pressure canning foods

[nanagail]

I'm new here so not sure where to post this but we can our foods like chili, hamburger, spaghetti, almost everything. I'm disabled and have several debilitating diseases in my back. By evening, I'm in so much pain I can't stand to cook. I needed a way to be able to cook for my family that didn't hurt me so much. I feel pretty good in the morning, but we didn't like the taste of the food being cooked in the morning and then heated up for supper. So, a friend of mine told me about canning real meals. It has to be in the pressure canner so the meat will be cooked. Like when I make a roast with the potatoes, carrots, and onions we have it that night. Then we make vegetable soup. I make a big pot of the soup and then when my husband comes home we can the rest. I can no longer lift my arms up to get the jars out of the canner. We fill the jars up and put in pressure canner and in 90 minutes we have 7 jars of soup. Then when we want something for supper, we can go to the pantry and look on the shelf. "Oh, here's soup" open the jar, heat it up and you have a good dinner. No pain for mom. I also buy my meat from a local slaughter house. I bought 20 lbs. of ground chuck last Friday. I browned it and put it in quart jars and canned it for 90 min. and now I have hamburger on the shelves. I can use it for sloppy joes, tacos, homemade hamburger helpers, chili. Anything you would want browned hamburger for it's already done. Just open the jar and add your other ingredients and voila dinner is ready. This would be a great way for a woman who has to work outside her home to feed them a healthy dinner and saves money in the long run too.

[Train]

I'm new here so not sure where to post this but we can our foods like chili, hamburger, spaghetti, almost everything. I'm disabled and have several debilitating diseases in my back. By evening, I'm in so much pain I can't stand to cook. I needed a way to be able to cook for my family that didn't hurt me so much. I feel pretty good in the morning, but we didn't like the taste of the food being cooked in the morning and then heated up for supper. So, a friend of mine told me about canning real meals. It has to be in the pressure canner so the meat will be cooked. Like when I make a roast with the potatoes, carrots, and onions we have it that night. Then we make vegetable soup. I make a big pot of the soup and then when my husband comes home we can the rest. I can no longer lift my arms up to get the jars out of the canner. We fill the jars up and put in pressure canner and in 90 minutes we have 7 jars of soup. Then when we want something for supper, we can go to the pantry and look on the shelf. "Oh, here's soup" open the jar, heat it up and you have a good dinner. No pain for mom. I also buy my meat from a local slaughter house. I bought 20 lbs. of ground chuck last Friday. I browned it and put it in quart jars and canned it for 90 min. and now I have hamburger on the shelves. I can use it for sloppy joes, tacos, homemade hamburger helpers, chili. Anything you would want browned hamburger for it's already done. Just open the jar and add your other ingredients and voila dinner is ready. This would be a great way for a woman who has to work outside her home to feed them a healthy dinner and saves money in the long run too.

Ya!
this is the place Nana. Sorry about all your troubles.
Hope things improve for you.
We're gratefull for your input. I do the same thing
in abreviated form. I make my soup and pour it
into wide mouthed 1/2 gal ball jars, the refrigerate. Heheh
It works
Ya, and welcome
Train

[RozieDozie]

Nanagail, thanks for sharing your ideas. You are right; having ready made food on the shelves is wonderful if you are tired or just need a quick meal. When you do it yourself you know what is in it and can adjust seasonings to your family's taste.

[Lanna]

Yup, super handy to have stuff like that in the pantry.

Last night our entire dinner was from the pantry - home canned applesauce and homemade/canned spaghetti sauce (well, and noodles, but still, I didn't make 'em from scratch). Incredibly nice to have on hand at 36 weeks pregnant and after a day of being out in the garden and dealing with the kidlets. Cheaper than ordering pizza, too. ;)

We've also taken to having a bunch of things canned in pints and half-pints for hubby to keep in his desk at work in case he can't get home for lunch. Much healthier and cheaper than what he'd been doing before (think drive-thrus). :)

[nanagail]

yeah Lanna, this would be great for you with a new baby on the way. It sure would help you out when you first get home. You'd know your family is getting a good meal and you wouldn't have to do that much. I also forgot to mention that my two sons are moving out this summer so this will be nice for me and my husband. Good luck on the new one.

[Lanna]

yeah Lanna, this would be great for you with a new baby on the way. It sure would help you out when you first get home. You'd know your family is getting a good meal and you wouldn't have to do that much. I also forgot to mention that my two sons are moving out this summer so this will be nice for me and my husband. Good luck on the new one.
Hee, well, we don't leave home. :) Last kiddo was a homebirth, and barring any crazy stuff, this next kiddo will be born at home, too. But yeah, cracking open the jar is just so darned easy. It's just messing with the canner with kids underfoot that gets a bit hairy... :o

[nanagail]

I had a midwife with my second, but had complications so had to go to hospital. I admire you. I'd love to have been able to do that. Do you homeschool? We did. I loved that too.

[Lanna]

I had a midwife with my second, but had complications so had to go to hospital. I admire you. I'd love to have been able to do that. Do you homeschool? We did. I loved that too.
Well, I come from sturdy farm stock (timber and farm and wheat farm folks) and my previous labors have been relatively short. :D Just hoping to avoid the hospital again since I'm not sick, just cranky and pregnant. Yup, we plan to homeschool. Technically unschool, but still. We're a new breed of crazy hippie I think... ;)

[Denninmi]

Hey, cool thread, I broke down and bought a pressure canner this morning at Meijer -- holds 7 quarts or 10 pints. I am still afraid of it exploding, but the odds of that are really slim. I think this will open whole new worlds of food self-sufficiency for me.

Lanna, talking about home-made noodles, I have a pasta maker that I haven't used in a while, with all of the grain-type things I am starting this year, it opens up new possibilities for home made pastas -- potatoes and sweet potatoes also can be used to make pastas as well, so this is really cool!

I'm quite excited about this. I can't wait to begin processing -- asparagus looks like my first victim (er, um, experiment) in pressure canning low-acid foods.

Dennis
Michigan

[Grass Hopper]

I must admit that I am a manic canner. I did 50 jars of strawberry preserves this week, and it is all down here from here. It is not uncommon for me to have the canner going for six hours in the evening during the summer. A little tip for those like me...we got an outdoor camp stove to keep the heat out of the house. We also have an all electric house so the gas boils the water faster as well.

[Denninmi]

I must admit that I am a manic canner. I did 50 jars of strawberry preserves this week, and it is all down here from here. It is not uncommon for me to have the canner going for six hours in the evening during the summer. A little tip for those like me...we got an outdoor camp stove to keep the heat out of the house. We also have an all electric house so the gas boils the water faster as well.

We can a lot, too -- last year, probably over 300 quarts total, but just stuff that can be done in boiling water bath, nothing low acid.

I was thinking along the same lines, doing it outdoors as well. How does the cost of using the camp stove compare to electricity. Between the a/c (which doesn't generally run very much at all in Michigan, maybe 2 or 3 days at a time, two or three times a month, at most) and the canning (we have an electric stove, no gas service on my street), my electric bills in August and September shoot up about $40 to $50.

The camp stove you're talking about runs on bottle propane, right -- the little cylinders or the big ones? How long does it run (on average, I know it depends on how hot you run it, how high the flame is) on a tank of propane? Or, is it liquid fuel?

Dennis
Michigan

[Lanna]

A little tip for those like me... we got an outdoor camp stove to keep the heat out of the house. We also have an all electric house so the gas boils the water faster as well.
Amen to that. One of the best presents my hubby got for me. Plus if something does explode, it's outside. :D Only trick for us is having to do it outside after dark because of the plants (aka kiddos).

Lanna, talking about home-made noodles, I have a pasta maker that I haven't used in a while, with all of the grain-type things I am starting this year, it opens up new possibilities for home made pastas -- potatoes and sweet potatoes also can be used to make pastas as well, so this is really cool!

I'm quite excited about this. I can't wait to begin processing -- asparagus looks like my first victim (er, um, experiment) in pressure canning low-acid foods.
I don't have a pasta maker, so I just make soup noodles the old fashioned way my grandma did - with a rolling pin and then brute force. ;) Hubby couldn't figure out why I was so dissatisfied with my first round at homemade chicken noodle soup because (used store bought noodles because I didn't have time to make homemade), until I finally made it with real noodles - he'd never had them before! What a shame... :) I was afraid of our canner exploding at first, too. It hasn't yet. Just make sure to inspect your jars *really* well before sticking 'em in there just to cover your rear.

Oooh, I'm jealous... strawberry season won't start for another month and a half at least here... And we're just planting our own asparagus crowns so no harvest this year. *sigh* We have the weirdest looking backyard in our entire neighborhood I believe.

Our camp stove/burner uses the regular propane tank that you fill up at the gas station or whatever. Boils water in the water bath canner in mere seconds it seems (well, in reality more like 10 minutes, but still). Hubby *really* had to look around for one with a very sturdy stand though - ours has 4 incredibly sturdy legs so it can hold up the weight. He's pretty awesome that way. :D I think a full tank would run us an entire season... we only did green beans and chicken/vegetable stocks and beef vegetable stews outside that way - held off on making spaghetti until this winter so doing it inside wasn't too big a deal (our downstairs A/C is right in the kitchen window mere feet from the kitchen stove). I can report back after this season - but I think our tank is still about half full after just those things from last year.

[Denninmi]

I received the pasta maker as a Christmas gift one year. I used it a lot at first, then I guess the novelty wore off. But actually, it works really well, isn't all that hard to use or clean, and it is fun to watch it extrude out through the openings. The one I have has many different dies for different shapes -- lasagna, fettucini, spaghetti, macaroni, penne, etc.

I really need to dig it out of mothballs and start using it again, with the price of food going up. Like I said, I think MANY ground grains, seeds, and nuts would work, perhaps not as the sole flour source, but mixed with semolina and other flours.

And, unless it has eggs in it, which are optional, the fresh pasta can be dried for later use as well.

Dennis
Michigan

[springfever]

I just realized that I have a pasta maker that I've never used. It's all metal and I bought it quite a while ago. I think I will dig it out and see about making some healthy pasta, (whole wheat), etc.

[FarmerCathy]

Lanna, talking about home-made noodles, I have a pasta maker that I haven't used in a while, with all of the grain-type things I am starting this year, it opens up new possibilities for home made pastas -- potatoes and sweet potatoes also can be used to make pastas as well, so this is really cool!

Wow, that sounds neat! What kind is it?

I just asked my hubby if he could get a table with our camp stove set-up outside for canning. I'm so excited! Now I just need to read up on using a pressure canner and check the rubber ring on it. I got it from hubby's grandma a few years ago and it looks like it is in great shape plus there is an extra rubber ring for it. There was a whole bunch of new lids with it, but the rim lid things for the jars look a little rusty. Should I get new ones before I start?

[nanagail]

Yes if your jar lids look rusty you should buy new ones. I always use new lids on my canning except for jams and jellies, for these I use the old ones over and over again. Just make sure I am careful when I open them and they work fine. Gail

[Emerald]

Also check the rubber on the bottom of the lids if you got them and there looking old.. I had some that I got from a friend who found them in the cupboard and well , the rubber on the lids was crumbly so I didn't use them for anything.. I was going to buy lots of the lids on sale for the next year- but was afraid that if not stored well the rubber seal would go bad in the storage. Luckely the lids at save alot are not very expensive yet 1.29 for a doz. of the small mouth ones and 1.99 for the large.. DH has all of a sudden taken a strong interest in the saving of food... must be that the cost of the grocerys went way up just the last few weeks. So this next week end we will be going thu all the jars and lids and rings to see what we will need to buy for later this summer.. Never wait till canning/harvest season rolls around-- the shelves will be bare.

[Denninmi]

Wow, that sounds neat! What kind is it?


I'm sorry, without digging it out of whatever cubbyhole it's stored in (believe it or not, I don't even know which room in the house it might be buried in!), I can't answer the question, I really don't remember, and I think it was probably NOT a brand name anyone would be familiar with, anyway. I do know my sister, who gave it to me for Christmas, bought it at Meijer, a regional supercenter chain here in the Great Lakes area.

However, I can tell you it's electric, has a clear mixing bin where the various flours, etc., go. It mixes it around for a while, then you pull open a little trap door, and the pasta mixture falls through into the extruder, which is a corkscrew type mechanism which forces it out through a die, which you select. You then sit there and cut it off periodically when long enough to suit your tastes.

Dennis
Michigan

[muppetcow]

I've never canned before, but am thinking about buying a pressure canner this summer so I can preserve the bounty of goodness from the garden. What brands of canners do y'all have?

[Lanna]

I've never canned before, but am thinking about buying a pressure canner this summer so I can preserve the bounty of goodness from the garden. What brands of canners do y'all have?
This (http://www.amazon.com/Wisconsin-Aluminum-Foundry-2-Quart-Pressure/dp/B00004S88Z/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=home-garden&qid=1209948108&sr=8-1) is basically what I've got pressure-canner wise. Or maybe the non-name-brand version - mine's got big orange stickers with warnings on the top and side. Hubby got it for me for Christmas like two years ago for a steal with coupons and such on Amazon. Love it. It holds 18-19 pints or 7 quarts, has a metal seal (no rubber to wear out after decades and decades of use!), a weighted pressure gauge that'll never die unless one of the kids tries to melt it, etc. As for water bath canner, I just have one that I got in a kit from the local farm supply store - black enamel coated, complete with the Ball Blue Book and jar lifters and all that jazz. I like having both. :)

[Train]

Hey, cool thread, I broke down and bought a pressure canner this morning at Meijer -- holds 7 quarts or 10 pints. I am still afraid of it exploding, but the odds of that are really slim. I think this will open whole new worlds of food self-sufficiency for me.

Lanna, talking about home-made noodles, I have a pasta maker that I haven't used in a while, with all of the grain-type things I am starting this year, it opens up new possibilities for home made pastas -- potatoes and sweet potatoes also can be used to make pastas as well, so this is really cool!

I'm quite excited about this. I can't wait to begin processing -- asparagus looks like my first victim (er, um, experiment) in pressure canning low-acid foods.

Dennis
Michigan

Ya Denni!
WAIT A MINUTE!!!
Geez, I hope I'me not too late.
I know your smart and intuitive but, this is different.
You really gonna love that thing but You must know
never be be in a hurry.
I had a friend who was all that, and an excellent gardener
who had been canning in quantity for years.
I found him laid up at home. He got impatient one day
and raised the lid when he thought the pressure was low enough.
The steam rushed out against his torso and up his chest
blistering him good. I forget the degree but he was bad
enough they kept him a few days then he couldn't work for
a week and then, Hobbled around doddering like an old man.
BE CAREFULL untill you learn that thing.
Train

[Train]

Wow, that sounds neat! What kind is it?

I just asked my hubby if he could get a table with our camp stove set-up outside for canning. I'm so excited! Now I just need to read up on using a pressure canner and check the rubber ring on it. I got it from hubby's grandma a few years ago and it looks like it is in great shape plus there is an extra rubber ring for it. There was a whole bunch of new lids with it, but the rim lid things for the jars look a little rusty. Should I get new ones before I start?

I had the hand crank models from Italy. Work fine with
a little practice but, buy an electric model now.
Work a lot easier on you.
Train
Ps
Yup, Gorillas like pasta too
Train

[Denninmi]

Ya Denni!
WAIT A MINUTE!!!
Geez, I hope I'me not too late.
I know your smart and intuitive but, this is different.
You really gonna love that thing but You must know
never be be in a hurry.
I had a friend who was all that, and an excellent gardener
who had been canning in quantity for years.
I found him laid up at home. He got impatient one day
and raised the lid when he thought the pressure was low enough.
The steam rushed out against his torso and up his chest
blistering him good. I forget the degree but he was bad
enough they kept him a few days then he couldn't work for
a week and then, Hobbled around doddering like an old man.
BE CAREFULL untill you learn that thing.
Train

Thanks, I will be. I'm not in THAT big of a hurry to use it, and I'm definitely afraid of it, so I'll give it the utmost respect.

[Lanna]

He got impatient one day
and raised the lid when he thought the pressure was low enough.
The steam rushed out against his torso and up his chest
blistering him good.
Yup... *never* open that sucker until the pressure is back to zero and then some (oh, like another 15min-2hrs later). Never. Honestly, I've gotten surprised more often by steam here and there with the water bath canner since I'm a bit more anal with precautions with the pressure canner. :o

[Old man Pete]

I am sure most of you know this, but in case it helps just one of you, here it is. Pressure cookers are made and designed to make water hotter than boiling water. Water boils and turns to steam at 212 degrees farenheit at sea level. For every pound of pressure you put it under the boiling point goes up 3 degrees. Same with a radiator on a car. If you have it under 15 pounds of pressure, the water will not boil and turn to steam until it gets to 257 degrees. The more pressure, the higher the boiling point degree.
They are safe as long as you treat them like a loaded gun. Nothing to fear, just go by the rules and never never never rush the time to open the lid.

[Imp]

Making pastas can be very easy and addictive as it is fun to make many of the shapes- and even if they aren't perfect, they still taste good.

Try your hand a gnocchi- it sounds tougher than it is and use a good fluffy baked potato or a drier type that has been steamed until it is done. Use the back of an older sort of table fork, the sort with longer tines and flick it off the tines for grooves that hold the sauce perfectly. I often add a touch of very dry and cheap type parmesan - think the green Kraft thing! - to the dough or a pinch of garlic powder, you can also add in tomato paste that is very dry ( or powdered dried tomato works wonderfully) or finely chiffonade some spinach and add it, too.

The orchetti ( little ears) are a quicky one too.

I also have the metal machine that hooks onto the kitchen aid for flat noodles- linguine, fettucine and lasnge noodles- it makes great noodles for raviola too. Another use is to roll out very thin cracker dough that is nice and even.

[Cheffie]

Nana needs to start a social group for canning.

Pickling- I am the Queen; but I am sooo afraid of low acid canning, help me get over it!

[plantinthings]

Nana needs to start a social group for canning.

Pickling- I am the Queen; but I am sooo afraid of low acid canning, help me get over it!

Cheffie it's not really that bad, but you do need to respect them. This will be my 3rd yr. canning low acid foods.
I like the weighted pressure canners over the dial ones. Picked one up at a yardsale last year for $10, was my best buy.
I'd start with just one item (maybe have a friend over that has done this before, to help ease the fear and give a little confidence, they can tell what noises to watch for), once you see it's not something to fear you can move onto doing other foods.

[Jackie-T]

Reading this I was just wondering. I make a wicked good beef stew. I would like to make a huge pot and can it. Would that work and would I thicken the gravy with a rou or corn starch? Or would I not thicken it at all? How long would I process quarts> the same amount of time as the ingreedient that takes the longest? andy Ideas on this? I use a pressure cooker most meals it saves so much time and fuel.
I also have an atlass pasta maker the crank type it has the ravioli attachment I have yet to use that attacment.I usualy just make egg noodles and spaghetti. Actualy most of the time I don't use it my grand kids love to make the noodles and they aren even very young 15 and 16. I picked mine up at the big tag sale the church has every fall for $5 and that included 4 different attachments. It was quite old but even so it was in perfect condition. I just love that tag sale.

[Growing Boy]

According to the Ball Blue Book of Preserving don't thicken the stew.
Most of the cooking is done in the pressure canner,
Cover veggies and browned meat with boiling water, bring to a boil.
Ladle into jars, Process 1 hour 30 minutes at 10 pounds pressure.

[muppetcow]

Try your hand a gnocchi- it sounds tougher than it is and use a good fluffy baked potato or a drier type that has been steamed until it is done. Use the back of an older sort of table fork, the sort with longer tines and flick it off the tines for grooves that hold the sauce perfectly. I often add a touch of very dry and cheap type parmesan - think the green Kraft thing! - to the dough or a pinch of garlic powder, you can also add in tomato paste that is very dry ( or powdered dried tomato works wonderfully) or finely chiffonade some spinach and add it, too.



I make gnocchi with my stepdaughter regularly. We use regular old baking potatoes, bake 'em until they're soft then scoop out the flesh with a spoon. Mash the flesh really good then add flour and mix until it's thick enough to form into little pellet/ball things then boil for a couple of minutes. Having a 10 year old in the house is great for things like this--she mixes the dough and I don't get gunky hands.

[Michelle8]

Cheffie,

I, too, was afraid of the pressure canner until my mil taught me how. The best advise is to watch the pressure reading and adjust your heat to maintain the correct pressure. Sometimes I even have to take it off the eye to keep the pressure where it needs to be. No big deal;) For years, I'd watch when they would put frozen turkey breasts on sale. Cook them, can them and the stock! Talk about an easy time for dinner.:D

Also when opening the canner, always open it away from you-towards the back. That way any steam left in the canner will not come at you.

Michelle8

[Emerald]

Reading this I was just wondering. I make a wicked good beef stew. I would like to make a huge pot and can it. Would that work and would I thicken the gravy with a rou or corn starch? Or would I not thicken it at all? How long would I process quarts> the same amount of time as the ingredient that takes the longest? any Ideas on this? I use a pressure cooker most meals it saves so much time and fuel.
I also have an atlass pasta maker the crank type it has the ravioli attachment I have yet to use that attachment.I usually just make egg noodles and spaghetti. Actually most of the time I don't use it my grand kids love to make the noodles and they aren even very young 15 and 16. I picked mine up at the big tag sale the church has every fall for $5 and that included 4 different attachments. It was quite old but even so it was in perfect condition. I just love that tag sale.

I would can it with out thickener or roux and then just thicken it when heating it up- and take it from me-never can your chicken noodle with the noodles in it-- it tasted ok but the texture of the melted noodles was a bit tough to eat.:o
___I would join a social group on preserving the harvest-by canning, dehydrating, freezing and last but not least pickling.

[Michelle8]

Em,
Where you find such a social group? I'd join too.:)

[Lanna]

Holy resurrected threads, Batman! Last time I posted on this my 8.5mo was still gestating!

Cheffie ~ You just have to jump in. Pressure canning terrified me at first, but hubby got a good one, and this season I even had a jar or two of green beans (I forget anymore) explode on me in the pressure canner. And the only way I knew? Was the next morning when I cracked open the lid and was pulling out the cooled off jars (I think I'd been up until midnight processing or something). Just follow instructions and be cautious until you get your bearings. :)

[Train]

Ya!
Has anyone seen Dennis?
I think he pressure canned himself.
Someone get over there and uncan
that man!
Heheh
Train

[Emerald]

Em,
Where you find such a social group? I'd join too.:)

___I just followed the crowd over to the tool shed and clicked on that and when the drop menu pops down you click on social group and it will bring up a list of the social groups-(I didn't even know we could do that until they make a group for certified heirloom assoc.)- and I just added Preserving the Harvest as a social group and am deciding what my first post there will be. My pressure canning is limited to just meats/soups so far but I have canned my pickles and tomatoes forever (or so it seems) but I have been freezing stuff for a few years now in bulk and I also dehydrate and make lacto-fermentation pickles.

[FiberFlinger]

About two months ago, I decided to can some pinto beans. I was tired of running out and not knowing about it. So I started to soak them for canning the next day. Next day as I was putting them on the stove to start their first cooking and hubby walked in and said something about my cooking his beans he started. No they were the beans I started. He then presented me with another batch of pintos. Two batches in all and a final outcome of about 48 pints. I don't think we will run out very soon.