MY ABSOLUTE FAVORITE FOOD PRESERVATION TOOLS & BOOKS!!!

[@kleineroteHex]

girl, those super -cubes intrigue me!!! Sadly I really, really do not need more gadgets I need to clean out! 10 pounds of ginger? 5 pounds of turmeric? well makes juicing worth while for sure!!!! Pomona is so expensive - I used to get a pectin from ??? then they stopped making it. I just cook my jams a little longer, add tart fruit and I use half the sugar or less (4 cups fruit 2 cups or less, depending on the fruit mix I throw together; before the age of ready pectin it was just cooked longer. In Germany we had jelly sugar, sugar with the pectin mixed in already and my mom used to cut back on sugar back then already WE WANT THE FRUIT TASTE is right :) and yes canning lids are off the shelves every where - good thing new jars come with them :) and we can still get new jars. I tend to pick up used ones locally if I find them advertised (free cycle is great!) now I need more shelving LOL

[@crazykenz4203]

Souper Cubes are my favorite thing in the kitchen!!! I thought they seemed a little pricey at first, but the quality is great and it's one of those little investment pieces that is so useful. Haha, yup, I have a few quart bags of little ginger cubes or turmeric cubes - so nice to have on hand if I feel a little stuffed up or my throat is scratchy. I'll be getting another ten pounds of ginger in a week, so will be juicing a bunch more (I also made pickled ginger for sushi when I got the first ten pounds, so probably ended up juicing maybe 6 pounds or so). Pomona's is soooo expensive! I know that I've seen it in bulk, but haven't ever made that much jam to really want to get that much. It's like 7 bucks for one of those little boxes! So interesting that you had jelly sugar in Germany - I've never heard of that. Seriously, some of these jam recipes are just crazy - it's like the fruit is a garnish on a giant pot of sugar! Haha, I feel your pain about shelving! My dad built me a pantry shelf a few years ago and that's actually stored at their house, so I have tomato soup and a ton of applesauce on that, plus all my extra canning jars and supplies. I've done a lot more freezing this year than canning - good timing, I guess, with all of the issues with canning lids! Have you ever used Weck jars for canning? The next time I go to France, I want to get some books about food preservation for using the jars with the rubber seals (Weck and Le Parfait).

[@rockstomper8390]

My immersion blender is a whip. LOL

[@DaringDanielletravels]

Cool, I hardly ever use my immersion blender. Let’s have an immersion blender use video

[@kleineroteHex]

makes mayo zip zip done! cannot believe I used a blender before, no more!!!!

[@crazykenz4203]

I've never used it for making mayo (always used a food processor or hand mixer for that), but have heard it's super useful! I use it all the time for creamy soups and sauces (and I've started making soap, too, so very useful for that - but I have my separate soap-making immersion blender...don't want to be using that one for food!).

[@DaringDanielletravels]

Can you reuse the lids when pressure canning?

[@kleineroteHex]

definitely not! I am a big re-user when water bath canning: if the lid is intact and has no dings, bends etc I will reuse it for waterbath canning and only once in a great while a jar will not seal. Pressure canning takes much longer and I do not want to risk a jar not sealing because you either have to use that or redo the canning and there is not way I am doing one jar. ( I mostly can meat in the pressure canner, so I want those sealed - and even then it can happen that a lid will not seal but really more so not) BUT there are lids that are made for reuse Tattler makes them!

[@crazykenz4203]

Such good info, thank you! I've never done pressure canning, but like you said, canning takes a lot of time and it's so annoying to have stuff not seal and have to re-do it! This is the main reason I didn't want to try the Pur brand of lids I saw at the local hardware store - canning is so much work and I'd be soooooo mad if I spent a day canning and had a bunch of lids that didn't seal. Haha, I'm already usually pretty grumpy and tired after a day of canning, so I can only imagine what kind of mood I'd be in if I had lids that didn't seal!