Roll up everything: How to preserve fruits and vegetables
Text: Karina Sembe
Pickles and jams are not at all grandmothers, although they still seem to be the best. From a forced measure, home-made preparations turned into a grateful hobby: you can not only preserve cucumbers and tomatoes on an industrial scale into three-liter jars - now they do it gracefully and subtly. Of course, in today's consumer paradise it is no longer necessary to stock up for the winter, but when fresh local vegetables and fruits are not available, it is good to have marinades and confitures on hand without artificial preservatives and flavor enhancers. In addition, it is pleasant to keep beautiful jars at home (up to X hours) or to give to friends. At the same time, canning is a difficult and time-consuming process that frightens many, but it's worth it. Tomorrow we will share step-by-step recipes of nonbanal vegetable preparations for the winter, but for now we are telling you what to take into account for the success of the enterprise.
Start simple and loved
Simple does not mean banal. For pickles, confitures, sauces and syrups for them, select vegetables and fruits that you truly love - you will have it later. If you are indifferent to canned tomatoes and cucumbers, there is no need to pay tribute to the traditions. Sweet and sour zucchini in herbs or elderberry jam - the options are much more interesting: unusual recipes will allow you not to get bored. For a start, you can not encroach on complex sauces, but try to roll a couple of "mono-bananas": one key vegetable or fruit (in whole or in slices), a minimum of cooking steps, a simple marinade. Having mastered the basic principles, and you can roam.
Decide on the fixtures
Banks are better to choose glass, a small volume (three-liter and five-liter leave in the past). Today, many people prefer to make blanks in cans with a screw cap, twist-offs or with the so-called Eurolock. Their quality and degree of tightness strongly depend on the manufacturer, but such containers are perfect for jams with a small amount of sugar or marinades and sauces that you plan to keep in the refrigerator and use in the foreseeable future. If you still decide to act in the old manner, in addition to a large saucepan for sterilization, various scoops and other basic utensils, you will need metal covers with rubber seals and a sealer key of any type. You can also use autoclaves - large-sized installations for canning, but they cost a lot and require additional hassle, besides, hand-made blanks are valued higher and are considered tastier. Compromise for fans of all modern - advanced compact kits for canning.
Technology first
When you immerse yourself in the art of homework, the process grows over a million intricacies and lifehacks, and each culinary specialist has his own. But most importantly - sterilization and tightness: without these two principles, all your efforts will go to the trash. Banks and lids for about 10 minutes boil in acidified water (use citric acid or vinegar). Spoons, scoops, seamer and other tools can be sterilized in the same way, and clean kitchen towels - steamed. If you use marinade or syrup, pour boiling water into the jars with vegetables or fruit and leave for 10-20 minutes, then pour all the water back into the pan, add sugar and salt according to the recipe and boil again. Send jam, confiture or stewed vegetables straight into sterilized jars. Twist-off caps are heated over steam or in hot water up to 50-60 degrees and screwed tightly, ordinary metal ones are rolled up with a key. Watch for full tightness, otherwise the air caught in the cans after twisting, will provoke fermentation. Some re-sterilize blanks before closing - immerse cans with hot contents in a saucepan and boil.
Be creative
Fill the cans with fantasy: it will add both taste and beauty to them. Sourish fruits, fresh greens and spices - from umbrellas of dill and peppercorns to garlic, cloves and black currant leaves - are suitable for pickles. When preserving fruit, do not be afraid of combinations either - add a handful of black rowan to apples, cardamom or cinnamon to pears. The recipe of the marinade, syrup or sauce for each billet will be different - it all depends on the sweetness and acidity of fruits and vegetables, the combination of flavors and, of course, the method of cooking - you can preserve stewed, boiled or fresh fruits and vegetables in various combinations. If you are a beginner, you can safely follow the recipe, but when you get the hang of it, be sure to let go of your imagination and try to make something like salty plums, hot sauce for pasta or apple jam in tea rose syrup (for our part, we will offer dozens of similar recipes already tomorrow).
Pay attention to details
Choose fruits and vegetables that have reached average ripeness: under the influence of hot marinade or pressure in a jar, peel of overripe vegetables and fruits can crack or burst. So that washed and chopped fruits, vegetables or berries do not darken before the heat treatment, they can be held in slightly acidified water. It is necessary to stack the workpieces so that the contents fit as closely as possible to the edges of the jar, and top-up the containers with marinade or syrup. The less space in the bank and, accordingly, air, the greater the likelihood that the billet will live to winter. If the vegetables darken after cooling, the brine is probably not sufficiently concentrated: in this case, you can pour the new marinade or eat one of the first harvest, because it will not last long.
Do not forget about postproduction
Put ready-made pickles and jams with lids down and warm, and after a day, check the tightness and put the jars away in a dark place. We advise you to sign the contents with a marker or make labels: it’s not a hand-made cute technique - in six months you just don’t remember which jar of apple jam, but which jar of pearl jars. After a week or two after canning, inspect each container again: for successful blanks, the metal lid should slightly bend inward in the middle. Leaking or swollen lid, clouding of the brine - signs of defective workpiece, which is better not to count too much. If you followed the instructions and the jars behave as they should, rejoice: you probably provided yourself the best home-made snacks for the winter.
Photo: Alis Photo - stock.adobe.com, Paulista - stock.adobe.com, Ikea