Canning

Canning can be an excellent way to preserve your excess harvest for the winter months, put up salsas, sauces, soups, stocks, pie fillings and other delicious goods that can be stored in your pantry.  Canning is the least nutritious option for preserving food - freezing will preserve more nutrients but freezing also requires electricity to store.  If you have a lack of freezer space, or you don't want to pay to power a chest freezer, or you simply want to prepare for an electrical outage and be able to continue with healthy eating, canning may be for you!

You can make canning healthier by omitting salt and sugar.  Neither of these are needed for actual food preservation - your water bath or pressure canner will preserve your foods.  You can simply can vegetables and fruits without any additives at all, just the water they were cooked in to get them ready for the canner.

Can only produce and foods that are just ripe and in perfect condition.  Get your recipes out and be sure you have everything you need before you start.  I like to prepare all of my equipment the night before, and sometimes wash all of the veggies and fruits I'll be canning then also.  You CAN make a soup or broth in advance and store in the fridge, just bring it back to a boil before packing in the jar.  Plan to spend a lot of time your first few times reading and re-reading your manual and recipe. 

My husband may think I'm nuts, but every time I make a home made meal from home canned goods, I get so incredibly excited and happy.  These are foods I prepared, on my own, for my family.  I realize I *can* preserve food for my family, and use up every bit of my garden harvest, never letting anything go to waste. For a woman with a heart for self sufficiency, the moment of opening a home-canned jar and knowing she preserved properly and the food is fine - that's a crowning moment worthy of celebration. That celebration is a wonderful home cooked meal!  Experience the joy, the 'ah-ha!' moment, the pride and excitement over home canned goods.

High acid foods (fruits, soft spreads and when citric acid is added,  tomatoes) can be canned using a waterbath canner.  Low acid foods (vegetables, soups, broths) will need to be canned in a pressure canner   For specific instructions, refer to the recipe you'll be using.

Other Supplies:

Jars, Lids & Bands

Pressure canner or Waterbath Canner (your pressure canner should also double as a waterbath canner if you have one)

Jar lifter for removing super hot jars

Plastic Spatula for packing foods and removing air bubbles

Measuring stick (plastic) to measure headspace

Funnel for easy, no-spill pouring

Preparation:

	Read your directions before beginning.  Gather your recipes and be sure you have exactly what you need for each, and the time available to do it.  Only use tried and true CANNING recipes for preparing canned goods.  Different mixes of meats, vegetables and/or fruits may alter how you can and for how long, so to prevent illness from failed preservation use only tried and true recipes (or deviate from the original recipe only slightly if you must)
	Check your jars to be sure there are no nicks or cracks.  Any cracks at the top can prevent a good seal and any cracks on the jar can increase the risk of the jar breaking while canning.
	Wash with hot water and soap, your jars, lids, rings, measuring stick, canning equipment (minus the gauge to your pressure canner - read directions first but I don't think those are supposed to be submerged), pots and pans that you'll use to prepare your food for canning.
	Heat your lids if they have a sealing compound, only up to a simmer.  Heating too high for too long can damage the sealing property and result in a bad seal.  Keep the lids in the water and remove one at a time until you need them.  Use tongs to remove.
	Jars will also need to be heated, up to a simmer, on the stovetop, for 10 minutes.  Remove them one at a time as needed.
	Follow the steps outlined in your user manual for preparing your canner.

Each year, take your pressure canner gauge to your local extensions office, they'll usually test it to be sure it's still accurate.

Your recipe will call for hot packing or raw packing.  Hot packing involves cooking the food for a bit before you pack it.  Raw packing is just as described - packing food raw and usually a solution or brine brought to a boil will be added over the contents.  Your canning recipe will call for the best method of canning, as different foods may do better with one or the other option.  You'll need to check how much headspace is required, headspace being the space between the top of your liquid and the top of your jar.  I use a plastic measuring stick inside the jar and add or subtract as needed.  It is important to measure as closely as possible.  You'll also want to remove air bubbles which will also help pack your food better.  Never squish your food together to forcefully fit more, but certainly use a spatula or plastic spoon handle to move contents around, remove air, and shift things around to see if you can fit more. After filling you should clean around the top of the jar where the lid and band will sit, to ensure a good seal.  Use a clean cloth and wipe around it.  Screw the lids on only fingertip tight - just until the point of resistance.  Then using your jar lifter, place your jar in your canner.

If you are using a pressure canner, typically you'll need to exhaust the steam for a period of time (my canner requires 10 minutes) before you plug it and allow the steam to build.  Then, once the pressure is at the correct spot you begin your canning time.  It is very important to keep an eye on what you're canning and adjust the heat on your stove as needed.  You don't want the temperature to fluctuate a lot.  I always can when my children are asleep, so I am never distracted for long periods where I might forget that I need to frequently check my canner.  Once the canning time is complete, I remove the canner from the heat and let it sit until the pressure goes down.  Once there is no more pressure built up, I remove the lid, remove my jars and set them no less than an inch apart on a surface and let them cool overnight.  The next morning I label and put them away.  You can store with or without the bands on - I prefer to store them with the bands on just for looks sake but they don't need to be kept on.

To be sure your food is safe once canned: Follow directions to the letter.  Have all utensils and equipment clean, clean work surface, fresh fruits and veggies (don’t ever use anything with mold).  Once you’ve followed instructions and have taken all the steps, pull jar out and first thing you want to do with water bath canned products is listen for the “ping” that happens when your jar seals (it’s the vacuum that sucks the lid down and creates the seal).  Once the jar cools completely, check each lid by pressing down on them in the center. If they’re concave and no give, you have a good seal.  If there is give or you can push down, you can re-can or put in the fridge to use soon, don’t store.  Once perfectly cool you can take screw bands off and check to see if any liquid or food material has seeped through the seal.  Occasionally some liquid gets sucked out of the jar and it’s ok as long as there is no actual food.  If there is liquid loss, put a towel on the counter, set the jar on the towel and try to pick it up by the lid. If there is a bad seal, the weight of the jar will pull the lid off otherwise the lid will stay on.  If these tests go ok, food is safe to store.  Once food is in storage, there are more signs you can look for before use: any sign of mold – don’t use, bubbling or gassiness in the jar – don’t use, bad odor or food looks slimy or has gotten really dark – don’t use (safely discard – burn if necessary or flush down toilet to keep out of the reach of children or animals).

Great books (check your local library!)

• Putting Food By

• The Ball Blue Book of Canning