We like
carrots…and I like them canned better than frozen. The amount of vegetables needed depends on
the size of your carrots – you will have more waste with smaller carrots. Carrots, like all except pickled vegetables,
need to be pressure canned. It is a good
product for learning how to can; they are relatively easy to get ready. I usually can mine with a hot pack, but raw
packed carrots are every bit as good, and a little easier. They will shrink more in the jar, however,
and you may have some floating. That
certainly doesn’t hurt the flavor!
Never throw away the liquid from canned carrots - it is excellent in beef gravy as the liquid.
 |
| Don and Bonnie's Canned Garden Carrots |
I used these for the first thing I canned in my new All-American canner to try it out! I also have a larger Presto canner. My brother-in-law, Don, gave me the old Hazel-Atlas jars - pretty, aren't they? He and his family canned 20 quarts and 20 pints of carrots from 50 pounds of raw carrots just a few weeks ago.
Home Canned Carrots
5 1/2 -7 pounds Whole Carrots -- (depending
on size of carrots)
2
Quarts Hot Water -- for filling
jars
Wash carrots
and drain. Peel and wash again. Leave baby carrots whole. Slice or dice larger carrots.
Raw
pack: Tightly pack carrots into hot
jars.
Hot
pack: in a stainless steel saucepot,
combine carrots with boiling water to cover.
Bring to a boil over medium-high heat.
Reduce heat and boil gently for 5 minutes, until tender-crisp. Drain, reserving cooking liquid for packing. Pack hot carrots into hot jars.
Either raw
or hot pack:
Pack within
a generous 1 inch of top of jar. Add
salt, if desired, 1/2 teaspoon for each pint.
Ladle boiling water or cooking liquid into jar to cover vegetables,
leaving 1" head space. Remove air
bubbles and adjust headspace if necessary, by adding more hot liquid. Wipe rims.
Adjust lids and rings.
Place jars
in pressure canner, filled with approximately 3 quarts hot water (check mfg.
directions).
Process at
10 pounds pressure for 25 minutes for pints and 30 minutes for quarts at 1000' altitude. Check your book for other altitudes.
"Kerr Kitchen Cookbook page 25"
"7-8 Pints"
We get large quantities of carrots from the food bank, so canning and dehydration are preferred options to letting them end up as compost. I'd like to see some recipes for spiced, candied or pickled carrots for some variety, though.
ReplyDeleteIf you look at this post (http://iowasue.blogspot.com/2012/10/pickled-carrots.html) there is a post for pickled carrots that are not canned, but refrigerated. They could be water bathed if you want to. They are quite good and kept well.
ReplyDeleteJust found your site and love it! Is peeling the carrots necessary? I usually just scrub them well for either eating fresh or cooking. Thank you!
ReplyDeleteHere's our best answer to the peeling question...it's a matter of canning safety, not nutrition. We vote on the side of food safety!
DeleteWHY YOU PEEL CARROTS AND POTATOES FOR CANNING
One important difference to canning between peeled and unpeeled carrots is the potential difference between bacterial loads going into the canner. In other words, removing the peel from carrots substantially reduces the amount of bacteria on the carrots. Carrots with peel left on, even if washed well, would likely contain more microorganisms when compared to peeled carrots. Before recommending canning carrots with peels left on, we would need to see product development testing that accounted for the increased microbial load and any other possible changes with peel included in the jars. Although you don’t see much reduction in fiber after canning, you will still lose some of the nutritional value in the peel that comes with heating and sitting in water, just as you do with the flesh of the peeled carrot. There is no nutritional analysis or comparison available for carrots canned with or without peels, especially since carrots canned commercially do not contain the peel, and those are the source of most of our nutritional values for canned foods. ”
SOURCE OF THIS STATEMENT: Comments on the bottom of this page, where a commenter asked specifically about canning carrots, not just potatoes, without peeling from the National Center for Home Food Preservation:
http://preservingfoodathome.com/2014/10/06/preserving-potatoes/