cover photography by Mars Vilaubi, author photo by Chris Bartlett
Illustrations by © Elara Tanguy
Indexed by Nancy D. Wood
© 2014 Sherri Brooks Vinton
Be sure to read all the instructions thoroughly before undertaking any of the tech-
niques or recipes in this book and follow all of the recommended safety guidelines.
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For all the eaters who ask questions
and demand answers
Acknowledgments
I would like to thank my husband, Drew, and my kids, Ava and
Thayer, for their constant support, lack of fussiness when I travel for
weeks on end, and general buena onda. How lucky I am.
Thanks Mom, Granny Toni, and Gran for my formative eating
years. I owe each of you for my obsession with all things edible.
I would like to thank Lisa Ekus and The Lisa Ekus Group for
their kind attention and dedication to the movement.
I greatly appreciate Storey Publishing for signing this hat trick
of three books. It has been a fabulous project and I appreciate
everyone who contributed to the success of the series particularly
my wonderful, even­keeled, calm, and inspiring editor, Margaret
Sutherland, and the tireless, supportive, ever­smiling publicist, Alee
Moncy. What a team!
I’d like to give a shout out to my kitchen sistahs (and bros)
who share the passion for delicious, homemade food and dedicate
themselves to teaching others how to feed themselves.
And thank you readers, eaters, canners, and cooks everywhere
for your support of local farmers and real, good food. Now get in
there and cook up something tasty!
Contents
Introduction 9
Getting Started
PArT 1:

6 1 Basics 12
Why Preserve? • Safety
2 Sourcing and Storage 20
Finding Good Food • Recipe: White Peach Jam • Prolonging
Produce
3 Prep Work 34
Kitchen Skills • Blanching • Peels and Pits • Recipe: Raspberry
Jelly • Making the Most of It • Kitchen Tips
Preserving Processes
PArT 2:
4 General Canning 58
Workspace • Equipment • Jars • Process • Recipe: Bread and Butter
Chips • Ingredients • When Something’s Gone Wrong • What Not to
Do • Storage
5 Boiling-Water Method 95
Basics • Setting Up • About pH and Acid • Reliable Recipes • Recipe:
Pickled Okra • Filling the Jars • Loading the Canner • Processing •
Checking for a Seal
6 Pressure Canning 122
Basics • Equipment • What to Pressure Can • Recipe: Green Beans
in Water
7 Refrigeration 134
Recipe: Simple Brine • Recipe: Pub Pickles
8 Freezing 140
9 Drying 148
Prepping • Recipe: Dried Cherries • Methods •
Storage
10 Fermentation 160
Encouraging a Good Ferment • Recipe: Classic Fermented
Sauerkraut • Equipment • Ingredients • Storage

11 Infusions 174 7
Recipe: Strawberry Vinegar

Putting Your Skills to Work
PArT 3:
12 Sweet and Savory Spreads 180
Basics • Recipe: Quick Blueberry Jam •Recipe: Pan­Roasted
Chicken with Raspberry Reduction • Equipment •
Pectin • Recipe: Peel­and­Pip Pectin • Sugar and Acid • Getting a
Good Set • Troubleshooting
13 Pickles 207
Recipe: Pickling Spice
14 Sauces 213
Recipe: Blueberry Gastrique
15 Vegetables 217
16 Whole Fruits 221
Recipe: Pears in Honey Syrup
17 Tomatoes and Tomato Products 227
Recipe: Avalanche Sauce
Metric Conversion Chart 238
resources 239
Supplies and Equipment 239 • Home Food Preserving Community
and Information 240 • Local Food Sources and Calendars 241
Index 245
8
Introduction
Is there any home cooking own produce. Consider it a hit
activity that churns up more list of the problems and solu-
anxiety than food preser- tions that many home preserv-

vation? Roasting your first ers face when drying, freezing,
9
Thanksgiving Day bird, per- fermenting, infusing, and can-
haps. I understand that the ning their food.

turkey hotline rings off the I am very grateful to the
hook on that day. Since Put ’em eaters who have trusted me to
Up! first came out, in 2010, my help them clear their kitchen
phone and e-mail have been hurdles. I hope, in some small
getting their share of jingles way, that I have encouraged
as well. Eaters all across the more people to return to the
country have reached out with kitchen to cook up, preserve,
their preserving questions, and enjoy not only great-
concerns, and triumphs. The Q tasting food but also lasting
& A sessions in my classes have memories of lovely times and
been terrifically robust. There delicious things shared with
is so much to know about this friends and family. After all,
craft, and it has been a chal- while there is a great deal of
lenge and a pleasure to work technical information involved
through the answers to all of in these processes, the goal
the questions that have been isn’t to perform a science
posed along the way. experiment. It’s to create your
This book is by no means an next great meal.
exhaustive overview of all food I hope you find the answers
preservation processes. It does, here to all of your preserving
however, aim to answer the questions. But if you don’t,
most frequently asked ques- give me a shout. The hotline’s
tions about putting up your always open.