STRAWBERRY FIG PRESERVES RECIPE RECIPES

Steps:

• You will need a candy thermometer for this recipe.
• 1. Stir together the sugar, water and vinegar in a heavy saucepan. Clip on candy thermometer and don’t let it touch the bottom of the cooking pan.
• 2. Heat the sugar syrup until the candy thermometer reaches the hard ball stage or 260-265 degrees. Don’t stir while it is cooking.
• 3. Slowly pour the syrup onto a buttered surface like a large cutting board. Be very careful — this is a molten mass of hot syrup. DO NOT scrape bowl. Just let whatever candy comes out, come out. Allow candy to cool for a few minutes.
• 4. As soon as the syrup is slightly cooled, scrape it into a large ball. If you are going to add any flavorings like vanilla or peppermint, now is the time to do this. Flip the ball of candy over several times using some sort of scraper like a candy scraper.
• 5. When it is cool enough to handle, gather the ball of candy into your well-greased hands and pull the candy using both hands until you have reached as far as you can. Fold the pulled part over and repeat. Do this for about 4-5 minutes or until the candy is getting stiff and has turned a beautiful white color.
• 6. Once this happens, pull out a long rope of candy about 1/2" thick. You can twist this if you want a twisted look for your candy. Lay it out on waxed paper to cool.
• 7. When it has thoroughly cooled, break it into 1 1/2 ” pieces. Wrap each piece of candy in waxed paper and store in airtight container. If candy is sticky, store it in the refrigerator.

Steps:

• Shape sausage into patties roughly. Take a pint size wide mouth jar and shape the patty on a cutting board. Remove excess sausage meat and continue to shape all the patties. Try to keep your patties on the thinner side. Mine were all about 1/4" to 1/2" thick. If you are using store bought sausage meat you will have some decrease in size due to high amounts of fat content while you are frying them. That will be fine but don't be surprised when it happens.
• Fry the meat and cook them on both side till they are golden brown. If they don't cook all the way through that is also fine since the pressure canner will cook them the rest of the way.
• Drain the patties and remove as much of the fat as you can by laying them on a paper towel.
• Stack patties in hot pint jars. I got 4-5 patties in the jars so you may gauge how many jars you will need based on the total patties. Do not fill the patties up beyond the 1" headspace.
• Fill jars with hot water to 1" headspace. Using a rubber or plastic spatula remove air bubbles and refill to 1" if necessary. Using a paper towel that has vinegar on it, wipe the rims of the jars to remove any grease or debris so that you will get a tight seal when you add your lids.
• Add hot lid (sitting in previously boiled water) and ring and tighten "finger tight". Place in pressure canner.
• Process pints in pressure canner at 10lbs of pressure for a weighted gauge canner and 11lbs for a dial gauge for 75 minutes, quarts for 90 minutes.
• When you remove them from thecanner the broth will still be boiling inside of the jars. Once they cool theywill have a ring of fat at the top from the fat/grease. As long as the fat isn'tthick on top and usually will only be around the ring on the outside the jarsare fine.
• Labeling: Make sure to label yourjars after they have cooled with the name of the recipe and the date canned.