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Aunt Millie’s Canned Apricots with Vanilla Beans |
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Tuesday, 22 July 2008 |
While I never actually secured any of my Great Aunt Millie’s recipes for preserves and home-canned foods, I think of her when I make this sort of thing. She would scoff at the extravagance of the vanilla bean, but I think she would appreciate the flavor. She was, like many women of her generation a canner extraordinaire, but unlike other women who abandoned the craft when it was no longer a necessary part of her domestic duties, Aunt Millie kept it up because she enjoyed it. In a cool, dark place, the canned apricots will keep for a year.
(Makes 4 quarts)
6 cups water
4 cups sugar
36 apricots
1 vanilla bean, split in half lengthwise and across to make 4 pieces
1.) In a canning kettle filled with boiling water, sterilize four wide-mouth, quart-sized canning jars by submerging them completely in the boiling water; allow them to simmer over low heat for at least10 minutes, or as long as it takes to prepare the fruit and syrup.
2.)In a large saucepan, combine water and sugar, and bring the syrup to a boil. Cut each apricot in half, and remove the pits. Place 18 apricot halves and a quarter of a vanilla bean in each sterilized jar. Pour the boiling syrup over the fruit, leaving 1/2-inch head space at the top of the jars; then seal each jar with a new lid.
3.) Place the filled jars in the canning kettle and when the water is boiling, begin timing. Allow the apricots to boil in the jars for 30 minutes, then lift the jars out of the boiling water bath and allow them to cool undisturbed for several hours or overnight.
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