Canning thread.

[glaman5266]

The wife & I have been doing water bath canning off/on for the 10 years we’ve been married. Just applesauce, preserves, that sort of stuff. We picked up an older Presto pressure canner for a good price (10 bucks sounded pretty good to me, anyway ). So we are gonna ramp up the canning this year. I REALLY want to try canning meat, so I’m gonna try taking an extra deer this upcoming season. I think my wife would maybe try doing some pickled stuff. She really loves pickled beets.

Do you guys like canning? What are your experiences? Anything funny happen? Got a doomsday bunker full of canned goods? Discuss it all here.

Pic of said pressure canner:

[BLachance75]

We just bought stuff to start water bath canning. We’ve been making pickles and jam for a few years but have to eat it or give it away before it goes bad. We wanted to start canning it to help it last longer.

[coyote]

I have canned fruits, vegetables, and pickles for some time. Home canned food is light years better than most commercial options.

This year the wife and I got a Great American pressure canner to supplement our emergency stores.

My suggestion is to can meats that require long cook times like beef chuck or brisket, pork shoulder, or chicken thighs. We have had our best luck so far with pot roast and chicken coq au Vin.

The National Center for home food preservation has a ton of useful information regarding pressure canning. What foods you need to avoid processing this way, guidelines for time and pressure etc.

Nice pull on the pressure canner btw, ours set us back about $350.

[Grendel]

I grew up being labor for my parent's canning enterprise [as well as drying, freezing and pickling]. If done well there are a lot of canned foods that will last quite a while and help speed up the cooking on the back end. I really like canned beef (and red meat game) as a starter for soups and stews. We had a subsistence garden that took up over a 1/2 acre of land and we put up lots of veg and fruit using many different methods but much of it was pressure canning. We also went in with other families on livestock and put up lots of meat some being canned. It is a lot of work but I feel well worth the effort. I wish my wife was more of a self sufficiency person because I think in the long run we could save a lot of money and have a better product.

Canning is not hard but you need to be very clean, setup your process and pay attention to what you are doing. Canning using a pressure cooker is very dangerous, if done improperly, and it is easy to get hurt if not killed with just a little lack of attention. Read up on the process and make sure you understand how to use your pressure cooker and make sure it is well maintained. A Guide to Canning, Freezing, Curing & Smoking Meat, Fish & Game by WiIbur Eastman is a good book to start with. Also Ball Jar company has a good documentation called the "Blue Book" that you should be able to find used or Free. My wife and I can occasionally but tend to Freeze more then can right now. I would do more canning but we have not had the large garden needed to support the effort and I don't hunt anymore (though thinking about getting back to it).

Look for the Victory Gardening documentation from the 30s and 40s from the US Gov as there is a lot of information on how to preserve food especially pressure canning.