3 Ways to Preserve Food

Whether you have your own vegetable garden or get some extra vegetables from friends, preserving some for the winter is always a good idea. In my family, this has been done for generations, in fact, it is very common in my country. We not only stock up our pantries, we stock up whole cellars and many of us have so much food in jars that we don't need to go shopping for months.

In this instructable, I will show you how to preserve fruit and vegetables with sugar, salt and vinegar and I'll give you some basic recipes used in my family. The process requires power but the storage does not.

If you'd like to know more about my culture, not just preserving food, check out the Czechology blog.

1. vegetables and/or fruit
2. water
3. salt
4. sugar
5. vinegar
6. optional: spices and herbs, see specific recipes

Before you start cooking, you need to prepare your jars and lids. They can be any size you like, glass, with a lid that can be screwed on or pressed.

Clean the jars thoroughly and then run them through a dishwasher on a high temperature or put them in boiling water for 5 minutes. Let them dry bottom up, don't dry the inside with a rug. Make sure the lids aren't deformed.

Preserving food in vinegar is perfect if you like the sweet-acid taste and want to keep the vegetables crunchy.

Ideal for: Cucumbers/gherkins, zucchini (slices), beetroot, cauliflower, grated vegetable mixes

BASIC RECIPE

You'll need:

1. 1 l/0.26 gallon of water
2. 150 ml/5 oz of 8% vinegar
3. 150 g/5.3 oz of sugar
4. 50 g/1.8 oz of salt
5. vegetables

Put water, vinegar, sugar and salt in a large saucepan and boil until salt and sugar dissolve. This is the pickle you can use for your vegetables.

SPECIFIC RECIPE - GHERKINS

You'll also need:

1. gherkins up to 10 cm/4 in long
2. pieces of dill – leaves, blossoms, young stems
3. bay leaf
4. mustard seed
5. allspice
6. whole black pepper
7. whole cloves
8. optional: carrot, onion, sliced

Wash the gherkins well, there should be no earth left on them. Place some chopped dill at the bottom of each jar, add a bay leaf, a few mustard seeds, 1 allspice, 2 black peppers and a clove. Fill the jar with whole cucumbers and add one or two slices of onion and three slices of carrot. Fill the jars with the pickle still hot (all vegetables covered) and close.

Preserving food in sweet solution is ideal for all fruits. You can also add spices of your liking to it.

Ideal for: Any fruit

BASIC RECIPE

You'll need:

1. 1 l/0.26 gallon of water
2. 300 g/10.6 oz of sugar

Boil water and sugar until sugar is dissolved.

SPECIFIC RECIPE - APRICOT COMPOTE

You'll also need:

1. apricots
2. optional: clove, cinnamon sticks

Clean the apricots, cut them in half, remove the kernels. Place the halves in jars open size down. You can add 2 cloves and/or 1 cinnamon stick per jar. Fill the jars with the sugar solution, all apricots need to be completely immersed, and close the jars.

Preserving vegetables in salt doesn't require dissolving the salt in water first. This method is perfect for diced vegetables which you can later use for soups and broths (I recommend rinsing the excess salt before adding the vegetables in the soup).

Ideal for: root vegetables, peas

Because the basic recipe requires only salt, I'm showing you how I preserve carrot and you can apply that to other vegetables.

You'll need:

1. 1 kg of vegetables
2. 300 g/10.6 oz of salt

Clean and dice the vegetables (dicing is not required for peas, obviously), place it in a bowl. Add all the salt but 1 tbsp and mix with your hands. Put it in a jar, press with your fingers, add vegetables to fill the jar. When it's almost full, add 1 tbsp of salt to cover the vegetables and close the jar.

This way of preservation doesn't require sterilizing the full jars so skip the next step.

The last step is sterilizing your jars once you've closed them. You'll need a sterilizing pot/canner, there are modern ones with timers and modes, I have an old one (see pictures) which I love working with because it is huge, it fits a lot of jars. Even if you don't have any of these pots, you can use a regular kitchen pot, it just needs to be tall enough so your jars fit in covered with water.

Make sure the lids are screwed or pressed on well and the jars are tightly closed. Place them in the pot and cover with water. Bring the water to 85°C/185°F and sterilize at this temperature for 25 minutes. This is a temperature high enough to sterilize the jars but not to boil the fruits and vegetables so they don't become mushy.

Right after the water finishes boiling, there are a few things you can do to secure the preservation. Sometimes I leave the jars in the water and take them out after it cools down completely and mostly it's ok but there is a higher number or spoilt jars, I admit. So, I recommend taking them out right after the boiling is over (a jar lifter comes handy here) and you can:

1. Flip the jars on the lid and let them stand upside down until they cool down completely, or
2. Place an ice cube in the center of each lid.

Both of there ensure that the lid "latches" on to the jar and seals the jar air-tight.

Write on each jar what's inside it and the year. Sometimes even years-old jars contain food that is still good but I recommend using all jars before the next season begins.

Store the preserved food in dark, in a pantry or a cellar.