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Farm Kitchen:  Canning Tips  |
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Clare
True Blue Farmgirl
2173 Posts
NC WA State
USA
2173 Posts |
 Posted - Aug 03 2005 : 1:05:00 PM
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Here's a helpful article with canning tips and reminders from our local extension office. Always good to review and keep up to date.
Here it is:
Local wisdom — Five ways to can it right
By Dee Riggs, World staff writer
Margaret Viebrock is a faculty member of Washington State University and an Extension Educator in Chelan, Douglas and Okanogan counties and the Colville Reservation. She earned a bachelor’s degree from North Dakota State University and a master’s degree from Central Washington University in adult education and nutrition.
She says her interest in home canning was sparked by seeing her parents grow a large garden and preserving “everything they grew. It tasted so good during the winter months.”
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1. Use only recipes that are tested and approved by food-safety experts. Don’t add — or subtract — things from those recipes. If you do, you could change the acidity level that is critical for preventing the growth of botulism spores. This is vital when canning low-acidity foods such as tomatoes, peppers, onions, garlic and corn. If you do change a recipe, freeze the mixture instead of canning it. Botulism spores won’t grow in that environment.
Of note: Improperly canning high-acidity foods won’t result in botulism, but the fruit could spoil over time.
2. Use the proper equipment. A pressure-canner is vital for low-acid foods because it gets the temperature up to the 240 degrees necessary to kill botulism spores. There are two kinds of pressure canners: one with a dial gauge should be tested yearly for accuracy (testing available at WSU Cooperative Extension offices in Waterville and Wenatchee), or a weighted-gauge canner, which does not go out of calibration.
For high-acid foods, a water-bath canner is fine.
Other essential pieces of equipment are a jar lifter to safely bring the canned jars out of the boiling water in the canning container, a blanching pot to loosen skins on tomatoes and peaches, Mason jars (which don’t break in boiling and cold water), and lids and metal rings for sealing.
3. Use jars, lids and rings properly. After filling jars with food, run a clean rag around the rim to remove small pieces of food, which could keep the lid from sealing. Heat the lids in boiling water before placing them on the jars to hasten the sealing process. When screwing on the ring, feel for the first sign of resistance, then tighten the ring only 1 to 1½ inches more. Further tightening could cause the ring to buckle in the canning process. Don’t reuse lids; their seal is broken after one canning session. After canning, remove the rings and wash off the jar. Otherwise, the rings will rust from trapped water or sugar syrup, and the sugar will harden, making it difficult to remove the ring. Non-rusted rings may be reused for years.
4. Follow recommended processing times in canning books. Don’t overcook or the food will lose its shape and firmness and its vibrant color. Undercooking will make the food unsafe to eat.
5. Try to use home-canned food within a year. If canned correctly, it can be stored indefinitely but will lose quality and nutritional value after extended storage. People finding old home-canned food should throw them out because they won’t know if the food was canned correctly. Also, cans that are bulging should be thrown out as it is not possible to tell whether they are bulging from being stored in a too-warm area or from being contaminated with bacteria.
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Margaret Viebrock says more information about safe canning is available at www.foodsafety.wsu.edu
**** Love is the great work - though every heart is first an apprentice. - Hafiz
Set a high value on spontaneous kindness. - Samuel Johnson****
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Horseyrider
True Blue Farmgirl
1045 Posts
Mary Ann
Illinois
1045 Posts |
Posted - Aug 05 2005 : 7:18:23 PM
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Those are great tips, Clare! I have another to add.
Many of us are fond of some of the old cookbooks we find in yard sales, antique stores, and the like, as well as old family recipes. But the recipes and canning times may no longer be safe. So these books are best thought of as curiosities. Seek out information that's as current as possible, like within the last couple of years, for canning times and recipes.
As vegetable and fruit varieties change, the acidity of the fruit, or the optimal time for canning, may change, and research may show that something we assumed was safe is actually too risky.
The Ball Canning Book is generally a great resource, and they do their research and update frequently. |
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Farm Kitchen: Canning Tips |
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Canning Tips
