Monday, November 1, 2010

Preserving Fall ~ Canning Pumpkin

canned pumpkin

I couldn't bear to let our carved pumpkins go to waste so I had the kids bring them inside to me this morning and I got to work chopping them up for canning :) I just LOVE the smell of freshly sliced and grated pumpkin and this will let me enjoy this time of year just a little bit longer. There's nothing like cooking up a pumpkin pie in those dark winter days and triggering wonderful memories of fall :)

Peeling pumpkin

They have a bit of a tough skin to peel but as you get going I find that it gets easier. You start to get the feel for the right pressure you need to apply to your knife while keeping your loose fingers clear in case it slips *grin*. I'll admit it slipped on me once and it sort of give my heart a jump start! LOL.

peeled pumpkin

I had already washed some of my pint canning jars in hot soapy water with a splash of bleach to disinfect them as they had been sitting in the crawl space all year so once I had all my pumpkin peeled I cut the pieces into 1 inch thick spears roughly the height of my jars but short enough to leave the 1 inch head space needed for a proper seal. What at time saver!! When it was time to pack the jars all of the spears were the exact height so there was no need to mess around trimming them to fit :)

I thought that I would share with you how I can pumpkin just in case you want to try doing it with your pumpkins to :) Pumpkins are a low acid vegetable and very capable of growing botulism if processed improperly so make sure you use a 'pressure canner' and NOT a 'water bath'.

When you have collected all of your jars, sealers, rings and have your pumpkin peeled and sliced it's time to prep you pumpkin for packing into your jars. Pre-heat your oven to 200 degrees Fahrenheit and place all of your pumpkin spears into a large stock pot and cover with water. Bring the pot to a boil and let it gently boil for a couple of minutes only. You will see that your pumpkin spears are starting to turn brighter orange as they start to cook and you only want them to be barely fork tender. You are going to pack your jars hot so even if you don't think they are quite done turn off the burner anyways because as you pack your jars the ones in the pot will continue to cook while waiting to come out.

Put on a clean pair of rubber gloves and grab a jar :) Your rubber gloves are going to be your body armor as you grab hot spears of pumpkin out of the pot and pack them in as tightly as you can vertically into your jars without mushing them. As soon as you have filled a jar, use a ladle and pour in enough of the hot water from your cooking pot to cover your pumpkin spears and make sure you still leave that 1 inch of empty head space at the top of the jar. Wipe the rim clean with a cloth so there are no bits of pumpkin where the sealer will touch and pop the jar into the oven to keep warm while you pack the rest of your jars :)

As soon as you have all of your jars filled with pumpkin and liquid it's time to get your sealers heated. I usually use Bernardin sealers which recommend that you only heat them to 180 degrees. Check the directions on your box as they may be different and if you happen to have old sealers you may find that they still say you can boil them for a full 5 minutes! I must say I sure do miss the old sealers that you could just pop in the pot and boil without worrying about over heating them *grin*. Once your sealers have been heated as directed, remove your jars form the oven with your rubber gloves on again and put on a hot sealer one at a time placing the finished jar each time directly into your pressure canner.

With your pressure canner fully loaded clamp on your lid, place it on your stove top burner, and turn the burner on high. As soon as your canner starts to 'vent' out of the steam pipe time it for a full 10 minutes and when the time is up shut the valve or place your weight on the steam pipe depending on which model of canner you have.

Process your batch at 10 pounds pressure for 65 minutes and that's it :)

grated pumpkin

Now if you don't have a pressure canner or just don't want to do all of that work *grin* then you can definitely freeze your pumpkin! I had way to much for my canner and I only wanted to do one batch so I grated up what was left of my pumpkin.

grated pumpkin

Our favorite cake and pie recipes call for two cups of pumpkin so I measured out 2 cups into each of my freezer bags so when I want to use one it will be exactly what I need :) You can also freeze pureed pumpkin, pumpkin butter and pumpkin pie filling as well.

canned Pumpkin

Three pumpkins later I have 18 beautiful pints of canned pumpkin, 6 packages of grated pumpkin for the freezer and 1 blistered finger from all of the peeling *grin*. If you have a favorite pumpkin recipe that you would like to share with me I would love to hear about it :)

Hugs,
Rosina

PS. Looking for more great recipes? Check out the Hearth & Soul Hop & Real Food Deals :)

10 comments:

Jennifer Hoots said...

Not only will they taste wonderful, but they are pretty too! What kind of pumpkin did you use? I have three on my porch that I could process. I could freeze them as I don't have all the canning equipment. I don't know what kind they are though. I got them from an orchard. Maybe they know!
Jenn

Anonymous said...

How do you get a non-watery pumpkin pie from homemade pumpkin? It looks like a great idea and maybe next year we'll have to grow lots of pumpkins if it works well. I have a boy who would eat pumpkin every day, seriously.

Alea Milham said...

@wonderinthewoods I put my pumpkin in a thin towel and squeeze the excess water out.

@Rosy - What a wonderful idea! I would love for you to link this up to my Real Food Deals Carnival tomorrow - this is definitely a great way to save money on real food!

Rosina {Rosy ~ Posy} said...

Hi Jenn :) The pumpkins that we used were gladiators. You know I have always just used whatever pumpkin we have grown or picked up at the farmers market. To me it really doesn't matter but I know others swear by the sugar or smaller pie varieties but I go with what I've got *grin*.

Hi Cori :)
When I open up a jar of my canned pumpkin I put it in my strainer and let it drip for about an hour. Most of the excess liquid comes out of the pumpkin and you can gently squeeze it a bit to push a little more of the excess liquid out of it. The consistency of my pie filling when I pour it into the shell is always quite watery and I cook it for about an hour and 15 minutes and it firms up beautifully. I see in the comment above to that she uses a thin towel to suck up extra moisture which I'm sure works great to :)

Hello Alea :)
Thanks for stopping by and I'm definitely going to have to check out your food carnival. I love to see what others are doing!

Annie said...

Oh how lovely!!

Christy said...

I just love that you used your Halloween pumpkins and didn't let them go to waste. Sadly ours were cut too early and they are now chicken food! I will certainly keep this in mind next year and wow do your cans look delicious full of all that beautiful pumpkin goodness. Thanks for sharing this at the Hearth and Soul Hop!

a moderate life said...

Hi Rosina and welcome to the hearth and soul hop! I am now following your lovely blog and look forward to getting to know you through your posts. My brother is also in the merchant marine, but he is a chief engineer! I was actually up your way this past summer traveling out of vancouver up into the mountains. How simply gorgeous it is! I have a pumpkin on my front porch right now, and I am totally going to use your tip to grate it into bags. I have a water bath canner, so I couldnt do the pressure canning. I have to get one of those soon! :) Thanks for sharing on the hearth and soul hop! All the best. Alex@amoderatelife

Bonnie said...

Hi Rosina,
I'm here from Hearth 'n Soul. I have never even thought to pressure can my pumpkin. I love pumpkin and squash and grow both in my garden. Thanks for the great tutorial. I'm hauling out my pressure canner.

Rachel said...

Sounds like a good idea but not all pumpkin varities are good to freeze or can. Which did you use? That would be so useful to know! *grin*

Rosina {Rosy ~ Posy} said...

Hi Rachel :)
Thanks so much for stopping by my blog. I used gladiator pumpkins for my canned pumpkin this year :)