Holiday canning
Being skint on cash this year, I tried my hand at homemade gifts for a few friends and family. This year I decided to go with my homemade spaghetti sauce. It's a hit with my family and a relatively easy recipe to make. I knew I would have to ship some of the jars so I obtained a waterbath (kindly given to me by my mother) and set about trying my hand at canning. Here are the results!
My canner. Thankfully, not an intimidating piece of equipment.
Ingredients for the sauce (minus the juice and an onion already simmering in the pot). Seeing as tomatoes are out of season here (and I am without money), I went with the canned variety. Canned or fresh -- the sauce beats any store bought version hands down.
The previously mentioned onions, simmering deliciously in the pot.
Enter the star, the tomatoes.
Can we say, yum?
I was slightly scared that my immersion blender would attack me and spray sauce all over the place, fortunately it behaved.
Enter canning pot.
Here are the jars that were used today. I was unaware of all the soaping and then heating necessary for this part of the process. My dishwasher seemed to amply heat them to the required temperature though :D
The filled jars are then lowered into the canning pot for processing. Again, I was worried that an appliance would attack me. Lowering heavy jars into scalding hot water is probably not recommended for people as accident prone as myself.
I stuck the lid on that baby and waited. Once it was boiling, the timer was set for thirty five minutes for processing -- and voila! Lovely jars of sauce for friends and family.
My canner. Thankfully, not an intimidating piece of equipment.
Ingredients for the sauce (minus the juice and an onion already simmering in the pot). Seeing as tomatoes are out of season here (and I am without money), I went with the canned variety. Canned or fresh -- the sauce beats any store bought version hands down.
The previously mentioned onions, simmering deliciously in the pot.
Enter the star, the tomatoes.
Can we say, yum?
I was slightly scared that my immersion blender would attack me and spray sauce all over the place, fortunately it behaved.
Enter canning pot.
Here are the jars that were used today. I was unaware of all the soaping and then heating necessary for this part of the process. My dishwasher seemed to amply heat them to the required temperature though :D
The filled jars are then lowered into the canning pot for processing. Again, I was worried that an appliance would attack me. Lowering heavy jars into scalding hot water is probably not recommended for people as accident prone as myself.
I stuck the lid on that baby and waited. Once it was boiling, the timer was set for thirty five minutes for processing -- and voila! Lovely jars of sauce for friends and family.
