It all started with this..
In a desire to live more simply I bought more stuff...doesn't make sense right? Anyway with big dreams of a small farm, or at least big garden, somewhere in my hopefully not too distant future I decided to give home canning a try.
Since my little potted deck garden isn't about to yield what I need I hit up the farmer's market and scored some cukes which I sliced into spears.
Next step wash the mason jars and heat them to 180 degrees. Since I don't have a thermometer at the moment it was a bit of a crap shoot but seems to have worked out fine.
While the jars were heating in the canning pot (I read you can also warm them in the dishwasher which I may try next time) I cooked up the pickling liquid:
1 quart white vinegar
1 quart water
3/4 cups sugar (next time I'll cut this in half because the pickles were a little sweet for my taste)
1/2 cup canning salt (I used Kosher)
3 T pickling spices
Basically just cook it on the stove until the sugar and salt are dissolved.
While Tinkerbell kept me company and gnawed on the box that the canning kit came in I packed the jars. This is where it got a little tricky and I had to call in reinforcements. You need to take the hot jar out of the pot and empty it of it's water. Then stuff it with the sliced cukes. I also added 1 garlic clove, 1 bay leaf and a bunch of fresh dill. Then fill the jar with the hot pickling liquid up to 1/4 inch of the top of the jar. Get the metal lid on the jar and get it back on the canning pot with out letting the jar cool down. This is where Bill had to step in and assist with the rotation of the hot jars. You then bring the water to a boil and keep it there for 15 minutes. Then turn the burner off and let the jars sit for 5 minutes in the hots water.
You then take the jars out of the water and set on a dish towel with at least 2 inches of room between them. Let them cool for 12-24 hours then take the metal ring off to test the seal. If it's secure you're good, if not you're screwed! Not really, but you do have to go through the canning process again with new jars if that happens.
All-in-all this whole thing took about 45 minuted and I ended up with five tasty jars of pickles! There are, however two more tests for these pickles to pass though. Next week I plan on giving a jar to my pickle expert nephew. I'll let you know his review. The other test is to open a jar in a month or two and feed them to friends without anyone getting sick. The metal tops are really vacuumed down tight so I think I'm good but since this is the first time I'v done this I'm the tiniest bit skeptical. Regardless..next stop...jelly!
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