Autumnal Canning

Sunday, November 18, 2018

I've not gotten much into autumn preserving, but apples are $.99/lb and cranberries are aplenty in the grocery store! So here we are with pickled cranberries, apple butter, and applesauces.

Note: all this canning was part of a small event, so my yield was much greater than shown here. Jars just went home in different hands. :)

Success? Pickled Cranberries

FoodInJars' Pickled Cranberries, although instead of 3 bags of cranberries, I used ~7. I made 1.5x the amount of brine, and then ended up re-using the brine (cooked 5 bags + 2 bags separately)...and then had 2 pints of brine leftover after canning! I jarred that too, as I think it might make a good cocktail shrub, or additive to salad dressing. I always prefer to drink pickled fruit brine in sparkling water, but you've gotta love vinegar ;)

"The finished pickle is a lovely thing to serve alongside roast meat or with a cheese plate, and if you’re going to pack it up in a box to ship across country, I highly suggest that you include a note telling the recipient to stir the liquid into sparkling water or a gin and tonic."
I'm hoping for something nice and tart like the pickled plums, and not as intensely vinegar as the pickled cherries.

Success! Maple Bourbon Apple Butter

'Basically followed FoodInJars' instructions for Spiced Apple Butter in the slow cooker, but with the maple syrup, bourbon, and zest from FoodInJars Maple Apple Butter. My slow cooker can only hold about 6 pounds of freshly cut apples, so just prior to immersion blending, a cut another pound or so of apples into tiny matchsticks and threw them into the mix for 4 hours of slow cooking on 'high'.

This came out just absolutely fantastically. Complex with a very subtle bourbon flavoring! I'm not sure the maple comes through as much as I'd like, but you can't overdo it with that due to acidity issues.

Success? Spiced Applesauce

For this spiced applesauce, we followed FoodInJars' Homemade Applesauce, but with the spices from FiJ's Pumpkin Spice Applesauce (i.e., 1tsp cinnamon, fresh nutmeg, ground ginger and 1/2tsp of allspice & ground cloves, with juice of a lemon). I don't know exactly how many pounds of apples we cut up, nor do I know whether we put the correct amount of spices in. This one could be over or under spiced, who knows!

Success! Plain Applesauce

The plain applesauce is the same as the above, using FoodInJars' Homemade Applesauce, but with nothing else added. Most, but not all, of the apple skins are removed and I rather like them mixed into the sauce.

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I have ended up with quite the little collection of preserves this year! I've also already been giving jars away as thank you gifts, birthday presents, etc. So...much is not shown below!