Post by feather on Oct 5, 2015 16:18:31 GMT
I've been water bath canning this past week. Nothing new there.
The problem I've been having is that my water bath canner is not the average size, it is the larger size. It fits over two burners. Then I usually have my two big pots 4 qt and 6 qt, which use of the other two burners. It's always been a tight fit and limiting on how much stuff I can make.
I started with the roaster method of making apple butter (from a thread here on HF), leaving it overnight at just below boiling, reducing the water, increasing the evaporation, which is really nice with a roaster because there is more area to evaporate from. (less stirring!)
This freed up stove top space and made things so much easier. So much so, that I doubt I'll go back to using my big pots to boil on the stove. Now in the middle of canning I can cook up an omelet or a meal, or boil water for sterilizing, and I'm able to use the stove top again.
So I made pear butter, it turned out really great. Again, overnight at just below boiling helped thicken it up without scorching. I didn't know if the rock hard pears would soften up in the process but the long cooking softened them up as well as the more ripe pears. My family is thrilled with the smooth texture and tart/sweet end result!
Then I decided to make my ketchup in it. Put in my 5 quart pails of frozen tomatoes, with fresh, and soon some dehydrated. I wait to put in the sugar until the end, so it doesn't scorch as easily. Overnight I lost quite a few cups of water from the roaster.
The roaster method takes an extra day, or over night, but well worth it for me. I'm sold on this method. It's the first time I don't have to shut down the cooking of meals when I'm canning and I'm pleased with it. I wanted to share that with you all. Have a happy canning season. ~Feather
The problem I've been having is that my water bath canner is not the average size, it is the larger size. It fits over two burners. Then I usually have my two big pots 4 qt and 6 qt, which use of the other two burners. It's always been a tight fit and limiting on how much stuff I can make.
I started with the roaster method of making apple butter (from a thread here on HF), leaving it overnight at just below boiling, reducing the water, increasing the evaporation, which is really nice with a roaster because there is more area to evaporate from. (less stirring!)
This freed up stove top space and made things so much easier. So much so, that I doubt I'll go back to using my big pots to boil on the stove. Now in the middle of canning I can cook up an omelet or a meal, or boil water for sterilizing, and I'm able to use the stove top again.
So I made pear butter, it turned out really great. Again, overnight at just below boiling helped thicken it up without scorching. I didn't know if the rock hard pears would soften up in the process but the long cooking softened them up as well as the more ripe pears. My family is thrilled with the smooth texture and tart/sweet end result!
Then I decided to make my ketchup in it. Put in my 5 quart pails of frozen tomatoes, with fresh, and soon some dehydrated. I wait to put in the sugar until the end, so it doesn't scorch as easily. Overnight I lost quite a few cups of water from the roaster.
The roaster method takes an extra day, or over night, but well worth it for me. I'm sold on this method. It's the first time I don't have to shut down the cooking of meals when I'm canning and I'm pleased with it. I wanted to share that with you all. Have a happy canning season. ~Feather
