Thursday, March 28, 2013

Sugar Solution

I went down to Dadant to get the two new unassembled beehives for the swarms arriving next month and found the answer to a question that has been bothering me for some time.  I can a lot.  Particularly jams and chutneys and pickles... all foods which need sugar.  What would I do if sugar were unavailable?  I have a few recipes where honey can substitute for sugar (just cook it a slightly lower temp, since it burns easier)... so the obvious answer would be to substitute honey for the sugar in the canning recipes, but it is not a 1:1 relationship, and I am risk-averse when it comes to meddling with canning recipes (that whole botulism thing scares me), so I wasn't going to just make  it up on the fly.  While I was standing in line (!?! on a weekday!?! at Dadant!?!), I flipped through their catalog and found the books section, and found the solution to my problem...Putting it up with Honey by Susann Geiskopf-Hadler... a natural foods canning cookbook with 207 recipes for preserving foods without using sugar or harmful preservatives.  It's a good size book for only $14.95, full of recipes for jams, jellies,  butters, preserves, conserves, marmalades, canned fruits, hot sauces, juices, sauces, chutney, pickles, vinegars, pickled fruits, relishes, and even a chapter on drying fruits.  This just thrills my little heart, and I'll be posting about it again as I try out the recipes, once berry season starts.

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