Canned milk separating

Just last week I followed the directions in “Growing & Canning Your Own Food” for canning milk. After I took the jars out of the pressure canner & they sat for a few days, I noticed that the milk looked like it had settled to the bottom of the jar, leaving a yellowish liquid at the top half. I turned the jar to the side & the white “milk” on the bottom was real thick, kind of like sour cream & clotted looking. Is this normal? I strained my milk (goats milk) like it said in the instructions & processed it at 10lbs pressure for 10 minutes. Thanks for all of your advice in BHM. Great magazine!

Teresa Clepper
Hamilton, Texas

Yes. Canned milk … especially pressure canned milk is NOT like fresh milk. It is more like condensed milk. It is good for cooking and baking or to use to feed baby animals. It isn’t tasty to drink. To use it, shake up a jar to mix it together then measure and use as needed. Using the boiling water bath method results in milk that is less thick and less caramelized. — Jackie

Cabbage

I adore keeping up with your blog and articles in Backwoods Home Magazine. I have 77 pounds of cabbage that I grew this spring for our family of four! We actually picked into our boys’ kiddie pool! My question is what to do with all of it! When cabbage went on sale for $.15/lb this St. Patty’s Day, I made 50 pounds of kraut, so any other suggestions would be great. We are so excited to get this bounty stored up! Thank you,

Jessica
Fort Wayne, Indiana

I can up a lot of cabbage wedges, make pickled cabbage, and also make lots and lots of Amish canned coleslaw, a family favorite for years now. To make it, here’s the recipe:

1 large head of cabbage
1 cup diced celery
1/2 cup diced onions
2 cup shredded carrots
4 cup white sugar
4 cup vinegar
2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. celery seed
1/2 tsp. mustard seed

Cut cabbage as for coleslaw, mix together all vegetables. Mix vinegar, sugar, and spices and pour over slaw. Pack into jars adding 1/3 jar of vinegar mixture, ladled from big slaw bowl. Fill, leaving ½ inch of headspace. Process 10 minutes in a boiling water bath canner.

I use this canned coleslaw not only for slaw but also, drained, in stir fry dishes. It’s very handy!

Don’t be afraid to can the cabbage. We eat a lot of canned cabbage, year ’round. I drain off the processing water then add fresh or even milk to bring it to simmering before serving. It’s really good! — Jackie

Canning green beans

I canned my first green beans using your canning book! I was so excited, but I have a question regarding the water content. I used the hot pack method, but after I removed them from the pressure canner the water content was almost ½. Will this affect them? Did I do something wrong?

Susan Schoettlin
Elkton, Kentucky

Congratulations! Your beans are fine. Water blowing out of the jar during processing usually happens for one of these reasons: The jars were filled too full, the pressure varied quite a bit during processing (a little too high then quickly returned to the correct pressure), opening the lid before the canner was totally at zero (let it stand for 5 minutes at zero before opening petcock or removing weight). You did nothing wrong. As you can more, you’ll get better and better and have more confidence. — Jackie

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