Master Preserver

I just finished a 6 week Master Preserver course through the Utah State Extension Service in St. George. We met for 3 hours every Wednesday night for 6 weeks. Each week we would have a 10 minute lecture and spend the rest of the time bottling something to enforce what we had learned about. It was chaos but I learned a lot.

The canning process hasn't changed much in years but there are a lot more regulations/rules that there didn't used to be. The old Ball Book that I have been using for years is now outdated and shouldn't be used. Because of the differences in foods now (tomatoes aren't as acidic, for example) there are new recipes you have to use to make them safe. I always used a steam canner and those now aren't safe according to the FDA. I learned how to process meats in a pressure canner (now I just need one instead of having to borrow my moms that I don't know how to work) and how to properly water bath bottles. I also learned that food tastes a lot better when you bottle it yourself, especially pineapple!

We had to process a lot of different foods to see the various processes. Some things surprised me and others did not. I really liked the peach salsa (yes, it had tomatoes and peaches mixed with onions and peppers), jicama is actually tasty unless it's dehydrated (then it's like eating bark), and garlic jelly is actually okay tasting when put on a cracker with cream cheese. I found out that I don't like dehydrated pastrami, orange jam made with orange juice concentrate is really yummy (my neighbors may get this for Christmas), cherry tomatoes are really potent when dehydrated, and I like to have sugar in my pie fillings.

I also found one way that Bryan won't eat mushrooms....PICKLED! I didn't taste them because I don't like mushrooms but he said they were too potent.

Anyway, there is an additional on-line preserver course from the FDA that I think I'll take just to have some more recipes/knowledge. It's pretty fun.