Canning Rosemary Onion Confit

Recently I have been promising myself to work on more recipes that put up onions in different ways other than my Caramelized Onion Relish. This last weekend I got together with my canning group and one of the recipes we did was from "The Pickled Pantry", "Rosemary Onion Confit".

This recipe used a lot of onions and the combination of soy sauce and rosemary sounded like a great blending that would leave a sour salty flavor once the recipe had mellowed for a few weeks in the jar. The author says:

"This sweet onion relish is the perfect accompaniment ot meats, particularly pork roasts. Use the confit with goat cheese to top a Crostini or crackers... Turn it into a quickly made tart. You can also slide it under the skin of a chicken before roasting!"

This is a very simple recipe but packed with lots of great flavor. Enjoy!

Rosemary Onion Confit

3 pounds onion, chopped 

1 cup cider vinegar or wine vinegar (5% acidity)
¾ cup sugar
1 T. rosemary
1 T. soy sauce
Freshly ground pepper

Preparation : Prepare 3 pints, lids, and rings. Sterilize the jars and keep them in the hot water till its time for processing. Make sure to fill your water bath canner and get the water to a simmer.

Cooking: In a large stainless steel add a trace of olive oil and heat up over medium heat. Add the onion and lower the heat to low and stir to coat the onions. Cook stirring occasionally until the onions are brown and tender, about 30 minutes. Stir in the vinegar, sugar, rosemary, soy sauce, and pepper and simmer for 5 minutes. Remove from heat.

Filling the jars:  On a dishtowel place your hot jars and using your funnel in each jar using a ladle then fill the jars leaving ½” headspace.   Remove air bubbles and refill to the proper headspace with the liquid brine if necessary. Taking a clean papertowel wet it with warm water and wipe the rims of the jars removing any food particles that would interfere with a good seal. Using your magic wand extract the lids from the hot water and place them on the now cleaned rims. Add your rings to the tops of each of the jars and turn to seal just "finger tight". 

Processing: Make sure your rack is on the bottom of the canner and place the jars in the water bath making sure that the water covers each of the jars by 1 to 2 inches. Add hot water to the canner if it doesn't measure up. Cover the pot and turn up the heat under the canner and wait for the water to start boiling. Once the water has come to a boil start your timer for 10 minutes. When complete turn off the heat and remove the cover and let the jars sit for another few minutes. Remove the jars and place them back on the dishtowel in a place that they will sit overnight to cool. Do not touch or move them till the next morning.

Sealing: Some time in the next hour your jars will be making a "pinging" or "popping" noise. That is the glass cooling and the reaction of the lids being sucked into the jar for proper sealing. Some recipes may take overnight to seal. Check your lids and reprocess any jars that did not seal.