Marisa McClellan's Blog, page 54

Upcoming Events: Exeter Community Library, Cherry Grove Farm, Urban Farmer, and more!

This is it. My final six events of 2016. I do so hope that you folks will mark your calendar and make a point of coming out to taste, dine, and cook with me!

Thursday, November 3 (Exeter, PA)

I’m returning to the Reading area for a autumn-themed canning demonstration at the Exeter Community Library. I’ll be making honey-sweetened Cranberry Apple Jam and will have books available for sale and signature. 6-8 pm. Free.

Saturday, November 5 (Lawrence Township, NJ)

Fellow food writer Tenaya Darlington and I will be at Cherry Grove Farm for their annual Cow Parade Festival. I’ll do a short canning demo, and Tenaya will pair some of my preserves with the cheeses they make at Cherry Grove. We’ll both also have books on hand for sale and signature. 3 pm.

Tuesday, November 15 (Philadelphia)

I’m teaming up with modern steakhouse Urban Farmer for a night designed to showcase Naturally Sweet Food in Jars. From 6-9 pm, you’ll be able to order a special three-course menu inspired by the book. The full menu is available for $50 or a la carte. It will include Salmon Crudo with parsley-fennel relish ($16), Pork Tenderloin glazed with apricot-gochujang barbecue sauce and served with daikon-carrot pickle ($32), Poached Pear Shortbread with cardamom-pear jam and vanilla ice cream ($9)

I’ll also be on hand with books available for sale and signature. It will be a really fun night of eating and I do hope that some of you come out!

Wednesday, November 16 (Glassboro, NJ)

My last library demo of the year is at the Glassboro branch of the Gloucester County Library. I’ll show you how to make a naturally sweetened autumn-themed preserve and will have books on hand for sale and signature. 7 to 8:30 pm. Free.

Thursday, December 1 (Easton, PA)

My final class of the year is at the Easton Public Market. We’ll make Maple-sweetened Cranberry Apple Jam and everyone will go home with a small jar of the preserves made in class. 7 to 9 pm. $30. Sign up here.

Sunday, December 11 (Philadelphia)

And, for my final event of the year, I’ll be doing a canning demo at the Hazon Food Festival. I’ll be there signing books in the marketplace and to offer a pickling workshop. The event runs from 10 am to 6:30 and the full day registration costs $25 for adults, $15 for students, and $10 for kids (they also have family packages on offer). Click for more information and registration details.

Related Posts:

Upcoming Events: Fante’s! Terrain! Morris Arboretum!
Upcoming California Events: Pacific Grove! Healdsburg! San Francisco! Oakland!
Upcoming Events: Fayetteville, Atlanta, and Nashville!

November Sponsors: Cuppow, Fillmore Container, EcoJarz, Luigi Bormioli, iLids, Mrs. Wages, Hobby Hill Farm, & Mason Jar Lifestyle

I can’t quite believe it, but November is here and that means that it’s time to thank the people and businesses that help keep this site afloat. Tell them you appreciate their support of my work with a purchase or a social follow!

In the top spot our friends at Cuppow. They are the creator of the original mason jar travel mug topper and the BNTO, a small plastic cup that transforms a canning jar into a snack or lunch box. Parents and kids love their EIO set, with its grippy silicone sleeve and a lid that makes for easy sipping. And make sure to check out their Cup Club, to see if using a mason jar and cuppow can earn you free coffee at a shop near you!

Lancaster, PA-based and family-owned Fillmore Container are next! They sell all manner of canning jars, lids, and other preservation gear. As always, their blog is an amazing resource for all things jar-related. Just this week, they published a round-up of recipes for the holidays and seven ways to preserve cabbage (that carrot and cabbage kimchi sounds amazing!).

After some time away, our friends over at EcoJarz are as a sponsor. They make an array of products designed to fit on top of mason jars, and they just a kit for fermenters to their stock. It contains a wide-mouth stainless steel ring, a wide-mouth stainless steel lid with a silicone gasket and grommet, an airlock, and a fermenting guide.

A newcomer to sponsorship are our friends from Luigi Bormioli. They make the Lock Eat jars I wrote about last month. Lock Eat jars are the first ever designed with food preservation, storage and serving in mind. Well-made and visually appealing, they’re a terrific option for kitchens with open shelving.

iLids is a Seattle-based small business that makes both storage and drink lids in both regular and wide mouth sizes for mason jars. Their storage lids are water tight and the drink lids can accommodate a straw. Best of all, their lids come in a whole bunch of different colors, so there’s something for everyone! Check back next week, when I’ll be giving away some of their fabulous gear.

Our friends at Mrs. Wages are on the roster again this month. They make pectin, vinegar, and more canning mixes than I can count. Their website is an incredible preserving resource and I can’t say enough good things about their salsa mix. If you need a little help getting your produce into jars, remember to seek out their products!

Hobby Hill Farm is back with us. Based in Powhatan, Virginia, they sell locally made jams and preserves, homemade pretzels, candies, and cheese making kits (including the mozzarella kit I demoed here). Sharon teaches a ton of preserving, cheese making, baking, and pasta making classes, so if you’re in her neck of the woods, make sure to check out her class schedule!

Mason Jar Lifestyle is a one-stop shopping site for all the jar lovers out there. They sell all manner of mason jar accessories and adaptors. If you’re in the market for lids, straws, and cozies to transform your mason jars into travel mugs, make sure to check them out!

If your company or small business is interested in becoming a sponsor, you can find more details here. I offer discounts for multiple month purchases and am always happy to work with your budget. Leave a comment on this post or drop me a note to learn more!

Related Posts:

October Sponsors: Cuppow, Fillmore Container, EcoJarz, and More!
November Sponsors: Cuppow, Fillmore Container, Fermentools, Mrs. Wages, Hobby Hill Farm, & Mason Jar Lifestyle
June Sponsors: Cuppow, EcoJarz, Fillmore Container, Mrs. Wages, Mason Jar Lifestyle

Links: Pumpkin Jam, Chai Concentrates, and Winners

I am back home from a magical trip to Ireland and am finally starting to get my brain back into the blogging game. Here are a few tasty links to hold you until I fully gather my thoughts! Oh, and Happy Halloween!

Pumpkin jam.
Quince jam.
Savory cranberry jam.
Pear butter.
Homemade pickled ginger.
Hot pickled radishes.
Hot red pepper sauce.
Roasted tomato possibility.
An interesting historical look at the storage of fermented foods.
Preserving lima beans.
Two takes on chai concentrates.
Salted butter crackers.
And finally, a segment I did back in September on a Portland afternoon talk show.

Now, let’s talk giveaways. For the recent ones that have utilized Rafflecopter, the winners are now displayed on the widget in those respective posts (most recently, EcoJarz and Lock Eat Jars). However, because I didn’t use Rafflecopter for the Lagostina giveaway , there’s been no announced winner. Until today. The winner of that gorgeous pot is Lisa J. Congratulations Lisa!

Oh, and just so you know, the giveaway is taking this week off, but will be back in the swing of things next week.

Related Posts:

Links: Pickled Figs, Cinnamon Simple Syrup, and Winners
Links: Salsa, Freezing Basil, and Winners
Links: Fridge Pickles, Muscadine Jam, and a Winner

Giveaway: EcoJarz Fermenting Kit

Hello friends! I hope you all had a lovely weekend! I’ve been in Ireland for the last week, having all sorts of adventures (and I’ve amassed quite a collection of European canning gear that I’ll show you in an upcoming post). However, I’m dropping in from my vacation to post this week’s giveaway.

This one comes to us from the folks at EcoJarz. They recently added a nifty fermenting kit to their online shop, and it’s a terrific one for those of us who like to use our canning jars for small batch ferments.

The kit comes with a stainless steel ring (which will not rust or corrode like the conventional ones), a flat lid drilled with a hole and fitted with a silicone grommet, three-piece airlock, and a handy little fermenting guide that covers all the basics.

Just before I left on my trip, I used my EcoJarz fermenting kit to transform some gorgeous black radishes (a gift from one of the farmer vendors at the Antietam Valley Farmers Market) into tasty, tangy pickles. I made a brine using 2 tablespoons finely milled salt and four cups of filtered water.

Once the salt was dissolved, I sliced the radishes, packed them into a jar, and covered them with the brine. A few days later, once the liquid had gone tart, they were done.

Three lucky Food in Jars readers will each win one of these fermenting kits. Use the widget below to enter!

a Rafflecopter giveaway



Related Posts:

Giveaway: EcoJarz Jar Hugger Handle and Green Pop Top
Giveaway: New Products from EcoJarz
Links: Pickled Figs, Cinnamon Simple Syrup, and Winners

Baked Penne, Broccoli, and Ricotta + Lagostina Martellata Pasta Set Giveaway

A tasty pasta dish and a fabulous Lagostina Pasta Pot giveaway! Best National Pasta Day ever!

Happy National Pasta Day, friends! In honor of today’s holiday, I have a fabulous giveaway from the nice folks at Lagostina (you might remember them from this post last December, when I gave away this snazzy Risotto Pan).

One of you will win this truly gorgeous Lagostina Martellata Hammered Copper Pastaiola Set. I’ve had the one pictured above in my kitchen for about a month now, and I can’t say enough good things about it. It’s functional, conducts heat beautifully, and may well be the most beautiful piece of cookware in my kitchen.

I’ve used it for all manner of blanching, steaming, and cooking by now (it also happens to work well as a canning pot for half pint jars!) and have taken to leaving it on the stove between uses, because I so enjoy seeing it there in all its gleaming glory.

The recipe I’m sharing with you today puts this pot to work twice. First, I use it to blanch off a bunch of chopped broccoli. Once it’s cooked, I use the same water to cook the whole wheat penne.

While the broccoli cooks, I browned some chicken sausage in the a little olive oil and then drained it on a plate. Once the broccoli is bright green and tender, it gets drained and poured into the pan where the sausage had cooked.

From there, it’s a matter of building a sauce of pressed garlic and ricotta cheese. I wrap it up by adding the cooked sausage back in, along with the pasta, a healthy splash of pasta water, and a generous handful of grated parmesan cheese.

I love having a petite pasta pot like this one in my kitchen, because it allows me to stay at the stove, rather than dripping water between the sink and the stove. I’ve long had a larger pasta pot, but rarely pulled it out because it was just too much for my regular weeknight cooking. This one is just so much more functional for my household.

The Lagostina Martellata Hammered Copper Pastaiola Set can be found at Bed Bath & Beyond, Macy’s, Bloomingdale’s, and other specialty shops, and retails for $249.99. For more information about Lagostina, check out their social accounts and visit their website.

Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Pinterest

Thanks to the kind folks at Lagostina, I have one of these glorious pasta pots to give away to you guys. Here’s how to enter.

Leave a comment on this post and tell me how you’d use this pot.
Comments will close at 11:59 pm eastern time on Saturday, October 22, 2016. A winner will be chosen at random and will be posted to the blog on Sunday, October 23, 2016.
Giveaway open to United States residents only. Void where prohibited.
One comment per person, please. Entries must be left via the comment form on the blog at the bottom of this post.

Disclosure: Lagostina sent me this pasta pot to use and write about. No additional compensation was provided. All opinions expressed are entirely my own. 

PrintBaked Penne, Broccoli, and Ricotta

Yield: serves 4-6

Ingredients

1 pound broccoli florets and stems, chopped
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/2 pound chicken sausage
12 ounces short whole wheat pasta
1 cup ricotta cheese
2 garlic cloves, pressed or minced
3/4 cup grated parmesan cheese

Instructions

Fill a pasta pot with water and bring it to a boil. Once it boils, salt the water well and add the broccoli. Cook for 3-4 minutes, until it turns a vivid green.
Meanwhile, heat the olive oil in a large pan or skillet over medium-high heat. Remove the chicken sausage from its casing and brown in the pan, using a spatula to break it up into crumbles. Once it is brown, use a slotted spoon and transfer the cooked pasta onto a paper towel-lined plate.
Tumble the cooked broccoli into the pan that had once held the sausage and reduce the heat to medium. Bring the water in the pasta pot back to a boil and add the pasta.
Add the garlic to the broccoli, along with the ricotta cheese and the drained sausage. Stir to combine.
When the pasta is finished cooking, drain it and pour it into the pan with the other ingredients. Stir to combine and add 1/2 cup of grated parmesan cheese, along with 1/2 cup of pasta cooking water.
Season with salt and pepper, and add more pasta water, if it is too thick.
Top with the remaining parmesan cheese. Slide the pan under the broiler to brown the top.
3.1http://foodinjars.com/2016/10/baked-penne-broccoli-ricotta-lagostina-martellata-pasta-set-giveaway/

Related Posts:

Winter Squash Risotto with Leeks and Greens Lagostina Risotto Pot Giveaway

Links: Pickled Figs, Cinnamon Simple Syrup, and Winners

We fly away tomorrow for a much-needed vacation (to Ireland! I’ve never been and I’m so excited!). I have a handful of posts scheduled to appear in this space while I’m away, but please know that I’ll be waiting until I get back to reply to emails and comments. Please be patient with me! Now, links!

Pickled figs are heavenly!
Peach jam with lemon verbena.
Pear apple sauce. Oven dried pears.
Slow cooker apple butter.
Cinnamon simple syrup.
Pumpkin pie mustard.
Preserving the season in two kitchens.
On foraging rose hips.
Apple cinnamon tray cake.
Apricot lavender walnut sourdough.
Beet salad with preserved lemon.
A cheese CSA in the Philly area from two of my favorite local cheesemakers.
An academic paper that uses this blog as a case study.
And the two most recent episodes of Local Mouthful.

It was so fun to see how many of you were excited about the new Luigi Bormioli Lock Eat jars last week! Here are the five winners in the giveaway. I will be in touch with all the winners soon!

a Rafflecopter giveaway



Related Posts:

Links: Wild Jams, Homemade Crackers, and a Winner
Links: Nectarine Ketchup, Hot Fudge, and a Winner
Links: Pickled Fruit, Lavender, and Winners

Homemade Peanut Butter in an Omega Nutrition Center Juicer

If you’ve been reading this blog for awhile, you might have noticed that I have an enduring fascination with homemade nut and seed butters. I included a handful in my first cookbook. There are nearly half a dozen recipes in the archives of this site (as well as this very worthy chocolate sun butter I wrote for Simple Bites a few years back).

A large part of my nut butter quest has been the search for the best tool for the job. At one time or another, my go-to nut butter machines have been a 40 year old Cuisinart, a Blendtec (best when used with a Twister jar), a Vitamix, and a newer Magimix food processor. I have also spent more than a few minutes lusting after Margo’s commercial peanut butter maker.

However, I think my search for the best nut butter method is over. The piece of gear that has brought my journey to an end? The Omega Nutrition Center Juice. I tried it for the first time yesterday, and it transformed a pound of roasted peanuts into smooth, spreadable butter in less than two minutes. I was agog at how fast and easy it was.

The folks from Omega sent me this juicer last month, wondering if I might find it useful for prepping fruit for jelly making. However, I was more intrigued by the line in the description that mentioned its ability to make nut butters. Could this be the piece of equipment I’ve been looking for?

Here’s how it works. The Nutrition Center comes with two screens. One is designed for juicing, but the other blocks off the hole where the pulp is ejected, allowing the entirety of the product to go through the machine. As long as you use one of the wider aperture nozzles on the end of the juicer, the auger grinds the nuts and out comes butter!

I added some salt as the nuts went through the machine, so that the finished butter would be uniformly salted. That worked well enough, but going forward, I plan on seasoning the nuts during the roasting step, to ensure that there aren’t any pockets that are spicy or salty.

Now, I’ve only used the Omega for peanut butter, but judging by how beautifully it worked with peanuts, I have a feeling it will do other nut butters really well. I’m looking forward to trying other nut and spice combinations as well!

Do you have a favorite method for making nut butters at home? If you have an juicer, have you ever tried using it to make nut butters?

Disclosure: As stated above, this juicer was sent to me as a review unit. No additional payment was provided for this post and all opinions expressed here are entirely my own.

Related Posts:

Salted and Spiced Peanut Butters
Homemade Maple Almond Butter

Low Temperature Pasteurization + Crab Boil Pickles

I have spent the last five years working as an independent, creative person. One of the things I’ve learned about myself in that time is that my path towards getting things done is shaped like a snail shell, with the product at the center and the track towards it running in a spiral shape.

I orbit around the goal for days, weeks or even sometimes for months until I final land on the thing in the center. This is the process I take whether it’s a small project or a large one and people who know me understand that when they ask me how something is going, my response is often along the lines of, “I’m getting closer.”

The reason I’m sharing this with you today? This blog post is one I’ve been circling around for a very long time. I first started thinking about low temperature pasteurization for pickling six or seven years ago. A tool to accomplish it effectively (the Anova Precision Cooker) came into my life more than two years ago.

And the recipe I’m sharing at the bottom of this post was directly inspired by a press trip I took to New Orleans with the folks from Zatarain’s back in January (nine months).

Finally, it’s all come together and I’ve landed on center of the circle.

The story starts with low temperature pasteurization. For many people, this approach is the answer to the question, “How can I make crunchy, shelf stable pickles?” It is preservation technique in which you simmer your filled jars in water that’s between 180 and 185 degrees F.

You do this for a longer period of time (typically 30 minutes) than you would normally process them in a boiling water bath canner. The longer, lower temperature allows you to kill off bacteria while retaining a firmer finished texture.

Now, the trick to low temperature pasteurization is finding a way to maintain the proper temperature over an extended period of time. I have tried it on my ancient electric stove, but found that it was nearly impossible to consistently hit and sustain the target range.

Now, here’s where the Anova Precision Cooker comes in.

Several years ago, various companies started making immersion circulators for home use and the thought occurred to me that it would be the perfect tool for low temperature pasteurization. The reason being that immersion circulators are designed for sous vide cooking, a process in which you bring water to a certain temperature and then hold it at that temperature for an extended period of time to fully cook various kinds of food without overcooking them.

Two years back, the folks from Anova got in touch and asked if I’d be interested in trying one of their immersion circulators. Thinking about low temperature pasteurization, I said yes. They sent me the unit, and then life got the better of me. I moved it from corner of the apartment to another for nearly a year, and then finally tucked it into my closet, forever promising myself that I would eventually use it for processing pickles.

That brings us to 2016. Back in late January, I went on a press trip to New Orleans to learn more about Zatarain’s. Before that trip, all I knew about that iconic brand was the fact that they sold boxed rice mixes. While on the trip, I discovered that Zatarain’s is synonymous with New Orleans food. Never before had I encountered a brand that was so interwoven with the food culture of a place.

It was a magical trip and I came away feeling moved by the welcome of the city and motivated to devise a cucumber pickle recipe that employed the Zatarain’s Concentrated Shrimp and Crab Boil flavoring. The reason for the recipe idea was this. They told us that originally, people would flavor their crab boil with packets of pickling spices. Over time, they’d created the concentrated liquid flavor out of a blend of extracted oils from those classic pickling spices.

Always dreaming up preserving recipes, it seemed obvious that I should make a pickle using the liquid flavor, if for no other reason than it would create a classically flavored pickle without the mess of the whole spices.

So, that brings us up to mid-August. I was home between book events and was determined to finally make my crab boil pickles, and preserve them using the low temperature pasteurization process, facilitated by the Anova immersion circulator. I went to Reading Terminal Market, intending to buy 10 or 15 pounds of pickling cucumbers, and ended up coming home with a bushel (it weighed nearly 50 pounds).

I proceeded to make a lot of pickles. I made horseradish pickles. I make classic garlic dills. I cut them in spears, coins, and halves. All in all, I made nearly 30 quarts of pickles, thanks to an idea, a tool, a trip, and a little bottle of crab boil seasoning.

I realize that cucumber season is done for most of the country at this point, but since I finally managed to pull these things together experientially, I wanted to get this blog post written in this calendar year (and plant the seed that if you value crunchy pickles, perhaps an immersion circulator should be on your holiday list this year).

PrintCrab Boil Pickles

Yield: makes 7 quarts

Ingredients

8 pounds pickling cucumbers
5 cups apple cider vinegar
5 cups water
1/4 cup pickling salt
1 tablespoon Zatarain's Concentrated Shrimp and Crab Boil
1/2 teaspoon peppercorns per jar
1/2 teaspoon crushed or minced garlic per jar

Instructions

Prepare a boiling water bath canner or low temperature pasteurization pot and seven quart jars.
Wash cucumbers well. Trim away the blossom end and cut into coins (a mandoline slicer is a big help here. Just watch your fingers!).
Combine the apple cider vinegar, water, pickling salt, and Zatarain's concentrate in a saucepan or 4th burner pot (rack removed) and bring to a boil.
Portion the peppercorns and minced garlic into the prepared quart jars. Pack the cucumber coins into the jars and add the brine, leaving 1/2 inch headspace. Using a wooden chopstick, wiggle out any trapped air bubbles, and add more brine, if necessary.
Wipe the rims, apply the lids and rings, and process in a boiling water bath canner for 15 minutes, or in a low temperature pasteurization pot for 30 minutes at 180F.
When the time is up, remove the jars and set them on a folded kitchen towel to cool. When the jars have cooled enough that you can comfortable handle them, check the seals. Sealed jars can be stored at room temperature for up to a year. Any unsealed jars should be refrigerated and used promptly. 3.1http://foodinjars.com/2016/10/low-temperature-pasteurization-crab-boil-pickles/

Related Posts:

Homemade Low Sugar Concord Grape Jelly

Homemade, low sugar Concord grape jelly is a fun one to have in the pantry and makes the most delicious nut butter sandwich imaginable!

I was certain that I was going to miss the Concord grape season this year. I spent most of September away from Philadelphia and while I did plenty of canning while out in Portland, I didn’t manage to get any grapes.

Now, it’s easy enough to get good quality Concord grape juice any time of year for jelly making (and I tell you how to do exactly that in my first cookbook). But I do so like to make it straight from the grapes when I can, because there’s nothing like the fragrance and flavor of fresh Concord grapes.

A couple weekends ago, I spent the morning demonstrating how to make honey-sweetened jam at the Antietam Valley Farmers Market. When I was done with my demo, I made a quick circuit to pick up a few things for the week and one of the vendors had three quarts of Concord grapes left. They all came home with me.

This preserve is halfway between a jelly and a jam. Instead of simply extracting the juice from the grapes, I simmer them and then push them through a food mill, so that I can get as much pulp as possible into my finished product.

Just remember. Concord grapes stain like crazy, so wear dark colors or your least favorite apron when making this. And if you have marble countertops, take care!

This is a lower sugar grape jelly that you often find (I used a ratio of 4 parts juice to 1 part sugar). I’ve got a similar preserve in Naturally Sweet Food in Jars that is sweetened with maple sugar, if you want to avoid the refined stuff entirely.

I like this version because the flavor of the grapes is the one that it spotlights, and there’s nothing better on piece of peanut butter toast than a smear of grapey goodness.

PrintLow Sugar Concord Grape Jelly

Yield: between 4 and 5 half pints

Ingredients

4 pounds Concord grapes
2 cups granulated sugar
1 tablespoon calcium water (calcium powder comes in the box of Pomona's Pectin)
1 tablespoon Pomona's Pectin

Instructions

Wash the grapes and pluck them off their stems. Put them in a pot with a tight-fitting lid and add two cups of water. Set over high heat and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to medium-low and simmer for 20 minutes.
Once the grapes are soft, remove them from the heat. Let them cool.
Fit a food mill with its finest screen and set it over a bowl. Pour the cooked grapes into the food mill and work them through.
Measure out eight cups of the grape juice and pulp pour it into a preserving pan. Add 1 1/2 cups of sugar and the calcium water.
Prepare a boiling water bath canner and five half pint jars.
Bring to a boil and cook for 20-25 minutes, until the liquid has reduced by about 1/4. Whisk the pectin into the reserved sugar and add it to the boiling pot in stages, stirring between each addition so that the pectin doesn't clump.
The jelly is done when it sheets thickly off the back of a spatula and forms thick layers on the walls of the pot.
Remove the pot from the heat and funnel the jelly into the prepared jars. Wipe the rims, apply the lids and rings, and process in a boiling water bath canner for 10 minutes.
When the time is up, remove the jars and set them on a folded kitchen towel to cool. When the jars have cooled enough that you can comfortable handle them, check the seals. Sealed jars can be stored at room temperature for up to a year. Any unsealed jars should be refrigerated and used promptly. 3.1http://foodinjars.com/2016/10/concord-grape-jelly/

Related Posts:

Urban Preserving: Concord Grape Jam

Giveaway: Lock Eat Jars from Luigi Bormioli

Lock Eat jars from from Luigi Bormioli are the first jars designed with both canning and serving in mind.

You might not know this about me, but I get positively giddy when I discover new canning jars. The most recent line of jars to send me over the moon? The Lock Eat jars from Luigi Bormioli. They are sleek, easy to use, and have a very pleasing heft to them.

They’re the first jars designed with the understanding that they will have multiple uses in our homes. They work beautifully for all manner of boiling water bath canning, but are also perfect for portable meals. The lid detaches completely and once removed, you’re left with a smooth container that’s ideal for yogurt, grain salads, and smoothies.

They come in two different shapes, and a number of sizes. The juice jar shape is available in 8.5, 20.5, and 34 ounces, and the straight-sided jars hold 2.75, 4.25, 6.75, and 11.5 ounces. All the Lock Eat jars are made in Italy, and are safe for both the microwave (once the lid is removed) and the dishwasher.

The lid is really easy to lock into place as well. Holding the base of the jar firmly, you just push the stainless steel arm down until it slides into position.

I’ve had a small assortment of the Lock Eat jars in my kitchen for a little over a month now and have used them for leftovers, dry good storage, packed lunches and canning. So far, I like them a whole lot.

Using them for canning feels very much like processing preserves in Weck jars. Before you start making your preserve, arrange your selected jars in a canning pot (I’m using the Lagostina Martellata pasta pot here – more on that next week). Remove the rubber seals from the lids and arrange the glass lids in the pot as well. Bring to a boil. In a separate pot, simmer the rubber seals to soften.

Once your preserve is ready, remove the jars from the canner and fill them to the bottom of the solid glass band that runs around the top of the jars. This is a little more headspace than one leaves when working with mason jars, but it makes sense once you remember that the lid sits in the body of the jar and so takes up some of the header space.

Once the jars are filled, you ease the rubber seals back onto the lids, taking care to ensure that the tab is positioned so that it won’t be in the way of the latch when you go to lock the lids into place.

Then you wipe the rims and the top interior of the jars, place the lids onto the jars and carefully lock the lids into place.

(If you’re curious about the contents of these jars, check back tomorrow, when I’ll be sharing a recipe for low sugar grape jelly.)

The Lock Eat jars play nicely with regular jar lifters, provided that you take care to place the on the sides of the jars, rather than get them tangled up with the lid latch. Set them into your canning pot and process as your recipe instructs.

Once the processing time is up, remove the jars from the canner and set them on a folded kitchen towel to cool. Once the jars are completely cool, you can check the integrity of your seal by carefully releasing the clamp, grasping the lids, and lifting. If the lids stay firmly in place, the jars are sealed and can be stored in the pantry. As always, any unsealed jars should be refrigerated and used promptly.

Because they want to spread the word about their new jars, the folks at Luigi Bormioli are offering up five sets of Lock Eat jars for this week’s giveaway. Each of the five winners will receive an assortment of 14 food and juice Lock Eat jars, at a retail value of $125.

To learn more about Lock Eat jars and watch a video of them being used for canning, make sure to visit this page on the Luigi Bormioli website. Use the widget below to enter the giveaway!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

If you like the looks of the Lock Eat jars, you can follow Luigi Bormioli on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Instagram. Make sure to use the hashtag #LBandME if you post about them.

Disclosure: This is a sponsored post. Luigi Bormioli sent me the jars you see pictured here and paid a small fee to compensate me for my time and attention. All opinions remain entirely my own. 

Related Posts:

Giveaway: New Products from Ball Home Canning
Where the Jar Magic Happens: A Tour of Fillmore Container
Giveaway: Four Ounce Smooth Sided Jars from Fillmore Container