SC - Canning-direct me for a good start?

[Anne-Marie Rousseau]

Hi all from Anne-Marie, ex-4Her :)
Ras recommends the Ball Blue Book. I second this recommendation. Its
available through amazon.com, and not very expensive. It gives great
beginner instructions on canning and food preservation of all types and the
recipes arent half bad. 

A good thing to start with is jams and the like...you cant die from doing
them wrong. If they dont set, you can still use it as pancake syrup or a
glaze for hams, etc. Once you get the hang of it, move on to simple
pickles, like pickled carrots, or bread and butter pickles, or pickled
onions. Again, the worst thing that happens is that the jar doesnt seal and
you keep it in the fridge till you eat it. Then, try a fresh salsa or other
acidic tomato project. 

Onc youve gotten the knack of high acid canning, you may want to get a
pressure cooker and move to the low acid stuff (that's the stuff that if
you do it wrong you can get botulism, etc, but even then, its not hard).

good luck! canning is awfully fun. Pickled carrots, mushrooms, etc are a
super easy medieval-oide crunchy thing to serve at hot tourneys.

- --Anne-Marie, who used to win blue ribbons for salsa and stuff, and who's
mom cleaned up every year with dill pear pickles (ugh) and made jalapeno
jelly long before such things were so chic chic. (double ugh)

- ----------
> From: LrdRas at aol.com
> To: sca-cooks at Ansteorra.ORG
> Subject: Re: SC - Canning-direct me for a good start?
> Date: Monday, October 05, 1998 12:07 PM
> 
> In a message dated 10/5/98 1:33:23 PM Eastern Daylight Time,
> pndarvis at execpc.com writes:
> 
> << Good articles or books to cross reference.  >>
> 
> The Ball Book is the best. Since canning is an extensive subject, you
might
> try a web search to get you started. Also any utilitarian cookbook has
canning
> directions. Since I use 'old fashioned' techniques when I can food, it
would
> probably be best if I didn't get any more specific in this forum to avoid
the
> onslaught of 'modernist' thought.
> 
> Ras
>
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