Pickled Beets

I had ~3.75 lbs of beets that I saved bagged in the refrigerator from the CSA season this year, and I canned them yesterday. I can process 4 pints (wide mouthed or regular) in my 6 qt instant pot. I put in the rack, an inch or 2 or water, and push the steam button. These were pints so according to the presto site I needed to do 30 minutes for beets and let it release on its own. 

I sort of followed this recipe: http://allrecipes.com/recipe/38109/pickled-beets/

I made half the brine suggested since I had just under 4 lbs, and added 1/2 tsp powdered clove to the brine, and I had a little brine left at the end. Also I did not put in a full cup of sugar, it was more 7/8 cup. I also halved the salt (so it was 3/4 tsp for the half recipe). I used salt without iodine.

I used a mix of red and golden beets. The red beets were easy to peel and I didn't need to use a peeler after cooking them (I used the pressure cooker to cook the beets too, I did 20 minutes and let it release on its own), but the golden beets I needed a peeler. I've never had pickled golden so we'll see how they are.

I was able to cram the beets into 4 regular mouth pint jars. It's amazing how they compress when already cooked.

Canning Dried Pinto Beans

I had a bunch of dried pinto beans that a friend gave me and were sitting around unused. I thought I might try to pressure can them. The basic method is here: http://www.theprairiehomestead.com/2013/04/how-to-can-dry-beans.html. I skipped the boiling step (based on some reader comments about the final result being too soft). So I just soaked them overnight and them put them into pint mason jars, added hot water with 1 inch headspace, then put them in my instant pot cooker/canner for 75 minutes.

That is the first batch. I made 8 pints of it. I opened one of the pints to check softness and it seems to be a good texture and not too soft.

I am going to sprout the rest of the beans. I plan to pressure can half of them (after sprouting) just like described above. Then after that, I will try to ferment the rest and try to can that. I haven't figured out yet if I ferment the raw bean, or the cooked bean.

Update:
The sprouted beans turned out just fine too.

Spaghetti Sauce canning recipe

20 lbs roma tomatoes, stem area cut out
4 lb ground beef
1 lb sliced mushrooms (could have used 2 lb)
4 garlic cloves (could have done more)
2 huge onions (or 4 regular)
dried oregano, basil, thyme (two palm size amounts of each, ~1 inch diameter in palm)
salt- 4 palms (1 inch diam)
pepper - 1 palm


I did half of this recipe at once since I could only fit 10 lb in my biggest pot. I think 20 lb would fit in a 12 quart, but I only have an 8 qt pot.

Cut tomatoes in half, throw in pot with herbs. Let simmer for a few hours so some liquid can evaporate. Put through blender (for my blendtec I put it on level 5 for 10-20 seconds) in batches. Saute meat, mushrooms, cloves, and chopped onions (i did it one thing at a time and added to blended sauce when finished). Then sauce simmered for more time until thick and flavor was strong enough.

makes 14-16 pints. I can process 4 pints (wide mouthed or regular) in my 6 qt instant pot. I put in the rack, an inch or 2 or water, and push the steam button. Adjust time to 60 minutes for pints, 70 min for quarts (i did a quart on its side). Leave 1 inch head space, pour in hot liquid, put on lid and screw on band (not overly tight).

That's it. I did it over two days, with lots of down time and other stuff going on. It would have saved time if I had a bigger pot and a big pressure canner, but I have neither so made do!