Last Friday I started canning the ground beef and petite sirloin steaks I was able to get at a decent price. A decent price - not a great price. But beef prices are climbing at a level I don't like. Chicken prices should have risen after those floods a few months ago - but chicken only takes 3 months or so to get to kill level beef takes a lot longer.But I'm doing what I can. har har.
We really love beef and salmon. I really got very lucky last week when I accidentally found 15.4 oz salmon at 99 cents with an expiration of 06/2016. That is just unheard of.Between the cost of the Beef and the cost of the Canning Jars - I don't know which is worse. Goodwill, Craigslist and garage sales are all dry sources for jars now - and even the lid prices are going up.
15 pints of beef is better than none.
I tested the atlas mason jars that the tomato sauce came in - they worked our really well. I have to admit that I've been steadily using pint jars because I think a quart of anything is almost too much...lifting a loaded quart feels heavy.
4 quarts potatoes5 pints potatoes
4 pints carrots
so a total of 32 pints of canned goods, a few loaves of bread, 2 pans lasagna, breakfast lunch and snacks - all in 30 hours. What a maniac I am - but I just wanted to get it out of the way.
So on Sunday I could just study and make caramel popcorn.
Last night I did can some fresh pineapple. I tested a recipe I made to see if it was good - I like the results. So the next time pineapple is on sale I will do it again. I basically took the insides of the pineapple that you usually toss and boiled it into the simple syrup to get a better flavor.3 small pineapples will make you 7 pints. Actually they ate one already so that's under 40 cents a pint for a well stuffed jar.
If anyone hadn't noticed the pineapple is over 1.59 for the small can of generic - Dole is even more because they use a pineapple that is harvested closer to ripe for better scent and taste. So I am happy to make this.
I dunno about you guys but I like pineapple upside down cupcakes.
I just gutted a pineapple yesterday. So you boil the core and use it as the syrup to store the pineapple in? I will have to try that out.
ReplyDelete@Tasha: Yep - Cut out the cores, boil it in 4 cups of water, 2 1/2 cups of sugar and 1/4 cup lemon juice. Until it is incorporated. watch it though, it caramelizes quick - strain out the cores then store it in a jar - the lemon will prevent the sugar from crystallizing and you can mix it with other juice or tea. :)
ReplyDeleteI bought pineapple two years ago for $1 a can Dole, due to dietary restrictions it's a treat.
ReplyDeleteI copied the recipe anyways.
My Abuela once made some pineapple flavored vinegar which was really good. I think she heated the core in plain white vinegar. Could slap myself for not paying attention better when she cooked.
Excellent canning efforts !
@pele: If you have Mother vinegar I bet you could just add it to the pineapple syrup and after a few months it would become pineapple vinegar. Mother vinegar is the weird cloudy looking stuff at the bottom of the vinegar - I only find mother vinegar in Organic vinegar. I will try it and let you know! :) Pineapple vinegar sure would make a difference in sweet and sour dishes!
ReplyDelete