Home Canning

[JanMcBaker]

I have a silly question-- I've certainly heard about 'pressure canning', but-- does it use a pressure cooker specifically for canning or does your run-of-the-mill pressure cooker work? Should the cans sit on anything in the canner to avoid thermal shock? Thanks!

[jdtofbna]

Just this morning I put away a batch of pickled peaches I did over the weekend. I also do pickled asparagus, mango chutney and hot pepper jelly every year or so. I'm trying to get up the nerve to do my mother's grandmother's green tomato pickles---fabulously crisp sweet spicy pickles that take 5 or 6 days to make---soak 3 days in either lime or alum water (I forget which comes first) then soak 24 hours in clear water, then soak in either lime or alum, then boil in ginger tea, then boil with vinegar and spices, then stack in jars and pour hot spicy liquid over, then collapse ----but have a marvelous pickle to serve with Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners!

[ninetofive]

I have a silly question-- I've certainly heard about 'pressure canning', but-- does it use a pressure cooker specifically for canning or does your run-of-the-mill pressure cooker work?  Should the cans sit on anything in the canner to avoid thermal shock?  Thanks!

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Jan, this is actually a question I asked at eGullet last year after I got a Kuhn Rikon pressure cooker. The KR website suggests you can can with their pressure cookers, but coyly advises canners to check with their extension departments for more details since KR doesn't mfg "pressure canners."

I've noticed that Fagor is selling a "home canning kit" you can use with their 10-qt. pressure cookers, which would seem to me you can use the pressure cooker for canning. But I took a look at their instruction book, and the kit/recipes are for water bath canning, not pressure canning. (The instructions were also poorly written/erronenous.)

In my case, I've avoided pressure canning with my cooker.

[andiesenji]

I have a couple of very large pressure canners. One is fairly new, one is very old and they both work. I have replaced the lid gasket on the old one a couple of times.

This site explains a lot.

Pressure canners

I have purchased from this vendor. Check the canning forum on their site. There are some very experienced canners on the forum.

Canning equipment

You can use smaller ones for canning in small jars but you need at least a 15 quart if you want to can stuff in quart jars.

I have a 30 quart (the new one) and the old one is a 36 quart.

[NYC Mike]

Could someone point me to a book or blog that will give me the absolute 1st timer starter basics? Basic entry level supplies, gear and step by step how to?

We have never canned but want to start. We are thinking pickles, jams, relishes and preserves, maybe even tomatoes for gravy and have lots of recipes to try from our growing "southern" cookbook collection.

-Mike

[kellytree]

Could someone point me to a book or blog that will give me the absolute 1st timer starter basics?  Basic entry level supplies, gear and step by step how to?

We have never canned but want to start.  We are thinking pickles, jams, relishes and preserves, maybe even tomatoes for gravy and have lots of recipes to try from our growing "southern" cookbook collection.

-Mike

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Basic level : whats in season right now in your area?

Start with something easy to make and hard to screw up

Orange marmalade for example.

[lperry]

Could someone point me to a book or blog that will give me the absolute 1st timer starter basics?  Basic entry level supplies, gear and step by step how to?

We have never canned but want to start.  We are thinking pickles, jams, relishes and preserves, maybe even tomatoes for gravy and have lots of recipes to try from our growing "southern" cookbook collection.

-Mike

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You want the Ball Blue Book. It explains all the processes and why you need to do them, lists supplies and shows you how to use them, and it has charts with cooking times for just about everything. It also has a lot of old recipes that are hard to find. My copy dates from the 1950s!

Happy canning,

-L

[Pebs]

I can lots of things. Red beets, golden beets, pickles, corn relish, zuchinni pickles, heirloom tomatoes that I grow, pears in brandy, pickled peppers, dilled garlic green beans, fruit preserves and more.

My two favorites are roasted tomatoe soup and yellow pear tomotoes (I grow pear shaped cherry tomatoe plants that produce gazillions of these little yelow tomatoes) perserved in vodka and Bloody Mary spices. They are great in Martini's and Bloody Marys. It's definately not your grandma's canning recipe.