When preparing a nice dinner, the making of these specialties is often the most time-consuming activity, but sometimes they are what can take even the simplest of servings to lofty levels. Just consider ubiquitous ketchup or a common oil-and-vinegar salad dressing! The effort to make six jars at one’s leisure, often enough for twelve or more four-person meals, is not much greater than the effort spent while preparing the same for a single meal. Made with the freshest and ripest of produce in season, not always the case at dinnertime, and made without those nasty, unpronounceable chemical preservatives of store-bought, the jars will be ready and waiting. And something else, a little something about all of us: when it’s already there, we do it, we’ll use it, and so can unfold a splendid dinner that otherwise might have passed.
When it comes to marinating, many a time just before bed I have prepared to mix up the makings for fish or meat in a ziplock bag only to discover I was missing an ingredient. It was after two such occasions when I decided, enough! I would create a canning-safe recipe and do a year’s worth on a quiet weekend morning. As I toiled, I considered, why limit these marinades to this one? Between the pages of this heading and the next, you’ll receive a plethora from which to choose.
Putting up is not just for speed of preparation or quality of ingredients; canning creates, as mentioned in the introduction, an art form. Chefs in upscale restaurants take great pride in their food’s presentation. There is no doubt that the visual art is pleasing. When a family sits down to a dinner of, say, ham steak, rice, and broccoli, they eat. When the same family enjoys ham steak smothered in sweet potato sauce that was preserved back in October when the tubers were coming out of the ground, wild rice topped with home-canned cherry chutney, while the steamed broccoli is drizzled with your personal lemon vinaigrette dressing, they are enjoying food art: attractive yet simple, quick to fix, and designed to tantalize taste—a sense more poignant than sight.
Apricot and Lime Curry Sauce
Chutneys were originally made to go with curry dishes because the former, with all its sweetness, took some of the heat away from the spiciness of the latter. But curry itself has a remarkable flavor, so by combining a curry powder with appropriate fruits while limiting the sugars and heat, we create a topping/baking/slow-cook sauce that produces many splendid main-course dishes, especially ones with lamb, turkey, or chicken.
Canning Notes
This is an acidified hot-pack recipe.
pH is not an issue, so testing is not required.
This recipe makes 4 or 5 pint jars; half pints work well.
This recipe can be halved, doubled, or multiplied.
Ingredients
| 6 cups chopped fresh apricots (about 4-1/2 pounds) |
| 4 limes, peeled, sliced, seeded, and slices quartered |
| 1 cup sugar |
| 1/2 cup finely chopped crystallized ginger |
| 1 cup tomato purée |
| 1/2 cup olive oil |
| 2 tablespoons curry powder |
| 1 tablespoon black pepper |
| 1 tablespoon salt |
| 1 cup honey |
| 1/4 cup balsamic vinegar |
Directions
Place all ingredients except honey and vinegar in a nonreactive canning pot. Over medium-high heat, cook until liquids from the fruit have been released and the sauce begins to thicken. Add remaining ingredients, turn heat to high, stirring constantly, and bring to 200 degrees F. Do not allow sauce to boil.
When at the consistency of thin pancake batter, remove from heat and immediately fill sterile jars, seal, and invert for 2 minutes minimum.
Serving Suggestions
Curried dishes are a mainstay in India. British colonial rule introduced these fantastic tastes to the rest of the world and, as the saying goes, the rest is history. Smothered over and under the skin of before baking chicken will make for great eating. For a stew, use chunks of lamb, pork, or chicken baked in the sauce in a nonreactive covered pan, Dutch oven, or slow cooker and serve over brown rice; this is a main course that will be requested over and over.
Light Barbeque Sauce
Many locales across America have their colloquial sauce for barbequeing. My first book, Putting Up, has one that is about as good as it gets. It’s expensive and complex to produce, but it is thick! Thick sticks better than light, and light sauces require continuous painting applications of the meat. Slow cooking and thick sauces don’t usually go together because they dry out quickly, and the sugars often burn, blackening the finished product. So in this book, I decided to present a canned creation from the family tree. Light but requiring no monitoring, pork, chicken, or beef can slow-cook unattended and be ready for dinner when you are.
Canning Notes
This is an acidified hot-pack recipe.
Initial pH will be below 4; if higher than 4.2, some acidic ingredient was left out.
This recipe makes 6 pint jars; pints will make enough servings for four.
This recipe can be divided, doubled, or multiplied.
Ingredients
| 4 tomatoes, seeded, squeezed, and finely chopped |
| 2 green bell peppers, finely diced |
| 1 to 3 hot peppers, minced (optional) |
| 1 cup minced sweet onion |
| 4 cups cider vinegar |
| 1 cup chili sauce |
| 1 cup brown sugar |
| 1/2 cup freshly squeezed orange juice |
| 1/2 cup butter |
| 1/4 cup Worcestershire sauce |
| 2 tablespoons chili powder |
| 1 tablespoon coarsely ground pepper |
| 2 teaspoons dry mustard |
| 2 teaspoons salt |
| 2 slices lemon, seeded, per pint jar |
Directions
Place all ingredients except lemon slices in a nonreactive pot. Bring sauce to just below boiling or 205 degrees F. Hold for 10 minutes, stirring often to prevent burning. Perform initial pH test.
Place two lemon slices in each jar to be filled. At 200 degrees F, hot-pack in sterile jars, seal, and invert for 2 minutes minimum.
Serving Suggestions
Growing up in a little apartment in New York City, I always got excited when, upon returning home from school, the smell of slow-cooking barbeque wafted throughout. I knew it was that day of the month destined for ribs and rice with a touch of the sauce. We usually had Brussels sprouts, but mustard greens would have been nice and kale most acceptable, or any other of the dark leafy greens would have worked equally well for that matter. Much later, when I compared death rates to rib consumption, I began using chicken, beef ribs, and even chuck roasts cut into chunks. The slow-cooking process renders tender the toughest pieces of meat while combining the many BBQ flavors into a rich, hearty meal. But do try the pork ribs at least once. They have got to be good if people are willing to give their lives to eat them!
Orange Glaze Sauce
Simple, quick to produce, and always ready at a moment’s notice, this glaze dresses chicken, duck, ham, pork chops, and sweet potatoes to the nines. The key is to use the best oranges one can buy if they cannot be personally picked. Duck a l’orange, once a favorite at fashionable restaurants, has now faded from menus. I put an end to those haunting disappointments by creating this simple recipe. Now jars sit on my pantry shelf ready to “a l’orange” anything I feel might go well with the flavors.
Canning Notes
This is an acid hot-pack recipe.
pH is not an issue, so testing is not required.
This recipe makes 9 half-pint jars; pints and half pints work best.
This recipe can be halved, doubled, or multiplied.
Ingredients
| 6 cups freshly squeezed orange juice (with pulp) |
| 1/4 cup orange peel, cut into small stripes (no white pith) |
| 1/2 cup peanut oil |
| 1/4 cup butter, melted |
| 1 cup honey |
| 1/4 cup finely chopped crystallized ginger or fresh gingerroot |
| 1-1/2 cups sugar |
| 1-1/2 cups light brown sugar |
| 1 teaspoon salt |
| 1/2 cup cornstarch |
Directions
Place all ingredients except cornstarch in a nonreactive pot. Bring to 210 degrees F. Mix the cornstarch with just enough water to liquefy the starch, add to the orange sauce, and stir well. When the cornstarch thickens the mixture, immediately fill sterilized jars, seal, and invert for 2 minutes minimum.
Serving Suggestions
The French have long ago figured that duck and orange are a natural. I often wonder if they first discovered the coupling in the Orient. Duck is fatty, preparation is long, and the birds are expensive when considering a family of four. But if there is time, money, and duck available, go for it. Stuff the bird with peeled orange wedges and when 3/4 done cooking, paint the entire bird inside and out with orange glaze. Repeat every 5 minutes until the duck(s) are ready. Use some of the pan juices to season accompanying wild rice. Broccoli makes a perfect vegetable here. When served, the plate is a display of colors.
As a postscript, for Christmas dinner I served ducks stuffed with plugs of orange plus two quail, each stuffed with wild rice drizzled with the sauce. When the smaller birds inside had reached 160 degrees, I began basting the ducks with the orange sauce until time to remove from the oven. The sauce produced a dinner no one at the table will ever forget. But duck is just a beginning for this sauce.
You can also bake a sweet potato and when soft, split it open and pour in some sauce—another duo like manna from heaven!
The orange sauce works wonders painted on pork chops as they cook, or try marinating a pork tenderloin in orange juice and 1/4 cup of the glaze along with a pinch of cinnamon for 24 hours in a ziplock bag. Halfway thru cooking, cut an incision 1/2-inch deep along the top from end to end and fill with glaze. Paint the exterior and complete cooking. Cut into medallions and serve. Garnish with a slice of orange.
The best way to approach chicken is to consider it as poor man’s duck. Poor as it may be, it makes a rich feast.
Steak Marinade
This marinade serves a twofold purpose: to flavor steaks and to tenderize less expensive cuts. Where a rib-eye or a New York strip often costs in excess of $10 a pound, steaks costing half the price work beautifully. The acids in wine, vinegar, and apple juice do the work, tenderizing while one sleeps. Place the steaks in a ziplock bag, fill with marinade, and remove the air from the bag so the solution surrounds the meat. If using a hard container, try to inundate the meat. Refrigerate and allow to marinate for at least 48 hours (more won’t hurt). Remove and broil, or plunk on the outdoor grill and use leftover marinade to baste.
Canning Notes
This is an acidified hot-pack recipe.
pH will be low.
This recipe makes 6+ pint jars; all size jars work fine.
This recipe can be halved, doubled, or multiplied.
Ingredients
| 4 cups seeded, finely chopped, and juiced tomatoes |
| 2 cups honey |
| 2 cups Worcestershire sauce |
| 1 cup olive oil |
| 4 cups red wine |
| 1/4 cup finely chopped garlic |
| 1/4 cup finely chopped yellow onion |
| 1/2 cup apple juice |
| 1/4 cup balsamic vinegar |
| 2 tablespoons coarsely ground pepper |
Directions
Place all ingredients in a nonreactive canning pot and bring to canning temperature of 190 degrees F. Check pH just to make sure. Fill sterile jars, seal, and invert for 2 minutes minimum.
Serving Suggestions
The obvious was discussed in the introduction above. A bit less obvious is that by spending less on meat (often much less), a steak can turn out even better than a more expensive cut. The shopper might consider investing some of those saved dollars and purchase slightly more expensive pure grass-fed beef. We have all learned when it comes to the heart and arteries that fish is good and beef is bad. But grass-fed beef has those same kinds of fats and Omega-3 fatty acids that fish have. Seems it is the corn that makes the bad in beef we read about so much. Beef takes the rap where maybe it should be corn. Whatever your choice, an apple a day might keep the doctor away, but I don’t think that would be the same for steak, even grass-fed; but twice or thrice a month will keep those carnivore teeth we all wear quite satisfied.
Steak Sauce
Why have all these beautiful creations in one’s pantry while a bottle of store-bought sauce is used on steaks at the table? Here’s the solution. Remember, these sauces go a long way, so I have purposefully made this recipe small. If the four jars don’t last the year, you’re probably eating too much beef!
Canning Notes
This is an acidified hot-pack recipe.
pH will be below 4.3 if measurements are correct; to lower, add extra vinegar.
This recipe makes 4 half-pint jars; all size jars work.
This recipe can be doubled only.
Ingredients
| 2 tablespoons minced garlic |
| 3/4 cup finely chopped yellow onion |
| 2 tablespoons olive oil |
| 12 ounces tomato paste |
| 3 cups peeled, seeded, finely chopped, and squeezed tomatoes |
| 1/2 cup finely diced celery |
| 1/2 cup diced green bell pepper |
| 1 cup cider vinegar |
| 1/2 cup unsulfured molasses |
| 1 tablespoon Colman’s Dry Mustard |
| 1 teaspoon ground cloves |
| 1 teaspoon ground allspice |
| 1 tamarind or 1/2 lemon, peeled, seeded, and finely chopped |
Directions
In a heavy-bottom nonreactive pot, sauté the garlic and onion in the olive oil until the onion is clear. Don’t rush and don’t let the oil smoke. Add the tomato paste and, stirring constantly, cook over medium high for 5 minutes. This will take the tinny taste out of the canned paste.
Add the tomatoes, celery, bell pepper, and vinegar. Simmer for 30 minutes. Add the remaining ingredients and bring to just under a boil for 10 minutes. To smooth out the sauce while being mindful of handling the hot liquid, purée in a food processor or blender.
Return sauce to the canning pot, bring to canning temperature of 200 degrees F, check pH, pour into sterile jars, seal, and invert for 2 minutes minimum.
Serving Suggestions
Steak sauce is steak sauce when it’s put on top of or beside meat. If eyes end up being bigger than tummies and there is steak left over, cut into bite-size bits and store refrigerated in a mixture of equal parts steak sauce, cider vinegar, and olive oil. Have steak vinaigrette as a protein snack mid-afternoon or add to a luncheon salad.
Marinara Sauce
Our nation prides itself as an ethnic melting pot. They came from all over, “coming to America,” as Neil Diamond sang. And they brought with them their recipes. Ethnic cooking today is often simply American.
Meatballs and spaghetti are right there at the top of the list. A real quality marinara sauce like the ones that might be found bubbling in a country kitchen pot in a small Italian village can only be created with the primary ingredient of love, an ingredient that seems to be missing from commercially prepared sauces. Marinara is the most used sauce in many households, and no wonder, considering the host of applications that can be used, from a sauce for spaghetti and pizza to the sautéing of pork chops or chicken. It is canned with ease, stores in all size jars for various applications, and is homemade, with aromas, scents, and flavors causing its waifish commercial cousin to fantasize about what he could have become.
Canning Notes
This is an acidified hot-pack recipe.
pH is critical, must be monitored, and kept below 4.3. The wine, vinegar, tomatoes, and paste are the acid forces. If pH requires lowering, add 1/4 teaspoon citric acid and mix well; continue until pH is at 4.2.
This recipe makes 6 quart jars, all jar sizes work.
This recipe can be halved, doubled, or multiplied.
Ingredients
| 14 pounds tomatoes, peeled and finely chopped |
| 24 ounces tomato paste |
| 4 cups finely chopped white onion |
| 1 cup minced celery (tender parts of stalks only) |
| 1 cup minced carrot |
| 1 cup olive oil, divided |
| 1 bell pepper, small-diced |
| 20 cloves garlic, minced |
| 2 cups white wine (not too dry) |
| 1 cup balsamic vinegar |
| 3/4 cup butter |
| 1/4 cup honey |
| 2-1/2 tablespoons chopped, tightly packed fresh oregano |
| 1 tablespoon chopped, tightly packed fresh basil leaves |
| 2 teaspoons chopped, tightly packed fresh parsley |
| 2 teaspoons salt |
| 2 teaspoons coarsely ground pepper |
| 6 bay leaves |
Directions
Put the tomatoes in a nonreactive pot with the tomato paste and stew for 20 minutes or until beginning to thicken. Sauté the onion, celery, and carrot in a little olive oil until the onion is clear before adding with the rest of the oil to the tomatoes along with the bell pepper. Simmer for an additional 15 minutes.
Add the remaining ingredients, bring to 200 degrees F, and hold, stirring often, until thick. Retrieve bay leaves and place one in each quart jar (or see alternative tip in bay leaf section of the introduction). Check pH and adjust if necessary (see canning notes above).
Bring to canning temperature of 205 degrees F, ladle sauce into sterile jars, seal, and invert for 2 minutes minimum.
Serving Suggestions
Pasta with marinara sauce over the top makes quite a supper. Many consider the sauce a base from which to launch. Meatballs are well known, as in meatballs and spaghetti, but shrimp or chunks of lobster mixed into the sauce and served over linguini makes an elegant meal. With a salad on the side, one could not be wanting.
Use it as a sauce spread on pizza or in lasagna, or pour over veal as in veal parmigiana.
To make meatball subs, mix ground hamburger, finely diced onion, and a little marinara, then cook and place on a crusty hot Italian loaf split lengthwise, with slices of mozzarella or Parmesan melting inside. Ladle in hot marinara for a fork-and-knife sandwich not to be beat!
Seafood Lynah
In the old South, cotton might have been king but rice was what one ate. It was the primary staple along with corn. The reason was simple: there was too much humidity to successfully grow wheat.
To keep rice dishes from getting boring, families created many recipes to dress up the plain starch. I grew up in such a household, and this sauce with shrimp became a favorite rice meal; this recipe has been in the family for 150 years. But many types of fish will serve equally well. It is a simple meal and yet possesses much of what is needed to remain healthy. Later in life, I switched to brown rice and, although not quite as good, knowing the health benefits made the meal actually taste better.
Canning Notes
This is an acidified hot-pack recipe.
pH will be below 4.3; if above 4.2, check acid percentage of vinegar.
This recipe makes 7 half-pint jars; jar size is irrelevant.
This recipe can be halved, doubled, or multiplied.
Ingredients
| 3 cups cider vinegar |
| 3 cups water |
| 1/4 green bell pepper, julienned |
| 1/4 yellow bell pepper, julienned |
| 1/4 red bell pepper, julienned |
| 1/2 cup light olive oil |
| 1/4 cup chili sauce |
| 1/4 cup Worcestershire sauce |
| 1 tablespoon Colman’s Dry Mustard |
Directions
Place all ingredients in a canning pot, bring to 190 degrees F, check pH, pour into sterile jars (make sure each gets a share of all colors of bell peppers), and then seal and invert for 2 minutes minimum.
Serving Suggestions
Unlike most sauces that are made for seafood to be served over rice, this is light and gentle, addressing the ocean creatures with a delicacy that seafood deserves. Since seafood has the tendency to get rubbery and tough very quickly, cook the seafood first. To make the dinner, prepare the rice, heat the sauce to hot but not boiling before adding cooked fish (cut into bite-size pieces) and/or peeled shrimp. Stir around until the seafood is warm throughout, less than 4 minutes. Do not overcook. Serve over rice with scoops of sauce containing all ingredients. An 8-ounce jar will serve four. The meal is simple and quick, plus totally unique, which is always fun.
Sweet Potato Sauce
The fall tuber begins coming out of the ground before the first frost, but it is not until Thanksgiving that the healthy rich sweet potato really makes its winter debut. Nutrient-rich and yet seldom seen on dinner plates unless ham is served, this neglected vegetable, cultivated maybe 5,000 years ago in Central America, should get more respect. The derivation of our word “potato” comes from the Inca word for sweet potato, batata. Sweet Potato Butter is in my first book, Putting Up, and I now add two more recipes in this volume to pay homage to our continent’s most powerful super food!
Canning Notes
This is an acidified hot-pack recipe.
pH must be kept under 4.2; monitor closely and reduce with additional vinegar if necessary.
This recipe makes 6 half-pint jars; half pints and pints serve best.
This recipe can be doubled or multiplied.
Ingredients
| 2 tablespoons grated fresh ginger |
| 2 tablespoons olive oil |
| 4 cups mashed cooked sweet potatoes (about 3 pounds) |
| 1/4 cup butter |
| 2 cups apple juice |
| 3/4 cup cider vinegar |
| 1/2 cup honey |
| 1/2 cup light brown sugar |
| 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon |
| 1 teaspoon ground allspice |
| 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract |
| 1/2 to 1 cup water |
Directions
Sauté ginger in olive oil until golden in color. Place all ingredients except water in a nonreactive pot and bring to 180 degrees F. Check pH and adjust with additional vinegar if necessary.
Begin adding water 1/4 cup at a time while stirring. Canning the sauce thicker than thinner will increase the servings since water can be added after a jar is opened. Just the same, it will need to be thinned to fill the jars.
When the desired thickness is reached, bring to a canning temperature of 200 degrees F, ladle into sterile jars, seal, and invert for 2 minutes minimum.
Serving Suggestions
Sweet potato sauce makes leftover turkey a looked-forward-to delight; and when visiting family or friends for Thanksgiving, there is no more thoughtful a house treat.
Heat in a saucepan, but do not boil, and add water to attain the consistency desired. Ladle over turkey. The sauce works equally well with roast chicken, which is a more common meal during the year, and I suggest not waiting until leftover parts need scarfing. Have the gravy train on the table along with the fresh out-of-the-oven steaming bird. For those who still stalk in the wild for untamed fowl, with pheasant under and sauce above, the two make a noble hunter’s combination.
Serve over plain angel hair pasta and one has the simplest of meals that is both tasty and nutritious. For a ham sandwich, spare some extra fat by using sauce on one slice of bread and mayo on the other.
Steve’s Salad Dressing
For two years I’ve been making this dressing, running out of ingredients periodically, and having to resort to something other than what I wanted. Returning home from an expedition, I noted I still had plenty of my vinegar dressing stash but was surprised at how much more flavorful it was after curing for a week. Since that revelation, I have been putting it up in batches that last at least three months. It is not heated and does not have to be—heating damages the healthful properties of olive oil—and yet it does not have to be refrigerated. It does have to be guarded though or the neighbors might get it.
Canning Notes
This is an acid recipe.
No testing is necessary.
This recipe makes 1 quart.
This recipe can be halved, divided, doubled, or multiplied.
Ingredients
| 2-1/2 cups good-quality extra virgin olive oil |
| 1/2 cup distilled or bottled water |
| 1 cup good-quality balsamic vinegar |
| 4 teaspoons dried Italian seasoning |
| 2 teaspoon Colman’s Dry Mustard |
| 1 teaspoon sea salt |
| 1-1/2 teaspoon coarsely ground black pepper |
| 4 packs Stevia Blend (or 4 teaspoons sugar) |
Directions
Put all in a quart jar, shake well, and store in a dark area. Shake vigorously before using. The jar never becomes vacuum-sealed, so even after it is first opened, it can be re-stored in the same dark location.
Serving Suggestions
Nobody seems to tire of this dressing, myself included. I often enjoy a nice salad at dinner or a salad for dinner five times a week. To tender lettuces like butter lettuce, add some grated carrot, a bit of sweet or red onion, and 1/4-inch squares of a hard cheese like Gruyere to make a complete salad for dinner. Add diced chicken breast or other low-fat protein. Add some dried cranberries and raisins before finishing with a sprinkle of sunflower kernels. Pour the dressing over all (a little goes a long way) and sit down to extreme satisfaction as well as health. For a luncheon bite or a mid-afternoon snack, cut an avocado in half, remove the seed and fill the hole with the dressing—bet you won’t put the other half away for the next day.
