Marisa McClellan

It's not just for cucumbers — and it's not just for hot dogs or hamburgers.

Before you put that fresh fruit or veggie in the freezer, read this.

It's incredibly easy to make and you can do it for a fraction of the cost.

It's so fast, needs nothing special, and makes you look like a HERO.

Want to pickle? Do not start with cucumbers. Our week of Weeknight Preserving with Marisa McClellan kicks off.

With the right tools anyone can learn to can food in an afternoon.

All week long, I’ve been talking about summer tomatoes and the various ways to preserve them so that you can eat them all year round. And truly, I think that there’s no better gift to yourself and your family than a pantry shelf full of home canned tomatoes. However, new canners often find that once they’ve put all that work in putting up those tomatoes, they have a hard time getting themselves to open up those jars and eat the fruits of their labor.

When it comes to preserving tomatoes, most people think that you have to go big. And while it’s true that during late summer it’s easy to get your hands on Romas and San Marzanos by the boxful, there’s also nothing wrong with thinking small. Here are a few tips for scaling down those big-batch recipes to turn just a few pints of tomatoes into delicious sauce.

Over the last few years, we’ve been taught to believe that the very best tomato is an heirloom tomato. And while many of those gorgeous, homely heirlooms are definitely best for salads, sandwiches, and no-cook pasta sauces, they are actually not the best choice when it comes to canning. The reason has everything to do with water. Part of what makes those heirlooms so delicious is their juice. However, when you select a tomato for canning, you want more meat than juice.

Are your garlic pickle spears limp? Do your dilly beans droop? Hopefully these tips will help you make crisper, better textured pickles! Use fresh produce. Vegetables are at their very crispest and firmest when they’re fresh from the plant. Though it’s not always possible to pickle things the day they were picked, the sooner you can get your cucumbers, green beans, and okra pods into the jar, the better texture your finished pickles will have.

I am an equal opportunity fruit jam eater. I am just as happy with the loose, sloshy batches as I am the ones that have a firmer consistency. I love to use the runny varieties to flavor plain yogurt or as a sweetener for green smoothies. The slightly overset batches are perfect for serving with cheese plates or as the filling in a thumbprint cookie.

Over the last five years, I have taught lots of people to can. I’ve written many thousands of words about canning online, I’ve taught hundreds of hours of live classes, and I have answered countless questions about food preservation in both person and in writing. All that interaction has led me to the following opinion: People start canning with the wrong recipes. Nearly all of you choose to start your canning career with strawberry jam and cucumber pickles.

When I first started canning, I made huge batches of jam. Between the cleaning, peeling and chopping, I’d be dripping with sweat and every inch of my kitchen would be covered in sticky fruit residue. Despite the fact that each jamming session took hours and hours, I did it that way because that’s just how I thought canning was supposed to be.