Easy Recipes for Canning & Preserving

There are few things more satisfying then opening a pantry to see rows of brightly colored, neatly labeled cans and jars. Here are two easy recipes from Michele Harmeling’s guide Canning & Preserving: The Techniques, Equipment, and Recipes to Get Started.

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Three Ingredients Raspberry Jam

Ingredients:

4 cups fresh red raspberries
4 cups sugar
4 tablespoons lemon juice

Preparation: Pick raspberries over, removing stems and leaves. Mash raspberries, using a potato masher or a fork. Bring mashed raspberries to a boil in a large saucepan; reduce heat, and simmer 5 minutes.

Add sugar and lemon juice to hot raspberries; bring to a boil, stirring constantly. Reduce heat, and simmer 5 minutes or until thickened. The jam has reached ideal thickness when it has a shiny appearance and when hot liquid clings to a spoon. Keep hot.

Pour hot jam into hot jars. Remove air bubbles; wipe jar rims. Cover at once with metal lids, and screw on rings until finger-tight. Process in a boiling-water bath for the appropriate time for your altitude; then remove and cool at room temperature up to 12 hours.

Good to Know: This recipe makes approximately 5 (half-pint) jars. No pectin is used in this recipe, which yields a wonderfully spreadable texture. It’s pure raspberry flavor in a jar.

Easy Dill Pickles

Ingredients:

8 pounds pickling cucumbers (3–5 inches long)
1 1⁄4 cups pickling salt, divided
2 gallons water
1 1⁄2 quarts white vinegar (5%)
1⁄4 cup sugar
2 quarts water
2 tablespoons whole mixed pickling spice (whole coriander, whole black peppercorns, mustard seed, allspice)
4 1⁄2 tablespoons dill seed (about 11⁄2 teaspoons whole dill seed per jar)

Preparation: Wash cucumbers. Cut off both ends and inspect for blemishes. Dissolve 3⁄4 cup pickling salt in 2 gallons water. Add cucumbers to mixture and let it sit for 12 hours. Drain carefully.

Combine vinegar, sugar, remaining 1⁄2 cup pickling salt, and 2 quarts water. Place pickling spice in a clean spice bag and add to the mix. Bring to a boil. Keep hot. Remove spice bag, but don’t empty it.

Sprinkle 11⁄2 teaspoons dill seed into each hot jar. Loosely pack cucumbers, filling to 1⁄2 inch from top. Cover cucumbers with boiling pickling syrup, transferring some of the remaining whole spices into each jar. Remove air bubbles; wipe jar rims. Cover at once with metal lids, and screw on rings. Process for the appropriate time for your altitude.

Good to Know: This recipe makes approximately 7–9 pint jars. Pouring the whole spices used in the pickling brine into each jar of these crispy pickles makes them just as pretty as they are tasty (adapted from the National Center for Home Food Preservation’s Quick Fresh-Pack Dill Pickles).

If you enjoyed these two recipes for canning and preserving, check out Canning & Preserving: The Techniques, Equipment, and Recipes to Get Started by Michele Harmeling.

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Photo credits
Raspberry jam: Margouillat Photo/Shutterstock
Dill pickles: Shutterstock