Got that? Carrots.

When Doris and Jilly chose “carrots” as the February assignment for Tigress’ Can Jam, I admit to trembling just a little. Carrots are not exactly a high-acid food, and therefore more susceptible to going bad on you if you don’t know what you’re doing, preserving-wise. And I readily confess that I don’t know what I’m doing.

This is only my second time ever, canning anything, the first being last month’s marmalades. The warnings were issued: follow an established recipe to the letter! Don’t alter the ingredients, don’t get all creative if you’ve never done this before, because you might alter the acid-balance! Sure – scare me witless with the “B” word (Botulism, to you)! Okay, okay!

After last month’s positive experience, MJ came back from one of his numerous forays to the used bookstore with a couple more books on canning, and one of these little gems was Preserving the Taste by Edon Waycott. As this book is well out of print, I’ll share my adapted version of Ms. Waycott’s recipe for

Ingredients:

1 pound baby carrots

1 cup white wine vinegar

1 cup water

2 tsp. kosher or pickling salt

1/4 tsp. ground white pepper

3 Tbs. honey

4 sprigs fresh young dill (I used 2 pinches of dried dill)

Blanch the carrots for 2 minutes in boiling water and drain. Pack the hot carrots into the two hot, sterilized jars.

In a small saucepan, combine the rest of the ingredients, except the dill, and bring just to a boil. Pour the liquid over the carrots, leaving 1/2″ of head space. Add the dill. Cover with new lids, screw on rings, and process in boiling water bath for 15 minutes.

Well, so far, so good! After an agonizing several minutes after removing the jars from the boiling water, I heard the reassuring ping! of the lids sealing themselves into place. Now we wait. It will be at least two weeks before we can open one of these guys and see what we’ve got.

Now, what goes with pickled carrots? Hmmm? No, really. I’m asking.

The Can Jam Roundup is up! WooHoo!