another dumb question: what's most important about following recipes?

[mirime]

You're all probably so sick of me asking so many questions! But here I go.

Changing canning recipes - some people putter with their recipes by adding more spice or whatever, but, and here is the crux of my question, I'm guessing that the only thing you need to NOT CHANGE is 1) the vinegar/acid amount/ratio to the food that you're canning and 2) the hot-water-bath /processing time. But other than those two things, it doesn't really matter how much you tinker.

Am I right?

 

[patandchickens]

"it depends"?

For pickling, yes. You need to follow the recipe w/r/t having sufficient amounts of sufficiently-acid acid for the amount and type of produce you are using. And if you freelance very much on salt or basic procedure, you are likely to end up with subpar texture or color. Spices, though, you can pretty much knock yourself out and it won't harm the preservational qualities of the result.

For jellies/jams/etc (anything where pectin is an issue), it is much trickier unless you want to learn how to test for pectin content and gelling point (preferably using rubbing alcohol as well as the 'usual' gelling tests). The ability of a preserve to gel properly depends on the three-way balance of acid, sugar and pectin amounts. Any one of these being over or under can mess up your result (it won't spoil but it may be soup). Therefore, changing quantities or basic types of fruit, or amounts of sugar, or anything affecting acid balance, or anything affecting amount of water in the recipe, can quickly turn a preserve into a dessert sauce or beverage-concentrate

For canning fruits, as long as you are following a sound basic recipe it is perfectly fine to add spices or herbs if you feel like it.

For hot-water-bath canning vegetables (which is for acid vegetables only, which pretty much translates to "tomatoes") it is pretty important not to compromise total acidity by diluting the tomatoes down with significant amounts of other ingredients. At least, not unless you bring the acidity back up with ascorbic acid, lemon juice or vinegar, but without being able to accurately test pH I would not really recommend guesswork in this regard. So, adding flavorings is ok as long as they are in very small amounts only.

Probalby too much information, but, oh well

Have fun,

Pat

 

[DrakeMaiden]

To sum up what Pat says, yes spices you can tinker with, but acidic ingredients and sugar/salt you will want to keep with the recipe. Also head-space and timing should follow the recipe.

 

[mirime]

Thanks DM and Pat.

And NOT that I'm gonna be fiddling at ALL right now - I was just trying to understand the 'science' of canning.

Plus, I just had to throw out all of my first canning attempt (see my new post).

I think that maybe I didn't get all the air bubbles out properly that time.

 

[bills]

Even with spice tinkering, you have to be cautious. I find that it's very easy to over-do it, with some spices. It seems canning enhances them, sometimes with, errummm, not so great results...

 

[mirime]

hehee that would be be...I can overdo it w/spices when I'm cookin!

 

[averytds]

If you must tinker, use a pressure canner. Easier to tinker with pressure canning IMO. You can do most anything with that and just use longest/highest process for ingredient rule. If you really, really want to tinker with a waterbath (meaning tomato, not pickle or jam) recipe, just see if it won't fit into a pressure recipe like mixed veggies/soup. HTH