Putting Food By - Janet Greene [85]
The following acid-blanch is designed to prevent natural—and harmless but unsightly—sulfur compounds present in shellfish from darkening the meat during processing. Therefore prepare beforehand and have ready a cold mixture in the proportions of 1 cup lemon juice (or of the citric-acid solution described in Chapter 5, or of distilled white vinegar in a pinch) to 1 cup pickling salt dissolved in 1 gallon of water. This amount will treat 15 pounds of picked meat; make up fresh brine for each batch. Dealing with a colander-ful at a time, immerse leg meat for 2 minutes, body meat for 1 minute. Drain well, pressing out excess moisture with your hand.
Fill ½-pint jars firmly with meat, making a solid pack with attractive pieces next to the glass; leave ½ inch of headroom. Add boiling water to cover the meat—it won’t take much—leaving ½ inch of headroom. Half-close jars and exhaust at Zero pounds (see Salmon, above) until the inside of the pack reaches a minimum of 170 F/77 C on your thermometer—about 10 minutes. Finish screwing down bands firmly tight.
Pressure-process ½-pint jars at 10 pounds (240 F/116 C) for 70 minutes. Remove jars; air-cool naturally.
• Adjustment for my altitude_________________.
Lobsters
Pressure Canning only. Precook and exhaust. Use only ½-pint jars with two-piece screwband lids.
To fill twelve ½-pint jars, figure on 7 to 10 lobsters—depending on size and whether they’re the huge-clawed Atlantic lobster of cold North American waters or the bigger-tailed spiny lobster without claws.
Can only fresh-caught, healthy, lively lobsters. Cook and then cool them in separate containers of brine made of 2 tablespoons pure pickling salt to each 1 gallon of fresh drinking water: never cook or cool lobsters in seawater; make up fresh cooking/cooling brines for each batch.
In your biggest B–W Bath kettle, bring to boiling 3 to 4 gallons of the brine just described. Plunge live lobsters head first into the boiling salted water and, when it returns to boiling, boil them until their entire shells are bright red—about 20 minutes on the average. Lift them from the kettle and immerse them immediately in a tub of very cold brine (also made as above) to cool as fast as possible. When well cooled, each lobster is split, cleaned under running water, and the meat picked from the shell. Quickly and gently spray the picked meat as necessary to remove curds of coagulated protein. Press out excess liquid. Dip the picked meat, a small amount at a time, in a fresh acid-blanch as for Crab (in the proportions of 1 cup lemon juice and 1 cup salt dissolved in 1 gallon of water). Press out extra liquid and pack attractively in ½-pint jars, fitting claw and tail meat carefully to get a firm, solid pack; leave ½ inch of headroom. Just cover the meat with boiling fresh brine made of 1¼ teaspoons pickling salt to each 1 quart of water; leave ½ inch of headroom. Exhaust as for Crab, above. Finish screwing down bands firmly tight.
Pressure-process ½-pint jars at 10 pounds (240 F/116 C) for 70 minutes. Remove jars; air-cool naturally.
• Adjustment for my altitude_________________.
Shrimp
Pressure Canning only. Precook and exhaust. Use only ½-pint jars with two-piece screwband lids.
About 10 pounds of fresh-caught headless shrimp will fill twelve ½-pint jars.
If shrimp are headed within 30 minutes after catching, the “sand vein” will come out with the