Q and A: canning caramel and chocolate sauce, planting corn, and yields for canning recipes

Canning caramel and chocolate sauce

I have easy and delicious recipes for Caramel Sauce and Chocolate Sauce that I’d like to can for Christmas gifts. Both have cream, butter, and vanilla; the caramel has brown sugar and the chocolate uses chocolate chips. Can I process them in a boiling water bath or must I use the pressure canner and how long should jelly-sized jars be processed?

Becky Calcutt
Charleston, South Carolina

There isn’t an approved method of canning either sauce, unfortunately. Sorry. — Jackie

Planting corn

We are in the midst of a drought, down about eight inches of rain. Does not help my garden but I’ll be back there on Monday to water everything and hope it survives. The corn came up sporadically so I soaked more corn overnight and filled in the bare areas. Do you think it will get pollinated okay as it is ten days behind the rest? I put in six rows.

Deb

Your later-planted corn will probably catch up to the first corn you planted. I’ve had that experience frequently. In fact, I just re-planted six rows of corn that was evidently bad seed as the other 14 rows of a different variety germinated well and came right up. I do expect that to catch up. I’ve planted different corn varieties that I didn’t want to cross-pollinate two weeks apart but then had them pollinate at exactly the same time. So much for that! — Jackie

Canning recipe yields

I wanted to let you know I have enjoyed your canning guide and so far this season, have canned 26 pints of sweet corn. More to come. I’d like to share a poem I wrote as a result, and you and the readers can think on it and laugh while putting corn by.

Ode to Corn:
Oh corn so sweet,
so good to eat,
but getting you from field to table,
is better left to those who are able,
to withstand the muck of shucks and silks, and endure the sticky milks,
on the cob or off the cob,
putting up corn is a messy JOB.

My question has to do with the amount of jars your recipes will make in the canning guide. Is there any way we can find that out ? It helps to have enough ready to fill.

Carla Baker
Wendell, North Carolina

I love the poem! Thanks for sharing it with us.

Unfortunately there are a lot of variables in gauging the amount of jars to have ready for a certain food. With corn you have to consider how many rows there are on each cob, how fat the kernels, and how much you pack them (you shouldn’t pack them too much of they’ll quickly take up the headspace). I just eyeball it and have extra jars ready each time … just in case. — Jackie