What Is Ball Pickle Crisp Made of
Tips for making a truly crunchy dill pickle, and three small batch recipes from Amy Bronee's Canning Kitchen
Learn how to preserve the best of summer's produce with three simple, small batch recipes from Victoria-based author and cooking instructor Amy Bronee of the blog Family Feedbag
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There may be no greater joy for the home canner than to produce a batch of perfectly crunchy pickles. These pickles get pride of place on the plate, and are gifted only to those sure to appreciate their glory. On the flipside, you have the slightly limp, the subpar; these are the pickles that gather dust in the cupboard, only to be eaten in times of need – perhaps during an ice storm or blackout.
For the beginner, it can be discouraging to turn out less-than-crisp pickles. This disappointment could be enough to stop you in your tracks, even with the best of intentions to fill your pantry with beautiful, handmade canned goods. Still, pickles also make a great starter project for home canners because many recipes don't require cooking; the ingredients are "cold packed" raw in the jars, with hot brine poured over. Victoria-based author and cooking instructor Amy Bronee makes at least 40 jars of dill pickles each year (her recipe follows).
"Pickles are pretty simple and straight-forward. In my classes people will make their first batch and when they come out of the canner they'll say 'That's it?' People are surprised by how basic it is. They have in their heads that it's going to take all weekend and they're going to have to work with 20 bushels, and it's just not the case," Bronee says during an interview in Toronto.
To get a crunchy pickle, Bronee advises starting with freshly-picked cucumbers. If you grow them yourself, process them the day you pick them. If you buy your cucumbers, ask the green grocer when they were picked and try to buy as fresh as possible. If the cucumbers are rubbery, keep looking: "there's not a lot you can do to save them." Choose cucumbers that have a slight bend to them or no bend at all, and if you must keep them overnight, put them in the fridge to keep them cool.
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"The other key is not to over process. You want to process them for the minimum amount of time and the minimum for a one-pint jar is 10 minutes. You need to make sure you wait until the water comes to a full boil before you start timing, and then after 10 minutes, get them out. If you let them go and go and go for 20 minutes, then you're cooking the pickles," Bronee tells me. "A lot of people use things like 'Pickle Crisp' and other additives but it's not necessary. If you start with the right cucumber then it's hard to go wrong."
Bronee shares 101 small batch home preserving recipes in her first cookbook, The Canning Kitchen (Penguin Canada, 2015). Jams, jellies and marmalades, pickles and relishes, chutneys, and savoury (e.g. Smoky Peach Barbecue Sauce) and sweet staples (e.g. Applesauce Fruit Blends) are all represented. "There's enough depth to the book that [beginners] could move on from the simpler recipes to something that has a long simmer, like one of the barbecue sauces, or something that has a few more steps like a marmalade. This is sort of the gateway drug to canning because once you start it's really hard to stop," she says with a laugh.
FOUR FRESH WAYS TO SHOWCASE HOMEMADE JAM
"We all love it on toast, waffles or pancakes but there are savoury ways to use jam too," Bronee says. Here are four of her favourite savoury and sweet uses for homemade jam.
In a marinade: "Instead of adding maple syrup or honey to a marinade that you're making for pork or beef, you could use a spoonful of jam instead and whisk it into the other ingredients in the marinade and use that as the touch of sweet."
In salad dressing: "I haven't bought salad dressing for years. I love just the simple oil and vinegar but a really good salad dressing just needs that little touch of sweet. Maybe sometimes it's honey or maple syrup or sugar, but with a spoonful of strawberry jam and balsamic vinegar you get this great strawberry-balsamic vinaigrette with three ingredients and it's got so much flavour."
In cake: "If you're making a birthday cake, do a layer of jam in the middle between the cake layers. And you can also mix a spoonful or two of it into a batch of icing, like cream cheese icing or regular white icing, and end up with a strawberry icing or a blueberry icing. Blueberry icing would be fantastic actually. I need to make that now."
In cocktails: "For summer you can do a really nice fizzy cocktail. You could do some tonic, some gin and then a spoonful of strawberry or raspberry jam, and shake it with ice and then have this really nice fun, fruity, fizzy drink."
Recipes excerpted from The Canning Kitchen by Amy Bronee. Copyright © Amy Bronee, 2015. Reprinted by permission of Penguin Canada, a division of Penguin Random House Canada Limited. Photography credit: Amy Bronee.
RASPBERRY COCOA JAM
2 1/2 lb (1.125 kg) raspberries
1 tbsp (15 mL) lemon juice
¼ cup (60 mL) pure cocoa powder
1 package (57 g) regular pectin powder
6 cups (1.5 L) granulated sugar
1. Rinse the raspberries under cool running water and drain well. Crush the berries in a large, heavy-bottomed pot with a masher (you should have just about 5 cups/1.25 L of crushed berries).
2. Stir in the lemon juice, cocoa powder and pectin powder. Bring to a full boil over high heat, stirring frequently. Stir in the sugar. Return to a full boil, stirring constantly. Maintain a full boil for 1 minute. Remove from the heat. Skim off and discard any foamy scum.
3. Ladle into 7 clean 250 mL (1 cup) jars, leaving a 1/4inch (5 mm) headspace.
4. Be sure to fill your canner with water and place it over high heat at least 20 minutes before you need it so it will be boiling when the jars are ready to be processed.
5. Follow the manufacturer's instructions on the packaging for preparing lids for processing. Position new flat lids over the clean jar rims and secure in place by twisting on the screw bands just until fingertip tight. Not too tight—some air will need to escape during processing.
6. Place jars in water bath canner, covered by at least 1-inch (2.5 cm) boiling water. Cover canner and process for 15 minutes. Start timing when water in canner returns to full boil. When the processing time is up, turn off the heat and remove the lid. Leave the jars in the canner for 5 more minutes.
7. Remove processed jars from the canner and leave to cool for 12 to 24 hours. Do not tighten the screw bands while the jars are cooling. Once the jars are fully cooled, press the middle of each lid to check for a vacuum seal. If the centre of the lid is suctioned down, your jar has fully sealed.
makes seven 250 mL (1 cup) jars
TIP: Milk products aren't safe for water bath canning, so it's important to use a pure cocoa powder that has no added milk solids. Look for one that lists only cocoa power in the ingredients.
CRUNCHY DILL PICKLES
5 lb (2.25 kg) pickling cucumbers
16 garlic cloves, peeled
1 large bunch of fresh dill
4 cups (1 L) water
2¾ cups (675 mL) pickling vinegar (7 per cent acetic acid)
⅓ cup (75 mL) pickling salt
1. Scrub the cucumbers well under cool running water. Line up 8 clean 500 mL (2 cup) jars. Drop 2 garlic cloves and a few large dill fronds into each jar. For whole pickles, pack the cucumbers snugly into the jars, starting with the larger ones and filling in gaps with smaller ones. (Cucumbers shrink a little during processing, so pack tightly.) For spears, cut into quarters lengthwise, then press back together before packing into jars to maintain crispness. For slices, slice lengthwise and hold together for packing into jars to maintain crispness.
2. Prepare the brine by combining the water, vinegar and salt in a large saucepan. Set over high heat and bring to a light boil, stirring while the salt dissolves and the liquid turns from cloudy to clear.
3. Ladle the hot brine over the packed cucumbers, leaving a ½-inch (1 cm) headspace. Process in a boiling water bath canner for 10 minutes. Start timing when water in canner returns to full boil. When the processing time is up, turn off the heat and remove the lid. Leave the jars in the canner for 5 more minutes.
4. Remove processed jars from the canner and leave to cool for 12 to 24 hours. Do not tighten the screw bands while the jars are cooling. Once the jars are fully cooled, press the middle of each lid to check for a vacuum seal. If the centre of the lid is suctioned down, your jar has fully sealed.
makes eight 500 mL (2 cup) jars
TIP: For the crunchiest pickles, start with cucumbers that are firm and crisp, not rubbery, and plan to pickle them the day you buy or pick them. Avoid over-processing your jars. Have your canner at a rapid boil before lowering your jars into the water, and start timing as soon as the water returns to a boil. Experiment with adding some pickling spices to each jar such as dill seed, whole coriander seed, whole allspice or peppercorns. For best flavour, wait 3 to 4 weeks before opening.
SOUTHWEST CORN RELISH
10 cups (2.5 L) fresh or frozen corn kernels (see Tip for how to measure)
2½ cups (625 mL) finely diced yellow onion
2½ cups (625 mL) finely diced red bell pepper
1 cup (250 mL) finely diced green bell pepper
2 jalapeño peppers, finely diced
2 tbsp (30 mL) celery seeds
1 tbsp (15 mL) chili powder
2 tsp (10 mL) turmeric
4 cups (1 L) white vinegar
1 tbsp (15 mL) pickling salt
2 cups (500 mL) granulated sugar
1. Measure the corn and set aside. In a large, heavy-bottomed pot, combine the onion, red pepper, green pepper, jalapeños, celery seeds, chili powder, turmeric, vinegar and salt. Boil over high heat for 5 minutes. Stir in the sugar and corn. Return to a boil and cook for another 5 minutes at full heat, stirring frequently. Remove from the heat.
2. Ladle into 6 clean 500 mL (2 cup) jars, leaving a ½-inch (1 cm) headspace. Poke a non-metallic utensil inside each jar a few times to release any air bubbles, topping up the relish if necessary. Process in a boiling water bath canner for 15 minutes. Start timing when water in canner returns to full boil. When the processing time is up, turn off the heat and remove the lid. Leave the jars in the canner for 5 more minutes.
3. Remove processed jars from the canner and leave to cool for 12 to 24 hours. Do not tighten the screw bands while the jars are cooling. Once the jars are fully cooled, press the middle of each lid to check for a vacuum seal. If the centre of the lid is suctioned down, your jar has fully sealed.
makes six 500 mL (2 cup) jars
TIP: If using fresh sweet corn, you'll need 14 to 16 medium cobs. Blanch first by boiling the husked cobs in water for 3 minutes, then transfer immediately to ice water. Slice off the kernels in strips into a large bowl. Break up the kernels by hand, then measure. Frozen corn measures differently than thawed. If using frozen sweet corn, thaw first by rinsing in a colander under warm running water, then measure.
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What Is Ball Pickle Crisp Made of
Source: https://nationalpost.com/life/food/tips-for-making-a-truly-crunchy-dill-pickle-and-three-small-batch-recipes-from-amy-bronees-canning-kitchen
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