Canning Success & Failure

Not everything I can or preserve turns out delicious or even usable. A few months ago I made a jelly called Dreamsicle. Now I have made this before and it turned out fine. Well not this time. The actual making of the jelly went fine but for some reason the jelly did not set. All the jars sealed it just never set like a jelly, it was more like a glaze when it was finished.

I set the jars aside for a few months to get over my mad. A few eeks ago I tried to reprocess the jelly. Frankly, I have never had the best luck with reprocessing canned goods. I emptied all the jars, reheat the syrup and added more pectin.

Well the jelly did not set up again and this time i had 2 jars fail to seal. I went from bad to worse. The unsealed jars went right into the fridge. One has already been used as a glaze on a pork tenderloin. The sealed jars will also be used as either syrup or a glaze. It does look beautiful with the flecks of vanilla bean in the finished product.

Luckily I also found a deal on Rainer cherries when they were in season. I chopped them up and made them into a delicious jam. All the jars sealed and the jam set.

Sometimes you win and other times you lose in the canning wars.