Preserving Essentials

If you're a keen veg grower or just a beginner, preserving your excess fruits and veg can be a little daunting to begin with.  As our grandmothers and mothers did, preserving any excess supply in summer will ensure a continuous supply into the cooler months and no waste. 

With current research and media coverage of foods we buy and eat, there is a rapid and growing response to growing and preserving your own.  Being aware of what we feed ourselves and our children, and teaching them exactly where our food comes from - the process of planting, growing, eating, preserving!

Here are a few tips to to get you started in the preserving process.

Essential Timing:
Preserving is not a fast & furious process.  Normally allow at least 3 hours non-stop to process through a large batch of fruit or vegetables.  There is the preparation (peeling, scrubbing, chopping), the cooking, the sterilising of jars and finally the bottling.  None of these should be rushed, and you will certainly enjoy the end result if you take the time to do each stage with care.

Essential Equipment:
You don't need a great deal of expensive or elaborate equipment to get started.  Many of the items you need to preserve fruits and vegetables are already in your kitchen.  However, before beginning any recipe, make sure you are comfortable with the equipment you have for the quantities you want to process in each batch. 

If you enjoy a lot of preserving, then it makes sense to invest in quality items such as preserving pans that will see you through many, many seasons of fruit and veg!  Preserving pans are normally fairly wide to allow a good rolling simmer and aids in evaporation.  Never fill your pan more than half with produce and ingredients - overflow is messy and dangerous.  A lot of good quality preserving pans feature a bucket-type handle which allows suspended storage - this is important to ensure good ventilation of the pan and will avoid 'tainting' of flavours between various batches of produce.  Brass, copper or iron preserving pans are excellent for jams and jellies, but must not be used for pickles or chutneys due to the acidity in vinegars.  Enamel pans are great unless they are chipped.  Stainless steel preserving pans provide the best all-round use as can be used for any preserving requirement.

Essential Cooking Speed:
When cooking, a gentle rolling simmer is what you need to aim for.  Rigourous boiling will spoil your preserve, but a gentle rolling simmer will evenly and quietly meld the produce into a something quite special. Some recipes call for granulated sugar to be lightly heated in the oven before adding to a pan full of heated fruit - this is to ensure heat remains at an even temperature during the cooking process and also allows the sugar to dissolve much faster than if it were cold or at room temperature.

Essential Testing:
There are a number of ways to test for the setting point.  This is the point at which your jam or jellie will set in the jar once bottled.  It is not essential to ensure a setting point is reached, but it does make for a more desirable jam or jellie.  There are products on the supermarket shelf that will help set your preserve, but it is a personal preference. Pectin is the key to setting the preserve.  Often tying up a small muslin bag of lemon rind ribbons (no pith), and lemon pips and immersing in the pan with the contents during the cooking process will be sufficient enough to ensure the preserve will set.  Remove the bag before bottling.

Cold plate testing - keep a clean small plate in the fridge, when the preserve has had sufficient cooking time, begin testing by taking the cold plate and dropping a small dollop of jam onto the plate.  Allow the jam drop to cool.  Use your finger to push a line through the jam drop.  If wrinkling occurs, setting point has reached.  If no wrinkling occurs, wash the plate and return to the fridge and try again after 10-15 mins.

Sugar Thermometer testing - using a thermometer will allow for more accurate testing of setting point, and you can determine how firm you want your jam or jellie.  Setting point will be reached when your preserve measures 104-105.5°C.  The lower the setting, the less firm the jam or jellie.  Remember to always stir your thermometer through the entire preserve, and never return it to a cold bench - let it rest on a wooden board.

Essential Sterilising:
Sterilising your jars and bottles is essential to ensure you don't spoil your preserves (and your hard work).  A couple of different methods can be used.

Boiling water bath - lower cleaned jars, seals and rings into a large saucepan. Cover with water (hot if possible) and bring to the boil.  Allow this to boil for at least 15-20 to kill any lingering bateria.  Leave in the hot water until ready to fill.

Heated oven - clean jars, rings and seals with mildly soapy water.  Place in an oven tray (upside-down on a clean teatowel) and place in the oven (70-100°C).  Leave in there for at least 20 mins. 
When ready to use the jars, carefully remove from the oven or water bath and place on a large wooden board (so as to avoid the glass jars from shattering). Fill with your preserve immediately, seal and let the finished preserves stand on wooden boards to cool.

The sterilised jars will be extremely hot to touch - you will need either a lot of tea-towels to handle them, or we do stock special equipment to make this job a lot easier.  Don't leave too much air space within the jar. 

As the preserves cool, the contents forms a 'vacuum' seal and some seals will 'pop' when this occurs.  This is desireable.  If a seal fails to create a vacuum and you notice you can 'pop' it up and down by pressing on it, you will need to store in the fridge and consume it within a week or two.




Getting the young ones to harvest some of summers bounty will involve them in the process.  Wendy here at Milly's has fond childhood memories living in Central Otago and helping her own mother prepare crate loads of berries and fruit - one particular memory was of herself and her sibling taking turns in stirring the large preserving pan full of blackberries using only the direct intense sunshine as the heat source!

Start with the right equipment.

Before even thinking about preserving anything, it is important to have the right tools on hand.  We have a huge range of preserving equipment that you will need to ensure success.

Preserving Pans:
Don't mess around with kitchen saucepans when you have a bulk lot of produce to process.


Farringdon Stainless Steel 10L Preserving Pan $270.00


Mauviel Copper 9.8L Preserving Pan $374.95


Ball Anniversary Enamel Preserving Kit
Includes large enamel waterbath canner and a preserving utensils set.  Brilliant starter kit!! $337.50

Spoons and Utensils:
A couple of good quality utensils will make the job of turning your produce into preserves that much easier.

French Beechwood Spoons From $2.50

Ball Preserving Utensils Set (4pc). Includes jar funnel, lifter, lid lifter and a bubble remover/headspace tool.
$69.95

Sugar Thermometres:
For those that like to test for their setting point with a little more accuracy.

KitchenCraft Easy To Read Cooking Thermometer. Reads 25-200°C $14.50


Classic Preserving Thermometer $28.95

Funnels:
Funnels will help you bottle your piping-hot preserves that much faster and is less messy. Widemouth great for chunky preserves!

RSVP Funnel with Filter $22.95

RSVP Wide Mouth Funnel $41.50

Bottles & Jars:
We have an extensive range of jars and bottles to contain your preserves.  Choosing good quality jars will mean you can re-use time and time again, and the glass is less likely to shatter during the sterilising process.


Jars with Twist off Lids - from $21.50 set of 4.

To view the other range of jars, including Agee-compatible jars, rings & seals, CLICK HERE. Most come in multiple packs and all come in a range of sizes to suit your preserving requirements.

Wooden Boards:
The Catskill range of wooden chopping boards provide the perfect cutting surface for your preserving preparation.  Also ideal for insulating hot glassware from cool benchtops.  A nice deep board that is reversible.

Catskill Professional Boards - from $69.50.

Reference and Recipe Books

Here are a few books in our preserving range.  Preserving recipe books provide a great source of reference information /material that is useful to read before starting out.

Ball & Kerr Ball Blue Book Guide to Preserving 100th Anniversary Edition. 128 pages, soft cover.

Milly's Preserves: The River Cottage Handbook 2 Everything you need to know about preserves and how to make jams, jellies, butters, pickles, curds, pickles, chutneys, cordials, vinegar and sauces.... Phew! It's all in this lovely book from Pam Corbin. 75 recipes, detailed preserving process instructions and full colour photos. Just as well it has a textrued hard cover as this will become a well-thumbed indispensable guide in your kitchen. Available Mid October.

Milly's Fruits of the Earth: 100 Recipes for Jams, Jellies, Pickles and Preserves. By Gloria Nicol. 144 pg. Hardcover. A wonderful collection of recipes, both traditional and more adventurous. Interesting fruit combinations make for new and delicious jams and chutneys. An ideal companion book for any home preserver.

Milly's Pickle & Chutney Cookbook Digby Law's Pickle & Chutney Cookbook is a New Zealand classic used and respected by home cooks and professionals alike. This indispensable reference contains 300 easy-to-make recipes for chutneys, relishes, sauces, oils, pickles, jellies, vinegars and mustards. Discover traditional preserves from Europe and North America, exotic specialties from Asia and Latin America, and enjoy familiar New Zealand Favourites. 13.5x21cm. 216 pages.

Milly's Stephanie Alexander's Kitchen Garden Companion If you have ever dreamed of picking fresh salad leaves for the evening meal, gathering vine-ripened tomatoes or pulling up your own sweet carrots, this is the book for you. Follow in the footsteps of one of Australia's best-loved cooks and food writers as she reveals the secrets of rewarding kitchen gardening. Be encouraged by detailed gardening notes that explain how adults and children alike can plant, grow and harvest 73 different vegetables, herbs and fruit, and try some of the 250 recipes that will transform your fresh produce into delicious meals.

Faringdon Jelly Bag and Stand