It's time to stock the larder

[koyote]

I have only done pressure canning for shili. I know people do water bath canning and I may even try at some point, but ... well, jim?

Ken: that's a lot of tomatoes

 

[udtjim]

We canned Chilli and stew and deer and beef and chickens and never owned a pressure cooker. I suppose that it is faster and maybe safer to use the pressure cooker, we just never had one. My folks and my wife's folks always canned with just the boil in the jar method. I think she cooks the jars for about an hour per batch.

 

[kgd]

We are just doing crushed tomatoes, so the acidity of the tomatoes lets you can by the water bath method. There are recipes that let you cook tomato based vegetable mixes by the water bath. You need to ensure the pH is kept below 4.6, measured by litmus paper. You can add lemon juice (citric acid) to achieve the desired pH.

Even just with the tomatoes we will add a bit of lemon juice just to be on the safe side.

 

[Shore08]

Thanks for the info folks. :thumbup:

 

[udtjim]

It can sure be done with the water bath method, we will can a lot of our deer meat again this fall. My wife likes to add a little chunk of beef tallow in top of the jars of deer meat. It gives the juice a nice flavor.

 

[Shore08]

Thanks Jim. I may be wrong, but it seems like if it's cooked first, then canned shortly thereafter, the odds of it developing bacteria while on the shelf after water bath canning is pretty low. Course, Custer thought he had a good plan too

 

[Jaundice]

Koyote;

Don't forget to head up to some of the County Roads north of Davis. The blackberries are ripe, and there are miles and miles of brambles in the ditches alongside the numbered County Roads north of town. I mean brambles like 8 feet high and 10 feet wide. You can bring a ladder to prop over the brambles so you can pick the best ones that are normally out of reach. Just don't fall off!

Also, you can get permission from the farmers to glean the fields after harvest. Cantalopes are especially good, since they pick by hand, and the green ones get left behind. They ripen up in a couple of days, and are sitting there on the ground, waiting to rot. I guess the cantalopes really are a bit south of you, though.

-John

 

[udtjim]

It can sure be done with the water bath method, we will can a lot of our deer meat again this fall. My wife likes to add a little chunk of beef tallow in top of the jars of deer meat. It gives the juice a nice flavor.

 

[DOC-CANADA]

This year we are buying a couple of bushels of tomatoes (that will cost about $7), peppers and onions for canning. My wife agreed to dust her old recipes. I'd like to can the tomatoes with onions and peppers - more of an unflavored salsa I suppose for direct use in tomato sauces etc.

Most years we blanch the peppers, a quick dip in boiling water, cut them up into slices, spread on cookie sheets and freeze them as individual slices on the cookie sheets in our big freezer. The next day after they are frozen, we bag them up in freezer bags. I know this isn't a SHTF scenario, but it is an economic solution to having great tasting peppers most of the winter without paying $3/lbs for the red peppers.

My mother likes to do the zucchini relish and other pickles. I like dill pickles, but not the relish so much and I don't think pickles actually have much nutrition. I'd love to do pickled or canned beats this year!

Hey Ken, sounds like a lot of work. You might want to consider one of these, unless, of course, you already have it covered.

Doc