Saturday, September 3, 2011

Canning Candy and Other Yummy Things

My kids met me after church and excitedly told me that I had to go to the Relief Society meeting on Thursday.  I asked them why and quickly learned that we were going to be canning CANDY!  I had heard of being able to do this, but had no idea how to do it and hadn't researched it yet.  So, I had to go to the meeting.  I bought M&Ms ahead of time because they were on sale and headed to the meeting.  Sure enough, you can can candy.

So, what do you need to can candy?


This is like my Foodsaver.

First, you need a Foodsaver with the accessory hose.  Here's a picture of the one I have.  If you look in the list of what the Foodsaver you want to buy has, you should see it listed.  It seems that they start at about $150.  I found a coupon online for last year when they had these on sale for $80.  So deals do come along if you are willing to wait.




Foodsaver Jar Sealer (comes in wide or regular width)


Next, you need the Foodsaver Jar Sealers.  There are two different Jar Sealers.  One is for regular mouth jars and the other is for wide mouth jars.  It would probably be a good idea to have both. Watch your pricing on these.  I found all sorts of prices on these.  They are $9.99 on Foodsaver's website.  I found them for less on Amazon.com.  Just watch shipping charges from wherever you choose.




Here is the setup they had at our meeting.




Whole and Snack Size Candy
M&Ms not in the package.


Don't forget the candy!  You can can pretty much any type of candy you choose.  If you choose to can packaged candy, then you need to poke it several times with a pin so the wrapper won't fill up with air.  If you open the package and just dump the candy in, then there is no need to worry about the pin.  You can use the small snack size bars or whole candy bars.  




Vacuum sealing the jar.

Now you're not going to believe how easy this is.  Seriously.  It is so simple you will wonder why you never learned this before.  You put your candy in the jar.  Put the metal lid on, but leave the metal ring off.  Then put the jar sealer attachment on and twist it.  Attach the hose to your machine and then to the attachment.  And then press the "canister" or "accessory" button.  You will hear it sucking the air out.  When the machine stops, it is sealed.  Take the Jar Sealer attachment off.   I like to have the metal rings on my jars, so I put the metal ring.  But from what I understand this is not necessary.  You can test the lid to make sure it is stuck.  It will be.  And you are done.

A variety of different things to can




Candy isn't the only thing you can do either.  The presenter also showed pickles that he had bought at Costco in an extra large jar and had separated into smaller jars then vacuum sealed.  He also had granola that they had made a year ago and the dehydrated fruit inside was still soft and the granola was crunchy.  You can do anything that doesn't need to be cooked this way and you can have some great treats in your food storage.







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