Freezer jam
Last summer, in Michigan, I made a lot of freezer jam. I have now sold my home in Michigan and am moving 12 hours away to VA BCH. Is there any way that I can reprocess the freezer jam and preserve it via water bath so I can take it with me? I really don’t want to try to move freezer jam that long of a distance in 90 degree heat, even with dry ice. Any suggestions?
Cheryl Pickford
Virginia Beach, Virginia
I’ve never had that problem, but what I’d do is make a test batch. I’d open two or three containers of freezer jam, bring to room temperature overnight. Then dump into a saucepan. Have pint or half pint jars, your water bath canner filled and ready and lids ready. Gently heat the jam to boiling, stirring constantly. Let boil 1 minute, stirring constantly. Then remove from heat and ladle into canning jars, leaving 1/4 inch of headspace. Process the jars for 15 minutes in a boiling water bath. (Remember that if you live at an altitude above 1,000 feet to consult your canning book for directions on increasing your time.) My guess is that you should be able to can up your freezer jam and jelly with not much trouble. Let us know how that works so we’ll know. — Jackie
Canning spaghetti sauce
I am confused about making spaghetti sauce with meat to can. I see in your book, “Growing and Canning Your Own Food“, that you have two recipes for the meat sauce. I studied both of them and see that one uses fresh tomatoes that are basically made into a tomato sauce and the other has previously canned by me tomato sauce that is used. The part I am confused about is the vegetables that I can add to it, along with the meat. I have read somewhere online that the rule is no more than 3 cups of vegetables per batch of sauce, along with the meat. Is that rule correct? If not is there a rule to follow? I want to add green peppers, onions, mushrooms, and black olives. I am planning to use the recipe that uses tomato sauce, as I canned up a bunch of that two years ago so want to use that up. Does it taste any different using fresh rather than the sauce? I see the recipe for fresh tomatoes calls for 2.5 lbs of meat, where the recipe for sauce calls for 5 lbs. Does the fresh tomatoes make a different amount than the sauce one? Sorry if my questions are a bit run on, feel free to snip them as needed if you use them in a column, I just want to make sure I am clear in what I am asking.
Lisa C.
Maryland
When you pressure can recipes, you may add as many vegetables as you wish. But by adding more than about 3 cups of vegetables (other than tomatoes/sauce) your sauce may become too chunky for your taste. It has nothing to do with safety in processing. No, I can’t say that using tomato sauce makes the recipe taste much different than if you used fresh tomatoes sauced down. When you use fresh tomatoes, you’ll be cooking them way down as you remove the water from the tomatoes. Thus you need more tomatoes to make a smaller amount of sauce. I hope this answers your questions. Happy canning! — Jackie
