I’ve shared before that I will can almost anything, from meat to veggies to jams and jellies. We eat our home-canned food regularly, but a lot of people are cautious or downright scared of home-canned food. I grew up around home-canning because our babysitter, Mrs. Diane, put up tons of jars of food when I was a kid. My great-grandmother, Maw Maw, did the same. One of my earliest memories was seeing jars of food lined up on her shelves and watching the sun and dust motes floating around in her kitchen.
Back then, most people canned only using the water bath method, which involves using a large pot with a lid to boil jars for a set amount of time in order to preserve the food. Mrs. Diane’s cellar was always full of quart jars of green beans and potatoes, sweet potatoes, and other goodies. She also canned lima beans, which I hated as a kid! However, we all loved the tomatoes she put up every year!
My canning pantry is full of jars of chicken, beef, and pork. We have home-canned tomatoes, spaghetti sauce, and bruschetta. I love having extra jars of jelly and jams on hand. They make a perfect quick gift for almost anything. I use my pinking shears to cut a quick square of fabric, put on a ring, and tie a piece of string around the jar with a quick homemade gift tag. I’ve even trained the kids and their families to bring the jars back for refills!
Water bath canning is the simplest method. You need a big pot, a lid, and a rack, plus jars of food. Once you have prepared the food according to the guidelines from the National Center for Home Food Preservation, you process the jars for the amount of time they recommend. I use this water bath canner on my glass top stove.
Most of us remember at least hearing about a pressure canner exploding at one time or another. Mrs. Diane exploded one when I was a kid, and I still remember what a mess that was to clean up! Today’s canners are made with more safety features than our Grandma’s canner had and, if used properly, are much safer. The manufacturer of my Canner includes a safety seal that will pop up if the canner boils dry. It’s a small black rubber plug in the top of the canner. It’s also advisable to have dial gauge canners checked before canning season by your local County Extension Office, which should be listed in your phone book. I don’t use the dial gauge on my canner because I prefer a weighted gauge which I can listen to instead of having to constantly watch a dial gauge.
I love my Presto 23 quart Pressure Canner so much that I bought a second one for use when I need to can big batches of food. Amazon sells the weighted gauge for mine for around $10, which I think is a great price. The “fancy” term for it is “pressure regulator”, but I’ve always just called it a gauge.
We bought 80 pounds of chicken breast from Zaycon Foods early this year and I put up over 75 pints in two days using my two pressure canners. We bought a separate cast iron burner to use for the second canner so that I don’t have two heavy pressure canners on the glass top stove at the same time. I can also plug in the burner outside if I prefer not to heat up the house. I like the cast iron versions for holding the heavy canner pots.
I also have an assortment of funnels, jar lifters, and ladles for use when I’m canning. I like to run all of my smaller items, including jars, through the dishwasher before I start just to make sure that everything is spotlessly clean. I keep my jars in the hot dishwasher until I fill them.
You can pack the product to be canned in your jars using the hot pack or cold pack method. Your jars, canner, and product should always be at a similar temperature. If your food is boiling hot, then your jars should be boiling hot as well and the canner should be hot when you place the jars inside. Otherwise, you risk having a jar break because of the mismatched temperatures. I don’t cold pack most things, except for green beans. Even they “should” be blanched for a couple of minutes in boiling water to keep their green color. I like to drop them into cold water to stop the cooking so my green beans come out nice and green.
The National Center for Home Food Preservation recently approved “Steam Canning” as well. I don’t own a steam canner, but I do know a few people who use them.
As I can things, I will take pictures and post recipes for what we like to have on hand. If you have a specific food that you want information about canning, please leave a comment below. You can also reference the Ball Blue Book, which I use every time to double-check my processing times and the recommended canning method.
I will be doing a series with more in-depth information about how to use both types of canners. It’s really simple once you know the basics, and it’s wonderful having food that you are sure was prepared with exactly the spices your family likes. I also feel better knowing that everything was prepared in a sanitary environment. With all the recent disease outbreaks and recalls of fresh and commercially canned foods, I like knowing that our food supply is much safer.
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