3 Great Canning Recipes for End of Summer Produce
Cucumbers are coming in from the garden, peaches are on sale, and I’ve been busy making pickles and jam this week. Let me share with you what canning recipes I’ve been enjoying!
1. Easy Refrigerator Dill Pickles
This was the easiest dill pickle recipe! All you have to do is make up the brine, slice up your cucumbers, and stick everything in jars! Let it sit in the fridge for a week and voila – dill pickles! My husband and kids loved it. I like them too (admittedly I’m not a huge dill pickle fan) but think I got a little too much garlic in there. I’ll add a little less next time.
What’s even better? You can reuse the brine – just add new cucumber slices to the jar of brine and let it sit another week. Sweet deal. You can find the recipe by Self Proclaimed Foodie here.
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2. Best Homemade Peach Jam
I’ve already made two batches of this delicious peach jam and just bought peaches to make more this weekend! My second batch turned out better than my first, as my fruit was overripe the first time and I didn’t mash it like the recipe instructed. I had some “fruit float” happen, but it still tasted great and sealed just fine, thankfully. Be sure to mash your fruit!
I especially love the addition of cinnamon to this jam. The kids have been enjoying it on their peanut butter sandwiches, I’ve been eating it on toast and pancakes, and everyone wants to lick the spoon after we’re finished preparing our meal!
The recipe calls for using 8oz jars and processing for 5 minutes. While it is best to follow the recipe exactly and you’re technically not supposed to size up jars for a recipe, all I had were 16oz jars. I increased the processing time to 10 minutes and it worked just fine. You can read more on processing times here, and can find this delightful jam recipe by Barefeet In The Kitchen here.
3. Quick Bread and Butter Pickles
What are “bread and butter” pickles? They’re both sweet and a little sour – sliced pickles with onion mixed in, which are great for burgers and sandwiches. They’re old fashioned pickles said to be from the depression era when people would eat them between two slices of buttered bread as a sandwich.
While this recipe by America’s Test Kitchen does require a subscription, you can sign up for their free 14-day trial and snag all the recipes you want during that time! (If you’re on the fence about signing up, they really are a great resource.) I’m not affiliated with them – I just like them.
The bread and butter pickle recipe is for refrigerator pickles, meaning they don’t need to be canned, but I chose to process them anyway. My mom has done it many times with great results. I used 8oz jars, left 1/4 inch headspace, and processed them for 10 minutes. They all sealed fine.
Canning Equipment & Accessories
Here are some tools I’ve been using and loving!
My canner – it’s been working like a charm! I love that it has a color coded gauge on top to tell me when the processing time starts.
I’m in love with these sweet vintage-inspired labels!
This funnel is awesome and has a ruler on it for measuring headspace.
Love my canning scoop – it has a clip on the side to keep it from sliding into the pot.
This jar lifter is easy to grip!
I hope this has inspired you to do a little end of Summer preserving in your cottage kitchen! Let me know if you try these canning recipes and enjoy them! I’ll be busy making more peach jam, more pickles, and hopefully some plum jam this weekend!
Drop a comment below with your favorite thing to preserve/can!
Blessings,
Melissa
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Hi, Melissa,
I’m enjoying a jar of bread and butter pickles made according to your recipe. The pickles are delicious! The spices are a delightful balance of sweet and savory. I hope others viewers try them, too.
Thank you.
Mark
I’m glad you’re enjoying them, Mark! Thanks for commenting! 😉