domestic dilettante, humorless feminist shrew

Like I said the other day, we canned some mushrooms over the summer. In all honestly, I didn’t think that they’d be so great, so I only put up two half-pints. Nice person that I am, I gave one of them to my sister for Christmas.

I totally regret that.

Don’t get me wrong, I like my sister, but these mushrooms are awesome. I think they’d be delicious over pasta, just pasta and mushrooms and a little olive oil or butter. They’re so good that I might make more when mushrooms go on sale again, just so that we can have a steady supply.

Just like every other time you’ve canned things, (or read about me canning them,) you have to start by sterilizing your jars. You can do this in one of two ways: boiling them for a while (ten minutes, probably, but I always get distracted and leave them in there for half an hour) or by putting them in a cold oven, turning the oven to 300, and then letting the jars hang out for fifteen minutes or so after the oven’s come to temperature. The lids and rings of the jars need to be sterilized, too. Drop them in a small pot of boiling water, let them boil ten minutes, and then leave them in the water until you need them.

After you’ve filled the jars, they’ll need to be processed. This sounds scary but is actually really easy, plus other people find it very impressive. All you will need for this is an enormous pot with something to keep the jars off the floor of the pot. I use a pasta pot, the kind with the holey insert. Fill this pot most of the way with water and bring it to a boil as you prep the mushrooms.

For about eight half-pints, you’ll need the following:
7 pounds small mushrooms (I used button–I want to use some baby portabellas next time, too.)
1/2 c lemon juice
2 cups olive oil
2 1/2 cups white vinegar
1 Tbsp oregano
1 Tbsp pickling salt
1/2 cup chopped onions
2 garlic cloves, cut into quarters
30 peppercorns (all black, or a mix of colors)

Wash the mushrooms, removing and discarding the stems. Put the caps into a pot with the lemon juice and add water to cover. Bring to a boil and simmer five minutes. Drain the mushrooms.

Mix together the oil, vinegar, oregano, onions, and salt in a saucepan. Heat to boiling. Place a quarter of a garlic clove and a few peppercorns into each half-pint jar. Pack the mushrooms into the jar, then fill the jars with the oil-and-vinegar solution, leaving about a half inch of headspace. Put on the lids and tighten the rings.

Now for the processing. You’re going to very carefully put the jars into the put of boiling water from earlier. My pot can only handle four jars at a time–you can’t stack them, and you need the water to be over their tops. (This may mean that you have to process them in batches, and that you’ll have to add more water with each batch if you’re canning a whole bunch of jars.) Once the water in the pot returns to a boil, you’re going to boil the jars for about twenty minutes. After that, remove them from the pot using either tongs or a silicone potholder.

Let the jars cool on the counter. You’ll hear them sealing as the night goes on–Ping! Ping! Sometimes they’re really loud, other times they’re barely noticeable. Don’t worry too much about it.

When morning rolls around, check your jars to make sure that they’ve sealed. The little button in the middle of the lid should have popped down–if it goes down when you press on it, the jar didn’t seal properly. No big deal–just means that you have to eat them now instead of in a few months.

In unrelated news, I finished a hat tonight! Finishing knitting projects is always exciting for me. This one is for the daughter of the woman who does our daycare–I was given the yarn and asked to make a hat. Three hours later, here it is. I may make another one in a color that is not orange and write out the pattern.

Photos for this one are somewhat less than awesome, as they were taken in my bedroom late at night, but the hat leaves me tomorrow, so we’ll have to make do.