My freezers are bursting at the seams!
I like to keep lots of pre-made meals (by me) on hand in our freezers, but my fruit and veggie freezer is so full that literally NOTHING else will fit in there, so I decided to take some of the frozen fruit out and can it!
Canning it makes it shelf-stable AND frees up space in the freezer, so today we’re:
- Canning Fig Balsamic Jam
- Canning Blackberry BBQ Sauce
- Canning blackberries and cranberries in extra light syrup
(recipes and uses below)
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Items In The Video
These are some of my favourite items in this video (with product links):
Fig Balsamic Jam
For the Fig Balsamic Jam I used Sabrina Currie’s recipe here.
It turned out beautifully and there’s literally nothing I would change about it!
Here are some ideas for using Fig Balsamic Jam:
- Slather on a crostini with goat cheese or cream cheese
- Add to a charcuterie board with meats and cheeses
- Smear it on your grilled cheese before you grill it (Mmmm….)
- Spread it on a pizza crust or flatbread and add goat cheese and prosciutto and grill. Top with arugula.
- Top a baguette slice with fig balsamic jam and brie and broil
- On a toasted english muffin
- Mix with some additional vinegar and use as a salad vinaigrette
- Add a little olive oil to it and brush on a pork tenderloin before you grill it (please use humanely raised pigs 🙏)
Blackberry BBQ Sauce
For the Blackberry BBQ Sauce I used Buy This Cook That’s recipe here.
It’s good, but I feel like it needs more flavour depth, so I’ll definitely play with the original recipe and see what I come up with. Stay tuned!
Canned Blackberries and Cranberries
I love that I got these out of my freezer and freed up so much space!
Having more shelf-stable food is one of my goals because then I’m not relying on electricity or panicking when the power goes out with 3 freezers full of food.
For the blackberries I did a raw pack to preserve the firmness as much as possible. For the cranberries I did a hot pack. I used the instructions from my Bernardin Complete Book of Home Preserving for both of these. It’s a great book and it’s my go-to for safe canning.