Canning dry brown rice

How do you can brown rice in a pressure canner? You mention how to do nuts, but did not say anything more about rice.

Sharon
West Harrison, Indiana

You can home can brown rice dry, just as if it were nutmeats. Only don’t toast it so long, just heat it enough so that it is hot when you put it into hot jars. Process it for 10 minutes at FIVE pounds pressure to seal it completely. — Jackie

Canning grape juice

I recently was blessed with almost a five gallon bucket of wonderful purple grapes. I washed the grapes and then ran them through my Lalane juicer to save time. It yielded well. As I poured it off into a stock pot, a froth rose to the top. I refrigerated the juice and the next morning, scooped off almost all of the froth. I heated the juice and followed the directions in your canning book to can it up in pint jars. They canned well and sealed. My question is this: On the top of the juice in the jars is a tiny bit of darker froth. I think it is some of the grape fiber. Is this going to hurt the juice or cause it to go bad in the jars? I will add that I didn’t add as much sugar as the recipe calls for, as these grapes were awfully sweet already.

Carla B.
Wendell, North Carolina

Don’t worry about the froth on top of your juice. It won’t hurt a thing. If you would have strained the juice it would have had less debris, but that’s not a problem. Enjoy your juice. (You are fine leaving the sugar out; the sugar in fruit juice is just for taste not for processing safety.) — Jackie

Strawberry-serrano jelly

I made some strawberry-serrano jelly with about 7 cups of strawberries and 2 serrano peppers. There is no “official” safe recipe for this, so I don’t know if the acid level is appropriate for water bath…your thoughts? Do I need to pressure cook this to be sure? And second part of this question — I made this jam about a month ago and it didn’t set, so I wanted to re-cook and re-can it, but has too much time passed, or doesn’t it matter? And if I should be pressure canning it, can I re-can and still have it be safe?

Jillian Steffes
Rhinelander, Wisconsin

I make cherry jalapeño jelly and jam every year I harvest cherries (or pin cherries). No, you don’t have to pressure can your jelly, provided you use the amount of sugar required for “normal” strawberry jelly. No, too much time has not gone past for you to re-process your jelly. Right now you have yummy syrup (try mixing it with cream cheese and spreading it on crackers!). You can re-process it using the directions on the Sure-Jel flyer inside the box. — Jackie