25.4 Condiments, relishes and canning

Condiments

Strictly, a condiment is anything added to food for flavor, herbs, spices and vinegars included. Today the word usually means a prepared flavoring served alongside food: mustard, relish, bottled sauces, pickles. The guest uses as much or as little as they like. A condiment brings a bold note, tart, salty, spicy or sharp, to the food it is served with. Mustards, ketchups, chutneys, relishes, pickles and compotes are the garde manger's building blocks.

• Mustard is crushed mustard seed mixed with vinegar or wine and salt or spices. Its bite comes from an oil that forms only when crushed seed meets water. It may be smooth or grainy, depending on how fine the seed is ground and whether the hulls are strained out. Dijon mustard is smooth and complex, and French mustard sold as "Dijon" must come from that region. English and Chinese mustards, made from mustard flour and cool water, are very hot; American "ballpark" mustard is mild, sharp with vinegar, and bright yellow. Unless it has a lot of oil in it, mustard does not really spoil; it only loses flavor. In the kitchen it coats lamb under breadcrumbs before roasting, helps vinaigrette and mayonnaise hold together, and makes a dip or a sandwich spread.
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• Ketchup once meant any salty extract of fish, fruit or vegetables. Today's tomato ketchup is an American sauce, thick and sweet-sour. It can be kept in the refrigerator or at room temperature, and keeps well for up to four months once opened, though it darkens and loses flavor as it ages. Many chefs make their own. A good bought ketchup can also be the base of a cocktail sauce, with horseradish sauce and lemon juice added.
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• Chutney is a sharp relish of fruit, spices and herbs, much used in Indian cooking. Major Grey's is a well-known sweet-sour chutney of fruit, ginger and spices, served with meats such as duck and lamb. India also makes chutneys from vegetables.
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• Fish sauce is the liquid drained from salted, anchovy-like fish as they ferment, thin and golden to light brown, very pungent and salty. It is essential across Southeast Asia. Fermented black bean sauce is Chinese, made from black soybeans that are heavily salted, fermented, then left whole or puréed.
• Compotes are usually fruit cooked in syrup and served with sweet dishes, but a savory compote can be served with a pâté or terrine.

Relishes are usually served cold, on or beside something hot: a hot dog topped with pickle relish, or black-eyed peas topped with chow-chow, a relish made from cabbage, bell pepper, onion and tomato, in the American South. Cranberry relish, curried onion relish and red onion confit are other examples.

Pickles turn up all over the world, made from vegetables, eggs, fruit (as in Italian mostarda) and even pig's feet. Cucumber pickles can be sweet, hot or sour, and whole, sliced or chopped into relish: a sour relish is dill relish, a sweet one is sweet relish. Bread and butter pickles and pickled okra are Southern favorites.

Vinegar for pickling

Vinegar forms when bacteria turn the alcohol in wine or another alcoholic liquid into acetic acid; no alcohol is left at the end. Good vinegar is clear, never cloudy. Distilled vinegar, made from grain alcohol, is clear, with a stronger taste and more acid than other vinegars, and it is the one preferred for pickling and preserving. Commercial vinegar is pasteurized, so an unopened bottle lasts indefinitely somewhere cool and dark; opened and tightly capped, it lasts about three months. Strain out any sediment, but throw vinegar away if mold grows in it.

Why canning works, and how it fails

Canning began as a way to keep a big harvest beyond its season. Done properly, it removes oxygen, destroys the food's enzymes, stops bacteria, yeasts and molds, and leaves a strong vacuum in the jar. A good vacuum makes a tight seal that keeps liquid in and air and microbes out. The practices that achieve it:

• Choose fresh food carefully and wash it.
• Peel some foods.
• Hot-pack many foods.
• Add acid, such as lemon juice or vinegar, to some foods.
• Use proper jars and self-sealing lids.
• Process the jars in a boiling-water canner or a pressure canner for the right length of time.
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The danger is botulism, a deadly food poisoning. Clostridium botulinum lives as spores, a kind of seed, in soil and water and on most fresh food. Spores are harmless where there is air. Sealed in a jar, they grow into active cells when they have:

• moist food
• food that is low in acid
• a temperature between 40°F and 120°F
• less than 2 percent oxygen

Within 3 to 4 days those cells can produce a deadly toxin. Even a taste of food containing the toxin can kill.

Washing removes few microbes from food; peeling roots, tubers and tomatoes removes many, and blanching helps. What really controls them is the canning method, and following the research-tested process times published by the USDA (the United States Department of Agriculture) in its Complete Guide to Home Canning.

Acid decides the method

Acidity is measured as pH: the lower the number, the more acidic the food. The line that matters is pH 4.6.

• Acid can be natural, as in most fruit, or added, as in pickles. Lemon juice, citric acid or vinegar raise the acidity.
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• A mixture of low-acid and acid foods is usually low-acid too, unless its recipe adds enough lemon juice, citric acid or vinegar to make it an acid food.
• Some tomatoes, and figs, sit just above pH 4.6. To can them in a boiling-water canner, acidify them first, with lemon juice or citric acid, to pH 4.6 or lower.

Botulinum spores are very hard to kill at the temperature of boiling water; the hotter the canner, the easier they die. Low-acid foods are therefore sterilized at 240°F to 250°F, which a pressure canner reaches at 10 to 15 pounds per square inch on its gauge (PSI). A pressure canner is the only recommended way to can meat, poultry, seafood and vegetables. Canning them in boiling water carries a real risk of botulism. Pressure itself kills nothing; the high temperature, held long enough, does. At sea level, a canner at 10.5 pounds of gauge pressure is 240°F inside. Acid foods can go in a pressure canner, but a boiling-water canner is recommended for them because it is faster.

The exact time depends on the food, how it is packed, and the size of the jar, so take every time from a tested, up-to-date recipe for that food, jar and altitude.

What not to do

These are not recommended, because they do not remove every risk of spoilage:

• Open-kettle canning.
• Processing jars in an ordinary oven, a microwave or a dishwasher.
• Pressures above 15 PSI in new pressure canning equipment.
• "Canning powders". They preserve nothing and do not replace heat processing.
• Jars with wire bails and glass caps; one-piece zinc caps lined with porcelain; and zinc caps that seal with flat rubber rings.
• Small pressure saucepans.

Jars, lids and headspace

Use regular or wide-mouth Mason-type home-canning jars with self-sealing lids. Sizes run from ½ pint through pint, 1½ pints and quart up to ½ gallon; ½-gallon jars are only for very acid juices. With care a Mason jar can be used many times, with a new flat lid each time. Commercial mayonnaise jars can take acid foods in a boiling-water canner with new two-piece lids, but expect more seal failures and breakage, and never put them in a pressure canner.

The lid is a flat metal disc held on by a screw band. A ring of sealing compound under the disc softens in the canner, lets air out, and seals as the jar cools. Unused lids seal well for at least 5 years from when they were made. Buy only a year's supply, and never use old, dented or misshapen lids. The flat lid seals only once; the screw band can be used again until it rusts.

Cleaning and sterilizing jars.

• Wash jars in hot water and detergent and rinse them well, or run them through a dishwasher; leftover detergent can taint the food. Washing does not sterilize.
• To lift hard-water scale, soak jars for several hours in 1 cup of vinegar (5 percent acidity) to each gallon of water.
• Jams, jellies and pickles processed for less than 10 minutes must go into sterilized jars: stand the empty jars upright on the rack of a boiling-water canner, cover them with hot water to 1 inch over the tops, and boil 10 minutes below 1,000 feet of altitude, adding 1 minute for each further 1,000 feet.
• Jars for the pressure canner, and for foods processed 10 minutes or more in boiling water, need no sterilizing first.

Raw pack and hot pack

Fresh food holds a great deal of air, from 10 percent to over 30 percent, and the more air is driven out before sealing, the longer the canned food stays good.

• Raw pack: unheated food packed tightly into the jar. Fruit packed this way floats, and the trapped air can discolor it within 2 to 3 months. Raw packing suits vegetables for the pressure canner better.
• Hot pack: food brought to a boil, simmered 2 to 5 minutes, and packed loosely while hot. It drives out air, shrinks the food so more fits, stops floating, and gives a stronger vacuum. It is the preferred pack for the boiling-water canner.

With either pack, bring the juice, syrup or water to a boil before pouring it in.

To keep cut apples, apricots, nectarines, peaches and pears from darkening while you fill a canner load, hold them in cold water treated with ascorbic acid, 3 grams to the gallon. A level teaspoon of pure powdered ascorbic acid weighs about 3 grams; six crushed 500-milligram vitamin C tablets also make a gallon. Browning in cut fruit is explained with fruit. see chapter 18: Color: pigments, acid and browning

Filling and closing a jar

• Fill the jar with hot food and its liquid, leaving the right headspace.
• Free trapped air by sliding a flat plastic spatula, not a metal one, between food and glass and moving it up and down as you turn the jar. Jams, jellies and juices need no bubbling.
• Wipe the rim with a damp paper towel; a dirty rim can stop the seal.
• Put on the heated lid, compound side down, and screw the band on as the maker directs, fingertip-tight. Too loose, and liquid escapes and the seal may fail; too tight, and air cannot vent, the food discolors, and lids may buckle or jars break.
• Never tighten the bands again after processing.
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The boiling-water canner

The canner needs a rack and a lid, and must be deep enough for briskly boiling water to stand at least 1 inch over the jars. On an electric range it must have a flat bottom and be no more than 4 inches wider than the element.

• Fill the canner about halfway with clean water, enough for a load of pints.
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• Heat the water to 140°F for raw-packed food or 180°F for hot-packed food.
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• Lower the filled, lidded jars in on the rack, or one at a time with a jar lifter held below the band. Keep each jar upright.
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• Add boiling water to at least 1 inch above the jar tops, or at least 2 inches for processes longer than 30 minutes.
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• Cover, turn the heat to high, and start timing only when the water boils hard.
• Keep it boiling the whole time. If the boil stops, bring it back to a hard boil and start the timing again from zero. Top up with boiling water to keep the jars covered.
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• At the end, turn off the heat, take off the lid, and wait 5 minutes.
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• Lift the jars out onto a towel, at least 1 inch apart, and leave them undisturbed to cool for 12 to 24 hours.
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The pressure canner

A pressure canner has a rack, a gasket, a dial or weighted gauge, a vent port and a safety fuse. Two errors make it run cooler than it should, and both lead to under-processed food:

• Altitude. The higher you are, the lower the temperature inside, so the canner must run at the higher pressures the USDA guide sets for each altitude. A weighted gauge cannot be fine-tuned: above 1,000 feet, a process set at 5 PSI must run at 10, and one set at 10 must run at 15.
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• Trapped air. Air in the canner lowers the temperature at any pressure. Every pressure canner must be vented for 10 minutes before it is brought up to pressure.

Look after the canner itself:

• Have a dial gauge checked for accuracy every year. A gauge that reads high leads to under-processing and unsafe food.
• If it is up to 2 pounds out, the pressure can be adjusted; if it is more than 2 pounds out, replace it.
• Use only canners with Underwriters Laboratories (UL) approval.
• Do not pick at the safety fuse when cleaning.
• Pour hot water into the canner to a depth of 2 to 3 inches, or more if the food's process calls for it. Set the jars on the rack with a jar lifter, upright, and fasten the lid.
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• Leave the vent open and heat on high until steam flows freely.
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• Let the steam flow for 10 minutes, then close the vent with the weight or petcock. The canner comes up to pressure over the next 3 to 5 minutes.
• Start timing when the dial shows the right pressure, or the weight starts to jiggle or rock as the maker describes.
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• Keep the pressure steady, at or just above the target. If it drops below the target at any point, bring it back up and start the full process time again from zero.
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• When the time is up, turn off the heat and let the canner lose pressure by itself. Never cool it with cold water or open the vent early: that can make the food unsafe, pull liquid from the jars and break the seals.
• Once it has lost its pressure, take off the weight or open the petcock, wait 10 minutes, and unfasten the lid. Lift it away from you so the steam does not burn your face.
• Lift the jars out onto a towel, at least 1 inch apart, and leave them undisturbed to cool for 12 to 24 hours.
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Cooling and checking the seals

A hot jar must never go down on a cold surface. Keep the cooling jars out of drafts, but do not cover them to slow the cooling. If a jar lost liquid in the canner, do not open it to top it up; liquid loss is not a sign of spoilage.

After 12 to 24 hours, take off the bands and test each seal in one of three ways:

• Press the middle of the lid. If it springs back up, it has not sealed.
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• Tap the lid with the underside of a teaspoon's bowl. A clear, ringing note means a seal; a dull sound means no seal, or food touching the lid.
• Look across the lid at eye level. It should dip slightly in the middle. Flat or bulging may mean no seal.
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If a lid has not sealed, check the jar rim for tiny chips, use a new lid (and a new jar if needed), and process it again within 24 hours for the full time. Instead, the food can be frozen, with the headspace made up to 1½ inches, or refrigerated, and a single unsealed jar eaten within several days. A stricter limit for a refrigerated unsealed jar is one or two days. For a jar that has a bad seal, throw the food away unless the problem was found within a few hours.

Storing canned food

Before the jars go into storage:

• Take off the bands, wash the jars and lids without disturbing the seal, then rinse and dry them, because unseen residue can grow mold.
• Store them without bands: they stay dry, and a broken seal is easier to spot.
• Label and date every jar.
• Do not stack jars directly on one another more than two layers high, and put a firm support between layers.

A dry storeroom should be cool and dry, ideally between 10°C and 15°C (50°F and 59°F), so food does not spoil and cans do not swell. Store jars somewhere clean, cool, dark and dry, never above 95°F, near hot pipes, a range or a furnace, in an attic or in sunlight. Damp rusts lids and can break seals. Can no more than you will use in a year.

Spoiled jars and botulism

Never taste food from a jar with a lid that has not sealed, or food that shows any sign of spoilage. Check every jar before you use it:

• The lid should still be tight and dip in the middle. A swollen lid or broken seal means gas from spoilage.
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• Turn the jar at eye level and look for streaks of dried food running down from the top, rising bubbles, and odd color.
• As you open it, smell for anything off, and look for liquid that spurts out and for cotton-like mold (white, blue, black or green) on the food or under the lid.

• Still sealed: put the jar in a heavy garbage bag, close it, and put it in the regular trash or take it to a landfill.
• Unsealed, open or leaking: detoxify it first. Wearing disposable rubber or heavy plastic gloves, lay the jars and lids on their sides in a pot of at least 8 quarts. Add water gently, without splashing, to at least 1 inch above them. Cover, bring to a boil, and boil 30 minutes. Cool, then throw away jars, lids and food.
• Clean-up: mix a fresh solution of unscented household bleach (5 to 6% sodium hypochlorite), 1 part, with clean water, 5 parts. Wet every surface, tool and item of clothing that may have touched the food, and leave it 30 minutes. Wipe up with paper towels and bag them before binning. Apply the bleach again, leave it another 30 minutes, and rinse. Then wash everything thoroughly and throw away the gloves. Bleach irritates skin and lungs, so do not breathe it or let it touch you.

Home-canned low-acid food may be eaten without boiling it first only when you are sure of all of these:

• It was processed in a pressure canner used the USDA way.
• The gauge was accurate.
• The process time and pressure were current, tested ones for that jar size, pack and food, and right for your altitude.
• The lid is firmly sealed with a vacuum.
• Nothing has leaked.
• No liquid spurts out on opening.
• There is no off smell and no mold.

For low-acid and tomato foods that were not canned by the USDA's tested methods, even with no sign of spoilage, boil the food in a saucepan before eating it: 10 minutes below 1,000 feet, plus 1 minute for each further 1,000 feet. Boiling means large, foamy bubbles breaking all over the surface. Boil home-canned vegetables at least 10 minutes before anyone tastes them, and never taste them at all if anything seems wrong during cooking.

Making grape jelly

The processing times for this grape jelly are for 1,001 to 2,000 feet above sea level; at any other altitude, take the time from a recent USDA or state extension bulletin.

• Have six half-pint jars, lids and bands ready.
• Mix the pectin, lemon juice and grape juice well in a 6-quart saucepan and bring to a boil, stirring all the time, until bubbles form all round the edge.
• Tip in all the sugar at once and stir. Return it to a full rolling boil, then keep boiling hard and stirring until it reaches 104°C (219°F).
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• Take it off the heat and skim the foam with a metal spoon.
• Pour quickly into sterilized jars, leaving a ¼ inch headspace, and put on hot lids and bands.
• Process at once in a boiling-water bath for 11 minutes. It makes about 6 cups.

How fruit gels with sugar and pectin is taught with fruit. see chapter 18: Preserving: jams and jellies