holiday gift crocking

[dnonwoo]

hi all

Comments

Not a recipe, but a comment.

[timtamfan]

Be careful with the butters. My old roommate (who is a brain researcher--your icon jogged my memory for this adventure) made pumpkin butter and it went bad during the canning. She had to tell all of her gift recipients to toss it due to botulism :(.

Re: Not a recipe, but a comment.

[funkyturtle]

What is it about butters specifically that makes them susceptible to going bad?

Re: Not a recipe, but a comment.

[oxymoron02]

Do you recall if she pressure canned them or not? I know nonacidic foods like this really require pressure canning. That's probably the sum total of my canning knowledge, so there ya go.

Re: Not a recipe, but a comment.

[timtamfan]

She didn't pressure can :(. I think her main worry was that she didn't heat it to a high enough temperature. This article has more information. It seems like the low acidity may play a big role in susceptibility.

http://www.pickyourown.org/botulism.htm

[funkyturtle]

I have no idea about any of this but I'm curious to read what other people tell you. I'd like to do something like this for my holiday gifts but I'll probably end up just doing cookies or Ukrainian bread.

[squid_ink]

recipe for the Ukranian bread?

I'd love to see it if you can share :)

we go traditional every Christmas eve, so it would be a nice addition to the first course (bread and honey)

[smurfetts_lamb]

If worried at all about canning issues, then gift to people and tell them to keep in fridge and eat within a month. I made a cherry plum butter last year (stove top) and gave it to people with muffins and stick instructions to eat within one month. They were all thrilled.

[pelethetart]

I did the same with my pear butter this year, and it's all fine as well. :)

However, I don't particularly find making fruit butters to be an inexpensive endeavor unless the fruit is home grown.

[red_trillium]

I don't plan on giving this since I dno't really know if any of my friends like it, but check out my

[squid_ink]

omg that sounds so yum!!

I must try

[red_trillium]

It's very tasty! The second one I made I put in more fruit and nuts. But really it depends on budget(& tastes of course!) and if you stick with oats/raisons/cranberries and apricots as your main ingredients it's going to be fairly inexpensive (add the spices and honey/butter of course!).

[vahlkyree]

Brother and his wife have given home made spaghetti sauce with meatballs as Christmas gifts for the last couple of years. Really tasty gift! They package it up in single or double serving sizes for each person/family and then freeze it.