Today, I used my Carey Electric Pressure Canner to can some homemade coleslaw.
THE VEGGIES
1 large (or extra large) cabbage, shredded
4 large carrots (or more) shredded
4 peppers, chopped
4 onions, chopped
Mix it all together.
Mix in 4 tsp salt and let it sit for an hour.
(Note: I didn’t have enough sweet onions so I used a jar of freeze-dried sweet onions as well. That was so handy! Definitely freeze-drying more sweet onions next fall.)
The brine
While the vegetables are sitting, prepare the brine:
4 c. vinegar
1 c. water
8 c. sugar
4 tsp celery seed
4 tsp mustard seed
1 tsp turmeric
Bring it to boil and boil for one minute.
Let it sit to cool.
(Note: I was out of celery seed and mistakingly bought celery salt. I had put in two teaspoons before I realized my mistake.)
Putting it together
When the brine is cool,
drain the water from the vegetables (drawn out by the salt) and
mix the veggies with the vinegar solution.
Pack the mixture into jars and process in a hot water bath for 15 minutes.
Note: I used half-pint jars so that we have just enough for the two of us, for one meal. I, also, filled one quart jar and put it in the fridge, as I had ran out of the small jars.
These products are what I use and all opinions expressed here are my own. This list may contain affiliate links from which, at no additional cost to you, I may earn a small commission if you choose to use my link … and if you do, know that I appreciate you!
Harvest Right Freeze-Dryer: the company has a referral program. I’d gladly share all that I’ve learned with you and be your referral person (and get you some free Mylar bags!). Message me.
My Wife loves her Banana Peppers, and uses the exact same recipe, I started off of her, and make my Cowboy Candy which is my use of Jalapeno's. Don't worry they come out quite sweet, and tasty, but I've never hit hot notes, but I always cut mine in half, and use a spoon to scrape out the spine, and seeds, then chop the peppers, onions, and other peppers to small pieces.
Before peppers my Wife used this recipe to put up strawberries from our patch. We have a raised garden 4' x 12' x 10" deep, and have a good growth of annual and ever bearing strawberries in it, and get close to a bumper crop from it every year. It allows her about 60 to 80 1/2 quart jars per season, which is enough to gift friends, and us to enjoy a constant spread for morning toast, and all manner of treats. I'm Diabetic, so we switch Sugar for Splenda, and it has never caused a burp in taste, or the amount of sweetness. Needless to say our "garage fridge" is pretty full of peppers, and Jam, but we like it that way.
You can leave these unopened for 1 year, so you can jump season to season, HOWEVER if you open one, you only have 3 to 4 weeks to make it go away, or some food borne illnesses may come to see you. The advantage to sealed lids, and boiling is a longer life, and here they can be on a shelf, so it frees up your fridge. Plus if you open them you have 3 to 4 months to eat them.
Knowing how you want to use the product may help in choosing to hot water heat, and jar, or sealed lids, and hard boil, and which would work best for you. There is just reams of info online for either method, and quite a few sites showing both methods, and the differences with plenty more info than this simple explanation than I have made here.
Interesting about growing cabbage. We used to when we had an acre plus garden. Now that we have a few raised beds we grow in, and being heavily pepper oriented, we have found buying them from the farm store sellers at the local farm markets we save the space, and actually these Farmers aren't getting paid much for their product, so cost per head isn't far from what we found ours to be growing our own. Quality is just as good. Cabbage is one of those crops you can look at and get a good idea if it's good or bad.