Canning Sweet Breads and Homemade Sauces:

Hello everybody, and welcome back to Ridin Out the Recession, in Miz Judi’s Kitchen. Today we’ll talk just a little about canning sweet breads and homemade sauces.

The reason for this is we had a reader who had a couple questions in regards to these topics. OmaLinda wrote in and was wondering about canning brownies.

Her questions were as follows…

Have you tried canning brownies? They are my favorite dessert, but I’m not sure how long to bake them in jars, since normal testing techniques for cakes/breads do not work well with chewy brownies.
I would also like to can my own spaghetti sauce with meat in the oven. Do you have directions for this somewhere on your blog?

Our answer is simple enough…possibly. Now, on to something else…just kiddin OmaLinda!

Brownies, I consider like cakes in a way, only we have never “canned” a batch of brownies before. I would assume the cooking time would be very close to being the same whether you bake them in a pan, or, bake them in the mason jars, as “canned.”

I know this would work, but I just believe the finished product would be more along the lines of a cake, or sweetbread, versus what we consider a brownie. You know, the nice neat little squares that I picture as what brownies oughtta look like.

Although I have to admit the appearance to me means very little when weighed against the TASTE of the finished product. I hear people all the time speaking of “the presentation…” shoot, all I wanna know is…DOES IT TASTE GOOD?? LOL!

Food is just like people. Deb I ‘m very aware, didn’t marry me for my “looks, or presentation!” She couldn’t have, and that’s obvious.

BUT, she did marry me for another reason…my calm, easy going personality. What’s that Deb? Oh really, that’s not it, and I’m not calm and easy going? Well, I know she married me for a reason, it’s just that evidently I still don’t know what the reason was was!

But back to brownies, yes Ma’am OmaLinda, I believe you can, bake brownies in mason jars, seal them, and they’d be fine for a considerable amount of time. You’d do them just like you would cakes or sweet breads.

Use wide-mouth pint mason jars, fill them HALFWAY with your mix, and then bake them about the same length of time you would baking them any other way. Then insert a knife or toothpick in the center, and if it comes out clean, then your brownies are ready to come out of the oven.

Be sure and take your jars out one at a time. Doing this insures putting your bands and seals on a good hot jar. Taking them out all at once will enable the jars to cool, and possibly, too much.

Maybe some of our friends might have canned brownies in the past, if so, then they may send you a little info as well. What about it Mississippi? Sandy? Anybody??

Now, in regards to your homemade spaghetti sauce…

This, once again we’ve never canned, and while I’m saying this I’m wondering to myself…how come? Normally we freeze any leftover sauce. Actually, we Food Saver the spaghetti and the sauce into individual servings, then take them out, thaw them, warm them up, and there you go…a complete meal.

I tell you what we do can though, and I consider them both very close…chili. So, I’m thinking the way we can our chili would work just as well for your spaghetti sauce.

Here’s what we do, and it’s very, very simple.

We cook our chili just as we normally do. We make cook three to four batches in one big pot. After our chili is done we just keep simmering it. I for one feel that the longer you simmer chili, or even spaghetti sauce, the better they are. Also, the more you warm them up, the better the flavor. Maybe it’s just me, but I don’t think so.

After our chili is done, we heat our mason jars, we use quarts either wide or regular mouth, until they’ve come to a boil. We also heat, but not boil, our rings and seals. We also have our pressure cooker filled with boiling water.

So, our chili, jars, seals, and water in our cooker are all hot. We fill our jars with chili, wipe the rims good,put on the bands and seals, and then put them in a hot water bath for 10-12 minutes. Our boiling water in the pot is about an inch over the top of the jars.

Once we take them out, we set them to the side and start hearing the lids ping, or seal. That’s it. We then date the jars, and off to the food storage room they go. We’ve eaten chili that we’d canned up to a year and a half old. Never a problem.

Chili is something we can every so often, because around our place, EVERYONE likes chili. You know we’re in the paving business, and because of this, our crew goes out of town from time to time on jobs and in up staying in motels… with cook stoves and fridges.

So, you wanna know what one of the first things they ask for when knowing they’ll be on the road for a week or two? “Ya got any chili canned up?” Those guys love it, and our son Red is probably the worst.

As a matter of fact, Deb made a pot of chili just last night. Not enough to can, just enough to eat during this little cool snap. Well, I walk in, and guess where Red was. Bent over, with his head up in my refrigerator, and his rearend hangin outside of it! WHY?? Deb mentioned she’d made some chili!

But anyway, OmaLinda, I don’t think you’ll have one minute’s worth of problem doing your homemade spaghetti sauce the exact same way we put up our chili! Matter of fact, I guarantee it.
Well, we hope this has helped you out in regards to your questions, and thank you for reading. Come back anytime.

For the rest of you, I had a joke sent to me from Roger in Virginia…imagine that?? Keep it up Roger, I love seeing your stuff!

Anyway, with huntin season in, and if not in some places it will be shortly, I thought I’d share Roger’s picture with you guys today. Take a look…

The Shoe

This next joke comes from Gerry. Gerry is a good friend of ours and lives in Western Canada. Thanks for the joke Gerry!

A farmer got pulled over by a state trooper for speeding, and the trooper started to lecture the farmer about his speed and, in general, began to throw his weight around to try to make the farmer uncomfortable.

Finally, the trooper got around to writing out the ticket, and as he was doing that he kept swatting at some flies that were buzzing around his head.

The farmer said, “Having some problems with circle flies there, are ya?”

The trooper stopped writing the ticket and said—”Well yeah, if that’s what they are—I never heard of circle flies.”

So the farmer says, “Well, circle flies are common on farms. See, they’re called circle flies because they’re almost always found circling around the back end of a horse.”

The trooper says, “Oh,” and goes back to writing the ticket. Then after a minute he stops and says, “Hey… wait a minute, are you trying to call me a horse’s ass?”

The farmer says, “Oh no, Officer. I have too much respect for law enforcement and police officers to even think about calling you a horse’s ass.”

The trooper says, “Well, that’s a good thing,” and goes back to writing the ticket.

After a long pause, the farmer says, “Hard to fool them flies though.

You guys have a great day, and God Bless. Deb says, as always, keep a smile on your face, and one in your heart!

Dub and Deb

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2 Responses to Canning Sweet Breads and Homemade Sauces:

  1. Noemi Thelen says:

    canned brownies is new to me, it would be interesting to have it. but I am not sure about the taste.

  2. Sandy Grant says:

    Noemi they are wonderful. I added a little chocolate syrup to mine and they were very moist. Didn’t last but about 6 months around here. All I have served have loved it also.

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