What I love about canning is the flexibility to try something new and different. Either a new recipe or by adding a new spice to an old favorite. Go ahead have the courage to give it a try! What I will tell you is follow the directions. I have loads of recipes with hand written side notes, words underlined and notations of ALWAYS and NEVER. A few years ago I decided to make a batch of pickled beets. I hadn’t made them in quite a while so I needed to refresh myself with the recipe, ingredients and jars needed etc. I woke up early on the Saturday morning and got to work. I like the mouth popper size so got them boiling and prepped everything else. When they were done cooking I started to pull the skin off but it wasn’t working so I started scrubbing the skin and some was coming off but not like it’s supposed too. So I called my sister and fellow canner and said in frustration ‘why isn’t the skin coming off’. The first thing she said is ‘are they done’ to which I quickly replied ‘yes’. She said ‘I’ll be right over’. She walked in and immediately went over to the beets that were cooling in the pot and stuck a fork in them and said ‘you said they were done, they’re not done’. I replied ‘they are so done’ and poked them with a paring knife feeling quite proud of myself. She pointed out on the directions that clearly said use a fork when making sure they are cooked enough. We looked at each other and broke out laughing. You know that moment when you realize your mistake. I immediately put pen to paper with a side note on the recipe Always Use A Fork, Never A Knife! It seemed like an unimportant detail initially but soon became the crux because if I had cut the skin off and continued with the recipe all my jars would have had undercooked beets. Yuck!
