Pear Relish

This Pear Relish recipes is sweet and spicy.

3 quarts ground pears
12 onions, ground
12 green peppers, ground
4 large cans pimentos, chopped
3 pods hot peppers
¼ cup prepared mustard
2 Tablespoons tumeric
8 cups sugar
1 quart vinegar
2 Tablespoons salt

Hot, sterile pint jars, lids, and rings

Combine all ingredients in kettle; simmer for 1 hour and 30 minutes, stirring frequently.
Meanwhile, sterilize jars, and lids in boiling water, keep hot.
Pour into hot sterilized jars; seal.
Process in boiling water bath for 10 minutes to complete seal.

Canning Tomatoes

Canning Tomatoes

Because of the high acidity, tomatoes are among the easiest of foods to can successfully. Tomatoes for canning should be fully ripe, but firm. Peel by dipping them into boiling water for 20-30 seconds, then into cold water. The skin should be loose and will slip off easily. [Read the rest of this entry…]

The Best Bread and Butter Pickles!

I love the flavor of bread and butter pickles- that sweet and sour mixture is just perfect to my taste! My favorite part is the onions, so I usually add a little more than it calls for here, but you can be flexible. Beware: an old wives tale says that the pickles will take on the personality of the person preparing them. So watch your mood- unless you like your pickles sour!

1 gallon cucumbers
8 small onions
2 green peppers (optional, but good)
½ cup salt
cracked ice
5 cups sugar
½ teaspoon tumeric
½ teaspoon ground cloves
2 tablespoons whole mustard seeds
2 tablespoons whole celery seeds
5 cups vinegar (or more if needed to almost cover pickles)
6-8 pint jars, lids, and rings

1. Slice cucumbers, onions and peppers into very thin slices.
2. Cover with salt. Cover completely with cracked ice and stir.
3. Top with a weighted lid. (I put a plate on top that just fits the container and then weight it down with a heavy can, etc. on top of that.) Allow to stand for 3 hours.
4. Prepare the Jars by cleaning and covering with boiling water. Boil for 10 minutes, then keep hot until ready to fill.
5. Drain cucumbers, but DO NOT RINSE.
6. Combine remaining ingredients and cook until the sugar dissolves.
7. Pour over the cucumbers, bring to a boil.
8. Put in sterile jars and seal while still hot. Hand tighten lid. No additional processing is needed.
9. Put jars upside down to cool. Any jar that does not seal should be put in the fridge for immediate use.

NOTES: Your cucumbers should be fresh. If they have been standing around too long, the pickles will have holes in them. If this happens to you, your cucumbers were not as fresh as they could have been. (You can still eat them.) Its best to pick your cucumbers as close to pickling time as possible, but do not let them get too big- you want the small to medium sized cucumbers. The large ones are all seeds.

Making Strawberry Preserves

Do you know the difference between preserves and jam?  The answer lies in the size of the fruit chunks.  Jam is made from crushed fruit pieces.  Preserves are made from whole fruit, or at least larger pieces.  Also, Preserves can have less sugar, although that depends on the recipe. [Read the rest of this entry…]