Canning Questions Answered

A reader left some questions about canning in a comment this morning and I’d like to answer them here because there may be others with the same questions.

Before I start answering her questions, there are two things I want to re-iterate and feel I cannot say enough times. Again, let me start with saying this: I am not an expert so anything I say that you may disagree with, do your own research . . don’t take my word for it. 

• Follow the rules! Do not take shortcuts! Canning is safe (the food and the process) if done correctly. Our great grandmothers and even those before them canned foods and while there were probably some mishaps due to the equipment (stoves and canners) they used back then, I’m sure whatever bad experiences they had or they heard about have been retold through the ages, time and time again. I have not heard of many mishaps by folks using today’s canners and modern equipment and even the ones I have heard about, it’s almost always been from someone who didn’t do something correctly.
• Because the risk of botulism is not a risk I’m willing to take, and because botulism cannot be seen, smelled or tasted, I do not use any recipes that look suspect. On every canning group I follow, I will see people say things that cause me to shake my head in disbelief. Canning is not a “I hope I’m doing this right” kind of sport! It is so easy and so non-risky if you just follow the rules. I am not one to take everything for granted that I am told and almost always I will venture out on my own EXCEPT when canning! There are very few things I feel safe water bathing instead of pressure canning. The fact that someone (1) doesn’t have a pressure canner or (2) doesn’t feel comfortable using a pressure canner does not make it safe for using a water bath canner when a pressure canner is what’s needed. I follow the advice from the following sites and I do not deviate.
  • National Center for Home Food Preservation
  • Also part of the above site – USDA Publications

Now, here are the questions asked by a reader in a comment.

My first question is by cooking your meat before canning does that cut down on the canning time?

No! Anything with meat in it gets pressure canned at 10 pounds pressure (which will need adjustments depending on altitude), pints for 1 hour and 15 minutes; quarts for 1 hour and 30 minutes. Raw beef/cooked beef . . same as far as I’m concerned.

Did the squash basically fall apart?

The veggies are going to be soft but remain intact and identifiable.

The photo above is soup after it was canned. The photo below is a half gallon of soup that was not canned. There is a difference but the soup in the half gallon jar will get cooked at least another half hour on the stove before being served since I really just heated everything before canning it.

There is a difference but in order to get the veggies we grew this summer preserved and have them during the winter, softer veggies is a price I’m willing to pay.

Are you still canning outdoors?

Yes! Just yesterday I came in from canning and I said to Vince . . I love doing my canning outside. I wish I had thought of that in MO where I tried every way in the world to get a gas stove inside . . I could have just bought one of these things and canned out on the porch.

This is the stove I’m using (which is actually $3 less than it was when I bought it in 2014) and this is the blog post I did when I first wrote about it. It’s funny that the blog post was on June 3, 2014 and today is June 4, 2017 – almost exactly three years ago!

Anyway, I do love that stove. I use a black iron pot and cook our hamburgers on it, if I’m cooking a lot of bacon, I’ll cook it outside – anything that splatters or has a strong odor I don’t want lingering in the house, I cook it outside.

There are four things that could be “negatives” to consider when thinking about canning outside:

1. If it’s very windy, I sometimes have issues. Even with the wind “shield” that comes with the stove, in our central Texas winds, I cannot can outside when the extreme winds are blowing. I can a lot and only once in three years have I had to bring the canner inside. I have asked Vince to come up with something I could use to block the wind but he hasn’t done that yet. Most of the time, I am aware of the weather and plan my outdoor canning around it. Even with the garden, most of the time, I can put off processing for a day or two and work around the wind issue.
2. If you’re canning during the winter, it’s not a good idea to pull the extremely hot jars out when the temps are 30°. I’m not sure at what temp it makes a difference but I have heard of people having jars break when pulling them out of the hot water into the cold air. I think this could be alleviated by simply removing the canner lid and letting the jars cool down for a bit before pulling them out of the water.
3. The camp stove runs off propane and depending on how much you’re canning and how you’re refilling your bottles, it could get expensive. I have no idea how much it costs to refill a propane bottle but Vince said it could be around $15 and I’m sure the price varies with location around the country and even where you’re getting them filled. We refill ours from our outside propane tanks which are equipped with what I think they call a “wet leg”. Goodness .. I hope I’m right because that doesn’t sound right but . . there’s some attachment that allows us to refill our small bottles from the bigger tanks. Vince said it probably costs about $7 to refill our tanks at home. Yesterday I started with a full tank and canned one batch of zucchini pickles (20 minutes in the water bath) and the soup for 1.5 hours at 10 pounds pressure. It takes some time for the water to boil and the canner to get up to pressure so I’m guessing I ran the gas for between 2.75 hours and 3 hours and based on the gauge, I’d guess I used about 1/5th of the tank. Based on that guess, I’d say I could run the stove for 13 to 15 hours on one tank of propane.
4. Your pots are going to get sooty! I use the All American canners and I hate seeing them looking like they look but Vince assured me he could clean them up . . if ever I want them cleaned up.

You can see that I also keep a tall table next to the canner. It’s nice to have a place to put the lid, the utensils and the jars that come out of the canner. At first, I would put a towel on the porch concrete but that was a lot of bending by the time I put them down there, then picked them all up. It’s much easier having this table and towards the end of summer, most garden centers, including the garden sections at Walmart and Target, will have these type tables marked down.

Do you sterilize and pack the jars outside, or do you do that indoors and take them out to be canned? 

I do all the food prep, jar washing, jar filling and put the lids and rings on inside. There are lots of bugs and dust in Texas! I find it easier to do it all inside. That way I don’t have to take the jars, lids, rings, funnel and whatever I’m using to scoop the food, along with the pot full of food outside. My kitchen is on the front side of the house and the porch is on the back side of the house but my house is small and it’s worth it not to have to listen to the canner and end up with the extra humidity in the house.

Also, the porch is right off the living room so I can hear the sound of the weighted gauge juggling and hissing and even when knitting or watching TV and not paying attention, from inside the house with the windows and doors closed, I can still hear if the sound doesn’t sound right and can go out and see what’s happening.

The All American canners are expensive but I’ve used Presto and Mirro canners and while they’re both great canners and will get the job done, with the All American on a gas stove, I have almost (and I’m feeling like I have zero) fluctuation in pressure once I get it pressurized to where I need it to be. Even with the All American, using it on an electric stove, because the burners “cycle”, I was constantly adjusting the heat to keep the pressure as constant as I could. I remember sitting in a chair in the kitchen in front of the stove, reading my Kindle and watching the canner for 90 minutes trying to keep the pressure constant when using an electric stove. Gas is so much easier and doing it all outside is so much nicer – especially in my small house where the kitchen, dining room and living room are basically one open room.

I will probably always be a canner, but maybe not on the scale I do it now. I prefer canned foods over frozen because of several reasons:

• They last longer. I’ve used canned chicken that was 5 years old and it tasted fresh.
• It’s easier to move canned foods that it is to move frozen foods unless you’re making a short move and will have the freezer set up in a new location right away. When we moved here from MO, it was about 2 weeks from the time the movers disconnected and dried out our freezers until they were set up and running again in TX.
• If (I should say WHEN) the power goes off, I never think twice about my canned foods ruining.
• It’s very easy to share canned foods, even if I have a long trip with them, and not have to worry about whether the recipient will have room in their freezer.
• Most canned foods are ready to open, heat and eat with no long amount of prep time, which is great if the power is off and you need food. I can almost all our venison  and it’s so nice to open a jar of that, heat it, thicken the gravy and have it from the jar to the table in about 10 minutes. Any time I’m thinking about what to fix for a meal and need something quick, I go to the jars. 

I could go on and on about the benefit of canned vs. frozen and I know that’s just my opinion.