Calling All Canners!

Fruball

AnnabelSaves said:

I do! I've got over 120 jars in my pantry and doing more every year. I can low acid foods in a pressure canner (NOTE: a pressure canner is not the same thing as a pressure cooker!) and high acid foods in a water bath. I taught myself using the subreddit for canning and the Ball book of food preservation which I got my local bookshop to import for me. A lot of youtubers and bloggers do not follow the safe canning practices, and are known as 'rebel canners'. I would recommend sticking completely to the FDA guidelines at least as a newbie, and then you can evaluate the risks you are willing to take.

I can loads of tomato sauce from my allotment tomatoes, stock, soup, meat, all kinds of vegetables, fruit, jams, salsas. As we're only a family of two and my allotment produces kilos of vegetables, it's the best way to save money and eat organic home grown produce all year round, especially without a big freezer. I have an American pressure canner I bought on ebay, it fits 11 pint jars at a time, and you can buy something to be able to double stack it but i haven't yet. It was about £200 including import tax but it's been worth the investment. It's a learning curve but incredibly rewarding and now saves me a fortune. 

I'd love to know what pressure canner you bought.  I would love an electric Presto one but the cost of the canner and importing is prohibitive for me at the moment.  Maybe next year.
I guess I am a rebel canner (aka Amish canner) and WB everything like the Amish do.  It's common practice all over Europe too apparently.  
I'd love to see pics of your jars   I am quite obsessed atm! lol

Sounds like your allotment is pretty productive!  Well done!  I grew some veg at home this year and will ramp up the scale next year.  I do need to fence off an area somehow, cheaply, as I have dogs and don't want them walking (or pooping) on my seedlings! 

Fruball

Bumping this up as I cannot believe there are so few canners/water bathers/preservers here!   

PipneyJane

It’s fascinating reading about everyone’s experiences.  Those of you who pressure-can, how long do you process your tomato sauces?  

I have a glut of tomatoes to turn into sauce and I’m rapidly running out of freezer space.  (I will be making my third vat of sauce next week, once the latest harvest are ripe.)  All advice would be appreciated.

Many thanks.

- Pip

Fruball

PipneyJane said:

It’s fascinating reading about everyone’s experiences.  Those of you who pressure-can, how long do you process your tomato sauces?  

I have a glut of tomatoes to turn into sauce and I’m rapidly running out of freezer space.  (I will be making my third vat of sauce next week, once the latest harvest are ripe.)  All advice would be appreciated.

Many thanks.

- Pip

I don't have a pressure canner, sadly, so can't advise on timings.  What canner do you use?  I am considering one!  

PipneyJane

Fruball said:

PipneyJane said:

It’s fascinating reading about everyone’s experiences.  Those of you who pressure-can, how long do you process your tomato sauces?  

I have a glut of tomatoes to turn into sauce and I’m rapidly running out of freezer space.  (I will be making my third vat of sauce next week, once the latest harvest are ripe.)  All advice would be appreciated.

Many thanks.

- Pip

I don't have a pressure canner, sadly, so can't advise on timings.  What canner do you use?  I am considering one!  

I don't have an official pressure canner, @Fruball.  I have a 20+ year old Prestige pressure cooker, which reaches 13lb pressure. (I checked with the manufacturer.)  It was the largest I could find at the time and holds 3 1L Kilner jars.  It came from John Lewis.

At the end of last month, L!dl were selling 7L pressure cookers.  Good ones.

HTH

- Pip

knitandsew

I waterbath soooo many things!!
Stews, chilis, meat, beans...so handy to just crack open a jar and reheat for 10mins.

Love, love, love my jars!!

PipneyJane

knitandsew said:

I waterbath soooo many things!!
Stews, chilis, meat, beans...so handy to just crack open a jar and reheat for 10mins.

Love, love, love my jars!!

Ooohhh..... Do tell us more, @knitandsew.   How long do you process your jars to ensure they are sterilised and have a good seal?  What are your reference guides?  What do you put under the jars, to ensure they don't crack? 

- Pip (apologies, I'm full of questions.)

knitandsew

I use recipes from Le Parfait and after emailing them a few times with questions I felt confident to use my own recipes.

Basically anything can be waterbathed.
Dairy isn't a great option though bc it can ferment. I know some people waterbath dairy but I haven't had much success. Tbh, the worst that happens is it will ferments and trust me, you'll know if that's happened when you open the jar
Spag bol sauce is a great candidate. Cook as usual, ladle inot jars, seal, waterbath for 1hr. Done. It'll keep for 1yr officially but much longer provided it's in a cool, dark place.

Pack cold food into cold jars and a cold waterbath. Bring to the boil and then start timing the process. 
Or warm food into warm jars and warm water. Bring to the boil and then start timing the process. 

I'll find a chart of times required for different foods and update this post


Jars must be clean but do not need to be sterilised before waterbathing - beyond 10min waterbathing, they become sterilised inside anyway. 

The safety issues arise when reheating, not when processing.
When reheating, always boil for 5min which is the official length of time at which potential nasties are killed but I always go over 5min.

There are lots of "omg, you mustn't do x-y-z or else you'll..." If in doubt. I email Le Parfait who respond very quickly and very clearly. They are continually developping recipes and don't have a vested interest in selling huge contraptions - just jars. I personally feel they know their stuff as do the many cultures who waterbath and have done so for 200yrs-ish.

maryb

US websites are totally paranoid about botulism.  And you do have to be careful.  In most cases the botulism spores themselves aren't lethal unless you are young, elderly or immune compromised.  It's the toxins they produce that are lethal.  So pressure canning is necessary if you want to kill the spores and be sure they aren't merrily doing their thing in your sealed jars because the spores aren't killed at normal boiling temperature

BUT the toxins themselves are denatured by boiling for 10 minutes with out needing the higher temperatures you can only get under pressure.  (That is provided you are not halfway up a mountain). Because European soils have a much lower incidence of botulism spores than US soils, waterbathing is considered safe in Europe but the instructions always say to reheat to boiling after opening the jars.  Never open a jar and taste the contents cold!

PipneyJane

knitandsew said:

I use recipes from Le Parfait and after emailing them a few times with questions I felt confident to use my own recipes.

Basically anything can be waterbathed.
Dairy isn't a great option though bc it can ferment. I know some people waterbath dairy but I haven't had much success. Tbh, the worst that happens is it will ferments and trust me, you'll know if that's happened when you open the jar
Spag bol sauce is a great candidate. Cook as usual, ladle inot jars, seal, waterbath for 1hr. Done. It'll keep for 1yr officially but much longer provided it's in a cool, dark place.

Pack cold food into cold jars and a cold waterbath. Bring to the boil and then start timing the process. 
Or warm food into warm jars and warm water. Bring to the boil and then start timing the process. 

I'll find a chart of times required for different foods and update this post


Jars must be clean but do not need to be sterilised before waterbathing - beyond 10min waterbathing, they become sterilised inside anyway. 

The safety issues arise when reheating, not when processing.
When reheating, always boil for 5min which is the official length of time at which potential nasties are killed but I always go over 5min.

There are lots of "omg, you mustn't do x-y-z or else you'll..." If in doubt. I email Le Parfait who respond very quickly and very clearly. They are continually developping recipes and don't have a vested interest in selling huge contraptions - just jars. I personally feel they know their stuff as do the many cultures who waterbath and have done so for 200yrs-ish.

Thanks for the info @knitandsew and for giving me a lightbulb moment when you mentioned the magic words "Le Parfait".  My brain went "d'uh!" because 50% of the jars in this house are from them and it never occurred to me to check their website.  I will browse there for inspiration in future.

maryb said:

US websites are totally paranoid about botulism.  And you do have to be careful.  In most cases the botulism spores themselves aren't lethal unless you are young, elderly or immune compromised.  It's the toxins they produce that are lethal.  So pressure canning is necessary if you want to kill the spores and be sure they aren't merrily doing their thing in your sealed jars because the spores aren't killed at normal boiling temperature

BUT the toxins themselves are denatured by boiling for 10 minutes with out needing the higher temperatures you can only get under pressure.  (That is provided you are not halfway up a mountain). Because European soils have a much lower incidence of botulism spores than US soils, waterbathing is considered safe in Europe but the instructions always say to reheat to boiling after opening the jars.  Never open a jar and taste the contents cold!

Good point @maryb.  One of my American friends even water-baths her jars of jam for 20 minutes.  (You can't pressure-can jam, per my research because it destroys the pectin.)

When I made Crab Apple Chilli Cheese earlier this year, I was worried about the jar sterility and seal, so water-bathed them afterwards for 10 minutes.  Better safe than sorry.

- Pip