After the Pop - How to Manage Home Canned Goods

You've heard the most delightful sound in the kitchen - the popping of lids fresh from the canner - and your jars are completely cooled. Now what? Prepare Jars for Storage

Remove the rings and wipe down the outside of the jar with a warm wet cloth or sponge. Often a bit of juice, brine or jam escapes during the vacuum process. Being outside the seal, this can spoil and rust the lids.

Wash the rings by hand or in the dishwasher and store them in a dry place for later (see below).

Label each lid with the contents and date. You can do this with a sharpie marker or label maker. I love how neat jars look when labeled with my Brother p-touch label maker. Lil gets a kick out of making the labels too.

Where to Store

Home canned goods last longest when they are stored in a dark, dry place with cool and consistent temperature. My basement is great for this. A cool closet, root cellar, or cupboard will also work.

If you have them, I find jar boxes to be excellent for storage of filled or empty jars. The high sides prevent light from discoloring food and the cardboard dividers keep the jars from clanking during transport.

Empty Jars and Rings

In the fall, the larder is full of filled colorful jars. But as winter progresses and the contents are used, what do you do with the rings and empties?

You may reuse the rings for canning so long as they aren't dented or rusted. You also will need one per jar to keep home canned goods in the fridge after opening.

I store rings in a kitchen drawer with my dish towels. You'll note some lids in there too; I keep them around for when I want to store leftovers or dry goods. Lids cannot be reused for canning but they are fine for non-sealed storage.

I stash a small selection of empty jars in a kitchen drawer (with some other miscellany like our cider press bag) for storing leftovers. When this drawer overflows, I take the excess down to the basement and sort by size on a shelf. When I have a dozen of a given size, I load them into a box and stack these for use during the next canning season.

I'm sure that my system is not the only one that works. How do you manage canning jars?

Added to Simple Lives Thursday 58.

Pantry Roasted Tomato Soup

Do you ever come home to an empty fridge but still want something delicious to eat?

We recently returned from the Mid Atlantic coast. Without time for a trip to the grocery store, I wanted a simple healthy meal we could make from pantry ingredients. Knowing that we had plenty of home canned tomatoes in the larder, I invented this recipe for tomato soup and served it with toasted cheese.

This tomato soup is made from only seven ingredients which are found in a well stocked pantry. The oven roasting adds depth of flavor and caramelized goodness.

Pantry Roasted Tomato Soup

Two quarts whole or pieced tomatoes One medium onion, chopped roughly Three cloves garlic, halved (or one half teaspoon garlic powder) 1/4 cup olive oil 1 ice cube block of frozen pesto (substitute a tablespoon of dried italian herbs if no pesto is on hand) 1 Parmesan rind (we keep these in a ziploc bag in the freezer per Lisa the Waitress' brilliant suggestion) 1 tsp balsamic vinegar salt and pepper

Strain tomatoes from their juice, reserving it for later. Place tomato pieces, fresh onion and garlic in a large roasting pan with a heavy pinch of salt. Drizzle olive oil over top and place in a 350 degree oven for one to two hours, stirring occasionally.

Bring tomato juice + 1 cup water (use stock if you have it for richer flavor) to a simmer.  Add the Parmesan rind, pesto block or herbs, and several twists of freshly ground black pepper.

Remove onions, garlic, and tomatoes from the oven. Blend with an immersion or standard blender until smooth. Adjust seasonings and add the balsamic vinegar.

Add to the juice mixture and simmer for a half hour.  Serve warm.

Following this recipe exactly yields a tasty basic tomato soup. There are plenty of variations on the recipe depending on what's in your pantry. For instance:

• Omit parm rind if you don't have it (you may need to increase salt)
• Stir in some cream just before serving
• Top with sour cream, shredded cheese or plain yogurt
• Substitute chili powder, cilantro and cumin for the italian herbs
• Dice onions and garlic before roasting and skip the blender for a rustic style soup

What's Left in the Larder

Today we ate our last winter squash harvested over six months ago.  It was bitter and I'm sad about that.

I wondered exactly what is left in our larder.  Here's the count as of March 9, 2010:

8.5 quarts applesauce

10 half pints tomato paste

3 quarts tomato sauce

12 quarts whole tomatoes

2 half pints ketchup

3 quarts barbeque sauce

3 pints honey strawberry jam

1 pint peach jam

2 bags frozen blueberries (maybe a pound each?)

8 2-cup portions of frozen pumpkin puree

handful of dried tomatoes

As we deplete our larder, we are relying on purchasing produce more than ever.  I try to find fresh vegetables at farmer's markets and Clintonville Cooperative, our local natural foods store.  Their selection of produce is getting slim and I can't wait to see more green house grown produce available soon!

How are your preserves holding up?

Tastes of Summer

There are inches of snow on the ground and inches more to come.  I am bored with winter vegetables and itching to get in the garden.  Solution?  Rob the larder. I have serious love for the word larder.  Isn't it fantastic?

This summer I canned tomatoes, applesauce, barbecue sauce, peach jam, strawberry jam, ketchup and tomato paste.  It was hours of work to pick and process all these treasures.  The matching little jars have laid in wait in the basement for many months.

The payoff is now, in mid winter, when I grab a jar and enjoy the fruits of my labor.  Sunlit sweetness and fresh air combine with the luscious appeal of handmade to make me transcend the winter blues one biteful at a time.

How do you taste summer in these winter months?