My Great-Grandmother Would Be So Proud

Inspired by Amy at Clothesline Alley that canning doesn't have to be too hard, I decided to try my hand at one of her recipes, Nectarine Chutney. I have never done any canning before, even though I have considered it many times. I have checked books out from the library and looked over recipes. I even bought canning jars once. But every time, I chickened out! But not this time!! I got over my fear of not having just the right special kind of equipment and forged ahead! Fortunately, I did this the day before my camera went out of commission (I think it said something about needing a sabbatical...) so I have pictures!

I did go buy some special ingredients though. I didn't have canning salt, for instance.

I guess that's the only thing I had to buy - which is why I was attracted to this recipe.

Don't these nectarines look so yummy? Look at that color!

Once I added all the ingredients, all I could smell was the vinegar! Whew, was it strong. Fortunately for me, I love vinegar. Unfortunately for Jerry, he hates it... Check out the spoonula! I love mine, too. And it's even red, my favorite color!

After I cooked this concoction for an hour, it was ready to go in the jars. I don't have a dishwasher where you can fast forward to a specific spot in the cycle, so the easy method of keeping your jars warm and sterile of putting them in the drying cycle didn't work for me. I put them in the oven instead until I was ready to fill them.

Here is my fancy water bath canner! A stock pot! I put my steamer basket in the bottom so that the boiling water could circulate.

The jars went in just fine! The only problem with this pseudo-canner is that I didn't have a good way to get the jars out of the boiling water! I used my salad tongs. It worked, but I was so afraid that I was going to drop the hot jar on the tile floor and watch my hard work shatter! Aren't the jars so cute in the water?

And here's the finished product:

I only got three jars from the recipe, and it looked awfully dark to me. I expected the molasses to darken it, but I thought it would look a bit lighter. I think one of the problems was the amount of nectarines I used. I weighed them and used the amount called for in the recipe, but I really felt like there were too many raisins and not enough nectarines. I was a little bit disappointed by that, but overall, I am happy with my first attempt. The jars sealed, which was my main worry.

If I make this recipe again, I will do a few things differently:

• Use more nectarines
• blanch the skins off rather than hand peeling them with a knife
• Don't boil as long with the lid off the pot - I could have used a bit more liquid left
• get a real jar lifter-outer thingy so that I am not so worried that my salad tongs will fail me

But, you know, I did taste some of this, and WOW! it is really good. So I am looking forward to using it. But the only thing I can think to use it for is to put on top of chicken. What else would this go with?

I plan to can again. In fact, tomorrow I am planning to make some strawberry jam with the four pounds of strawberries I got on the cheap this week. I hope it turns out!