Preserving Basics

About My Green Garden
Maria Ciavarella is a passionate home produce gardener. Her passion has
led her to combine her experience as a secondary school teacher with her
many years working in the nursery industry to start her own business, My
Green Garden.
My Green Garden presents tailored workshops and classes on chooks,
composting, growing vegies and preserving to
• Councils
• Community Organisations
• Schools
Contact My Green Garden
www.mygreengarden.com.au
Phone: 0424 083 057
Email: maria@mygreengarden.com.au
The material contained in this booklet is copyright and must not be reproduced
without permission of the author.
Maria Ciavarella / My Green Garden
www.mygreengarden.com.au
Preserving
Basics
Introduction
Notes
Preserving makes the most of seasonal fresh produce to enjoy later.
Even if you don’t grow your own, visiting farmers’ markets and good
greengrocers will give you an idea of what is in abundance and that it
the best time to actually preserve them too. This way you have complete
control of what is going in your preserves – and they will all be whole
foods. Preserving the abundance is an important element of the slowfood movement, and sometimes a necessary skill if you are a keen
gardener, or just a keen foodie.
You might have time-honoured recipes handed down from generation to
generation that you would like to try but if not, don’t fret as there are
many books available with recipes galore for many ingredients. Many
recipes can be completed in an evening after work, or even started on
one night and then continued the next, so even the time-poor can enjoy
this culinary art. Who knows? – you might even be inspired to show
your wares at the Royal Melbourne Show!
This booklet outlines a series of different techniques for preserving,
which is by no means exhaustive.
WARNING Please follow recipes carefully as poorly preserved produce
may lead to fatal botulism. The following are just tips and techniques
and not recipes.
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Heat Preserving
Preserving Techniques
Heat preserving is a great way to have in the pantry fruits that you may
have grown in abundance. Heat processing will vacuum-seal the jars
which excludes oxygen, to prevent spoilants from thriving.
Italian Pickles sott’olio
This is also known as bottling or canning.
Bottling can be done using the Fowlers Vacola preserving unit with its
equipment.
If you don’t have a Fowlers Vacola unit, you can use clean jars and clean
metal lids in a large deep pot (eg stock pot) on a stove top hot water
bath. To do this:
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Although each step is not difficult, this is a pickle that is made over
3 days. The result is a firm textured pickled vegetable that is kept
under olive oil. These are used in antipasto platters or with crusty
bread, all the better for mopping up the deliciously flavoured olive
oil that takes on the taste of the pickle. You can use zucchini,
eggplant, green capsicum and green (unripe) tomatoes with this
technique, or a mix of any of them.
Step 1: Drawing out the water in the vegetables
Slice the chosen vegetable into 3-5mm thicknesses. Layer these in a
ceramic or glass bowl, sprinkling each layer generously with salt.
Place a heavy weight over them and leave overnight.
Step 2: Rinsing and then pickling with vinegar
1.
Prevent the jars coming into direct contact with the bottom
and sides of the pot by placing a metal rack or trivet, or a
tea towel on the bottom; and wrap each jar in teatowels or
put cardboard between the jars so they are packed in firmly
against each other.
Rinse the vegetables very well the next day of all of the water that
has accumulated. Drain and then place back in the bowl, this time
adding a generous amount of white wine vinegar. It does not have
to cover the vegies, but you do need to weight them again. Leave
overnight.
2.
Pour in enough water to cover the jars by at least 2.5cm.
If the preserves were hot in the jars, use warm water to fill
the pot. If they were cold, use cold water to fill.
Step 3: Drying and dressing
3.
Turn on the heat and slowly bring the water to the boil.
This should take about ½ hour and at no time should boil
hard. Once at a slow boil, lower the heat so that a gentle
simmer is maintained for the required time. Remove from
heat.
4.
If the contents were cooked originally before heat
preserving, you can allow them to cool in the water as the
water cools down. Otherwise, use tongs to carefully remove
the jars, place on a rack or towel-covered surface and leave
to cool completely before labelling and storing.
Drain the vegies of the vinegar and
then squeeze them very well by
hand. Return them to the bowl and
dress generously with olive oil.
You can also add dried oregano,
peppercorns, chopped garlic, chilli
or other dried herbs to taste.
Pack the dressed pickled vegies
into sterile jars and fill the jar with
more olive oil, releasing any air
bubbles. Seal and keep for a
month before eating to let the
flavours develop. Buon appetito!
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Preserving techniques
First things first
Drying
Sterilising jars and lids
Drying fruits and vegetables, or dehydrating them, is another tasty way
to concentrate the natural flavour in food and preserve it for longkeeping. Traditionally, drying foods would have been done in the
sunshine, though long hot days free of humidity are needed, conditions
that can be a bit haphazard usually. Instead, most preserving addicts
would now use a Dehydrating Unit, which runs on electricity. It
consists of several trays all stacked together with a lid and gentle warm
air is blown through. Drying times can vary according to the original
water content of the produce but sometimes can be as little as overnight.
Curing and pickling olives
Olives straight off a tree are very bitter and inedible. Curing olives refers
to the process of taking the bitterness away and then pickling enhances
the flavour. In the easiest process, the curing and pickling is done at the
same time.
Curing olives to an edible state is the ultimate slow
food technique. You can speed it up by the amount
of effort you are prepared to do at the start of the
process.
Simply jar the olives and then fill the jar with a cool 10% brine solution
(100g salt dissolved in 1 litre of boiled water). Place a slice of lemon on
top, lid on and then store away from sunlight. When the olives turn an
‘olive’ colour, they will be ready. This may take up to a year, depending
on the size and the variety of the olives. Rinse and dress with herbs etc
to taste. (For more techniques, visit www.mygreengarden.com.au)
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Re-use jars many times
This is necessary if the contents of
the jar are not going to be heat
processed. Re-use old glass jars
with metal lids, but replace the
lids if they are showing wear.
First wash jars and metal lids thoroughly in hot soapy water and rinse
well. Several methods can be used for sterilizing the jars or bottles.
1. Put the clean jars in a slow oven (from 110oC - 130oC) for at
least 10 minutes. Boil the lids in a saucepan for a few minutes.
If filling with hot preserves, leave the jars in the oven until
they are needed. If you are putting cold ingredients in the jars,
allow them to cool before filling. Rule: hot preserves in hot
sterile jars, cold preserves in cold sterile jars.
2. Put the jars and lids through a hot rinse cycle in the
dishwasher and then use as above (hot to hot rule).
3. Place the washed jars and lids in a deep pan and cover with
water. You may want to line the base and sides with a teatowel to stop them rattling. Bring to the boil and boil rapidly
for 10 minutes. Lift the jars out and drain upside down on a
clean tea towel. Allow to dry.
4. Microwave sterilising units (as used to sterilise baby bottles)
are a quicker alternative to sterilising limited numbers of jars
at a time.
5. In the microwave you can also sterilise by half filling the clean
jars with water, bringing them to the boil in the microwave and
then tipping the hot water out before filling with the preserves.
6. Use Milton sterilising tablets in a large plastic tub.
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Preserving techniques
Preserving techniques
Pickling in vinegar
Sauces, chutneys and relishes
Many vegetables can be preserved by pickling
in vinegar, where the acid content of the liquid
prevents spoiling of the food. However, note
that you need a minimum vinegar content of
50% in the pickling liquid in order to prevent
botulism in low acid vegetables.
There are usually two stages to the pickling
process.
Stage 1: Vegetables are salted to draw out
excess moisture. This is either in a brine (salt in
water) solution or dry salted. This is kept
overnight in a cool place and then the resulting
liquid drained off and rinsed the next day.
Some low water vegies, such as beetroot can
skip this step.
If you are new to preserving, these are great preserves to start with.
Good recipes will have the correct combination or amounts of the
ingredients necessary to safely preserve the product. These ingredients
will include sugar, vinegar and salt. They help preserve by creating
conditions that prevent bacteria taking hold. Sealing jars while hot also
helps create a vacuum seal, which stops air from entering. Of course,
once opened, these preserves must be stored in the fridge.
Most recipes are a one-step process, so find one
that uses up what you are growing in your
garden or is in seasonal abundance.
Stage 2: The vinegar is boiled briefly with
flavourings, such as chilli, bay leaves,
peppercorns and mustard seeds. The
vegetables are then covered with the (strained)
vinegar in the sterile jars. For crunchy pickles,
you will need to allow the vinegar to cool
before pouring. For softer pickles, use the
vinegar still hot.
Sometimes recipes will have a weaker acid
solution but make up for that by using a
vinegar/brine solution.
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Preserving techniques
Jams, Conserves and Marmalades
When making jams, conserves or marmalades you will almost
certainly come across the term pectin. Pectin is a substance found in
most fruits to an extent that, when at the right temperature (104oC),
reacts with sugar to cause the mixture to set.
Most fruits can be made into jams but certain conditions, such as the
amount of acid and pectin, must be met in order to get the jam to gel,
or set. Some fruits naturally meet the necessary acid and pectin
amounts (see below), but otherwise these ingredients can be added
by including lemon juice (contains both pectin and acid); reserving
the pips or stones and cooking these as well for the pectin; or adding
a commercial setting agent, such as Jamsetta. The fruit that you use
should also be slightly under-ripe for maximum pectin content.
Remove any bruises or damaged parts from the fruit before using.
When adding sugar, you may find the amount of sugar required quite
confronting! Keep in mind that the sugar is not just there to create the
jam, but acts as the preserving agent in the jam. The sugar
concentration creates conditions that discourage spoilants to flourish.
The general rule is ¾ to 1 cup of sugar to every cup of fruit mix.
Acid & Pectin balance
Fruits with good balance of acid and pectin: grapes, crab apples,
quinces, grapefruit, lemons, limes, sour apples, sour oranges, sour
plums.
High in pectin but low in acid: sweet apples, sweet quinces. You will
need to add 2 tablespoons of lemon juice to every kilo of fruit to
increase the acid content.
Low in pectin but high in acid: apricots, pineapples, rhubarb, sour
peaches. Add 2 tablespoons of lemon juice to every kilo of fruit to
increase the pectin content.
Fruits low in pectin and low in acid: Pears, melons, sweet peaches,
some berries and cherries. These will need the addition of other fruits
or juices to make a firm setting jam. Jamsetta, by Fowlers Vacola, is a
powdered form of pectin available from supermarkets.
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Testing for setting point in jams
Keep a small stack of saucers in the freezer. You do this so as to get the
hot jam to cool quickly to room temperature to show you whether it
has set or is still very runny. Take a teaspoon of the jam while cooking
and place it on the cold saucer. Put it back in the freezer for one minute
and then take it out. Run your finger through the jam and see if it stays
apart or oozes back to the centre. If it stays apart the jam is set. If not,
continue cooking and then check again soon after.
If your jam has set hard, all is not lost! Empty it
back into a saucepan, add a little water and
then re-heat while mixing. Place back into a
clean jar.
Hot jam goes into hot sterilised jars and then sealed immediately.
Once sealed, tip the jars upside down for several minutes as this aids
the vacuum sealing process and also helps sterilise the lids.
To increase the shelf-life of jams, you may also want to heat process
(see page 3) them to help them keep (unopened) for up to 2 years.
Otherwise, 6-12 months is the maximum recommended storing time of
unopened jams.
Small batches are best
Best results come from making small batches at a time. Do not use
more than 2 kg at a time of combined fruit and sugar. The shorter
cooking time will result in better texture, appearance and importantly,
flavour. Wide open heavy-based saucepans are also better for faster
cooking. Of course, when bottling jams, small jars are better than large
ones, as jams start to spoil as soon as they are opened, even when
refrigerated.
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