- Author: Lauria Watts
I wish to make cherry pie fillings to can, and have purchased the cook-type Clearjel (aka: ClearJel, Clear Jel, CLEARJEL). Clearjel in the NCHFP pie filling recipes makes an extremely thick pie filling; some would call it gloppy, over thickened. It is all right for me, but it is a definite change in texture from what I usually get making fresh pies. I think a thickened but not quite so stand-up pie filling would be nice.
So to accomplish the thinner pie filling "thang," the hunt was on. After several searches varying words and phrases, the page "Clearjel Starch Thickener" was found on Healthy Canning.
What a great page. It is written by a Randal Oulton, from Canada. Mr. Oulton relies on approved information and recipes from the NCHFP, various USA State Universities for recipes/instructions. "Clearjel Starch Thickener" has nice depth; he cites sources extensively. It appears that he periodically reviews and makes revisions to his article as there were several dates in 2017 for accessing articles and the last date I found was November of 2017. I cannot speak for the rest of his site, but a nice job was done on this page and it answered my questions.
Very interesting. This is a great continuing education article for us all. And one last thing: always rely on and teach from approved sources, of course!
--And I hope to encourage you to make pie filling, can pie filling, make pies and eat PIES!
- Author: Lauria Watts
Get some spicy, tasty goodness in your canning, cooking and eating. There are a lot of things to eat that can enhance your meals. Our "Spice It Up" class is coming up. Make sure you sign up and don't miss it!
- Author: Lauria Watts
Need a brush-up on canning techniques? Are you a little fuzzy on the hows and whys of water-bath (WB) canning? Want to make sure you practice safe preserving? Need some hands-on WB practice?
Attend the Canning Tune-up Class, have fun, and get valuable info and practice!
- Author: Lauria Watts
Somehow this seems to have been posted much earlier this year--perhaps something is wonky on this website. But, here is a reminder about--THE WONDERFUL GROW AND PRESERVE CLASS--Don't miss it!
- Author: Lauria Watts
Have you ever been asked why a jam or jelly needs to be processed to store on the shelf? Has someone said, "Well, I always invert my jars. What's wrong with tha?" or "My Grandma use to just pour the jelly into jars and slap lids on 'em and that's what I do! Why not?" Were you able to give them good reasons why they need to process their jams or jellies?
This post direct from our recommended resource: the NCHFP (aka the National Center for Home Food Preservation, hosted by the University of Georgia), is a nice explanation on why it is recommended to process jams and jellies.
Also nice to note is that food safety, while a big reason, is not the only reason to process. So take a gander and let me know what you think!
Why do you recommend processing jams and jellies?
