Tomato Preserves Using Agar Instead of Pectin

This summer's garden held a new variety of tomato for me:  Summer Peach.  An online friend suggested I make tomato preserves with them.  I was intrigued, so I took her recipe, researched other recipes online, and came up with my own version, using agar powder instead of pectin to thicken the preserves.  I get to add much less sugar that way!

The taste of the tomato comes out really nicely on my tongue, with a hint of sweetness afterwards.  This would be good on some toast with cream cheese!

Tomato Preserves
Yield:  8 to 9 half-pints

About six cups prepared tomatoes (cored, peeled, loosely seeded, diced)
1 1/2 teaspoons grated lemon rind (I love my microplane grater!)
1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 teaspoon cinnamon
2 cups cane juice crystals (you may use white sugar, and adjust to your taste)
2 tablespoons agar powder
thinly sliced lemons from a couple lemons (make sure you seed them!!)

water bath canner
half pint jars

While your canner pot is heating up, and after you've prepared your jars, seals, and lids, bring the prepared tomatoes to a gentle simmer, stirring frequently to avoid sticking and burning.  Let simmer about ten minutes, stirring occasionally.

Measure about six cups into another saucepan (I started with a little more than six cups and used the whole thing).  Add the lemon rind, lemon juice, and cinnamon, and stir until it's thoroughly combined.  While this is heating up to another boil, add the cane juice crystals and bring to a full boil.

At this point, I put a small plate and spoon in the freezer in preparation for testing the thickness of the preserves.

Now it's time to stir in the agar.  If you remember, you need to sprinkle just a little bit, whisk it in, sprinkle, whisk, until it's all stirred in.  You can start your 20-minute timer now!  And keep stirring the whole time.  This helps the agar to not settle on the bottom, which it will if you don't stir.

Lemon slices:  If you don't mind them dissolving in the preserves, leaving the rinds to "prettify" in the jars, add them once you incorporate the agar.  Otherwise, add them in at the end (although you will have to make sure the preserves are still at a simmer to maintain correct temperature for canning).

After about 15 minutes of stirring, test the preserves for thickness.  Take your teaspoon/plate from the freezer, scoop a bit of preserves from your pot and put them on the plate, then put the plate back in the freezer.  After a minute or two, take the plate out, and swipe your finger through the preserves.  Is it nicely jelled?  Great and you're ready to go.  Not jelled enough?  Add only a little bit more agar to your pot, whisking it in as before, and wait a few minutes and test again.  Avoid the temptation to add too much agar, since it thickens as it cools!!

When your preserves are at the desired thickness, and your canning pot water is at a good boil, follow typical water-bath-canning procedures and fill half-pint jars with 1/4-inch headspace, wipe rims, place seals on top, screw bands down to fingertip-tight, and place in canner.  Once all jars are in the canner, put the lid on the canning pot, make sure the water is at a good rolling boil, replace the lid and time for 20 minutes.

At the end of the 20 minutes, turn off the burner, take off the lid, and let the pot sit for five minutes.  Then, remove the jars to a cooling rack free from drafts and let cool overnight.  After 24 hours, check the seals, remove the bands, wipe down (or gently wash) the jars, label, and store.  Refrigerate any unsealed jars; use within a week or two.

Back to life,
Christine

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Natural Strawberry Preserves Without Pectin

Summer wouldn't be summer without certain things:  Warm weather.  Short sleeves.  And summer food!  One of the tastiest is this:

Strawberries from my garden.

We ate up all the strawberries from my garden this year, mostly in strawberry shortcakes.  Hey, summer is really short, okay?  So when Costco had organic strawberries on sale, I snapped up two two-pound boxes.  I knew exactly what I was going to do with them, too.  I had to make them last.

Yes, it was time for strawberry preserves.  I use agar powder instead of pectin, since agar is natural (derived from a sea vegetable), and commercial pectin is chemically processed.  I've already covered that in previous blog posts, and you can click here if you want to read more about the benefits of using agar and how to work with it.  You'll need that link again if you'll be using agar, as well.  Just one more note on that--if you plan on using pectin, you'll need to consult a Ball canning book for the proper amount of sugar--it's waaaay more than with using agar (another reason I go this route!).

For now, here is the photojournal to natural strawberry preserves.  The recipe is at the bottom.  :)

Strawberries, hulled, rinsed, in the colander.

Thomas mashes and adds, mashes and adds.

The canning pot is filled and is at a nice rolling boil for ten minutes.

Natural strawberry preserves!

Natural Strawberry Preserves -- with agar instead of pectin
Yield:  About eight half-pint jars.
Time:  Allow about three hours from start to finish; I was done in about 2 1/2.

Note:  If using pectin, you'll need 7 cups of sugar and 1 package regular powdered fruit pectin.  And I can't guarantee results.  Consult your Ball canning/preserving book!

4 pounds strawberries (about 8 cups)
1/2 teaspoon butter
4 tablespoons lemon juice
1 1/2 cups organic cane juice crystals (can substitute white sugar)
3 tablespoons agar powder

Sort the strawberries (throw out bad ones!), hull them, and rinse with cold water.  Prepare canning pot, jars, and seals.  Click here if you need to know how to do that.  Measure all your ingredients prior to starting the cooking process.  I put that in bold.  It really, really helps.  Promise.

In a three-quart pot (if you're a messy cook, use a four-quart pot), place a handful of strawberries, and mash a little with a potato masher.  Go ahead and turn your burner on about medium.  Continue adding strawberries and mashing, until all the strawberries have been added to the pot.  Add the butter in somewhere in here, too; this will help reduce the amount of foam that forms as the strawberries cook.  You don't have to mash the strawberries to death; they'll soften and turn mushy on their own.  Just smash them and move on.

Stirring frequently, bring the strawberries to a gentle simmer--just get them nice and hot, pre-boiling.  Add the lemon juice and stir.

Now, if you're like me, you can use a stick blender (or process with a regular blender) to puree the strawberries further.  Like your preserves chunky?  Leave them as is.  I have texture issues and like my jams and preserves smooth.  Now you know a weird fact about me.  :)

Okay, now add the sugar and stir it up.  You may want to start with just one cup, then taste test after it's incorporated and add more if you like.  You don't need a lot!  The natural sweetness of the strawberries really gets to shine when you use agar--1 1/2 cups as opposed to 7 cups with the pectin recipe in the Ball book.

Just before adding the agar, put a small plate in the freezer.  I'll explain later.  :)

Time to add the agar!  With your strawberries at a gentle simmer (make sure it gets to this point before you start adding the agar), sprinkle the agar into the pot, little by little and whisking the whole time.  This is important!  It will gel into blobs otherwise--which, if that happens to you, you'll want a stick blender handy.  Just blend the blobs in and you're good to go again. 

Once all the agar is mixed in, set your timer for twenty minutes and whisk away.  Constantly.  This helps keep the agar incorporated, or else it'll end up all at the bottom of your pot at the end.  This is like making a roux (you know, a white sauce with butter, flour, milk?).  Stop stirring and you end up with a congealed mess at the bottom.  I had a son who helped me today, so I didn't have to stir at all.  Sweet!

At the 15-minute mark, take a teaspoon of the strawberry mixture and pour it onto that plate you put in the freezer, then put it back in the freezer.  This helps you test the thickness of the mixture.  Continue stirring!  You have five minutes left.

When the timer goes off, check the freezer plate.  Run a finger through the preserves; it should have gelled nicely.  Too thin?  Add some more agar, no more than half a teaspoon, though, and whisk it in really well.  Stir and simmer for a few more minutes, and you're ready to can.

Fill your half-pint jars, leaving 1/4" headspace.  As you're filling jars, give the strawberry mixture a whisk or two; this will help continue to keep the agar incorporated. 

Remove air bubbles, wipe rims, place seals on, place lids on (screw to fingertip tight), and place in canning pot (or canning rack, if you have one).  Lower the canning rack into the canning pot, or, once all the jars have been added to the pot, and once the water is at a good rolling boil, place the lid on the canning pot and set the timer for ten minutes.  Make sure the jars stay covered with water!  That's not too hard to do, though, since these are half-pints.

When the timer sounds, turn off the burner, remove the lid, and let the pot sit for five minutes.  Then, remove the rack (or remove the jars one by one with canning tongs), keeping rack/jars upright--no tipping!  The water on the tops of the seals will evaporate.  Remove the jars to a cooling rack, and let them sit for 24 hours.

After 24 hours, check the seals and refrigerate any unsealed jars.  With the sealed jars, I gently wash them off (there'll be residue on them) with cool soapy water, then carefully dry them, label them, and store them in our "bomb shelter."  That's what we call our basement pantry.  :)

Sweet summer, canned and waiting until I miss this season.

Back to life,
Christine

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Maple Berry Smooch | Canning With Agar Instead of Pectin

A new blog post in my continuing saga of agar experimentation.  :)

Here's the little bottle of agar powder I purchased from Fruitful Yield:

I ran out of agar I purchased from Country Life Natural Foods, the bulk dry goods food purchasing co-op that Fernando and I coordinate.  So in desperation, I drove the 25 minutes to Fruitful Yield and purchased more from them, since no one else, not even Whole Foods, seemed to carry it.  It was more expensive than the co-op price, but I needed it.

As far as using agar instead of pectin, please read this blog post.  It'll tell you about why I'm doing this, and the advantages of using agar over pectin.

The Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving contains this recipe, called Maple Strawberry Smooch.  A smooch is a quick kiss, and you'll get a quick kiss of maple flavor when you taste this jam.

On one visit to Costco this summer, I discovered organic strawberries, blueberries, and blackberries.  Perfect!  I would change this recipe to Maple Berry Smooch and try it out with agar.

I must tell you that since apple juice is involved in this recipe, and apples are a natural source of pectin, you'll use less agar than is typically used.  I found this out the hard way.  My smooch is pretty solid, though still spreadable.  The neat thing about agar, though, is that it softens and liquifies when heated.  So I put a dollop of smooch in my hot oatmeal in the morning, add some chopped toasted almonds or other nut, top it with a drizzle of pure maple syrup, and yum yum.

Enough said about all that.  Here we go...

Maple Berry Smooch -- The Agar Way
Yields about 6 half-pint (8-oz.) jars.

4 3/4 cups pureed berries (I used strawberries, blueberries, and blackberries)
1 1/2 cups pure maple syrup (don't substitute!)
1 cup unsweetened apple juice
3 tablespoons lemon juice
2 tablespoons agar (powder or flakes)

Prepare canning pot, jars, and lids.  Fill the pot with water, put it on the stove and get the burner started.  It takes a long time to bring to a boil!  I place my canning jars (thoroughly washed/rinsed) into a dishwashing tub and fill it with really hot water.  My seals go into a bowl with boiling water poured on top.  I replace the water if it cools off during the time I'm preparing the jam.

In a large, stainless steel saucepan/pot, combine pureed berries, maple syrup, apple juice and lemon juice.  Bring all this to a boil over medium heat, and make sure you stir frequently so it doesn't burn at the bottom.

Once it comes to a boil, sprinkle in the agar powder, a teaspoonful or so at a time, whisking until it's blended in, then sprinkle another teaspoonful and whisk, until all the agar is incorporated into the mixture.  Keep this mixture at a simmer, stirring pretty much constantly for about 20 minutes.  When you first start this, stick a small dish in the freezer (this will help you test the jam for thickness toward the end of the simmer/stir process).  If your agar ends up in blobs, use a stick blender and blend them away right in the saucepan.  This works well, and I speak from first-hand experience.  :)  (Note:  I perfected this sprinkling method on the third canning attempt.)

At about the 15-minute mark in your simmering and stirring, spoon a bit of jam out and onto the dish, then return the dish to the freezer.  Wait 2-3 minutes, then take the dish out and run your finger through the jam.  It shouldn't be liquid; there should be a little firmness to it.  It will continue to thicken as you can it, and as it cools back down to room temperature.  That's what agar does.  :)  So be careful not to add too much!

If you think you need to add more agar, add maybe 1/2 to one teaspoon, sprinkling and whisking like before.  Continue the simmer/stir process until the 20 minutes are done.  I went over that time trying to figure out the thickness thing, so it's okay to do that; you don't have to be exactly precise here.

Okay, now that that's all done, you're ready to can!  Hopefully your water is boiling (if it boiled too soon, turn it down but high enough to keep a good simmer); if not, crank that baby up on high.  Preparing the jars will take 5-10 minutes, so the canning pot has a little more time to come to a boil.

Ladle hot preserves into hot jars, leaving 1/4 inch headspace.  I use a ruler to measure this, since I'm terrible with distances and length.  Remove air bubbles (with something glass or plastic, not metal which will cool the liquid too much) and adjust headspace if necessary.  Wipe the rim of the jar, center the lid on the jar, and screw the band down until resistance is met, then increase to fingertip-tight.  Do not crank it closed!

For this process, I usually work with 2-3 jars at a time, filling, placing seals and rings, and placing in my canning rack.  You can do one at a time, or whatever you're comfortable with.  Just try to keep the jars hot for as long as possible.

Place jars (or place canning rack with jars) in canning pot, ensuring they are completely covered with water.  Bring back to a boil (with the lid on the canning pot!) and process for ten minutes.  Make sure it stays at a good boil the entire time!  Remove canner lid and wait five minutes.  Remove jars to a cooling rack.  I remove my canning rack, pulling it up and out of my pot, and place it on a large cutting board.  From there, I use canning tongs to remove the individual jars to a cooling rack, where they sit for 24 hours.

After a day, I check the seals to make sure they've sealed, and refrigerate any unsealed jars.  I gently wash the outside of the jars with warm (not hot) soapy water (to remove any residue from the canning process), then dry them, label them, and store them in my Bomb Shelter (a.k.a. the basement pantry area).


I didn't take many pictures while making this recipe, so here's what I have: 

Adding pureed blueberries to the pureed strawberries.

No in-between pic's, just the final result - jars of sweet yumminess!

Back to life,
Christine

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Cinnamon-Rhubarb Jam With Agar Instead of Pectin

I hadn't canned much jam before experimenting with using agar instead of pectin.  Actually, the only jam I did can was a few years back--some grape preserves, following the Ball (brand) canning book's directions for canning jams without added pectin.  It was grape jam, and it was very sweet.  That's because you have to add a lot of sugar if you're not using pectin, and boil it forever to boil it down and thicken it.  After my friend Lori posted on her blog about using agar instead of pectin as a thickener, I was intrigued, and ended up on a merry summer-long adventure experimenting as different fruits ripened into season.

My rhubarb plants yielded a small amount (they're still getting established in my garden), and I didn't really know what to do besides rhubarb muffins--which were really good, by the way.  I had already used my strawberries, so strawberry-rhubarb jam was no longer on the docket (although I could've used store-bought strawberries).  When a friend gifted me with a bag of rhubarb, I knew I had enough to try using agar and making jam, but what to make?

I eventually found a recipe online (can't find it now; I should've pinned it to my Pinterest canning board!) for cinnamon-rhubarb jam.  Working off that recipe, I made my own.  The jam was very spreadable, and the sweetness of the sugar was balanced with the tartness of the rhubarb.  I could probably get away with adding another teaspoon of agar to the recipe, but since this was my first attempt at using agar, I wanted to stick as closely as I could to the original recipe.

 Agar powder bought at Fruitful Yield.

With agar, you don't have to worry about adding all the sugar as with a traditional recipe.  For instance, Ball's canning book tells me to use 4 cups of strawberries/rhubarb and 5 1/2 cups of sugar.  Whoa.  Surely we can do better than that.  And yes--we can!

Cinnamon-rhubarb jam on toasted sourdough bread.

Here we go with the recipe.  I assume you've canned something before, so I won't go into the minutiae of preparing the canning pot and lids.  Just enough so you remember to do it before preparing the fruit!  Okay--here it is:


Cinnamon-Rhubarb Jam -- Using Agar Powder Instead of Pectin
Makes about six half-pint (8-oz.) jars.

6 cups rhubarb, rinsed and sliced
1 cup water
1/2 teaspoon butter (helps retard foaming)
4 tablespoons (1/4 cup) lemon juice
1 teaspoon cinnamon
2 cups sugar (or to taste)
3 tablespoons plus 1 1/2 teaspoons agar powder

Prepare canning pot, jars, and lids.  Fill the pot with water, put it on the stove and get the burner started.  It takes a long time to bring to a boil!  I place my canning jars (thoroughly washed/rinsed) into a dishwashing tub and fill it with really hot water.  My seals go into a bowl with boiling water poured on top.  I replace the water if it cools off during the time I'm preparing the jam.

Tip:  I use a large teakettle and boil water, leaving it on a simmer burner throughout the whole canning time.  I'll use the water to replace cooled-off water on the seals, or to add to the canning pot if there's not enough water in it, or if too much boils out during the boiling time.  Now it's on to the fruit part of the recipe.

Speaking of which, here's another tip:  Rhubarb does not need to be peeled.  Wash it, cut off the ends, and use a sharp knife to slice it up.  That will help eliminate the stringy edges.  Plus, when you boil the rhubarb, it softens, making it easier to blend.

Combine rhubarb and water in a saucepot; bring to a boil then simmer until soft.  Puree.  Bring to a boil again, stirring frequently, and add the rest of the ingredients except the agar.  Mix until all ingredients are well-blended.  Whisk in the agar, little by little, until it's all incorporated.

Note on whisking in agar powder!
The agar powder will clump together in lovely (being sarcastic there) jam-covered blobs if you simply dump it into the pot.  Trust me (I say that a lot--it means I speak from experience).  The powder is very fine, so you'll want to sprinkle a bit, whisk it in, sprinkle a bit, whisk it in...  Until it's all incorporated.  Whew.  No worries, though--if you happen to get agar blobs, use a stick blender and attack the blobs.  They'll blend in nicely.  Trust me on this, too!  :)

Once the agar is whisked in, continue to simmer the mixture, stirring constantly (get a helper, have a book handy, switch stirring arms, etc.) for 20 minutes.  This helps the agar mix in and thicken (which it does at room temperature, so don't add extra agar thinking it's not thickening!).

At the 15-minute mark, you can test the thickness by spooning some jam into a small dish that you've placed in your freezer (do that when you start!).  Wait 2-4 minutes, then run your finger through the mixture.  Does it feel thick?  It's probably good.  My issue is that I think it's not thick enough, then add more agar, and once the canning is done, my jam is thick.  Too thick.  Still great for eating, though, in case you encounter this, too.  So, if it feels even a little thick, it's probably good.  You can add a little extra agar; maybe a teaspoon at most, sprinkling and whisking it into the mixture.  But I warned you, so be careful!  :)

Ladle hot jam into hot jars, leaving 1/4 inch headspace.  I use a plastic ruler because I just can't seem to eyeball the short lengths correctly!  Remove air bubbles (use plastic or glass knife or rod, not metal which will cool the mixture) and adjust headspace if necessary.  Wipe rim of jars, place seal on top, and screw band down over seal until resistance is met, then increase to fingertip-tight.

Place jars in boiling water in canning pot (or place in canning pot insert, which is what I use, then lower the entire insert into the boiling water).  Bring to a full, rolling boil with lid on, and let boil (must stay at full boil!) for ten minutes.  Then, remove canning pot lid and wait five minutes.  Remove the jars to a cooling rack.  I simply carefully lift my canning pot insert straight up and out onto a large cutting board, then use my canning tongs to remove each jar to a cooling rack.  Let cool 24 hours.

After cooling, check jars to make sure they sealed, and refrigerate any unsealed jars for immediate use.  At this point, I gently wash each sealed jar in warm soapy water to remove residue left behind by the canning pot water (there is always some--even if it's lime from harder water).  Then I dry the jars, label them, and store them in our Bomb Shelter (the affectionate name of our basement food pantry).

Here's the photo documentary, so you can see how things are done.  Or, at least when I remembered to snap a photo of what I was doing!

Bring the rhubarb to a boil.

I use my stick blender to puree the rhubarb right in the pot.

I measure out all my ingredients so they're ready to go when I need to add them.

The blur of my helper's arm as he helps to stir the rhubarb/agar mixture for 20 minutes.

Just after removing the jars from the boiling process.

You can see the residue on the seals; I'll wash that off after they're cool.

Cinnamon-rhubarb jam.  Awesome on a PBJ!

I use both Ball and Kerr jars.

Next year I'll be making strawberry-rhubarb jam.  Oh, yeah.  :)


Back to life,
Christine

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Preserves Without Pectin -- Gaga For Grapes!

For some reason this year, as our home life became crazy-busy and hectic (to say the least), I got bit by the Canning Bug.  This wasn't an annoying little mosquito bite that disappears after a few days, without any itching or redness.  This was full-blown, monster-sized Canning Disease.  It seemed that each week's visit to my local farmer's market turned up a different fruit for me to turn into preserves.

Concord grapes, stemmed and rinsed.

In addition to simply canning, I was intrigued by using agar (comes in powder or flakes) instead of pectin.  I relied on my friend Lori's research that turned up the fact that commercial pectin is produced via a chemical process, and is not very healthy.  Plus, using agar--derived from sea veggies and vegetarian--enables you to reduce the amount of sugar in the recipe a lot.  This also intrigued me.  Oh--and the lady at Fruitful Yield pronounced it aa (as in cat)-gahr.  Someone else pronounced it ay-gahr.  Or ah-gur.  Or even agar-agar with your pick of aa-ah sounds.  So who knows?  :)

If you want all the details about agar/pectin, plus how to make Lori's blueberry-peach jam with agar instead of pectin, visit her blog post here.  I made peach preserves using her exact recipe (except I used agar powder instead of flakes), and they turned out fine.  Yes, it's important to follow her recipe exactly.  You can experiment a bit once you're comfortable with the method and with using agar.

Okay, back to my canning adventures using agar instead of commercial pectin...

Since my grape preserves turned out perfectly, and since grapes are currently in season, like right now, I'm going to share that recipe first.  I used Concord grapes, which I bought at our farmers market, and which are seeded.  Therefore, these grapes require more work than the seedless kind.  Plan to spend an entire afternoon working on this, so go ahead and prepare a big batch.  Or get someone to help you, like I did!

Grape Preserves with Agar
Makes 6 to 8 half-pint jars

Not quite four pounds of Concord grapes
1/2 cup water (I use filtered)
1 1/4 cup sugar (I use organic cane juice crystals)
2 tablespoons plus one generous teaspoon agar powder

Prepare grapes:
Using your fingers, pinch individual grapes, separating skins and pulp into two saucepans.  (A helper is extremely, well, helpful.)  Bring grape pulp to a boil over medium heat and boil, stirring frequently, until soft, maybe ten minutes or so.  Press pulp through a fine sieve (I use a food mill), discarding the seeds.  Note:  I use the food mill, and when I've gotten as much pulp through that as I can--the seeds are rather bulky for the blade--I dump the seeds into a sieve and press the rest of the pulp out.  Set this pulp mixture aside.

To the saucepan containing the skins, add enough water to prevent sticking.  Bring to a boil over medium heat.  Reduce heat, cover and boil gently until skins have softened and liquid is nearly evaporated, about ten minutes.  Combine skins and pulp in a large, deep stainless steel saucepan.  Since I have an issue with food texture, I puree the whole batch.  Although a stick blender works well, I found that at the end of canning, there were a lot of skins on the bottom of the pot which I ended up discarding.  Next time, I will puree everything in batches in my heavy-duty blender.

At this point in the recipe, I have my canning pot filled with water, put on the stove, and set to high.  I also have my jars in super-hot water in a dish tub in the sink (they've already been soapy-washed and rinsed).  Aaaand, I have my seals in a small bowl, with boiling water poured over them.  I'll add more boiling water if it cools off too much.  I'm assuming here that you've canned before!  If you haven't, get a good basic canning book and read how to do all this, before you ever start trying this recipe.  Ball (which makes the canning jars) has an excellent book, from which I adapt my recipes:  Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving.  ISBN for the paperback version:  0-7788-0131-4.  ISBN for the bound book:  0-7788-0139-X.  Back to our recipe.

To the pot of grape mixture, add in sugar and stir; bring to a boil, then turn to simmer.  As far as sugar goes, you can add more or less to your taste.  I've found that I can adjust the sugar in these recipes pretty easily to allow for my individual taste, without affecting the overall process or the quality of the finished product.

Then, little by little, sprinkle the agar into the mixture, whisking with each sprinkle to mix it in thoroughly.  I dumped mine in, and ended up having to use the stick blender because it clumped up into globs, lots and lots of grape-covered agar globs.  Now I know to sprinkle the agar and whisk, little by little, until it's all mixed in.  (If you use flakes you shouldn't have this problem.)

Now you must simmer at a nice simmer for 15 minutes or so, whisking or stirring pretty much the whole time.  (Here's where your helper--or a book--comes in handy.)  It won't thicken much, since it thickens at room temperature.  Trust me on this.

At the 15-minute mark, you can take a spoonful of preserves and put it in a small dish that you've placed in your freezer at the beginning of this process.  (This is an example of why you need to read through the entire recipe before you begin...)  Wait 3-4 minutes then run your finger through it.  It will thicken a little further than this, so if it has thickened at all, it's probably good to go.  If you feel you need to add some more agar, add only a little.  It thickens pretty quickly.  Trust me on this, too.  Please.  :)

When you've reached the 20-minute mark of simmering and stirring, you're ready for the canning process.  Ladle hot preserves into hot jars, leaving 1/4 inch headspace.  I use a ruler to measure this, since I'm terrible with distances and length.  Remove air bubbles (with something glass or plastic, not metal which will cool the liquid too much) and adjust headspace if necessary.  Wipe the rim of the jar, center the lid on the jar, and screw the band down until resistance is met, then increase to fingertip-tight.  Do not crank it closed!

For this process, I usually work with 2-3 jars at a time, filling, placing seals and rings, and placing in my canning rack.  You can do one at a time, or whatever you're comfortable with.  Just try to keep the jars hot for as long as possible.

Place jars (or place canning rack with jars) in canning pot, ensuring they are completely covered with water.  Bring back to a boil (with the lid on the canning pot!) and process for ten minutes.  Make sure it stays at a good boil the entire time!  Remove canner lid and wait five minutes.  Remove jars to a cooling rack.  I remove my canning rack, pulling it up and out of my pot, and place it on a large cutting board.  From there, I use canning tongs to remove the individual jars to a cooling rack, where they sit for 24 hours.

After a day, I check the seals to make sure they've sealed, and refrigerate any unsealed jars.  I gently wash the outside of the jars with warm (not hot) soapy water (to remove any residue from the canning process), then dry them, label them, and store them in my basement food storage area (affectionately called the Bomb Shelter).

Some pictures, just in case you're like me and want to see what things look like along the way.  I put these at the end, so the recipe isn't interrupted and you have to keep scrolling to find out what next.  Here they are:

Pinch the innards from the skins through the hole from the stem.

Innards go in one saucepan; skins go in another.

Pots on the stove, coming to a boil.

The innards, simmering for about ten minutes or so.

My food mill, a garage sale find and a must-have for my canning adventures.

After using the food mill, I press the remaining pulp from the seeds using a sieve and a scraper.

The stick blender--usually a favorite in my kitchen--works okay, but next time,

I'll use my Bosch blender to puree my preserves.

Feel free to leave your preserves chunky if that's what you love!

The finished product!

Back to life,
Christine

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