Putting Food By - Janet Greene [66]
In plain cans. Fill cans as for Hot pack; add optional salt and fill with boiling liquid. Exhaust to 170 F/77 C (approx. 10 minutes if beans are not blanched); seal. Process at 10 pounds (240 F/116 C)—No. 303 cans for 25 minutes, No. 401 for 30 minutes. Remove cans; cool quickly.
• Adjustment for my altitude_________________.
Beans, Fresh Lima (Shell Beans)
Pressure Canning only. Use Hot pack. Use jars or C-enamel cans.
Deal with one variety at a time: different-size types require different amounts of headroom and perhaps processing.
Shell the beans and wash them before packing. They must be packed loosely because, like all starchy legumes, they swell.
HOT PACK ONLY
In jars. Boil beans 1 minute in water to cover, fill jars loosely with drained hot beans leaving 1 inch of headroom for pints or quarts. (Optional: add ½ teaspoon salt to pints, 1 teaspoon salt to quarts.) Cover with hot cooking water; adjust lids. Pressure-process at 10 pounds (240 F/116 C)—pints for 40 minutes, quarts for 50 minutes. Remove jars; complete seals if using bailed jars.
• Adjustment for my altitude_________________.
In C-enamel cans. Fill with hot beans, leaving ¾ inch of headroom for either No. 303 or No. 401 cans; don’t press or shake down. (Optional: add ½ teaspoon salt to No. 303 cans, 1 teaspoon salt to No. 401.) Fill cans to top with boiling water. Exhaust to 180 F/82 C (about 10 minutes); seal. Pressure-process at 10 pounds (240 F/116 C)—40 minutes for either No. 303 or No. 401. Remove cans; cool quickly.
• Adjustment for my altitude_________________.
Beets
Beets keep well in a root cellar (see Chapter 22). Between canning and freezing, can them: they can beautifully. Use canned beets plain, titivated as a relish, etc.
GENERAL HANDLING
Only Pressure Canning for beets: they rank with home-canned string beans as carriers of C. botulinum toxin. Because they’re firm-fleshed, use Hot pack only. Use jars or R-enamel or white enamel cans.
Sort for size; leave on tap root and 2 inches of stem (otherwise they bleed out their juice before they get in the containers). Wash carefully. Cover with boiling water and boil until skins slip off easily (15 to 25 minutes, depending on size/age). Drop them in cold water for just long enough to be able to slip off skins; skin, trim away roots, stems, any blemishes. Leave tiny beets whole; cut larger ones in slices or dice. Now they are ready to pickle or can.
HOT PACK ONLY
In jars. Fill with hot beets, leaving ½ inch of headroom. (Optional: add ½ teaspoon salt to pints, 1 teaspoon salt to quarts.) Add fresh boiling water, leaving ½ inch of headroom; adjust lids. Pressure-process at 10 pounds (240 F/116 C)—pints for 30 minutes, quarts for 35 minutes. Remove jars; complete seals if using bailed jars.
• Adjustment for my altitude_________________.
In R-enamel or white enamel cans. Fill with hot beets, leaving only ¼ inch of headroom (Optional: add ½ teaspoon salt to No. 303 cans, 1 teaspoon salt to No. 401.) Fill to top with boiling water. Exhaust to 170 F/ 77 C (about 10 minutes); seal. Pressure-process at 10 pounds (240 F/116 C)—35 minutes for either No. 303 or No. 401 cans. Remove cans; cool quickly.
• Adjustment for my altitude_________________.
Beets, Pickled
Boiling–Water Bath (vinegar makes them so acid that a B–W Bath is quite OK). Use Hot pack only. Use jars only.
Scrub; leave the tap root and a bit of stem to help prevent “bleeding.” Boil until tender—how long depends on size—in unsalted water (if wanted, salt maybe added later). Dunk in cold water to handle; trim, strip off skins, slice. While beets are cooking, make a Pickling Syrup of equal parts of vinegar and sugar, adding 25 percent more sugar if you like a less-sharp pickle: remember that you counteract acidity by increasing sweetness, NOT by lowering acidity—especially for a low-acid food like beets. Figure on ½ to ¾ cup syrup for each pint jar; larger containers of course need more, so allow for this; and leftover syrup can be refrigerated until used in any number of ways.
Fill clean, hot