I freeze caponata all the time. It is wonderful and does not get mushy. I didn't grow eggplant this year so I may end up at the farmers market so I can make some. Yum!!

What do you think about the canning safety of this recipe? I made it and it is really delicious! I tried comparing it to the Ellie Topp recipe and Linda Lou's recipe, but "OK, hers has zucchini, so if I take out the zucchini and add more pepper...and the age-old question of how much is two large tomatoes and 1 medium pepper..." it's too difficult to compute. So I thought I would just post this one for comments.

12 cups eggplant, peeled and diced
2 tablespoons coarse pickling or kosher salt
12 cups tomatoes, peeled, seeded, diced and drained (save the juice)
6 cups onion, chopped
6 cups green and/or red sweet bell peppers, diced
1/2 cup garlic, minced
3 cups olives, chopped (I used canned black olives)
1 cup capers (optional - I donÂt particularly care for them)
1 tablespoon coarsely ground black pepper
1/4 cup fresh oregano, minced
1/4 cup fresh basil, minced
1/2 cup fresh parsley, chopped
2 cups balsamic vinegar *see note below
1/4 cup + 1 tablespoon granulated sugar *see note below
1/4 cup + 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
1/2 cup tomato paste

1. Place eggplant in a colander, sprinkle with coarse salt, and let drain for 2 hours. Rinse twice, drain thoroughly, and pat dry with paper towels.
2. Place the eggplant, tomatoes, onion, peppers, garlic, olives, capers, spices, and herbs into a large roasting pan.
3. Heat vinegar, sugar, and oil (stove top or microwave) and pour over vegetables. Roast in a 350° oven for about 1-1/2 hours or until vegetables are softened and liquid has evaporated (mine usually takes more like 2-1/2 hours). Stir the vegetables gently every 30 minutes. The kitchen now smells really good! Add in reserved tomato juice in small amounts if the caponata starts to dry out (I didn't have this problem). Remove pan from oven and stir in tomato paste.
4. Pack the hot caponata into clean, heated half pint canning jars and leave about a 1/2" headspace. Wipe the rim, cap with a lid and screw on the ring. Process in a boiling water canning bath for 20 minutes.

My notes: I used about 1-1/2 cups balsamic vinegar (6% acidity), 1/4 cup red wine vinegar (5% acidity) and 1/4 cup bottled lemon juice. I also left out the sugar.

Yes, this makes a boatload, but it's pretty easy to do the math to cut it down into a more manageable amount.

I cannot imagine any circumstance or alteration which would make this cannable. Speaking of boatloads, there're boatloads of low-acid veggies - eggplant, onions, peppers, garlic, fresh herbs. You have 3 cups of olives, which are both low-acid AND oily plus the olive oil.

Just guessing, but I speculate given those amounts that the vinegar isn't nearly sufficient or nearly acidic enough to compensate. IF safe canning were possible it would have to be pressure canned but then, of course, you're moving into times and pressures destructive of the texture.

The recipe sounds delicious and well-worth allocating freezer space for.

I've seen a lot of recipes for home-canned antipasto and caponata. It's a tribute to human resilience that so many have survived the experience.

Carol

"It's a tribute to human resilience that so many have survived the experience."

Maybe too many. Has it ever occurred to you that perhaps canners have been all wrong in accommodating the frailty of the human body by using safe methods. If they made and distributed dangerous canned goods for a few generations, the human species would evolve to be botulism tolerant and canning would become simple. Any idiot could do it. No more worrying over recipes. Make up your own low acid recipe and to heck with the NCHFP and Elizabeth L. Andress, Ph.D. If if tasted good, it would be good. It might be the best BWB caponata you ever ate (OK, perhaps your last).

I realize this would cost a substantial number of lives, not to mention bellyaches and vomiting. But that's the price of progress.

Jim

I don't remember right off where I got the recipe to look at it. I don't know if it has olives or what is in it.
Jim, do you want to volunteer ???

Linda Lou - the link below is where I found your recipe.

Jimster - I do agree with you. If more kids played in dirt and ate icky things like I did when I was little and don't take so many antibiotics and naturally develop germ resistance, we probably wouldn't have so many supergerms.

I'll get off my anti-antibacterial soapbox now :-)

Here is a link that might be useful: Canning and Preserving at Recipelink.com

I have no argument with Jim's position on our increasing "delicacy" or susceptibility. There's some interesting research on the connection between our emphasis on hyper-clean and the increasing number of children with allergies, asthma, etc.

I grew up on a farm and ate a lot of dirt in my time (muddy strawberries out in the field for example), not to mention many hours in the company of pigs, cows and chickens. I wouldn't doubt it is a factor in resistance.

(And I wish it weren't so hard any more to find non-anti-bacterial soap.)

But I don't think the caponata recipe is where I want to start testing the premise.

Carol

Whoa!!!! That's what happens when I get smartassed and facetious. People take me seriously. Which is interesting because they never do otherwise. Is there something wrong with my delivery? Maybe the timing is off. :-)

But there is a serious side to this subject, or course. Germ killers and sanitizers have their place but I limit them to where they are necessary, not for general cleaning. I have a septic tank, for example, and I don't want to kill the billions of organisms which are doing the work in there (since they are the only thing I have billions of). But I have accumulated numerous bottles of chlorine bleach, which I keep hidden so no one will use it and which house guests always replace and use.

Oh, well. I'll pass on the BWB caponata. It's mighty tempting though.

Jim

The chopped stuffed olives are green olives, not black ripe ones. Whole world of difference in ph level.
Olives, green, fermented 3.60 - 4.60
Olives, ripe 6.00 -7.50
Black olives would not be safe.
I have not compared the other things, but it doesn't seem that your recipe is safe to me right off the top.
I would stick with the tested safe recipe.
Number one rule in home canning. NEVER can your own recipes.
This is my opinion on it.

OK,I made the Ellie Topp version today (and froze it). YUUUMMMM!!! I do like it! Malna, I am saving your recipe, I may try it next year (and freeze). I have never had caponata before and I have found a new favorite snack.

karen_gph - thanks for letting me know you freeze it, I'm looking forward to pulling this out during the winter.

Now, about Ellie Topp's recipes... this is one that uses a lot of "small", "medium", etc. For example it calls for a "small" eggplant and a "medium" red pepper, 2 "large" tomatoes, everything else is measured. I wasn't too concerned about the amounts since I wasn't canning it, but still, since I've never had it before I wanted to follow pretty closely to the recipe. So I used what I thought were "small", "medium", "large'. The recipe says it makes 5 cups. I only got 2.5 cups. I guess my sizes are smaller than hers.

If I was canning, I guess I'm erring on the safe side as I would have less veggies than her recipe calls for, but...it does make me nervous about using this one.

Ann

Anyone know what a small regular eggplant weighs? I have a few small finger-shaped eggplants and just realized I have all the ingredients to make this.

Then I'm REALLY done for the season. I vowed no applesauce this year but I didn't feel like eating the apples from my farm share so I made sauce tonight. Tomorrow I'll be fixing two soft batches of jam and making a hotter version of Carol's sweet & hot confetti jelly. I also got a pie pumpkin in my farm share so I made that into frozen pumpkin butter tonight. What's one more little batch of caponata anyway?

Melissa

A medium eggplant is 1 pound or about 4 cups diced, so I'm guessing a small one would be 3/4 pound or less.

A large tomato is 9-12 oz. or roughly 1 1/4 cups chopped.

I don't have a weight for a large bell pepper but the USDA says it's approximately 3" in diameter and 3 3/4" long (measuring tape anyone?). About 1 cup chopped.

If your yield is much smaller you certainly don't have to worry. If it's frozen it doesn't matter what you do. Go by taste and tweak freely. I'm of the opinion there's a fair latitude built in to Topp and Howard's recipes but if your yield is way off (say 7 or 8 cups rather than 5) then I'd be concerned. At that point I'd probably dump the mixture back in the pan before capping and add say half again of the wine vinegar, bring up to heat and bottle.

Carol

I asked on another thread about the size of eggplants and, as Carol says, ended up deciding a medium one is 1 pound. I used 14 ounces. Since I was freezing I didn't weigh or measure either my tomatoes or my pepper.

If this freezes well then I will probably take that route in the future anyway, that way I can, as you say, tweak as much as I like without worrying about it.

I'm lobbying DH for a new (additional) freezer. If he shoots a deer or if we buy half-of-a-half of a steer (which is NOT the same as a quarter, I've learned), we will need the space. Then I can freeze all the caponata I want!

Ann