Kitchen Volcano

Learning to can has been such fun. Saturday I tried canning a jelly with a wine base. The recipe called for a large saucepan. Since I was trying to make as few huge dishes as possible for Jeff to clean up later, I chose my largest saucepan but not my huge stock pot. Bad mistake.

Everything (wine, sugar, spices) was at a nice rolling boil. I add the pectin. VOLCANO! Instantly there is hot syrup everywhere. The counter, the stove top, the front of the stove, the floor, everywhere. Everywhere includes under the burner which is still on high. Whoosh! Now the alcohol in the wine has ignited. Now it is all on fire.

I carefully grab the pot handle lifting it off the stove. While holding a pot of flames, I watch the flaming burner and call for Jeff. For once he actually heeds my call. In a very scornful voice he asks if the burner is off. Of course it is not. Until he arrived the floor and the pot I am holding were on fire so the burner was the last thing on my mind. He turns the burner off, turns, and tells me the floor is sticky and I should clean it up.

Good idea. However I need to get the jelly in the pot I am holding boiling again. I ask him to move the large canning pot off the burner. He says the metal handles are hot. I touch the one closest to me. It is cool. He grabs that handle and the far side handle which most recently was in the flames. Ooops. They were not both cool. He manages to not drop the canner which is filled with boiling water and glass jars as he lowers it to the floor.

The jelly is returned to the stove. Where are the dogs? I knew they were not in the way during the excitement but where have they gone? Enlightenment dawns. The smoke/fire alarm is going off. Gidgett has remembered her puppy lessons. She has run out the dog door and is waiting by the back gate. Good girl! Marvin is peering out the dog door wondering why Gidgett is by the fence. Hmmm. Have to work on training him.

Time to turn on the hood, turn off the smoke alarm, and retrieve Gidgett. Then what a sticky mess to clean up and finish canning.

Lesson learned - Use the stock pot when making jelly. It is less work to clean the giant pot than it is to clean the entire kitchen.