by guest writer Tracy Falbe

Home canning can be addictive. Once you get hooked on preserving your own food, you’ll start thinking “What can I preserve next?” But the simple boiling water bath will only get you so far. Many types of food, like vegetables, meats, poultry, and fish can only be safely canned with a pressure canner. These are the foods that have a low-acid or non-acid chemical composition, which makes them susceptible to the bacterium that produces botulism toxin. This hazardous and sometimes lethal toxin can only be destroyed in the high temperatures achieved within a pressure canner.

The pressure canner works just like a pressure cooker, except that it is large enough to hold quart canning jars. Water is heated within the sealed canner and the pressure builds. The pressure causes the water molecules of the steam to continually collide, which produces temperatures of 240 to 250 degrees Fahrenheit. This is significantly higher than the 212 degrees Fahrenheit that is the top temperature of a boiling water bath.

What a pressure canner will do for you:

Provide the capability to can your own soups and stocks containing vegetables and meats. Some people like to preserve their leftovers after they make a big kettle of soup. When canning soups, you will have to keep a couple things in mind to be successful. Cream-based or milk-based soups are not recommended for home canning. I’ve read that the milk product will tend to separate during the canning process. I’m not saying it is impossible but I’ve read several warnings against trying it. What you can do is preserve the soup base and then add the cream or milk later when you heat up the soup to eat. For example, for cream of mushroom soup, you would can the mushroom broth and then add the cream when you open the jar and reheat the soup. This applies to any cream of vegetable soup. The same principle will be necessary for pasta and noodles. Do not can the soup with the noodles in it. They will likely break down and dissolve during processing. Simply add the noodles when you heat the soup before serving.

A pressure canner will allow you to can any vegetable safely. You CANNOT use a boiling water bath to preserve vegetables like corn, beans, peas, squash, carrots, beets, peppers, potatoes, and so forth. You must use a pressure canner unless you are using a pickling recipe. For some people, this could be a worthwhile endeavor. If you grow sweet corn, the crop comes in all at once. Sometimes you can’t eat it all, despite your family’s best efforts, so canning that corn would be a great idea. The book that came with my Presto pressure canner even explains how to can dried beans or peas. You soak and boil them and then can them. This is handy because dried beans or peas are extremely affordable, but — if you’re like me — it is easy to forget to soak them ahead of time when you need them for cooking. By cooking and canning them, they are ready to go off the shelf anytime.

With a pressure canner, you will be able to can all meats (including game), poultry, and fish. Some people like to do this when they see a good price on meat and they do not have freezer space. They will buy a bunch of the meat and can it. Then they have, for example, jars of cooked chicken or beef ready to go off the shelf as convenience food. And if you have a fisherman in your family who shows up once in a while with a big catch, that food can be canned as well. I was told by a lady who did this that the fish tasted wonderful.

Deciding to beef up your home canning beyond the boiling water bath will require an investment of approximately $100 for a pressure canner. Should you get a pressure canner, carefully follow the directions for set up, use, and maintenance. The book that comes with whatever model you buy should also include many recipes. Also be aware that the pressure canner can do double duty as a boiling water bath simply by not sealing it. Home canning with the pressure canner will be a long process because it takes time to pressurize the cooker and then to let it cool down (don’t run it under cold water).

Although it requires an investment and significant effort, the pressure canner remains a versatile piece of equipment that will help you take advantage of food deals and bountiful gardens. I personally use mine mostly for tomatoes. Although tomatoes and tomato sauce can be preserved in a boiling water bath, the results are superior when you use the pressure canner. I have done tomatoes both ways and really prefer them out of the pressure canner. Their color and flavor are better.

At my website Canning Local, I have information about determining which foods require pressure canning and how to use the equipment. http://canning.falbepublishing.com

By guest writer Tracy Falbe

Pickles from the grocery store will not compare to the wonderful pickles you can make yourself and preserve with home canning. Most of my life I detested pickles, but when I learned how to can food, I tried a cucumber pickle recipe…and loved it. You’ll find the recipe below after I explain how pickling works.

The preservation process known as pickling has been around a lot longer than factory-made canning jars. Although pickled foods can last for weeks, even months, you can put them up for a whole year when you combine pickling with home canning. Two more appealing aspects of pickling are it is easy to do and it greatly expands the types of foods you can safely preserve in a boiling water bath canner.

In my previous article that introduced home canning “Good eatin’ from the old timers’ pantry” I explained how the acidity of foods determines which canning method can be safely used. High acid foods can be canned successfully in the boiling water bath and low acid foods require processing in a pressure canner. However, low acid food, which includes most vegetables like cucumbers, corn, okra, beans, peas, zucchini, and peppers, can be pickled and then safely preserved with the simple boiling water bath. With pickling, the acidity of the food is increased by storing it in a pickling solution made with vinegar, which significantly boosts the acidity of the food product. The pickling solution can be enhanced with sugar and spices and thereby create a delicious canned food. Pickling your own foods and canning them really illustrates the high quality food you can obtain with home canning.

Cucumber pickles are a very affordable food to preserve with home canning. Cucumbers generally do not cost much, and, in the summer, home gardeners will happily give you a bag of the prolific vegetables for free. And if you would like to grow some cucumbers, you do not need much space. Four or five plants will bury you in cucumbers. Other vegetables that are great when pickled are beets, zucchini, and okra.

Important to know about pickling:

When making any pickled product, use 5 percent vinegar. This will be specified on the jug’s label. Sometimes you will see 4 percent, but do not use that vinegar for pickling because it is too weak. Also you will need to use pickling salt, which does not have iodine added. The iodine will make the canned goods cloudy. Pickling salt is readily available and it will be labeled as pickling or canning salt.

Sweet bread and butter cucumber pickles canning recipe

10 medium cucumbers

3 medium onions

1/4 cup pickling salt

1 cup 5 percent vinegar

1/2 teaspoon celery seed

1 cup water

1/2 teaspoon mustard seed

3/4 cup sugar

1/4 teaspoon turmeric

Slice the cucumbers thinly and slice the onions too. Place the sliced cucumbers and onions into a large bowl. Pour the pickling salt over them and cover with water. Place a large plate on top of the vegetables to push them down into the brine. Allow the cucumbers and onions to stand for at least 2 hours or overnight. I usually prepare the vegetables in the evening and can them in the morning. This is technically known as a short brine method because the vegetables are only soaking for less than a day.

The next step is to drain the cucumbers and onions from the brine. In a stock pot, add the water, vinegar, celery seed, mustard seed, sugar, and turmeric. Bring everything to a boil and add the cucumbers and onions. Boil gently for 10 to 12 minutes until vegetables are tender. As water cooks out of the cucumbers the solution in the pot should increase.

Pack the pickles into sterilized canning jars and cover with the spicy vinegar solution. Leave 1/2 inch of space at the top, wipe clean the jar rims and apply the lids and bands. Process the pint jars in a boiling water bath for 10 minutes. Remove the jars and let them set undisturbed for 24 hours. You will likely hear the jar lids pop within the first few minutes, but don’t touch. The next day, check to make sure the lids have sealed, wipe the jars and lids clean, and store in a cupboard or pantry for up to one year. Label your jars with the date you made them so you will know when they expire.

I have found that depending on how much moisture cooks out of the cucumbers, I sometimes need to boil some extra water to get enough solution in the jars to reach within 1/2 inch of the top. Just add a little boiling water as needed.

If you are entirely new to home canning you can get the directions for sterilizing the jars and processing with a boiling water bath off the box of canning jars and also at my website Canning Local http://canning.falbepublishing.com