Sunday, May 1, 2011

Canning Strawberry Vinaigrette Salad Dressing


While searching for recipes, other than jam, to use in canning strawberries, I found this Strawberry Vinaigrette Salad Dressing recipe on the Ball Canning website

5 quarts (25 cups) fresh whole strawberries, washed and stemmed
1 quart (4 cups) white distilled vinegar

 This recipe claimed to fill six 8-oz. jars...

Not sure I would even like this dressing, I decided to modify it a bit (plus I didn't want to use up that many strawberries just yet until I knew if I liked the dressing and if I could get more berries soon)

Here's what I did.

I washed, stemmed, and sliced six cups of strawberries and put them in a glass bowl then poured one cup of white distilled vinegar over them. I let them sit on the counter, covered with plastic wrap, for about 24 hours.


I heated my pint jars by running them through the dishwasher, and put my lids and rings in simmering water and kept them hot until I was ready for them.

I strained the strawberry vinegar mixture through a fine mesh wire strainer (this took awhile, I let it drip, drip, drip while I was doing other things)... I ended up with 2 cups of liquid. Against everything that was in me, I discarded the leftover strawberries (just couldn't come up with a use for vinegar saturated strawberries).


Next I place the strawberry vinegar (the liquid only) into a stainless steel saucepan, added an equal amount of sugar (2 cups) and brought the mixture to a boil.


I ladled the hot vinaigrette into the hot pint jars leaving a half inch headspace.



I wiped the rims of the jars with a damp cloth, removed the lids from the simmering water with my magnetic wand gadget, and put the lids on the jars until fit is fingertip tight.


I processed the jars (there were TWO!!! Yay!) in a boiling water canner for 10 minutes, then removed the hot jars from the canner using my jar lifter, set them on a folded dish towel on the counter to cool, and listened for the PING! sound of a successfully sealed jar.


I'm thinking this salad dressing, with its sweet/tangy/berry flavor, will be yummy on a salad with a bitter-ish lettuce, like romaine, a soft cheese (mozzarella? feta?), and some kind of nuts (pecans? walnuts?) along with sliced strawberries of course!

Canning Granny©2011 All Rights Reserved










9 comments:

  1. Have you tried it yet? How did you like it?

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  2. I have tried this recipe using balsamic vinegar. I used about 2 cups balsamic and 2 cups plain white vinegar. Very much worth the time and effort. Believe it or not, drizzle over vanilla ice cream for an out of this world taste!

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  3. How was this? Did you try it? Was it worth it?

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  4. I made this dressing and it is fabulous and a solid hit with everyone.

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  5. You mention you threw the strawberries away, why not puree some of them for the dressing? When I have had fresh made strawberry vinaigrette in restaurants,it has been thicker with bits of strawberries in it. Very delicious too. I am going to try this recipe but I am going to puree the strawberries and use them too.

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    Replies
    1. I like the idea of puree'ing the berries into the vinaigrette. And since I am going berry picking today, this will be on my to do list !

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  6. Could you use blueberries to make this?

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  7. I use peaches go make a vinaigrette and just leave out the oil when canning. It's white wine vinegar and pureed cooked peaches and some seasoning. I don't get why so many places say you can never can any salad dressing. Obviously oil and dairy are problems. But what's the difference between a vinaigrette minus oil and canning fruit?

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  8. Excited to have found this recipe. I am modifying with mixed berries (raspberries, blackberries, and blueberries), and will use some of the berries in puree form. I have made a similar dressing the past, and it's always been a big hit. Pretty jars should make a nice addition to Christmas gift baskets.

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