[quixoticgeek]

Does anyone here use a pressure canner to store their produce? I would like to reduce my reliance on the freezer, by moving some of the veg (green beans, broccoli etc...) into jars.

Can anyone recommend where to get a pressure canner in the UK?

I notice that most recipes/guides talk about pint or quart jars. I live alone, so would prefer to use smaller jars in the 290ml/160ml range (weck jars by preference). How does this effect the techniques used?

Thanks

Julia

[devonlady]

Do be VERY careful about bottling (canning) vegetables,they can easily be a breeding ground for botulism. Kilner, I think do small preserving jars. I would certainly not use anything but the proper preserving jars for vegetables. Have you thought about drying?

[Bex]

I've been looking for one of these myself. Amazon have a selection. But make sure it's a pressure canner for foods with low acidity (including meat). A regular water bath canner wont kill the botulism toxins.

[cloddopper]

About this time last year I imported a brand new 21 & 1/2 quart ( 43 US pints )  All American Pressure canner. from one of the cheapest on line shops that are willing to send them to the UK . I chose the canner because it does not need any rubber seals to be replace as the steam seal is done by precision faces expanding onto each other. It also had a range of pressures via a clicking valve  that you can preserve or pressure cook at . Most of the other canners I found didn't have that feature .
 Because the canner is so deep you can also open hot water bath preserve things in jars according to the proven recipes on the books I mention.


 I think it cost me £130 including carriage & to us is money well spent .

 I got the canning & preserving for dummies book , the Ball Blue canning &preserving book ( centenary edition ) and also a Jeff Bouffe internet down load ( free down load on kindle/ to PC which I printed off)

So far this year we have pressure canned :-
 18 pounds of beef in veg stock .
Several gallons of  chicken , turkey  , beef , mutton & pork stock with or with out veg
18 pounds of red & green tomato chutney .
6 pounds of mild chili green tomato chutney.
 Four jars of sweet pickled crystal apple cucumber slices .
three jars of 6 inch long slices of larger than normal gherkins in a sweet dill pickle
 Four pound of dilly beans .
 
I have also canned several jars of chicken soup and some curries but this is not found in the books I mention .

 Most of the meats are best canned and then made into something when the jar is opened .
We have had some amazing shredded beef onion , peas & carrot pies in 10 inch oval pyrex dishes with 3/4 of an inch of creamed mashed potato topping infused with a bit of tomato sauce in the top 3 to 5 mm and then criss-crossed with a dining fork tines & painted with milk before being microwaved  then browned in the oven . They are also ace with grated cheese & fine diced fried onion in the creamed potato topping.

 Most of it is common sense.
 What I did have difficulties with was the canning jars.  Initially I purchase  24 clip over jars with rubber seals from Kilner .. these were most unsatisfactory  as 11 failed to ever make the seal once the clip over was released .
 Kilner were most unhelpful ..it is only a few weeks ago ( taken well over a year ) that I finally got the problem resolved by Wilkinsons where I purchased the jars as they now have new season stock in store . Personally I'd never ever use this type of clip over jar & seal ever again other than for dry goods storage in the kitchen cupboard  or as a pen pot on the office desk .

 I purchased some of the ring and single use lidded kilner jars ( made in China ) these are quite thin  , pickles do affect the inside of the lid over time. you are supposed to replace the rings after every ten uses.
 I also bid on eBay for some WECK preserving jars complete with seals and lid clips after looking at eh Weck site on line .
 I was really impressed .

We now have some 140 Weck jars in the following sizes two  pint . one pint & half pint jars that all share a common lid and sealing band /gasket  .
We also have 24 ,  1/3 litre jars which have a smaller lid and seal band , the clips fit all jars .

The Weck jars are a thick walled well finished jar with a thick glass lid that sits on the seal .  This rubber band is a single use item ( never ever reuse them ) it's initially held in place with two clips on opposite sides of the jar.

 I pressure canned plain water as a test run , also some fine chopped cabbage with sugar water as this goes off if it's not done properly . After three weeks all 10 jars were still firmly sealed even though the clamping clips were removed as directed 24 hrs after the canning took place .
The seal band tends to have it's tab point down when it is correctly sealed.


 I went to Amazon's site and found " The Amazing Child Montessori " selling packs of jars C/W the glass lid ,seals & clips .
 I also went else where using the German eBay ( I speak a bit of German ) to purchase more ten clips and several packs of seals .. if you do that be careful for I was charged 19 euro as a standard international P&P for three pack of seals . When I realised what had happened I went  else where I got the same items for just over 6 Euro which included four packs of ten  seals .

 Don't over buy for the future as those seals do have a shelf life . I put my seals in their original packs  of ten , two at a time in vac pack heat sealed heavy embossed food safe bags to try and prolong the shelf life should we have purchase too many in one go . They are stored away in a cool room in a drawer away from daylight and strong scents etc.

 Due to buying so may Weck jars from Montessori , I asked for & they agreed to cut the carriage cost to a minimum which saved me about £60 .

 Weck jars will last a life time if handled correctly so will the stainless steel spring lid clips if stored away in a dry state in a lidded jar.

 Just had a re read of your post to ensure I have covered all you ask

 We haven't done broccoli yet ..not sure if it pressure cans well or falls to bits.

 When you get the canning formula /recipes direction do take grtet care to read each recipe sevferal times and make sure you presure can for the right time at the right pressure for one thing I found is that not all of the books mentiuoned use the same time/pressures settings

By that it could be that  Bouffe uses 10 pounds @ 14 minute &  Blue Ball uses 15 pounds @ 11 minutes  Dummies might be quite different , yet they will all be for the same weight of produce .
 Initially I did get a bit confused with times & pressures in th different books  so in the end I wrote out each method ii was going to use making sure I had the correct pressure and time on the work sheet then worked only from that  sheet for that particular session .
 I've heat sealed these sheets & put them in a file so I will know that , say.... batch 12 on the jar labels will relate to batch 12 written no the sealed up sheet .  It's nice to know that if you have canned something that was particularly nice a 10 months after canning it that you can repeat it successfully some other time rather than try and rely on memory alone as to which method you used and from what bookit came.

 Like you we decided to reduce our dependence on the electrical grid ( now got a standby genny to run the computers , central heating & some lights etc . ), for we often get power cuts of at least a day at a time , till  the supplier brings in a big genny to run the village .
As a result of our pressure canning things , we have now filled almost half the big four foot long 2 foot deep & wide chest freezer out in the garage with polystyrene blocks which does show up as a financial saving when the electricity bill comes in.

 Hopefully very soon the will be lots & lots more pressure canned and hot water bath preserved foodstuff .

[suziequeue]

So does canning them mean you can store on the shelf??

[shygirl]

are you preserving them in brine or are you heat treating them to kill all germs?

[bloomer]

Pressure canning relies on heat treatment to preserve food and should give a shelf life of at least 1 year for produce it varies with the acidity of what's being canned, I have american friends who can loads but try not to keep anything more than a year as they say the quality deteriates after this!!!

[suziequeue]

"About this time last year I imported a brand new 21 & 1/2 quart ( 43 US pints )  All American Pressure canner. from one of the cheapest on line shops that are willing to send them to the UK ."

What make was it Clodhopper?

[cloddopper]

it was the " All American Pressure Canner , I'll pop some pictures up in a few minutes.



A long time later ....

ARRRRRRAGH ! LOUDLY ....... I've been slormed with zillions of adverts ...  in my emails and lots of other sites whilst trying to up load to photobucket, look at an eBay item and various other sites .

 I've just googled " How do I stop getting Google adverts"

 Found a recommendation to move over to fire fox browser to block the darn things.. So I've just spent 15 min after doing the Firefox browser up load setting & checking my preferences..

Now to retry the photobucket thing.. if I'm not back on site in1/2 an hour or so the computer will be lying  50 mtrs down the garden  ..... in the pond  .

[cloddopper]

So does canning them mean you can store on the shelf??

 Yes in glass jars or if you have the equipment and special tins also in metal cans .It is vital that you follow the approved recipe and method lest you have usually fatal if eaten or drunk toxins called " Botulism " develop in the containers .

 Not all food stuffs can be safely canned in the home environment , so you need to check via modern well know books about it all. For get granny's and " Old meg's " hand me down ideas & recipes unless it was used and they survived less in the last ten years ago as things and ideas have drastically changed of late.

[cloddopper]

Settling in with  the new  Firefox browser ..   Still having prob with Photobucket pictures & IMG codes .

It looks like I'll have to start using Picasa 3 for my pictures (Recently recommended to me by my Digital Photographic course's tutor)  if I can get it to run . 

 I'll have to plough through the install & conditions so I can configure it to block any adverts.
 It might be tomorrow before I can post the pictures

[cloddopper]

 This is the All American Pressure Canner
 21 & 1/2 US pints which is 43 x 4 fluid ounces less in UK terms as their pint is 16 fluid ounces and ours is 20 fluid ounces.

 It's 11 inches deep and 12 inches in diameter whenthe lid is taken off . This size sits happily on any of the burners of our our gas hob with about 12 inches top clearance up to the extractor hood .

 A side view and some of the stuff I have hot water bath (HWB )preserved at boiling point 212 oF /100 oC in the square Kilner clip over jars .
Those without the clip over lids are pressure canned at 10 or 15 PSI. as demanded in the recipe &well above 120 oC
Save for the banana shaped produce which is some rather large gherkins sliced and preserved in a hot sweet vinegar & dill preservative  . (Note  there are others bit to follow in the recipe to make them food safe)
 And the stumpy one pint Weck jar that has French beans in a dill and sweet spiced vinegar recipe ( also HWB'd ).




This last one is some of the canned . pickled and hot water bath preserved food stuff inn the store cupboard.

 On the bottom part of the jar shelf to the left there are about 15 pints of chicken & beef stock , this has been fantastic for we now often make a quick soup using stock  & meat the main ones being lentil & chicken , minced beef & curry  , chicken and veg , veg with either  beef or chicken stock or a 50 /50 mix plus cream and Xanthan gum to thicken it a smidgeon.

 Next year as we will be here in the summer instead of gallivanting around Europe we should also be doing sliced boiled  beet root , carrots , peas , peas & carots beans , baby potatoes,  rhubarb. plums, sundried tomatoes , tomato mush, cubed veg in various stocks , beef . pork , chicken lamb and anything else we can think of.

Luckily I have some ethnic Italian friends in the USA (online ) , they have been canning & bottling for their large family for nigh on 50 years using an All American Pressure canner , so I should be able to pick up some new /different  non fatal recipes off them .





If you click on the pictures you will be able to look at all my photobucket stuff by clicking the right or left arrow on each frame.

[samd]

Hi Clodhopper,

I have found your posts about canning to be very interesting. I am keen to learn. Have you ever considered running a course or giving some private tuition?

Many thanks,

samd

[cloddopper]

So does canning them mean you can store on the shelf??

Yes in the special sealed jars at room temp in a dark cupoboar4d

 YOU MUST FOLLOW THE CANNING INSTRUCTIONS.  failure to get it right can lead to fatal botulism poisoning . Not everything you seen in the shops casn be canned at home .
The science behind home canning is a lot different to commercial canning in tins & jars as these have preservatives added

 That Americans  confuse the term canning with hot water preserving and also salt or sugar preserving .. they often call them all canning .
 
Do be aware that pressure preserving in special cans and preserving jars gets confusing  lets say the example is frogs legs ( for a laugh ) 
 An American recipe may state  5 pounds pressure for 35 min  ,A Canadian one may say 10 pounds for 30 min and a European one may say ( get this as it is a metric equivalent ) 11 pounds at 26 min . You will occasionally also find the pressures mentioned in Kilo gram.
What you cannot safely do is convert the pressures or times into another format.
 What you MUST NOT DO is change the recipes in any way shape or form and that includes adding a bit more sugar or a favourite flavour .


 I have spent a lot of time reading technical books on this preserving under pressure idea , for I wanted to pressure  preserve all manner of foods .
 The folly of my intentions soon be came apparent once I'd read what I just written .

[cloddopper]

Hi Clodhopper,

I have found your posts about canning to be very interesting. I am keen to learn. Have you ever considered running a course or giving some private tuition?

Many thanks,

samd

 I'm happy to have a face to face here in South Wales close to the West end of the M4 to show folk how and what I do & have discovered  as well as to show them the info I have collected .

 This can be a mutual thing as well .
Warning I've just had spinal surgery and am only allowed to lift my eyebrows for the next five or six months.  I'm also due to have a replacement left knee  around the end of June . But I'm game to try and sort thing out if you are .

 If you have a caravan that would help solve an overnight stay cos there is, " No room at the inn " 

 There is a local Premier Inn at Cross Hands ( 3 miles away )  and several B&B's fairly local to us plus there are some TAS members you might like to try to team up with .