Herb Potatoes

My Canning Cellar

Welcome to Season 2, Episode 1, Herb Potatoes
My equipment was the Presto Precise Digital Canner, a small pot, 2 large pots, a colander, a potato peeler, my favorite small paring knife, a canning funnel, a de-bubbler tool, vinegar and paper towels, an oven mitt, a jar lifter and a dish towel, along with my usual garb of the vintage snap front apron my late mom gave me many years ago.

What I did was wash and peeled the potatoes as I started the broth, letting the broth come to a slow boil. These were potatoes given to me and had no variety name on the bags so I can’t help anyone there. I diced the potatoes into pieces no larger than 2” for heat distribution reasons, and put them in a pot of cold water into which I’d added a dollop of lemon juice known as acidified water which I had to research to know what it meant.

My goal was to dice the potatoes as evenly as possible which goes against my hurry-up nature, but because I may want to enter a jar in our local fair, I wanted to do a little more even job.

I used about 5 pounds of smallish potatoes, discarding some pieces that were grayish. My sister gave me some fresh rosemary and thyme from my niece’s herb garden, and I also ended up using some of my dried rosemary and dill as I ran out of the fresh herbs and didn’t have any dried thyme on hand. I’ve never known how to use herbs so normally I don’t buy them…the dried rosemary came from our lovely neighbors.

The process was after rinsing the potatoes that had been in the lemon water, letting them drain in the colander, then letting them all sit in fresh plain cold water for about 15 minutes, I put some of the diced potatoes into the jars then added a teaspoon of herbs, then filled the potatoes to the top at about the inch mark then added the hot chicken broth, de-bubbled and added more broth if needed to the inch headspace. Because I assume the judges will fault me for decreased liquid as many food items are prone to having, I knowingly overfilled the jars. I wiped each rim with a vinegar soaked paper towel, put on the lids which I had sitting in a little pot of from the tap hot water, and finger tightened the rings.

Pressure canner time was 35 minutes for the pints.

I have often found it to be true that if any jar comes out of my canner with the food not bubbling, then that jar may not seal. I actually had two jars not visibly bubbling this time yet they both eventually sealed. And despite over filling the jars with broth, only two are at a level I think would satisfy the judges. But I have never entered home canning at a fair before so I may be off the mark here.

Lots of canners including myself get very discouraged by lids that buckle while processing. I am very careful to only finger tighten my rings on lids but it happens sometimes. And sometimes those jars will still seal and when they do they make a loud pop. I think that the generic lids are sometimes made thinner so they just don’t take the pressure well. That said, I HAVE had success with generic lids.

I have noticed that most of my lids this summer have sealed without the lovely sound of the ping…I miss that sound but as long as the jars seal I can deal with the lack of fanfare, albeit reluctantly.

Recipes for coleslaw and herb potatoes, using the basic directions and adding or detracting ingredients depending on what I had on hand.
https://www.justapinch.com/recipes/side/vegetable/canned-cole-slaw.html
https://www.canningandcookingathome.com/dianes-blog/herbed-potatoes-for-pressure-canning
http://www.buymeacoffe.com/mycanningcellar
#homecanning #cannedfood #mycanningcellar