Yesterday, I finally gave canning with German jars a try. Why is that so strange, you might ask? Well most people who can in the US are familiar with Ball and Kerr jars (and all those similar). They have two-piece metal lids on them and you can put just about anything in them as long as you process them correctly. But here in Germany, canning becomes a bit more of an adventure (and I’m sure the USDA’s guidelines would suggest we will die from eating anything contained in these jars) because I have not worked with anything like them before and am quite honestly terrified of messing something up…or worse causing us to get food poisoning (which could result in death and therefore is again not recommended by the USDA.)
From the photo below, you can see that the jars have glass lids and use a rubber ring for sealing. You know they’re closed because the lids don’t come off after processing and you need to pull the little tab on the rubber ring to loosen the seal. And just how does one keep the lid on when you put it in the canner? Excellent question. If you’ll look at the photo on the bottom of this post, you’ll see the little metal holders still on top that keep everything together until the seal is complete. Quite nifty really. I still haven’t established if one can pressure can things like meat in these but perhaps I will just have to try it and see what happens (without poisoning anyone I hope!)
Yesterday I put aside all fears of these foreign jars (I have over 100 of them in 3/4 and 1 liter sizes which I’ve picked up for about 20 euros on eBay so I better start using the things) and set about canning 2kg of cucumbers which we bought on Friday (and were wildly overcharged for of course.) I have a fantastic recipe for bread and butter pickles from my mom but I decided to try the new Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving cookbook I got a few weeks ago just to see how the recipes turn out.
Their bread and butter recipe starts with a basic salt-water soaking for the cucumbers and onions which you let sit for 2 hours.
We tried some of them today. They are nothing compared to my mom’s recipe but something a bit more like what you might buy in the grocery store here. They have a variation of the recipe with fresh ginger root and horseradish that could be interesting. I’ve still got another 2 kilos of cucumbers that need to be done up so I will probably try something different with them tomorrow. Hopefully will agree with that plan too! 😉
