Home canning is a convenient way to preserve the surplus of forest gifts, fields, gardens and kitchen gardens for the summer. Salt, sugar, vinegar and lactic acid - these are four natural preservatives known for centuries. When storing fruits and berries for a long time, sugar is most often used - stewed fruit, jams, preserves, jams, jellies, jams are preserved, but there are also preparations with vinegar and salt, such as chutney and other fruit and berry sauces.
Pick your recipe
One of the basic rules of conservation - carefully select the ingredients! The fresher you use the products, the richer the taste and aroma of your dish. Discard broken and spoiled fruits and berries, rinse and dry the rest. Choose recipes for canning in advance so as not to encounter an unexpected shortage of ingredients. Try making spicy apples, for example. They will be a great addition to baked or fried meat, poultry, as well as a cheese plate. You will need 6 kilograms of apples, 12 cups of sugar, 6 cups of water and 1 1/4 cup of 5% vinegar (apple is best), as well as 3 tablespoons of clove buds and 8 sticks of cinnamon.
Wash the apples. Peel and cut into slices, previously freeing from the core. In a large six-liter pan, combine sugar, water, vinegar, cloves and cinnamon, heat to a boil and cook for 3 minutes. Put apple slices in hot syrup and cook for another 5 minutes. Now the workpiece can be preserved.
Sterilize the jars. Fill a wide pot, equal in height to prepared cans, two-thirds with water. Place the glass jars on its bottom, turning the bottom upside down, put the lids in the same pan. Some housewives pre-put a special stand on the bottom or put a towel folded in several layers, in their opinion, this precaution prevents banks from bursting. Put the pan on a strong fire and bring the water to a boil, boil for 10 minutes. To avoid scalding your hands by accident, wear gloves. Remove cans and lids from boiling water using large cooking tongs. Place them on a dry, clean kitchen towel. Do not remove the pot of boiling water from the fire, it will still be useful to you.
Fill cans with blanks. In the case of spicy apples, first spread the fruit slices, and then pour them in syrup, leaving a small space at the top of each jar unused. Close the jars with lids. You can take ordinary iron screw caps, or you can, if you have a special machine, roll up cans. There is an opinion that in order to avoid the formation of mold under the covers, it is worth soaking in a piece of parchment paper with alcohol and putting it on the neck of the jar before curling. Using the same tongs, lower the cans back into boiling water, also with the lids down, and leave it there for another 10 minutes, then remove and cool.
Store canned food properly. Keep them in a cool, dark place, such as the basement or lower shelves in the kitchen cabinet. If you have a few blanks or a very large refrigerator, put your blanks in it. In ideal conditions, canned fruits and berries are stored for many years.