Apple Tapioca

From Teena Read

Makes one quart. OK to increase for canning.

Mix together:

1/3 c. tapioca

1 c. firmly packed brown sugar

4 c. sliced tart apples 2 c water

2 c. water

1/4 t. cinnamon

1/4 t. salt

Let stand 5 minutes. 

Let stand 5 minutes. Place mixture in a sauce pan. Bring to a boil, stirring often. Simmer till apples are tender (about 12 minutes). Fill jars, wipe rims, apply lids and rings and process in a boiling water canner for 20 minutes.

Serve warm or cold, as topping for ice cream, filling for pie shell or base for apple crisp.

Garlic Dill Pickles

From Marissa McClellan of FoodinJars.com. 

Makes approximately 8 pints (total yield varies depending on size of cucumbers).

2 overflowing quarts of pickling cucumbers, sliced into fat coins*
4 cups apple cider vinegar
4 cups water
6 tablespoons pickling salt
16 garlic cloves, peeled (2 per jar)**
1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper per jar
(2 teaspoons total)
1 teaspoon dill seed per jar (8 teaspoons total)
1/2 teaspoon black peppercorns per jar
(4 teaspoons total)

Wash and slice the cucumbers. In a large saucepot, combine vinegar, water and salt. Bring to a simmer. Arrange jars on counter and dole out the spices to each. Pack the cucumber slices firmly into the jars. You don’t want to damage the cukes, but you do want them packed tight.

Pour the brine into the jar, leaving ½ inch headspace.Wipe rims, apply lids and rings and process in a boiling water bath for 10 minutes.

If you want to skip the boiling water process, these pickles are also wonderful as refrigerator pickles. Just pop the jars into the fridge once they’re cool.

*I use slices because I find that they are easiest to pack into jars. However, you could also choose to make spears, halves or pickle the cucumbers whole.

**I like to peel the garlic by leaning on it ever so slightly with the side of a chef’s knife. This bruises the garlic a bit and gets its pungent flavor into the brine/cucumbers more effectively.

***Some people have reported that this level of spice leaves their pickles far too spicy. If your red chili flakes are particularly fresh or potent and you’re not a huge fan of spice, consider reducing the amount.

Sweet & Sour Sauce

From my grandmother Grace Taylor. This is one of my favorite recipes to can. It is also a great recipe to make for dinner, though you might want to half it if you are not cooking for a crowd.

Makes 12 pints or 6 quarts.

8 cups tomatoes, diced
2 1/2 cups onions, chopped
1 can mandarin oranges
2 can pineapple tidbits
5 cups bell peppers, chopped
7 cups white sugar
3 cups cider vinegar
1/2 cups soy sauce
1 cups cornstarch

Combine all except pineapple juice & cornstarch. Cook until onions are translucent. Combine cornstarch with pineapple juice and add to pot and let thicken. At this point it is ready to serve immediately. If you are canning it, fill jars with sauce, wipe rims, apply lids and rings and process in a boiling water canner for 35 minutes.

Standard Tomato Sauce

From the USDA Complete Guide to Home Canning, 2009 edition

Whole tomatoes
Lemon juice

A bushel of tomatoes weighs a little more than 50 pounds and will produce 10-12 quarts of thin tomato sauce. The thicker you make your sauce, the lower the yield.

Wash, remove stems and trim off bruised or discolored portions from tomatoes. Cut a good portion of the tomatoes into quarters and put directly into a large, hot saucepan and crush them with a potato masher. Continue to slowly add and crush freshly cut tomato quarters to the mixture, stirring occasionally.

Simmer for another five minutes, then remove from heat and press the heated tomato mixture through a medium sieve or food mill to remove skins and seeds. Return to heat, simmer and reduce the sauce until you reach the desired consistency.

Add 2 tablespoons lemon juice to clean, hot quart-sized canning jars, adding salt if you like. Fill hot jars, leaving 1/4-inch headspace. Remove air bubbles and adjust headspace if needed. Wipe rims, apply lids and rings and process in a boiling water canner for 45 minutes.

White Peach Sauce

From Marisa McClellan of FoodinJars.com

10 pounds of peaches, halved and peeled
3 cups sugar
1 vanilla bean, split and scraped
10 tablespoons bottled lemon juice (this is 1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons)

Cook the peaches down in a large, non-reactive pot, using a potato masher to help them break down and release their juice. Add the vanilla bean seeds and the pod so that the vanilla flavor will infuse all the peaches.

After approximately 20 minutes over medium heat, the peaches should be fairly well cooked down. Remove the vanilla bean from the pot (making sure to squeeze all the goodness from it). If you like your sauce chunky, leave as is. If you want a smoother consistency, puree with an immersion blender.
Taste and add sugar to achieve your desired sweetness. I found a happy, flavorful place at 3 cups, but depending on the innate sweetness in the peaches, you might be able to stop at 2 cups. Or you might need to add more. It’s up to you.

Pour peach sauce into pints, leaving a bit more than an inch of headspace. Add 1 tablespoon of lemon juice to each jar and stir in with a chopstick or plastic spoon. Wipe rims, apply lids and process for 15 minutes in a boiling water canner.

If you want to make butter from some of the sauce, reserve 6-8 cups of sauce and cook down in a slow cooker (making sure to add 1 tablespoon of lemon juice for every two cups of sauce at the beginning of cooking).

Apple Pie Filling

From my grandmother Grace Taylor

Makes sauce for 7 quarts of apples.

5 cups sugar
10 cups water
1 cups cornstarch
2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup lemon juice
Sliced apples of your choice

Mix all ingredients together in a pan, boil until it thickens a bit. Put a little in the bottom of each bottles. Fill with sliced apples, then fill to top with sauce. Wipe rims, apply lids and rings and process in a boiling water canner for 20 minutes for quarts, 15 minutes for pints.

A tip about slicing apples for canning: I use the peeler, corer, slicer gadget that spiral cuts the apple while peeling and coring it. After I do each apple, I slice it in half top to bottom and place it in a bowl of water with a few tablespoons of either Fresh Fruit (a canning product) or lemon juice added. This will keep the apples moist and not turn brown by the time you are ready to pack the jars and add the sauce.

Red Ribbon Salsa

From Melinda Hixson, Utah State Fair ribbon winner

Makes 3 pints. You can 4 times it to get 2 batches of pints or 1 batch of quarts.

4 cups tomatoes, peeled, diced and drained
1 green pepper, chopped
1 onion, chopped
1 jalapeno chili, seeded and chopped
1 anaheim chili, chopped
3 cloves garlic, chopped fine
3/4 cup red wine vinegar
1 8-oz can tomato sauce or 1 cup homemade
1 tablespoon salt (preferably canning salt)

Combine and simmer 1 hour. Fill jars, wipe rims, apply lids and rings and process in a boiling water canner for 45 minutes.

This is the salsa we made at the September R.S. canning class. If you use Roma or plum tomatoes, and set them in a strainer while you are prepping the ingredients, a majority of the water will drain out and your salsa will end up thicker. We also fire roasted the peppers on the grill and let them cool in a paper bag before peeling off the blackened skins.