Living - Southern Living Little Jars, Big Flavors Small-batch jams, jellies, pickles, and preserves from the Souths most trusted kitchen

Southern Living

LITTLE JARS, BIG FLAVORS

Small-batch jams, jellies, pickles, and preserves from the Souths most trusted kitchen

2013 by Time Home Entertainment Inc.

135 West 50th Street, New York, NY 10020

Southern Living is a registered trademark of Time Inc. Lifestyle Group. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means without the prior written permission of the publisher, excepting brief quotations in connection with reviews written specifically for inclusion in magazines or newspapers, or limited excerpts strictly for personal use.

eISBN: 978-0-84875-389-4

Library of Congress Control Number: 2013930595

Printed in the United States of America

First Printing 2013

Oxmoor House

Editorial Director: Leah McLaughlin

Creative Director: Felicity Keane

Senior Brand Manager: Daniel Fagan

Senior Editor: Rebecca Brennan

Managing Editor: Rebecca Benton

Southern Living Little Jars, Big Flavors

Editor: Nichole Aksamit

Art Director: Claire Cormany

Project Editor: Emily Chappell

Senior Designer: Melissa Clark

Director, Test Kitchen: Elizabeth Tyler Austin

Assistant Directors, Test Kitchen: Julie Christopher, Julie Gunter

Recipe Developers and Testers: Wendy Ball, R.D.; Victoria E. Cox; Tamara Goldis; Stefanie Maloney; Callie Nash; Karen Rankin; Leah Van Deren

Recipe Editor: Alyson Moreland Haynes

Food Stylists: Margaret Monroe Dickey, Catherine Crowell Steele

Photography Director: Jim Bathie

Senior Photographer: Hlne Dujardin

Senior Photo Stylist: Kay E. Clarke

Photo Stylist: Mindi Shapiro Levine

Assistant Photo Stylist: Mary Louise Menendez

Senior Production Manager: Susan Chodakiewicz Production Manager: Theresa Beste-Farley

Contributors

Writer: Virginia Willis

Designer: Cathy Robbins

Recipe Developers and Testers: Tonya Johnson, Kyra Moncrief

Copy Editor: Donna Baldone

Proofreaders: Dolores Hydock, Rhonda Lee Lother

Indexer: Mary Ann Laurens

Interns: Morgan Bolling, Susan Kemp, Sara Lyon, Staley McIlwain,
Emily Robinson, Maria Sanders, Katie Strasser

Food Stylist: Kathleen Royal Phillips

Photographers: Becky Luigart-Stayner, Ellen Silverman, Daniel Taylor

Photo Stylist: Lydia DeGaris Pursell

Southern Living

Editor: M. Lindsay Bierman

Creative Director: Robert Perino

Managing Editor: Candace Higginbotham

Art Director: Chris Hoke

Executive Editors: Rachel Hardage Barrett, Hunter Lewis, Jessica S. Thuston

Food Director: Shannon Sliter Satterwhite

Test Kitchen Director: Rebecca Kracke Gordon

Senior Writer: Donna Florio

Senior Food Editor: Mary Allen Perry

Recipe Editor: JoAnn Weatherly

Assistant Recipe Editor: Ashley Arthur

Test Kitchen Specialist/Food Styling: Vanessa McNeil Rocchio

Test Kitchen Professionals: Norman King, Pam Lolley, Angela Sellers

Senior Photographers: Ralph Lee Anderson, Gary Clark, Art Meripol

Photographers: Robbie Caponetto, Laurey W. Glenn

Photo Research Coordinator: Ginny P. Allen

Senior Photo Stylist: Buffy Hargett

Editorial Assistant: Pat York

Time Home Entertainment Inc.

Publisher: Jim Childs

VP, Strategy & Business Development: Steven Sandonato

Executive Director, Marketing Services: Carol Pittard

Executive Director, Retail & Special Sales: Tom Mifsud

Director, Bookazine Development & Marketing: Laura Adam

Executive Publishing Director: Joy Butts

Associate Publishing Director: Megan Pearlman

Finance Director: Glenn Buonocore

Associate General Counsel: Helen Wan

CANNING BASICS

A SHORT HISTORY OF HOME CANNING

Whether youre new to canning or an old hand at putting up, its comforting to know that people have been preserving food for millennia.

Long before there were glass jars to pack them in, there were pickled foods and potted jams. The term canning dates back to the military practice of putting food in tin canisters or cans, the method that kept Napoleons French soldiers fed in the early 1800s.

Glass jars werent widely used in the United States for home food preservation until after the Civil War. Early American cooks preserved foods mostly by smoking or drying themor by putting them in crocks with salt, vinegar, sugar, or alcohol solutions; keeping them in the root cellar; periodically scraping off surface molds and scum; and taking their chances.

Self-sealing heatproof Mason jars, named for the fellow who invented them, were developed in the 1850s, and early attempts at canning in them yielded more than a few exploding jars, food poisonings, and deaths. It wasnt until 1915 that scientists identified what was causing botulism poisoning, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture began developing guidelines to keep the anaerobic bacteria from canned goods. Modern canning practicesusing heat, pressure, and acidity to kill or slow bacteriastem from this.

Newer revelations about canning include:

Those paraffin wax seals Grandma used on jams are a no-no. So is letting hot food cool in a hot jar to create a vacuum. Processing jars with canning lids in a covered pot of boiling water or a pressure canner for a specified length of time is essential.

The acid or pH level of tomatoes and other foods can vary considerably depending on ripeness, freshness, variety, and growing conditions. Recipes that worked fine in the 1950s might not work as well with modern varieties and changing climates.

Certain low-acid foods (meats, fish, most vegetables, ripe tomatoes, and some fruits) are most reliably and safely canned in a pressure canner. Alternatives include adding acid (vinegar or bottled lemon juice or citric acid powder) to the food before boiling-water canningor preparing it for refrigerator or freezer storage rather than for the shelf.

The density of the canned food (thin slices versus whole cucumbers) and the altitude where youre canning (11 feet above sea level in Mobile, Alabama, or 13,000 feet in Denver, Colorado) affect sterilization and processing time. The thicker the food and the higher the altitude, the longer youll have to boil.

A LITTLE FOOD SCIENCE

There are three primary ways to halt or stop the growth of harmful bacteria that naturally occur in food: Heat or chill them to extremes, deprive them of oxygen and free water, and add enough acid to keep them from growing.

All three come into play in canning. To what degree and in what combination depend largely on how acidic the food is.