Canning onion marmalade

[thunderbug84]

I'd like to make some onion marmalade using onions, vinegar, sugar, spices and butter. I'd love to can it, but I've never caned this style of preserve before. If I process it the same amount of time as regular jam, should I be okay? I am generally against giving myself and others botulism, so any advice is appreciated!

[BangorDin]

My canning experience is almost zero, but I'm interested so I read a number of the recipes. I'm pretty sure I never ever saw one containing butter. This must really rare-- (?)
Is there any reason to include butter in any sort of preserves?

[thunderbug84]

A lot of French onion marmalades (often called oignon confit) that I've seen use butter or oil to caramelize the onions. I'm happy to try other ideas though... I do really want to can them rather than freeze them because if the recipe turns out great, I'd love to send it to some family members for the holidays.

[heidipie]

Onion marmalade is likely to have enough sugar and acid to can safely, but many sources advise against canning a product that contains butter or oil, because it can prevent the jar from sealing properly. But it'll keep really well in the freezer. And if you always use a clean spoon when you take out a portion and then cover the remainder with oil, it'll stay for at least three or four months in the refrigerator.

[momskitchen]

Actually sugar doesn't help to can things safely - it's all for taste. For boiling water bath canning, it's all about texture, acidity and temperature. You might be having trouble finding a canning safe recipe if you call what you made a "marmalade". Marmalades are defined as a preserve made with citrus. Try searching for recipes for onion jam or onion preserves or onion confit. Also, butter isn't recommended for canning, but I have seen it used to quell foaming in fruit jam - not recently, though. I'll look around through my cookbooks and see if I can find a recipe for you that is safe to can. Hope this helps!

[rainey]

I concur that you need to go to an authorative site for a tested recipe. Onions are not high acid veggies so you want to be positive that you have an adequate amount of acid to ensure an environment that will not support anaerobic growth.

[tall sarah]

the ball website has lots of tested recipes & canning instructions. check them out.