Our daughter's elderly piano teacher was given a box of peaches off someone's tree. The peaches were small and sour and not really good for eating. She asked if I wanted them, and I said heck yes. Peach purree added to fresh-made yogurt is unsurpassed. I took the box home and made them into purree.
I have no particular skill (or so my kids tell me) in making either salsa or pizza sauce, something we use in appreciable quantities. So what I do is buy giganto-sized quantities of both, then re-can them in smaller jars.
Here's four gallons each of salsa and pizza sauce, as well as the box of peaches:
This is the output after everything was canned and re-canned:
Ooooh, and looky what we just found at a thrift store! A food dehydrator! This is nearly identical to the model we used to own, and which we foolishly gave away (during a massive purging of possessions) before we moved to Idaho. I've been looking for one ever since. This dehydrator set us back a grand total of six bucks. Gotta love thrift stores...
So, dumb question... You can re-can store bought sauce?? What is the purpose, to get it in smaller, more manageable size containers, or does it keep longer that way?? I am a big canner, but I have never heard of this.
ReplyDelete-Katie
You hit the nail exactly on the head. Take pizza sauce, for example. If I buy it in #10 tin cans (about a gallon), it's far cheaper than stuff bought in individual cans. Trouble is, I can't use up an entire gallon in one fell swoop, so most of it would go bad once I opened the can. But if I re-can it in smaller quantities, I just use what I need as I need it.
ReplyDelete- Patrice
Ok, one more question... how long do you can it for? Do you water bath or pressure can it? Also, can you can things (like meat) that have been frozen? Maybe there are instructions I can find somewhere on the internet. Thanks!
ReplyDelete-Katie
I can't remember exactly how long I canned the salsa and pizza sauce. The rule of thumb whenever canning (or re-canning, in this case) something is to go with the ingredient that has the longest processing time. If I remember correctly, it was onions that had the longest time.
ReplyDeleteI boil-bath canned the peaches because they're high acid enough to get away with it.
There are several excellent canning books that include long lists of processing times for various foods, as well as detailed instructions. My personal favorite is "Putting Food By" by Ruth Hertzberg, Janet Greene, and Beatrice Vaughan (you can search for it on Amazon).
You MUST pressure-can low-acid foods, especially since most commercial tomato products are made with low-acid tomatoes (as well as all those other low-acid ingredients like onions).
AFA canning frozen meat - sure, it can be (pressure) canned. I do it all the time. However the meat will first have to be thawed and then hot-packed. That means you'll have brown it, or boil it, or otherwise pre-cook it. Some people process meats by packing it raw in jars (a lot of my neighbors can deer meat this way), but whenever I can pork, beef, or chicken I always cook it first. "Putting Food By" gives detailed instructions for all this. - I highly recommend by the book so you can reference it at a moment's notice.
Good luck!
- Patrice
I've had three of those plastic dehydrators in the past, and have dried lots of apples, mango, bell peppers, celery, potatoes, carrots, and grapes; made many a pound of jerky, too. Recently I bought a stainless steel dehydrator - variable thermostat and a timer. In three weeks I have dehydrated 5 pumpkins, 10 lbs. of green beans, 10 lbs. of English Green peas, 40 lbs. of corn, 15 lbs. of sweet potatoes, 7.5 lbs. of hash brown potatoes, six lbs. of California Medley... and I put all of this in ball glass jars, except for the hash brown potatoes. Now, after reading your story about the refried beans, I'm going to made some up and dehydrate a batch. Thanks for giving me the idea.
ReplyDeleteI bought a 20lb.can of salsa because it was a really good price. I was wondering can I recan them ? Oh I hope so.
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely, Cindy. Heat the salsa to boiling, then ladle into jars. I can mine at 12 lbs pressure for 30 minutes (for quarts). Happy canning!
ReplyDelete- Patrice
can you recan jelly that is store bought also?
ReplyDeleteI've never tried it. Jam and jelly has so much sugar that it stays good for a long time after opening. Even if it gets a little mold on top, it's fine once you scrape the mold off. Therefore I never think about re-canning it.
DeleteBut you know what? Try it. That's half the fun of canning. Follow the processing instructions for jelly and give it a go, then drop a line to let us know how it turns out!
- Patrice
I canned salsa this year that has a little too much vinegar. Can I open the jars and mix with the next batch of salsa and re-can?
ReplyDeleteMy first batch of salsa from earlier this summer ended up with too much vinegar. Can I open the jars and mix the first batch with my next batch and re-can?
ReplyDeleteI don't see why not. Just remember to process the salsa according to the ingredient requiring the LONGEST processing time. And just because salsa has vinegar does NOT mean you can water-bath can it -- because of all the other low-acid ingredients (onions, garlic, etc.) it MUST be pressure-canned. Have fun!
Delete- Patrice