anyone done any pressure canning

[zombiesarecoming]

Just that really, have just taken delivery of an All American 921 pressure canner sent over from the U.S.

Just waiting for my mason jars to arrive that the bloody useless couriers seem to have lost

Amazes me how one courier can get a box thousands of miles across the world but another one can't get 2 boxes to me from somewhere only 30 miles away without loosing them

Think my first canning attempts will be tomato sauces

Anyone else tried it for long term food preserving and have any tips or advice ?

Afraid not so I'll be watching with interest. Nearly all the preserving my own family used to do was in the form of jam. Pretty well everything else was in the ground or on the hoof.

I'm a bit confused about the pressure canning. I was reading about it this week and this was without the machine, but it seemed to be:

1. sterilise jar
2. Boil food
3. fill to within 1-2.5cm of lid
4. boil entire jar in pan of water
5. allow to cool for 24 hrs and check seal, if seal no good, remove lid, repeat step 4 + 5

So what am I missing here? Why can I not prepare e.g., tomato sauce in the same manner as I would jam? i.e., for me - pour the fucking stuff in, don't leave much of a gap at all, screw on lid, assume all will be OK.

I do Jam the same way

The idea behind canning (which is really jarring) is to kill any traces of botulism as this lives and thrives in air free environments

For tomatoes and jam they should be water bath canned, ie lid finger tight covered and boiled to vent air out then removed and cooled to seal

For low acid foods and meats etc the temp achieved by boiling with no pressure isn't high enough to kill any nasties so that's why it is done under pressure as it can then be boiled at a higher temperature

For me it means rather than forgetting to get meat out of the freezer to defrost for tea I can pull a pressure canned jar off the shelf and cook something up from it

Also with a self life of a year on properly preserved stuff I can bulk buy veg in season at its cheapest, can it myself so I know exactly what is in the jar and always have good healthy food in the house to eat

As we progress the idea is to grow more of my own stuff as well and be able to preserve it for use over time rather than having a glut which some of gets wasted

Great! I'll experiment with tomatoes and consider the rest later.

i have looked at canning and gave got myself confused so will watch this with interest

Jarring

I see what you did there

Resurrecting this thread because it's a path I am considering.
Anyone else tried pressure canning?

I'd be very careful about attempting pressure canning of low acid food at home.
Thermal processing is not straight forward.
To be absolutely certain you have achieved a botulinum cook, you need to validate the process to ensure you have even heat distribution in all areas of the equipment.
You need to achieve an F0 value of at least three, preferably six, for each different food type. Thermal penetration is different for a solid lump of meat, compared to a liquid soup, for example.
Commercial canners don't just come up with a new product and guess the process for a reason.
Do you know how to calculate F0 using z and d values?

No but I know how to read up on doing it and how to follow good advice, for example the USDA and the special project undertaken by the University of Georgia.

Camden Bri run canning courses, which are well respected, if that would be of interest.

I have a pressure canner & use it often, it's fantastic.
Don't just put the name of what you've canned, put the date on everything as well, because they all look the same & it's really important to use older stuff first.
You've just reminded me I need to stock up on labels & reusable lids.

I have. It's great. Do it ina methodical by the book way and it is awesome. Taco turkey mince is popular in our house. I have a few jars of this already.