really old style living?

ChocClare

Hi redlady, yes, the actual processing doesn't take very long at all.

You will need a proper canner for vegetables and meat. Otherwise you do risk botulism (and it might not kill him, you might have to look after him for ever :rotfl:)

If you want to make tomato sauce, or bottle fruit, you don't need a pressure canner - you can heat the jars in a water bath or even in the oven. You do need proper Kilner jars with a rubber seal and wire thingy or proper Mason jars with the separate lid and ring. For step-by-step instructions, check out here or here or here.

ChocClare

mardatha wrote: »

Note to self ; - learn canning (which is really bottling apparently) ; learn how to build a log cabin in three hours with only a nailfile; and knit a ragrug out of old teabags.
Cant let these newcomers steal the show !!:lipsrseal:lipsrseal:lipsrseal
Pottering around the kitchen today, pressure cooking piles of veg and then (ahem) bagging and neatly writing the contents on the bags (;)) and putting neatly in new freezer.:D I feel like Ma Walton.
If they had one.

Now the ragrug out of old teabags WOULD be useful - we seem to produce millions of the damned things :D:D

redlady_1

So you sterilze as if you are going to make chutney then boil the jars in water (say the preserving pan) and Robert's your fathers brother??

But I am thinking I like the meat idea - alot! So a pressure cooker wont do the trick then? I had a look on amazon quickly for a canner and nearly fell over at the p and p!!!!

MD - if you had known how to make a log cabin then you could have helped me renovate "Lil"

RAS

The Brits do not seem to have gone in for canning as much as the Americans. I think MAFF were pretty opposed to preserving of anything other than acidic goods because of the health risks listed above and they advise against it.

I have bottled fruit and fruit juices and my mother used to bottle a lot of tomatoes. I use a large stock pot (it is tall) and re-use a lot of bottles and jars with intact seals (not perfect I know), using the waterbath method, for quantities.

For small amounts (like a batch of late raspberries and blackberries that I do not have time to cook), I use the microwave. As long as the covering on the lid is intact, there is no metallic spark and I check the seal rigourously.

mardatha

So whats the difference between canning fruit and making jam ? Just that canned or bottled fruit is not cooked ?

redlady_1

Now I am totally confused! So if I make jam and apple sauce and tomato chutney I shouldnt be just sterilzing the jars, I should be using one of these canner things too?!?!!! I am quite happy with my jars and no one is dead yet but that sounds more like luck that judgement. I have never heard of canning until now and it isnt mentioned in the cookery books

Or is it just meat?

ChocClare

Your jam and apple sauce have probably got sugar in; your chutney has vinegar - these are natural preservatives and you shouldn't bother to change the way you make 'em!

If you're bottling/canning things, you're not using any preservative, except perhaps a squirt of lemon juice. It is being super-heated and then effectively vacuum sealed (I know that probably isn't really what's happening, but what I mean is, it's the same method they use for putting things in tins). This is why you will see on passata for example that it contains just tomatoes and lemon juice.

Pressure cookers are NOT the same as pressure canners as they don't heat to such high temperatures. That said, you can bottle most things on their own just in a pressure cooker or water bath, just not vegetables and meat. This is why old-fashioned recipes for preserving vegetables are often in brine (using salt as a preservative) or pickles. Similarly, meats were preserved by smoking or potting with butter and salt.

What do you want to do? Post it, and I'll tell you whether you can "can it" or not!!

ChocClare

mardatha wrote: »

So whats the difference between canning fruit and making jam ? Just that canned or bottled fruit is not cooked ?

Canned fruit = tinned fruit. You get jars of eg apricots or peaches or pears in fruit juice or syrup. Stuff you might have for pudding. Jam has more sugar in.

redlady_1

Well, certainly the passata, jam and chutneys are now ok, apple sauce, anything such as cottage pie that would normally go in a freezer but I am liking the sound of the jar! That's all I can think of off the top of my head.

Er, Clare...potting??:D You really do know alot of stuff!

RAS

redlady_1 wrote: »

Now I am totally confused! So if I make jam and apple sauce and tomato chutney I shouldnt be just sterilzing the jars, I should be using one of these canner things too?!?!!! I am quite happy with my jars and no one is dead yet but that sounds more like luck that judgement. I have never heard of canning until now and it isnt mentioned in the cookery books

Or is it just meat?

For a number of reasons I cannot suss, except perhaps profit, people have started to recommend sterilising HM jams and chutneys after putting them in the bottles.

I suspect that they are confusing commercial operations that rely on post filling sterilisation to meet Health and Safety standards and the need to sterilise low sugar jams with the needs of HM makers.

Jams and other preserves with high sugar content and chutneys and pickled preserves made with a good vinegar need to be put in sterilised jars and nothing more. Except perhaps keeping in dark and cool conditions.

Low sugar jams need sterilising after filling (vacumn).

Acid fruits and tomatoes can be bottled (canned if you are American) using the basic water bath method or with a microwave oven. Or you can use a pressure cooker to create the heat needed to sterilise and to create the vacumn. You can add acid to low acid fruits.

Brined goods can be kept for several months and a layer of oil on the top helps reduce contact with the air.

Vegetables and meat should not be preserved by bottling as this method does not halt decomposition and in the absence of acid dangerous toxins can develop.