Marisa McClellan's Blog, page 119

Giveaway: Food-Themed Note Cards from League Street Press

My friend Joy Manning is a thank you note evangelist. In an age where people send their regards electronically (if they send them at all), Joy pulls out a pretty note card, writes a brief but thoughtful message, and then hands it off to the US Postal Service. I have been on the receiving end of Joy’s note writing habit more than once and I’m always delighted to receive a piece of physical mail beyond bills and coupons for Bed, Bath, and Beyond.

Last spring, Joy gave a talk at Eat, Write, Retreat about how her note writing habit is integral to her career networking strategy (she’s a freelance food writer, recipe developer, and editor) and how it has often brought more assignments her way. I was there for her talk and I was inspired enough to dig out my dusty stack of thank you notes and write appreciations to people who have helped me over the years.

In a move that has delighted many (or, at the very least, me), Joy has launched a line of food-themed note cards in partnership with her friend Sam Bednarek under the name League Street Press. Each card has a fruit or vegetable on the front, along with a punny line. I particularly like the “olive my love” design that you see above. Sam is a graphic designer and art director and she designed the cards and created the art. Joy came up with the lines and developed the recipes that are printed on the back.

And let me tell you, these recipes aren’t throwaways. Joy tested and retested these dishes in order to come up delicious things that would be both easy and appealing. I had a chance to taste the No-Churn Peach Ice Cream when it was in development and so I speak from first-hand experience when I say that it’s truly fabulous and is such a good option for those of us who can’t find space in our freezers to chill an ice cream bowl (I am sure that I’m not the only one with this issue).

Best of all, these note cards are perfectly sized to slip right into a recipe box, so your recipient will be able to add it to their recipe collection with tearing or folding your thoughtful note.

The cards can be bought as singles ($4 a piece) or in boxes of eight ($20 for a box). They are printed on sturdy card stock and both the cards and envelopes are made from 100% recycled paper.

Thanks to Joy and Sam, I have one box of eight note cards to give away to a lucky Food in Jars reader. Here’s how to enter:

Leave a comment on this post and share a thank you note story. Did your parents make you write them when you were growing up? Or is it a habit you never quite picked up?
Comments will close at 11:59 pm on Saturday, February 22, 2014. Winners will be chosen at random and will be posted to the blog on Sunday, February 23, 2014.
Giveaway open to US and Canadian residents.
One comment per person, please. Entries must be left via the comment form on the blog at the bottom of this post.

Disclosure: League Street Press gave me one set of these notecards for photography purposes and are providing a second set for the giveaway. No money has changed hands. I just think they’re cool and so I wanted to share them with you. 

Related Posts:

Giveaway: New Ball Heritage Collection Green Jars
Giveaway: Set of Three GIR Silicone Spatulas
Giveaway: Straight Sided Half Pint Jars from Fillmore Container

Links: More Kumquats, Pickled Cabbage, and a Winner

Scott had a birthday late last week and so we’ve had an long weekend of celebration and much indulgent eating. It’s been fun, but I’m looking forward to getting back to a life that involves a few more vegetables and a bit less birthday cake and french fries. Other than that, it’s been all book tour planning, all the time. If you check out the Classes and Events page, you’ll see that I’ve been slowly adding to it for the spring. Some dates don’t have a ton of info yet, but I’m updating it daily, so keep checking back! Now, links!

How to make apple paste from scratch. It works nicely on a cheeseboard, much the same way that you’d use membrillo.
Winter sangria! This sounds like a glorious warmer for these chilly days.
Using home canned pears in an almond crusted tart.
Speaking of pears, how about home-infused spiced pear vodka?
Teeny tiny lemon curd tartlets.
Tis the season for kumquats. Marmalade, with habeneros, with rhubarb, and just on their own.
Fennel apple onion relish. Not designed for canning, but certain to be divine on all manner of things.
Grapefruit honey jam (I’m plotting a similar batch using Meyer lemons).
Linda Ziedrich wrote a post recently about pickling whole cabbage heads. I am itching to try it.
Quick pickled red cabbage.
Finally, ten things to do with jam besides spreading it on toast. For those of you who need a reminder on how to bust your jam stash before the new season starts!

We have a winner in the Weck jar and Dutch oven giveaway sponsored by Mighty Nest that was part of the pressure canned beans post. It’s Heather Shaut from Ohio! Congratulations Heather!

Related Posts:

Links: Meyer Lemons, Pour Spouts, and Winners
Links: Jar Jewelry, Links, and a Winner
Links: Shortbread, Jam Tarts, and a Winner

Photos From the Food in Jars Flickr Pool

Each weekend, I dig through the Food in Jars Flickr pool and feature some of your photographs here in this space. If you’d like to see your hard work on the blog, please add your images to the group! And just so you know, Instagram and camera phone images are more than welcome (and it’s easy to set up your Instagram photos to feed to a Flickr account). Here are this week’s selections.

These jars of gorgeous spiced and pickled daikon radish come to us from Ilene of the Urban Canning Company.

Some pack a punch picante pickled carrots  from  Erin of Putting Up With Erin.

Could a preserve be any prettier? Mixed citrus marmalade from Rebecca at Cakewalk.

A little spiced blueberry blast from the past! Take by Melissa from The Boastful Baker during  a late night canning session.

Related Posts:

Photos from the Food in Jars Flickr Pool
Photos From the Food in Jars Flickr Pool
Photos From the Food in Jars Flickr Pool

Cookbooks: Whole Grain Mornings

For weeks now, Whole-Grain Mornings has been sitting at the very top of my cookbook stack. I have read it cover to cover, been charmed by its friendly voice, and have even cooked several recipes from its pages (it is a sure sign that I’m in cookbook love if I manage to make more than one thing from it).

It is a book that embodies how I like to cook and eat and I have a feeling that it will appeal to a whole heck of a lot of you as well.

Written by Megan Gordon (she blogs at A Sweet Spoonful, is a regular contributor to The Kitchn, and is the owner and head baker of Marge Granola), this volume contains recipes designed for the morning (though truly, many of them would also work perfectly well as a lunch, dinner, or snack).

The book breaks down into seven sections. Megan starts things off by sharing a little bit of her own story and how life led her to a career in writing and granola making. Then comes a section devoted to the pantry staples that will help you make these recipes, what exactly it means when you see the words “whole grain,” and even how best to store them.

Next is a section called the basics which offers up staple recipes for homemade yogurt, Megan’s very best oatmeal technique, a whole grain pancake mix, infused honeys, and a nut milk how-to.

After that, we get into seasonal sections (this is a good two-thirds of the book). Each of these sections is carefully balanced to include recipes that are good for busy weekdays, some that are perfect to serve friends at brunch, others for slow sundays, and finally some spreads and toppings to enhance the other recipes.

So far, my very favorite thing from Whole Grain Mornings is the recipe for the Vanilla and Cream Steel-Cut Oats. I’ve long been a fan of steel cut oats and back in my days as an office worker, would regularly make up a big batch on Sunday nights to portion out and eat for breakfast throughout the week.

However, the way I made them in those days was incredibly bland and more about workday survival than flavor and satisfaction. If I’d known to toast my oats in a bit of butter, cook them with some milk added to the water, and finish them with a handful of golden raisins, I’d have enjoyed those breakfasts a good deal more.

The bottom line on this book is that I am enjoying it a great deal and I have a hunch that you would too!

 

Related Posts:

Cookbooks for Canners, Picklers, and Preservers
Cookbooks: Who Wants Seconds?
The Little Book of Home Preserving

Preserves in Action: Homemade Tomato Soup

We are in the throes of another winter storm here in the Philadelphia area. Schools are closed, roads are impassable, and the sidewalks are treacherous. I don’t find the weather too much of an inconvenience, as I always work from my dining room table or my desk behind the television and thanks to my canning habit, I can go for days without needing to grocery shop.

But the conditions have been bad enough that Scott’s office has been closed at least three times since the beginning of January. He was home again today and around noon, managed to look both plaintive and hopeful as he said, “Do we have anything good for lunch?”

There’s been a bit of chatter on the Food in Jars Google Community page about tomato soup and so I suggested the classic pairing of toasted cheese sandwiches and bowls of warm soup.

This qualified as good in his book and so I got out a small soup pot, pulled down a jar of tomato puree, and got to cooking. I started by browning 1/2 a minced onion in 1 tablespoon of butter. While the onions sizzled, I chopped up a few of my precious slow roasted tomatoes and added them to the pot.

I’ve taken to keeping a jar of these tomatoes in the fridge, packed in olive oil (a good layer of oil keeps them from getting moldy). It makes them more readily available for use than if they’re all frozen and so I use them more often in my daily cooking. They do add such a fabulous punch of concentrated tomato flavor.

Then I added 1 quart of the tomato puree (simply tomatoes run through a press and simmered until slightly thickened prior to canning), 1 cup of half and half (milk would have been fine too, but since I had the good stuff, I went with it), 2 tablespoons of honey, and 1 1/2 teaspoons salt.

I simmered the mixture of a few more minutes and then used to an immersion blender to smooth out the lumps and bits of onion. It was perfect for the chilly day and we both had two bowls.

For those of you also living through this latest round of weather, I do hope you’re staying warm and well-fed!

Related Posts:

Preserves in Action: Shredded Chicken Chili
Preserves in Action: Stovetop Toasties for a Snow Day
Preserves in Action: Baguette with Ricotta, Fig Jam, and Baby Arugula

An Update on the Canning 101/New to Canning Plan

Several weeks back, I wrote a post asking for feedback about my Canning 101 and New To Canning categories. It’s taken me a little bit of time to digest all the questions and figure out how to tackle them. I found that they shake out into about ten categories (though one is something of a catchall). Here’s what I’m finding that you’re interested in:

Canning Basics
Fruit Preserves
Pickles
Tomatoes
Sugar
Altitude Adjustments
Recipe Sourcing and Development
Pressure Canning
Using Preserves
Other Questions

What I’ve done is tried to pull out all the individual questions. Though I have answered many of these questions in one way or another, often those responses are buried in the middle of another post and so aren’t always easy to find. So here’s the plan. Starting next week, I’m going to start answering these questions. I probably will jump around the list a lot and will occasionally group two or three questions together if I think they are different sides of the same coin.

Some of these posts will be short and will live forever under the Canning 101 header. Others will be longer, tutorial-style posts and will get filed under the New to Canning. Hopefully, they’ll all be both useful and interesting. I’m going to use the list below as something of an index, so I will link the questions to the answers once they’re written and I may add to the list as I work.

Finally, if you have a question and don’t see it here, leave a comment and I’ll add it to the list!

Canning Basics:

What exactly is finger-tip tight?
Why do I have to add citric acid or lemon juice when canning tomatoes?
If I heat an extra lid and then don’t end up using it, do I need to throw it out since the sealing compound has been “activated” or can they be dried and saved for future canning?
Can you talk about the differences between “hot packing” and “cold packing”?
Where can you get a water bath canner that can adequately over quart jars?
How about a post on how to clean and maintain canning equipment.
Should I worry about small amounts of liquid condensation on the inside of my jars?
Is it safe to stack jars in the canner?

Fruit Preserves:

How do you know when a sweet preserve is ready to be placed in the jars? Tips, tricks and visual clues would be most helpful.
My strawberry jam is always foamy. Using a pat of butter works the best but I still have jam with a foamy “head.” Any ideas?
Do set points vary based on the fruit you’re using?
What should you do when the liquid doesn’t cover the top of the fruit when you’ve canned whole fruit in syrup?
How do you get overset plum jam out of jars when it is seriously hard set? I tried heating it up in the canner for a long time, and I think it just got harder! Do I have to throw out my jars?
What causes foaming in jams/jellies? How do you stop it?
Using a steam juicer vs. boil-and-strain method – Is there a difference & which do you prefer?
Is there a way to double recipes? Or should you just have two pots of jam going at once?
How do you make pectin-free jams with frozen fruit? Can you convert a recipe to work with a different kind of fruit? Like making raspberry butter in the same manner as blueberry butter. And what about fruit blends?
For recipes using fruit, is using ripe fruits better than those not ripe?
If my jam is too firm, what went wrong?
Is there any way to fix the consistency after canning it?
I have trouble figuring out how to adjust my recipe if it was not successful. Any tips would be helpful.

Pickles:

How do I know when there is “too much” stuff to pickling liquid ratio. Will packing too tight reduce the acidity and make the product unsafe?
How do you know when home fermented products are acidic enough to can?
Can you break down the step in canning directions that says, “pack into hot jars.” It sounds so simple, but it’s a step that I’m sure I’m getting wrong somehow. My pickles and other whole fruit or vegetable preserves always take two or three more jars than usual, and end up being more liquid than vegetable.
I am interested in technical information regarding no sodium canning. Especially tips on retaining flavor and texture and safety in the canned results.
How do you tell the difference between safe air bubbles and unsafe, active bubbles?

Tomatoes:

Why do I have to add citric acid or lemon juice when canning tomatoes?
 When canning a large amount, for tomatoes for example – if you’ve packed more jars than you can fit in your water bath at once, after the first set has processed, do you dump the water out and wait for fresh water to boil before processing the rest? Or can you immediately put the second set of jars in the same water?

Sugar:

How can I adjust the amount of sugar in a recipe? Can I just buy low or no sugar pectin and replace it in any recipe and reduce the amount of sugar willingly? I know sugar is important but I´m not clear how and if I can just reduce it.
I find that the jams are a bit too sweet for my taste, and the pickles came out too vinegary. What’s the least amount of sugar I could use to have a less sweet jam, and what’s the least amount of vinegar I can use to have less acidic pickles?
Can you give some tips or recipes on fruit preserves that are less sweet or use honey/agave instead of sugar.
How do you use Splenda and other alternative sugars for preserving?

Altitude Adjustments:

We live at just over 3,000 feet and was wondering if there is a standard for adjusting for altitude beyond the adding a minute for every 1,000 feet. I know some recipes say more for larger jars such as quarts, or that it depends on the food you are canning. Do certain foods need more time and certain sizes need more time? I would like to know so that if the recipe doesn’t specifically state what to do for altitude, I can calculate correctly.
Canning at high altitude – how does that impact the set point of jams and jellies?

Recipe Sourcing and Development:

How can you tell that a recipe found online is safe? A guide to some other online sources of canning recipes would be great.
How do you develop your own safe recipe?
How do you check the acidity of a home canned food?
Is there any guide to converting large batch recipes to small batch (one or two jars) ones?
What is your process for developing and testing a recipe?
Do you ever use a ph meter or strips to measure the ph?

Pressure Canning:

How can you convert a water bath process to a pressure canner process?
When is it better to pressure can than use a hot water bath?
Is there a simple chart that shows canning times and pressure amounts for different foods?
How do you keep the jars from getting gross in a pressure canner?
I would love a step by step tuna canning lesson! Years ago I had some home canned tuna and it was awesome. I need to learn how and then find an inexpensive source for the whole tuna.
Do you have any suggestions for using alternative heating sources for pressure canners? I want to try pressure canning, but we have an induction stove, so we can’t use aluminum, and I have never seen a stainless steel pressure canner. I have a small house, so I can’t have two stoves (which was the response I got from Presto).

Using Preserves: (This question probably didn’t need its own category, but I didn’t want it to get lost elsewhere.)

More suggestions on how to use what I’ve made as I’m always looking for ways to USE what I canned.

Other Questions:

What do you do with things you’ve canned and you find you don’t like them?
When you say to add a glug of vinegar to the boiling water bath canner before you start, you mean to actually add it to the water you are boiling your jars in, correct?
The marmalade turned very dark when I added the sugar. Is this normal?
The little cheese cloth bundle gets thrown out before any simmering of lemons/water happens, correct?
How do you make your own pectin?
More tips on using one-piece lids!
Another question I have is about food discoloration. I find that the fruit and veggies that float up tend to change color because they’re not submerged in the syrup or brine. Is it safe/good to eat the discolored parts?

Related Posts:

New to Canning? Start Here: Boiling Water Bath Canning
Canning 101: Understanding Acid and pH in Boiling Water Bath Canning
Canning 101: How to Substitute Pectin

Canning Demo and Book Signing at the Radnor Memorial Library

While it’s still winter, things are starting to heat up on my calendar. I’m making daily additions to my classes and events page and tomorrow night, I’ll be kicking off the season with a canning demo and book signing at the Radnor Memorial Library.

I’ll be making a small batch of pear vanilla jam, talking about safe canning techniques, and selling/signing copies of first book (I don’t have copies of the new book to share yet). It’s a free event and the action starts at 7 pm sharp. If you already have a copy of my book that you want signed, please do bring it!

Related Posts:

Monday and Tuesday at the Pennsylvania Farm Show
Canning Demos at the Central Farm Markets this Saturday and Sunday!
Free Canning Demo at Williams-Sonoma at the Bellevue

Links: Marmalades, Muffins, and Puddles

The nearer we get to my book release, the faster time is speeding by. I end every day muttering about tasks that have gone undone and things that I need to tackle the next day when my brain is fresh. I took most of today off from the frenzy in order to sleep late, eat waffles, and sit on the couch watching movies with Scott. It was a most-needed day of rest and I will dive into the madness again tomorrow. Now, links!

Thoughts on lemons and a recipe for lemon-yogurt ring cake.
Gloria of The Laundry, Etc. returns to blogging with a recipe for blood orange and pink rhubarb marmalade.
Puddles! A genius way to make bar cookies with enhanced with dollops of jam!
Rosemary gin lemon sour. A perfectly seasonal cocktail.
Grapefruit marmalade. Meyer lemon marmalade.
Pressure canned chickpeas with taco seasoning. A fabulous pantry staple.
Giant jam-filled muffins.
A sweet and savory onion jam.
I just love when Rebecca writes about her relationship with the kitchen. This post is a good one.
Occasional FiJ sponsor New West KnifeWorks is hosting a fabulous knife giveaway. Their knives are gorgeous and sturdy. Click here to enter!

There’s no winner in this week’s giveaway because the giveaway isn’t over yet! If you haven’t entered yet, head over to the post and get yourself signed up.

Related Posts:

Links: Meyer Lemons, Pour Spouts, and Winners
Links: Jar Jewelry, Links, and a Winner
Links: Canning Aprons, Lemon Oaty Bars, and a Winner

Preserves in Action: Shredded Chicken Chili

On Wednesday, I wrote about how to make your home canned beans from dried (have you entered the giveaway sponsored by Mighty Nest yet?). Since so many of you mentioned in the comments that you like to use canned beans in chili, I thought that I’d share the basic chili recipe I use all the time. It uses 2-3 jars of beans and at least 2 quarts of preserved tomatoes.

When I have the time, I braise boneless skinless chicken thighs in puree of tomatoes, onions, garlic cloves, and fresh cilantro leaves until they shred easily. If I’m running short on time, I skip the braised chicken and instead just stir a pound ground turkey meat directly into the cooking chili (in that case, I add both jars/cans of tomatoes directly to the cooking chili). Of course, another option is to skip the meat entirely, but it would make my husband sad if I did that in our household.

Let’s have a word about this shredded chicken. It’s an awesome addition to chili, but that’s not all it’s good for. I’ve been known to eat it wrapped in a tortilla or spooned over some braised greens. It’s incredibly flavorful and easy to make. I’ve taken to keeping a batch stashed in our freezer for lazy nights. Oh! One last thing about this chicken. Sometimes the onions make it a little bit sweet and so I’ll add either a splash of lime juice or the brine from a jar of pickled jalapeños to balance things out.

My apologies for the less than stellar photos in this post. I made this chili for dinner one night and forgot entirely to take pretty pictures. I snapped the image at the top of the post (it was the very last bowl) just moments before I ate it for a quick solo dinner. And we all know, the total lack of natural light in my kitchen makes photography hard, even on the most lovely natural light days.

But enough of that. On to the recipe!

Print

Shredded Chicken Chili

Ingredients

For pulled chicken:
3 pounds boneless skinless chicken breasts
1 quart or a 28 ounce can tomato puree
1 yellow onion, sliced
4 garlic cloves, peeled
3/4 cup loosely packed cilantro leaves and stems
1 tablespoon chili powder
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

For chili:
2 tablespoons cooking oil
1 yellow onion, diced
3 cloves garlic, peeled and crushed
1 tablespoon chili powder
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 green pepper, chopped
1 red or orange pepper, chopped
1 bundle Swiss chard, leaves separated from stems
1 quart or 28 ounce can whole peeled tomatoes
3 cans or jars of beans (I like to use a combination of black, pinto, and red kidney)
salt, pepper, and chili powder to taste

Instructions

Cut chicken thighs into two or three pieces per thigh, removing any large pieces of fat while doing so.
Place the trimmed thighs in a pot that holds four or five quarts.
Combine the tomato puree, onion, garlic, cilantro leaves,chili powder, salt, and pepper in a blender and puree.
Pour the puree over the chicken and place the pot over medium-high heat. Bring to a low boil and then reduce to a simmer. Cook for two to three hours, until the chicken shreds easily.
When the chicken is nearly done, start building the rest of the chili.
Heat the oil over high heat in a large Dutch oven or soup pot that will hold eight to nine quarts.
Add the onion, garlic, chili powder, and cumin to the pot and stir to the combine. Cook for four to five minutes, until the onions begin to brown and the spices are fragrant.
Add the chopped peppers and stir to incorporate.
Take the Swiss chard stems and chop into 1/2 inch slices like you would celery. Add them to the pot. Chop the greens and set them aside.
Add the tomatoes and their liquid to the pot, crushing them with your hands as you add each one.
Open beans, drain them of their liquid and add them to the pot.
Add the shredded chicken and its cooking liquid.
Finally, stir in the reserved Swiss chard greens.
Reduce the heat to medium low and simmer the chili for 30 to 45 minutes. Taste and adjust seasonings (we like a mild chili in my house, so it might not be nearly spicy enough for lots of you).
Serve with some grated cheddar cheese and a dollop of sour cream. Schema/Recipe SEO Data Markup by ZipList Recipe Plugin2.2http://foodinjars.com/2014/02/preserves-in-action-shredded-chicken-chili/


Related Posts:

Preserves in Action: Stovetop Toasties for a Snow Day
Preserves in Action: Baguette with Ricotta, Fig Jam, and Baby Arugula
Preserves in Action: Pumpkin Butter Oats

How to Pressure Can Dried Beans in Weck Jars + Giveaway

As I’m sure is the case for many of you, canned beans are a staple in my pantry. I try to always keep an assortment of pinto, kidney, garbanzo, and black beans in my kitchen cabinet. Even when I’ve not been shopping in awhile, I nearly always have tortillas in the freezer and some kind of cheese in the fridge. Combined with a can of beans, I’m only a few steps away from a bean and cheese quesadilla lunch (and all the better if there’s a jar of salsa on the shelf).

In recent years, instead of sourcing my stash of canned beans from the store, I’ve been making them myself. That’s because as cheap as canned beans are, dried beans cost even less. And by using my own jars, I avoid the chemicals in can liners and also keep that waste out of the system.

If you have a pressure canner, making your own canned beans is incredibly simple (though I’ll grant you that the first time through it will feel like there are a lot of steps but it will get easier). If you don’t have one, this might just be the technique that convinces you to get one. If you’re looking for a good starter pressure canner, I use a 16 quart Presto and love it. It’s affordable and fits easily on to my small stove.

As is the case any time you use dried beans, you start by soaking them. If I’m canning on a weekend, I’ll soak the beans overnight so that they’re ready for a morning canning session. During the work week, I’ll set them to soak while I make breakfast and will can them up after dinner. I like to pressure can in the evenings because it means that I can let the canner cool overnight. I’ve found that the longer you let the canner cool undisturbed, the better the jars seal.

When you soak your beans, take care to use a bowl big enough to hold the beans and water to cover by 2-3 inches. As you can see in one of the pictures above, I didn’t use a bowl quite large enough for the white beans and so they soaked up everything I gave them and threatened to spill out of the bowl entirely.

Once the beans are sufficiently soaked, it’s time to start to prep them for the canning process. Like I do in all canning situations, the first thing I do is get the jars and canning pot set up. In this case, I put the rack in the pot, set the jars on top, and fill the jars with hot water from the tap (because the water isn’t coming into contact with food, I don’t worry about using hot water).

Unlike with boiling water bath canning where you need a full pot, pressure canning works with steam so the jars don’t need to be submerged. An inch or two of water in the pot itself is really all you need.

When I use Weck jars, I take care to also tuck the glass lids and rubber rings into the pot to heat (leave the clips out). When I use conventional mason jars, I tuck new lids into the pot, but keep the rings out as they’re hard to work with when hot. Settle the lid on the pot and bring the pot to a boil. No need to lock the lid into place yet, you’re just warming the jars.

While the canner heats, pour the beans and their soaking water into a pot and bring them to a boil. You may need to add some additional water as they still should be covered by about 2 inches of water. They need approximately 25-30 minutes on the stove in order to heat through and begin to soften.

Take note that the beans should not be cooked fully when they go into the jars. If you cooked them fully before pressure canning, your finished product would be total mush.

When the jars are hot and the beans have simmered for about half an hour, it’s time to fill the jars. Remove the jars from the canner and place them on a kitchen towel. If you’ve boiled out most of your water from the bottom of the pot, pour the contents of the jars back into the canner. If your water level looks good, dump the water from the jars out into the sink.

Fill the jars with the prepared beans. You want to add enough beans so that they come up about 2/3 of the way up the jar. Then cover the beans with cooking liquid, leaving 1 inch of headspace.

Ideally, you’ll have about an inch of water above the bean level. Don’t skimp on the water because the beans are going to continue to cook in the jars and so will need additional liquid in order to soften fully.

Once the jars are filled, wipe the rims with a clean towel. Settle the rubber seal onto the lid of the Weck jar and place the seal and lid onto the jar. Secure the lid with three Weck jar clips. When canning Weck jars in a boiling water bath you only use two clips, but the increased intensity of the pressure canner means that you need an additional clip to ensure that the lid stays in place. If you’re using conventional mason jars, apply lids and rings in the usual fashion.

To avoid chipping the lid with the clips, place the clip on the lid first and then push down towards the side of the jar. If you start from the side of jar and push towards the lid, you risk breakage.

Once the lids are secured, lower the jars into the canner. My 16 quart canner can hold five 1/2 liter Weck jars, seven quart jars, or nine pint jars. Pour a glug of white vinegar into the pot to help keep the jars and pot clean and then lock the lid into place.

Bring the pot up to a boil and let the steam vent for at least 15 minutes. You do this by running the pot without the pressure regulator in place. That’s the little black and metal hat that sits atop the vent shaft. The reason for this is that a canner that has been properly relieved of its oxygen through venting can reach a higher temperature than one that is full of oxygen. The higher the temperature, the more effectively the canner will kill any botulism spores present.

Once the canner is properly vented, apply the pressure regulator and bring up to pressure. If you live at 1,000 feet elevation or below (as I do), you bring the pot up to 11 pounds of pressure. If you live at higher elevations, you need to increase your pressure (find those exact elevation adjustments here)

Once the canner reaches the appropriate pressure, start your timer. If you’re working with pint or 1/2 liter jars, you process the beans for 75 minutes. If you use quart or liter jars, process for 90 minutes. Make sure to check the pressure gauge often to ensure that you’re at the proper pressure levels. If your pressure drops below the required level, you have to bring the pot back up to pressure and restart your timer.

Once the time is up, turn the heat off and leave the pot alone. I like to let it cool for at least an hour after the pot depressurizes, but the longer you can let it cool, the better. Even after the pot depressurizes, there is still a huge amount of heat in the jars. It’s perfectly normal for the contents of the jars to be bubbling hours after the canning process has finished.

Weck jars work really well for pressure canning, but there are a couple tricks to it. I’ve already mentioned the first, using three clips instead of two. The second is that you really must ensure that the seal is in its ideal position before you settle the lid on the jar. As you can see, my seal slipped a little with this jar. It wasn’t enough to compromise the seal, but I knew that this rubber ring wasn’t as perfectly positioned as the rest when that jar went into the canner. I got lucky and didn’t ruin the seal, but that won’t always be the case.

Now, for the giveaway portion of this post, which is sponsored by Mighty Nest (they also provided the Weck jars you’ve seen pictured throughout this post). They are offering one lucky Food in Jars reader a chance to win one dozen 1/2 Liter Weck jars (I like these jars for canning beans because hold about the same volume of beans that you get from a store bought can) and a . To enter the giveaway, use the Rafflecopter widget below!

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Giveaway: Duralex Picardie Tumblers from Mightynest
Links: Basil Jelly, Jam Ice Cream, and a Pie Box Winner