Pressure Canning?

thrillhill - is the canned squash/zucchini mushy?
I froze mine and just use it in a vegetarian chili (yes, it is good) or drained well, then fried up with bacon & onions...

What about the silver queen corn?
I froze my corn and the reason being, I always remembered it turning brown sometimes when my Dad canned it...
Is there a secret to keeping the Silver Queen from turning brown?
 
For some reason my turnip greens produced way more than I could eat and give away. I don't bother canning them I froze them as well. Also when I cook them up for freezing I end up eating a few of them. Win win.
 
I used to think I liked turnip greens better than collards...
I'll take collards over turnip now, dunno, they just taste more better to me.

And, yes, Ox, when I cooked mine up for freezing, I ate a bunch too. :)
 
We don't have a garden where we currently live, but I do go to the farmers market and see if I can get s good deal on s bulk buy. We pressure can a lot of stuff, ranging from corn and beans to soups, etc. I recall thst squash and zucchini used to be on the approved list, but have since been removed. I have some left and have been using it recipes that get well cooked.

For things that can be water bathed, I often times still pressure can them at a low psi instead. Some things like tomatoes can go either way but come out better pressure canned.
 
My father and grandmother both did a lot of pressure canning. Not just veggies, but meats too. Some things turned out shockingly good, like canned beef and canned chicken. Others not so good. To this day, I don't like the taste of canned corn. Frozen or fresh is all that I like.

I do a little hot bath canning at home. I probably can 20-30 jars of tomatoes every summer so that I can have home grown stewed tomatoes all year long. I'd take up pressure canning, but I've got to put some TLC into my garden first. I don't have a great location for one as it stands. My property is very shaded and bordered by walnut trees. Walnut trees are aleopathic and they slow the growth of a lot of plants that grow close to them.
 
wolfpack65;n40054 said:
I used to think I liked turnip greens better than collards...
I'll take collards over turnip now, dunno, they just taste more better to me.

And, yes, Ox, when I cooked mine up for freezing, I ate a bunch too. :)
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I like both. I do like collards better but when I planted them this year a small flood came and took them out. With my beats. I'm doing them in a rasied bed this year.
 
wolfpack65;n40048 said:
thrillhill - is the canned squash/zucchini mushy?
I froze mine and just use it in a vegetarian chili (yes, it is good) or drained well, then fried up with bacon & onions...

What about the silver queen corn?
I froze my corn and the reason being, I always remembered it turning brown sometimes when my Dad canned it...
Is there a secret to keeping the Silver Queen from turning brown?
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Yep. The squash and zucchini end up mushy. Really good for making fritters, battered and fried of course, but that is all they are good for hence we do not do it very often.

On the corn, ours always turns brown too eventually. I agree with RedneckFur , frozen corn tastes WAY better than canned corn. We only do that when we have a really big surplus of corn, or in other words a really good year.

I really like the pictures of the greens. I prefer my collards frozen and my turnip greens canned because I so thoroughly enjoy the turnip roots as a potato substitute after they are canned.
 
majdurham;n40219 said:
I love those cinnamon pickles! The uninitiated will think they're eating apples every time, lol.
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You're absolutely right. I had a hard time believing it myself the first time we made them. Plus it is a really good use for those oversize cucumbers that a lot of folks throw out.
 
We've been canning for a while. Finally gave up canning inside and started doing all my canning, water bath and pressure, on a turkey fryer in the driveway. Just have to babysit the pressure canner and be careful. Best thing we have started doing is Spaghetti Sauce. Man is it good. And I use the sauce I drain off my salsa to make tomato soup. It's so good I've started making tomato soup and putting salsa mix in it. lol Also do beans, corn occasionally, pickles, and relish.
 
I can veggies. Don't eat meat. I also pickle and ferment a lot of food. Kimchee, sauerkraut. I also do a lot of dehydrating. Everything from greens,fruit to okra. If you guys wants try something new- Then dehydrate Okra. When it is growing well it seems like you cannot get rid of the stuff. So I coat it whole with a little oil, rub on some spices, Oregano, garlic, onion powder etc .. to your taste. Dehydrated until it is hard! Put it in a Vita Mix and grind it into a powder. I use this as a sprinkle on everything. I also use it instead of Corn starch as a thickener in most everything.
 
Yep when it isnt a terrible drought induced waste of time in my garden like this past summer, we can lots of things. I have 2 vintage 70s era presto canners a large and small one, and a cheap water bath canner from walmart. You can pressure can tomatoes in 8 minutes in pressure, but pickles will turn mushy so rarely use the water bath method except for those.

yes i learned how to can meats from the older presto manuals. Generally stews and homogenous mixes with meat in them are safest
 
I have only seen those cinnamon pickles one other time, I forgot how good they are. I will definitely be making some this summer. I want to start dehydrating next, I will have to look up some videos on YouTube before I start.
 
there are certain foods you need to pressure can, there are some you have to water bath, there is a lot that you can mean hot pack and they'll be fine. Just like most jellies jams and butters if you fill them properly and don't leave to much head space then there is no need for either. The main thing to remember mainly is cleanliness if your jars and equipment are clean then most of your worries have been gotten rid of. second is when hot packing foods are to make sure whatever your hot packing is boiling not just simmering. The extreme heat from boiling and making sure headspace is correct will kill anything that may cause harm. I learned this from women who had canned foods for many many years and never had any problems with their canned foods, some will say they were just lucky but when you figure the hundreds/thousands of jars of foods they'd done I'd disagree. This is just my opinion and ways I've done it since helping my mom as a kid.
 
Diablos said:
just be sure to follow fda approved canning recipes. you'll find many that say "X" can be canned, but there are not safe home canning methods for that item (or it hasn't been researched enough). a few pennies saved isn't worth the risk of food poisoning.
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thing is most of those that they say may not be safe is not because it isn't. It is said there for a reason for the know it alls who say well I've heard you don't have to do it that long and it'll be ok. It's to cover their self. If you can your own food, believe me, you'll know if something isn't right, there is mold to warn you cept on fruit jams and jellies, butters that can be taken off and used like normal. normally if its bad it will tell you beans non acid stuff if bad when opened will tell you right off the bad bubbles will come up little things like that you learn from reading and asking people.
 
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I cheat my tomato sauce(marinara or gravy up here). I wash my jars and then stage them on a pizza stone in oven at 225. I cook down my tomatoes(garlic, spices, etc) until soft and then run them thru a large food mill not forgetting to scrape goodness off the bottom of the mill. I put my lids on a soft boil, bring sauce up until hot(7 of 10 heat) after liberally adding kosher salt(sea salt ok) and then ladle product into jars and wait for the POPs
The hot jars need to be handled with canning tongs from the side but you learn quickly once one bites you...lol. My oldest jars are from 02 and many have country ham, ground beef, fatback in them also. Canned shit lasts forever if "put up" properly and a quick sniff or taste will tell you if they have spoiled; Ive not lost one yet! The BALL blue book is your friend too and great threads like this as well!

Is there a canning/preserving food section on the forum? Dang well should be if there isnt!

Rooster
 
We make pasta sauce, salsa, and catsup from tomatos. We also dehydrate tomatos and grind them into powder. A 20 pound box of tomatos go into a quart jar, reconstitute for sauce or paste as needed.
 
cjcullom said:
Is there a canning/preserving food section on the forum? Dang well should be if there isnt!
Rooster
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This is where most of it ends up. There will be more as the gardens start to produce. We have changed how we eat here and are ditching the pasta sauce for just stewed tomatoes. That way we can make sauce, use it in dishes, or make salsa.
 
I have started a new Canning and Food Preservation thread under Homesteading and made it a sticky. If you want I can merge this one over there.
 
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