Preserving At Home

So, I've been thinking for a long time that I would like to make my own goods and preserve them. But I've never really been game enough to try, until today! I made salsa for Justin a couple of weeks ago, and he ate it like it was going out of fashion, and today I made a double batch, specifically so I could can some. 

(Apologies in advance, I forgot to take photos as I went along, there were a few issues with chillies and milk, but we'll talk about that later).

First, we start with some delicious food (in this case salsa). While it's cooking we boil our jars and lids (for 10 mins or more), then bake them at 110c for 15 mins. 

Once our jars have been sterilised, we can fill then with our goodies. Now be extra careful here, the jars have just come out of the oven, so they will be hot. You're best off using oven mitts, or a folded over tea-towel. Make sure you screw the lids on super tight.

Once everything is canned, we need to process the jars with a boiling water bath.

My 3 jars of salsa processing!

The water bath creates pressure within the jar, which when cooled, creates a vacuum, sealing our goodies in :) As long as the seal is clear, ie there's no chips in the jar, or food on the rim of the jar, then it should seal perfectly fine. Just make sure the jars don't sit on the bottom of the pot. It's recommended that you put a short cooling rack on the bottom of the pan to stop it touching the jars, but I didn't have one, so I used a tea towel. 

Guess we'll just see how it goes from here! I'll make sure I take photos next time so you guys actually know what I'm talking about. 

Which me luck!

Jayde xx