I also read that you can use a pressure canner (or is it cooker) for home distillation... Er, I mean, I read they have other uses as well.
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15 years ago
Monday, November 30, 2009
Pressure Canning
I had never heard of this before (I was raised on LI). I am usually very down on canning because of the bad experience we had and that everything needs to be acidic. And what a PITA compared to freezing. But recently I read that pressure canning is different from regular canning and that not everything has to have acid added, and that it is much safer. WHAT?? Is a pressure canner the same thing as a pressure cooker?
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I am not sure what kind of canning my mom does but she's been at it since I was a kid (and before that) and we've never had an issue with getting sick. She does apple sauce, peaches, pears now and when I was younger the list included things like tomatoes, pickles, and beets. Yes, it was labor intensive (I think that might have been part of the reasoning behind four kids...) but you didn't need a massive freezer running all year long to keep things from spoiling.
ReplyDeleteThat I know of, she has no experience with said other uses for pressure cookers. I am not sure if this is one in the same as a pressure canner as I've never heard of the latter.
Ok, I should get my canning processes straight... Mom does "hot bath" canning, which acceptable for certain types of foods. She informs me it is not appropriate for things like green beans, even though it was the way her mother canned beans when they were kids. She did say that she is cautious with her canning now. If a jar doesn't "pop" when she opens it, she throws it out, or if she notices some mold growing, she throws it out. She does have a pressure canner and will let you borrow it if you want.
ReplyDeleteWe have a pressure canner. I have no idea what a pressure cooker is...
ReplyDeleteI think we got our canner on Amazon. I love the process of canning, so I'm not the person to ask if it is a pain. I think pressure canning is for stuff that needs to be ultra cooked to make sure all bacteria are killed. Bill just canned some chicken stock (which required an hour in the pressure canner) and previously canned gobs of tomoato sauce, which were also pressure canned. I think it is the high sugar content of jams that make them ok for just boiling water. When I do jam with pectin, we don't boil the full jars at all, actually. The jars are steralized before adding the jam, and the jam is hot enough to kill anything without needing the boil. Fruit butters or jams without pectin, however, I do water boil for about 10 minutes.
The Ball Blue Book is an amazing tool for canning. And the USDA has lots of info - they do tons of testing, which is how I know it is not safe to can sqaush puree. In their tests the center of the puree never got hot enough to kill bacterias. Also a good site: www.uga.edu/nchfp
What bad experience did you have?
ReplyDeleteThis is our pressure canner:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.amazon.com/All-American-25-Quart-Pressure-Cooker-Canner/dp/B0002808YS/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=home-garden&qid=1259763190&sr=1-3
IT is a beast. It will also work as a pressure cooker. The primary difference is the amount of pressure, strength, and size. This canner is huge beast of cast aluminum that is crazy thick. you can procss 7 quart jars, plus an additional layer of pint jars.
There is not a lot that can withstand 10 psi for 45 minutes. For a lot of garden veg, berries, and meatyness, a pressure canner is a must. It is more work up-front than freezing, but I find it to be WAY more convenient for meal prep. It is so much nicer not having to defrost things, especially chicken stock. We've had no issues with anything at all that has been pressure canned. I typically let it go a little longer than the USDA guidelines, which are probably already erring on the side of caution.
The only downside is that anything that gets pressure canned will be "cooked". The greenbeans are not as good I think as if they are frozen, but they work great to drop into a stew or soup.
This particular canner works with a weight. The weight is calibrated for either 5, 10, or 15 psi (though actually it is 6, 11, and 16 - more erring on the side of caution here). When the pressure builds up to the appropriate level it forces the weight up and automatically releases the excess. Very safe, doesn't need to be monitored like some other designs.
We canned some tomato sauce with some surplus tomatoes some friends had given us. We were pretty careful about following the directions from Ball. But, they fermented and oozed all over the inside of our pantry anyway.
ReplyDeleteI realize that canning basically cooks the contents, which I am not a huge fan of (which is why we only make refrigerator cucumbers), so the only thing I really want to can is tomato sauce and salsa. Which, maybe if I borrow the Logan's pressure canner, now I can do. I do find it a pain to always have to defrost my tomatoes.
So, that is very cool.
You might not need the pressure canner for salsa. Good post here.
ReplyDeleteMaybe you could pick Mom's brain regarding the sauce. We have a squisher too that we used to slave over (right Jon--but we'd only fight over who got to do it because it was fun).
ReplyDeleteAh, yes, the countless hours spent as a young lad squishing tomatoes in the Squeez-o! Wasn't as much fun as throwing the rotten ones at my siblings. In all seriousness, you should talk with mom about her canning process for tomatoes. That I remember, there were no instances of exploding/oozing jars.
ReplyDelete