My canning journey officially began when we were cleaning out old sheds on family property. I had toyed with the idea of getting in to canning previously, but the amount and cost of equipment, the vastness of available information from literally anyone who had stuck stuff in jars and sealed the lid, and the dangers of botulism were all too daunting so I shelved the idea, occasionally revisiting it, but never pulling the trigger. That all changed when we came across Granny Reynolds’ old pressure canner.
It’s a Presto brand, model 7B. Produced some time around the 1970’s, thick aluminum with brown Bakelite handles. It’s also a 16 quart, the smallest size currently used in lab testing. This is a tidbit of information I had come across previously, but I had also read about people canning in much smaller pressure cookers or canners, and water bath canning some of the same items others stated could only be pressure canned. It was confusing, but armed with this “new” serendipitous piece of equipment and a significant number of Granny’s jars, I was determined to dredge through the information out there and truly try my hand at canning.
Granny kept all of her items in their original boxes. She also seemed to never get rid of things that go together. Knowing this, I was reminded of the random presto weight I had found in the kitchen! It was heavy, with a broken brown Bakelite collar. I had found the weight for this canner before I knew it still existed! This detail oriented amazing record keeper of a lady (important items we have found have been folded in paper with hand written notes about their histories) had also amassed quite the collection of canning jars. Stored in their original boxes, stacked neatly in that storage shed, with flats and bands loosely placed, just to keep the dust out. Most of these have now been cleaned up and brought into the house. They are used regularly these days (the very old jars, like the blue jars with sloped shoulders and zinc lids are no longer used).
The first thing to address was the canner. Was it safe? What did it need to make it safe, and was it even possible to make it safe? While researching the answers to these questions, just in case we couldn’t restore Granny’s canner, John bought a modern Presto 23 quart pressure canner, and a basic water bath canner by Ball. It ended up being great to have both a 23 quart and a 16 quart pressure canner, and I regularly use them both in tandem these days. What we found was the old vintage canner is still in great shape. This is what we were instructed to look for: Solid flat bottom (no wobble when on a flat surface), no warping, no pitting in the aluminum. Some extension offices offer testing for canners, so see if that’s an option available to you. The really nice thing about this presto is that it was very popular in it’s day, and the consumable parts for this canner are still readily available. We ordered new gaskets, weights, and overpressure plug. John installed them, and I took the canner for a spin.
This part was intimidating. There are so many recipes out there, and I needed something simple and shelf-stable. I took to the internet. The first group I came across were the rebel canners. I had no idea at that time what that meant. Rebel canners will put anything they want in any combination in a jar, water bath, pressure can, or even dry can on a whim, and think the job is done if the sealant on the lid sticks to the jar. The things they were doing looked beautiful, convenient, delicious. Thankfully, I lurked for a while before trying any recipes. The longer I lurked, the more I saw things that looked questionable, untrustworthy, and seemed “off”.
I am not a good enough scientist, nor am I brave enough to be this cavalier. You shouldn’t be either. This is similar to how canning was originally approached, until people started mysteriously dying. Governments poured money into researching this concerning development, and botulism and spoilage bacteria in home canned products were shown to be the responsible party in a disturbingly high number of cases. Canning was conceived around the late 1700s, and our knowledge has grown by leaps and bounds since then. We know better, and we should do better now. How heat penetrates food items, what pressures need to be reached to heat the food enough to stop bacterial growth, and what food items just won’t work in the home version of canning all matter. We cannot know these things just by looking at jars. Testing of canning recipes is available to the general public through extension offices, and if I were going off the beaten path of canning, I would take the steps and pay to get my recipes lab tested. I am not a fan of Russian roulette. That’s all I am going to say about rebel canners here.
The next group I came across was far more measured in their approach to canning. Utilizing only recipes that have gone through lab testing and received the stamp of approval from extension offices and labs; and modifications to recipes that won’t affect density, heat penetration, or pH. It is simply called Canning, and utilizes Facebook as it’s platform. This group is where I found the majority of the resources I use for canning. Remember how I told you the 16 qt pressure canner is the smallest used in testing? Canning, the group, sticks to this as the guideline of minimum pressure canner size, since smaller canners have a smaller thermal mass, which can potentially affect heating, cooling, and pressurization outside the parameters of what has been tested. In other words, these smaller canners MIGHT be fine to use, or not. They are untested, and therefore it is unknown if they produce safe food.
I learned through the Canning page how to source recipes that have gone through lab testing. Recipes from places like The National Center for Home Food Preservation (NCHFP) Ball/Bernardin (the Canadian division of Ball), USDA (get this one from the extension office link-there are bootleg copies that could include untested recipes out there), the Healthy Canning website, and extension offices are all good resources. These entities do more than produce lab supported recipes, they also test new equipment as it comes on the market.
For example, there have been a plethora of electric pressure canners that have hit the market, but not a single one of them has passed third party testing by these entities. None of them seem to be able to hold the proper temperature or pressure for a duration of time required for safety. Currently, Presto’s new electric pressure canner is being tested by the University of Oregon. Note that Presto advertises it as meeting USDA guidelines, but that is not the same as passing testing for holding pressure and temperature long enough and steady enough for proper pressure canning. In pressure canning, if the pressure drops below requirements for your elevation, the canning process must be restarted, otherwise your jars are under-processed and risky to consume.
I slowly built a collection of recipe books from lab tested sources. Not yet knowing what direction I was going, I bought them all. (As an Amazon associate, and I do earn from qualifying purchases) The Ball Blue Book Guide to Preserving, The All New Ball Book of Canning and Preserving, and the New and Updated Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving. Okay, I didn’t buy them all, but I bought a bunch.
Adhering to only existing lab tested recipes can seem really limiting as far as what can be preserved and put in your pantry, but the more I can, the more I find that individual items are far more useful than “meal in a jar” types. Unseasoned beans can be used in a wide array of dishes (the exception to this for us, is my recipe for Ranch Style Beans, which we utilize probably more than anything else in the canning pantry – there will be a post sharing that recipe in the near future), meats are super adaptable when just packed in broth, and vegetables are super easy to add in the last few minutes of cooking to round out a dish. On top of that, there are modifications that can be made to tested recipes without altering testing parameters (such as adding dried spices-since these have no moisture content to dilute the pH of a recipe).
Also, if there’s a recipe you really love, there are options for individuals to pay extension offices to test their recipes. I have done that with my American Beautyberry Jelly. You can read about that here. It’s very possible that some meal in a jar or rebel canner recipes are not unsafe, but there’s no testing to back them up, making them very risky and should therefore be avoided.
What recipe did I choose for my first outing with these experienced jars and pressure canner you ask? I chose venison. Now, hear me out. Many people are intimidated by meats, so they choose a vegetable or stock for their first run, and some people even try just water. Meat. However, I wanted to get a feel for the whole process, but I needed a recipe with limited prep work so I wouldn’t get lost in a bunch of steps. I read a bunch of recipes first, and I found that stew meat required very little prep, unlike many of the vegetable and stock recipes. Just trim, cube, and go. From reading conversations on canning communities, I learned that leaner meat stored for longer, retaining a better quality. We had a deer in the freezer, and being cooked under pressure was going to produce a tender meat so venison was a no-brainer. Stew meat just requires heating the meat in water (or broth), then packing into jars and letting the canner do it’s thing. Limiting the steps really helped me get a feel for the process.
Canned meat does have a weird smell (kinda like wet dog food) when you open the jar, and some types have an odd taste to me, so I am glad I did a small amount the first time. It’s fine in things like chili, pulled meats (they must be cubed for canning but shreds very easily upon opening the jars), and meat gravies over mashed potatoes or rice. The bonus in the latter is that the broth in the jar can go directly into your gravy.
I also ventured into other items both water bath and pressure canned. Some of my earlier ventures resulted in siphoning (in which the liquid in the jar is sucked out into the canner). This taught me to be patient. I learned that I was getting the heat too high too fast, and being a little eager to remove things from the canner. You’ll see this in pictures of some of the fruits I canned in 2022. The liquid line is a bit low, but there’s still enough liquid in those jars to maintain a strong vacuum and good seal. If you experience siphoning, and more than half the liquid has siphoned out, the food above the liquid will likely oxidize and discolor, and the jars are in danger of not being under strong enough pressure to retain a seal long-term. Use these jars first. Even now, I occasionally get some siphoning. I just put those jars in front, and use them sooner. The fuller and newer jars get put at the back of the line.
These days, I often plan ahead, making stock one day, reserving enough to do meat the next day (if I miscalculate, and don’t leave myself enough stock, I simply water it down). I have been pressure canning long enough now to have a good feel of what we eat most out of the canning pantry, and I focus on making those things. When I started canning, I started with water bath canning, and jellies seemed like the safest starting point. I still have a bunch of those jellies. We don’t eat jelly often. Luckily, even though manufacturers like Ball state the processed lids are good for about two years, as long as the seal is intact, you have a hermetically sealed product that from a safety standpoint (as long as you have followed tested canning guidelines) is still fine to consume (though the nutrition and color may degrade after two years). Be aware that some things (like strawberries) loose color relatively quickly, so keep that in mind when planning your pantry items!
Leave a Reply