Winter preserves
Preserving calendar
When each crop is in season in central Russia. Each row leads to its recipes.
- 146recipes
- ≈ $3.01a typical jar
- 12 moa jar keeps
The jars wait for winter, but dinner is tonight. Racion builds a week of meals and a priced shopping list.
Plan my weekEvery recipe is for one jar: 0.25, 0.5, 1 or 3 litres. Need five jars? Set the «Jars» counter on the recipe page to 5 and the grams update.
We price a jar at average national prices: vegetables and fruit, sugar, vinegar and oil, not the jar and lid. In season, market vegetables can be cheaper, and so will the jar.
What to preserve in October
Cucumbers 13
Pickled with vinegar or citric acid, cold-salted, gherkins, and salads from cucumbers that grew too big.
Tomatoes 11
Red and green, whole, halved and in jelly, plus tomato juice and tomatoes in their own juice without vinegar.
Fermented and soaked 12
Sauerkraut, barrel-style cucumbers and tomatoes, soaked apples and lingonberries, salted watermelon. These jars are not sealed and live in the fridge or a cellar.
Salads, lecso and spreads 22
Lecso, zucchini and eggplant spreads, spicy zucchini strips, borscht base and salads to open with potatoes in winter.
Pickled vegetables 15
Peppers, zucchini, beetroot, cauliflower, garlic, onions and mixed pickles in vinegar brine.
Adjika, ketchup and sauces 16
Cooked and raw adjika, horseradish relish, tomato and plum ketchup, satsebeli, lingonberry sauce for meat and homemade tomato paste.
Jam 22
Strawberries, raspberries, cherries, apricots, apples and quince as whole berries and slices, five-minute jams and berries crushed with sugar.
Smooth jams, butters and jellies 12
Thick jams, fruit butters, jellies and paste in small 0.25 l jars, so an open jar is gone in a week or two.
Compotes 10
Three-litre jars filled twice with hot syrup: cherries, apples, apricots, plums, strawberries, grapes, and apricot with orange.
Mushrooms 6
Button, oyster and wild mushrooms are pickled for the fridge, not the pantry: it is safer. A jar keeps up to a month.
Herbs, beans, purées and fruit for meat 7
Salted herbs for soups, beans in tomato sauce, apple and pumpkin purée, pickled pears and plums for meat.
How long to sterilize
| Jar | Empty, over steam | Filled, in a pot |
|---|---|---|
| 0.5 l | 10 min | 10–15 min |
| 1 l | 15 min | 15–20 min |
| 2 l | 20 min | 25 min |
| 3 l | 25 min | 30 min |
Time for filled jars counts from when the water in the pot boils; the water reaches the jar's shoulders. In the oven, put empty jars into a cold oven, heat to 120 °C and hold for 15 minutes. Boil the lids for 5 minutes.
How to seal jars that last
- Wash jars with baking soda and sterilize them with the lids; times are in the table above.
- Use 9 % vinegar. With 6 % vinegar you need half as much again.
- Turn a sealed jar upside down, wrap it and let it cool for a day.
- Check jars after a week: the lid is flat and the brine is clear.
- Store in a dark place at 0–15 °C: a pantry away from radiators, a cellar, a cupboard by the front door.
- Keep an open jar in the fridge and use a clean spoon.
When to throw a jar away
Botulism does not change the taste or smell, so never taste a doubtful jar. Home sterilizing cannot make mushrooms, garlic or herbs in oil and low-acid vegetables safe, so those recipes here are for the fridge only.
- The lid bulges, or flexes and clicks when pressed.
- The brine turned cloudy, foams or smells of fermentation, and it is not a ferment.
- There is mould on top, even a speck.
- A jar marked «in the fridge» was kept warm.
Questions
Can I preserve without sterilizing?
Always sterilize the jar and lid. Cucumbers and tomatoes can skip sterilizing in the jar: boiling water is poured over them two or three times, as in the recipes here. Salads, spreads and lecso go in hot and are sterilized in the jar, or the lid may bulge.
How much vinegar for a 1-litre jar?
Our recipes use 40–60 ml of 9 % vinegar per 1 l jar of cucumbers or tomatoes. Each recipe gives the exact amount. Don't use less: the acid decides whether the jar lasts the winter.
What can replace vinegar?
Citric acid: about 2 g per 1 l jar, a third of a teaspoon. That's how the citric acid cucumbers and the tomatoes in their own juice are made.
Why do pickled cucumbers turn soft?
Usually a thin-skinned salad variety, or cucumbers that weren't soaked. Pick firm, bumpy pickling cucumbers, soak them in cold water for 3–4 hours and add horseradish or currant leaves to the jar.
Why did the lid bulge?
Something is fermenting in the jar: too little acid or salt, a poorly sterilized jar or a loose lid. Don't open or taste it, throw the whole jar away.
How long do preserves keep?
Sealed pickles, salads and jams keep up to 12 months in a cool dark place. Unsealed ferments keep 2–4 months in the cold. Each jar's time is on its card and recipe page.
Can I use less sugar in jam?
Sugar keeps jam from spoiling. Pectin jam has less sugar, so it keeps 8 months instead of a year. If you cut the sugar further, keep the jar in the fridge.
Where do I store jars in a flat?
Somewhere dark at 0–15 °C: a pantry away from radiators, a cupboard by the front door, a glazed balcony that never freezes. Heat and sun shorten shelf life, frost cracks jars.