Pickling supplies [General]

2012 Aug 15
Hello,

I'm putting together a pickling kit for a friend who has always wanted to try it out.

What I need from you all, is where to get the ingredients. My plan is to pick up a book from chapters and the ingredients separately. I have read that the only really specialized ingredient is the pickling spice, which I think can be bought at bulk barn. The jars, on the other hand are a mystery to me...

Can I just get regular mason jars? Or should they be the ones with the clamp and airtight seal?

Any advice or guidance would be GREATLY appreciated :)

P.S. If you have any ideas or guidance, please respond ASAP, his birthday is tomorrow :P

2012 Aug 15
From solely my perspective, mason jars are fine and they are very cheap at Canadian Tire. Otherwise, a pair of tongs to grab jars is handy...some will say you need a pressure canner, I am not about to stick my nose in regarding the neccessity of that.

Pickling spice is readily available, but I tend to make my own, depending on what I am making....coriander, black pepper, bay, and crushed red pepper flakes are usually standard for me while fennel seeds, dried mint/oregano, white pepper, cinnamon, cloves, allspice are more recipe specific.

Otherwise, you will need lots of vinegar and lots of kosher salt and you are good to go. Obviously, a good foundational book is important to have if you haven't already collected the knowledge elsewhere.

2012 Aug 15
Make sure not to give them table salt - pickling salt with no iodine

Get a copy of "Putting Food By" ...

2012 Aug 15
fyi a pickling kit: www.canadiantire.ca

A canning pot would be real nice - it has a rack on the bottom so the jars are not on the bottom (very important). Jar tongs, soup ladle, lid magnet (to pick up lids out of the boiling water, wide funnel with a level mark to aid getting the right headspace, canning book - Bernardin, Put A Lid On It, Sunset has some canning books, etc. I suspect dollar stores have a bunch of the canning utensils, no?

2012 Aug 15
Watch out for some of those pickling kits because I've seen some that have table salt.

And the plastic canning funnels are not so great - get a SS one from Lee Valley

2012 Aug 15
Funnel is a good call, I don't have a perfect one and it is a bit of a pain.

2012 Aug 15
imo plastic is fine, especially for a beginner. We have 2 and aren't beginners, will soon be too late to invest in a stainless steel one, shoulda done that when I was young perhaps...

2012 Aug 16
Andy's list is very comprehensive. You need to be scrupulously clean when you are canning,so a stack of clean white facecloths is also useful. I always have two or three clean funnels/ladles, and the magnet for the lids is a must. For the large canning pots with racks, you can sometimes find them at places like value village.

2012 Aug 17
Just for fun I took a shot of the magnets I use for canning- I stick one on the end of my metal tongs to pick up the lids. They are 3" cow magnets, leftover from my farming days and very handy to have, especially the lower one in pic with 5 earth magnets bolted together, a very strong magnet. We gave one to each young cow to attract any iron they might eat, like nails, fence wire, etc. It might prevent a call to the vet and a big bill for stomach surgery. The magnet sits in the cow's first stomach and hopefully doesn't get passed on.

Just thought you might like to know...

2012 Aug 17
What!?! You feed the cow a magnet?? In case it ingests iron? Am I the only one surprised by this?

2012 Aug 17
That's pieces of metal containing iron, attracted to a magnet, in case you didn't make the connection. The magnet does no good if the metal is aluminum, but you knew that didn't you Bobby F. Cheap insurance. You never know what you'll find in a bale of hay or a fork of silage - lengths of barbed wire, cans, dead groundhogs...

I wonder if WannabePickler is getting more info than he/she bargained for???

2012 Aug 19
I would recommend Canadian Tire as well, even if you don't grab a kit, they have everything you need separate. The prices are good and you won't have make trips all over the place. Picking crisp, pectin, all sizes of jars, pots, etc.

2012 Aug 22
I also highly recommend the canning funnel from Lee Valley! It will last you forever, you'll pass it on to your kids, and it's useful for EVERYTHING!

I use mine for canning, for filtering/bottling milk, for putting leftovers into mason jars, or whatever. Easy to clean, sturdy, and under 20 bucks. Ours was about ten dollars when we bought it way back when.