I have a recipe for making herbal pastes which are just fresh herbs chopped up with olive oil, good for herbs that don't dry well. The recipe says to just cover the mixture with olive oil and refrigerate or freeze; for longer-term storage water bathing is suggested. I'd like to make some small jars for gifts which don't have to be frozen or refrigerated immediately, but I can find no other source that discusses water bath or pressure canning with oil as the liquid in the jar. I remember a few years ago when home-made herbal oils with garlic cloves were discouraged because the garlic cloves could cause botulism. Reading the old threads make me a bit of leery of trying this because one use of these pastes is to make uncooked salad dressing or marinades. Has anyone ever tried this? How long/at what pressure did you do can it?

-- Katherine (KyKatherine@Yahoo.com), August 11, 2001

Answers

A friend of mine recently made me aware of a site called homecanning.com It seems to be a site owned by Ball and Kerr. They have an ask questions area and I'll bet they could help you. Good luck! It's better to be safe than sorry. Sounds like a lovely gift idea.

-- cindy palmer (jandcpalmer@sierratel.com), August 11, 2001.

I would think that you could just mix up the pastes and pressure can them, letting the heat and pressure do the work of infusing the oils with the herby goodness. Seems like it would kill two birds (safety and taste) with one stone.

-- Soni (thomkilroy@hotmail.com), August 12, 2001.

I sent an e-mail to the homecanning.com site, but it was undeliverable. I'll keep trying. Soni, from your old threads you sound like an expert. I'll try it out and tell anyone I give them to to be sure to refrigerate the opened jar. Thanks.

-- Katherine (KyKatherine@Yahoo.com), August 13, 2001.