Canning with Chef Jo: Coleslaw?

 I harvested my cabbages, daikon, and carrots before the big freeze. Read more on this in last Sunday's post. I promised for today I'd bring a post today on my harvest and what I was going to do with it. I recently saw a video on canning coleslaw. I never heard of such a thing. I love coleslaw, but Mel detests cabbage except in eggrolls. So, the coleslaw would just be for me. 😊

I've put by a lot this year just for me that I love compared to previous years. I simply cook another side dish for Mel. For the most part, I've denied myself and just cooked and put by what she liked. No more. I want my veggies! Normally, my plate for dinner is less than 1/4 meat and three-quarters vegetables (usually double serving size) with two servings of fruit a day. Yes, I eat junk food like chips and calorie laden sweets too. I had denied them for too long with my diabetes. I'm just as happy with organically grown tofu or rice and legumes as a substitute for red meats. I was a vegetarian for about two years before I married my beloved. But as usual, I digress...sigh!

I already knew I'd tweak the given recipe to my tastes. I've been cooking and canning now for over four decades. I'm talking about me, alone, doing the canning for my family. If I count canning with someone else (grandma, mother, aunts etc.) it's more like 55 years. Eek! That's over half a century. Geez, I truly am an old fart. Needless to say, I know about a thing or two about canning, seasonings, time, and what it does to flavors and textures of what I can.

As to giving credit to the recipe, I dunno who came up with the idea for this. I read about 15 variations of this recipe going back 30 years. Everybody had a tweak to add and change the recipe...just like I'm doing. With every two or three changes to a recipe, you make to a recipe makes it yours. You can put your name to it as a new recipe, bet you didn't know that.

Canned Coleslaw

7-8 pints, 3 quarts

What you'll need

1 green cabbage, short shredded,* approximately 5-6 lbs

2 TBSP pickling salt

3 carrots, short shredded*

1 cup Daikon radishes, short shredded*

1/2 cup pickling salt

2 cups of water

                              2 1/2 cups of vinegar*

                              1 1/2 cups sugar*

                              1 TBS celery seed

                              1 TBS black Pepper

                              1 TBS mustard seeds

Notes-* Only use green cabbage for this recipe. Colored cabbage results in all the other vegetables are dyed the color of the cabbage.

* Short shredded is vegetables shredded (large hole on a box grater or 1/8" to 1/4" knife shred) and no longer than 2" long.

* For the vinegar in this recipe, I used 1-1/2cups of white vinegar and 1 cup apple cider vinegar.

*If you like a sweeter version of coleslaw (think KFC), increase sugar to two cups. If doubling or tripling this recipe use the 1 1/2 cups of sugar measurement after the initial 2 cups.

Putting it all together

• The night before, shred all the vegetables.
• Add ingredients to a large bowl and sprinkle with salt. Mix well, cover and place in refrigerator overnight (6-8 hours)
• The next morning, strain and rinse the salt from the vegetables.
• Prepare vinegar liquid in a large pot big enough to hold the liquid and all the vegetables. 
• Bring to a vinegar mixture to a boil. Boil one minute.
• Turn off the heat.
• Add the vegetables to the vinegar mixture.
• Mix well to distribute the spices.
• Ladle into sterilized jars, wipe rims, lid and ring the jars.
• Place jars into a simmering water bath canner- temp above 180 degrees
• Process 15 minutes for pints, 20 minutes for quarts.

I actually made this last Sunday and tried it this week. I made Brats on the grill and served it

with the coleslaw, and baked beans.. It turned out delicious! It's definitely a keeper. It's another way to preserve my cabbage, carrot, and daikon harvest. 

This is a vinegar based coleslaw. If you prefer a mayonnaise based recipe the conversion is simply strain off the vinegar and add mayonnaise. The vegetable remain fairly crisp even with the canning. The addition of Daikon radishes helps with this. In other variations of this recipe included the addition of onions, peppers, horseradish, and other vegetables and spices. Take this recipe and make it your own. Add or take away what your family likes and dislikes. But most of all, Enjoy!

Y'all have a blessed day!

Chef Jo