Canning caramalized onions.

[fredtoast]

I love to use sauteed onions in peppers in almost everything I cook, but the chopping and cooking take a lot of prep time. And who hasn't scorched onions trying to sautee them while attending to other pots and pans. So I cook large batches at one time and freeze them for use later. I use cup sized containers. When I thaw one out I keep it in the fridge. I always have some handy, and I always use it up before it goes bad.

This year it looks like I am going to have a ton of peppers in my garden. I decided that i would try to can some in jars so that it won't fill my freezer. I'd also like to give everyone in my family a jar for Christmas. They know to look for the peppers and onions in my fridge whenever they make a sandwhich, or pizza, or burrito, or nachoes, or pretty much anything.

I have canned a lot of stuff before, and I figured I could just cook up the onions and peppers and prepare them the way I always do. I thought the hot canning would kill the germs and provide an air tight seal to keep any more out.

Luckily I did a little research. Seems that onions are a low acid food, and unless you "pickle" them with some vinager or other acid they are still subject to spoilage. Also if you plan on adding vinegar to preserve the onions you can not sautee them in any oil or butter. The fat will keep the acid from penetrating into the onions and they will not be preserved properly.

this willprobably never apply to anyone here, but I just found it interesting because there are recipes out there that say to just sautee the onions in butter then pressure can them (more than just the hot canning that I do) to preserve them.

[fredtoast]

BTW the only things I have canned before have been pickled peppers and tomato sauces. Tomato sauces are very high in acid content so they will be preserved for a long time the way I prepared them.

[Vas Deferens]

Try freezing your combination of peppers and onions in a mini cupcake pan. Once frozen, pop them out and vacuum seal them 2 a piece. Condences a lot of space.

Do you carmelize the onions with anything other than butter / oil?

[jfkbengals]

(04-22-2017, 01:32 PM)Vas Deferens Wrote: Try freezing your combination of peppers and onions in a mini cupcake pan.  Once frozen, pop them out and vacuum seal them 2 a piece.  Condences a lot of space.  

Do you carmelize the onions with anything other than butter / oil?

Variation of what he said, use ice cube trays to freeze single servings.

If you have a Food Saver, they make an attachment that works with mason jars (it used to come standard with the machine 15-20 years ago).  The individual cubes can then be put into a mason jar in lieu of a bag.  Pop off the lid, pull out the number of servings you need, and re-vacuum the jar!

[fredtoast]

(04-22-2017, 01:32 PM)Vas Deferens Wrote: Do you carmelize the onions with anything other than butter / oil?

I never have but there are recipes for cooking them down in wine to increase the acidity.

[HarleyDog]

I love carmalized onion and peppers but never thought of freezing. Terrific idea Fred.

[HarleyDog]

I just sautéed onion,garlic, red/yellow bell peppers and olives together. I freeze and see what happens? Although, I was so excited to sautee that I feel I may have too much ingredients and actually don’t even know WTH I will use this for?