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Looking at pressure cookers now but not sure exactly what I need. Is there any difference in a pressure cooker and a canner? Any tips before I jump into this? Found a pretty good article on line but always like to hear first hand knowledge.

Flightstopper wrote:Looking at pressure cookers now but not sure exactly what I need. Is there any difference in a pressure cooker and a canner? Any tips before I jump into this? Found a pretty good article on line but always like to hear first hand knowledge.

We just can tomatoes and don't use a pressure cooker. All you need is a pot to put five or six canning jars in to boil.

From what I read that way is fine for high acidic vegetables but for low acidic you need to use a pressure cooker to kill the botchalism.

Flightstopper wrote:From what I read that way is fine for high acidic vegetables but for low acidic you need to use a pressure cooker to kill the botchalism.

Maybe that explains the stomach aches! Like I said, all we do is Tomatoes, so I don't know. I know pressure cooked carp turned into patties is pretty damn tasty

Flightstopper wrote:From what I read that way is fine for high acidic vegetables but for low acidic you need to use a pressure cooker to kill the botchalism.

No. Get the "canner kit" from Walmart, the black Graniteware one, with the rack and tongs and all that crap. You will use those tongs a lot- they're very handy. I have a pressure cooker (the $60 one from Walmart, Presto I think it is) but only use it for green beans and deer. For tomatoes, I add a tsp or so of citric acid, and water bath for 15 minutes. Never had a problem. The citric acid is at Walmart with the canning stuff as well. It boosts the acid but doesn't change the taste. The pressure cooker is a long ordeal, and really a pain in the ass unless you have two. From the time you put water and jars in it until it's under pressure is about 10 minutes, then you have to can the green beans for 45 minutes, then it takes about another half hour at least to cool off enough to depressurize and open it. Then you have to start all over. All for 7 quarts of green beans. If you have two, you can rotate them on the cooker, which really speeds up the process. My peppers don't even get a water bath, just boil the liquid, dump it over the slices, and close. Never had one go bad. The biggest thing is boiling the jars first, and making sure the top is COMPLETELY clean and dry before putting the lid on. You could skip everything else, but if you do these they'll be fine.

I love canning stuff.

Been interesting in canning but never tried, figured I'd poison everyone


Rick

assateague wrote:

Flightstopper wrote:From what I read that way is fine for high acidic vegetables but for low acidic you need to use a pressure cooker to kill the botchalism.

No. Get the "canner kit" from Walmart, the black Graniteware one, with the rack and tongs and all that crap. You will use those tongs a lot- they're very handy. I have a pressure cooker (the $60 one from Walmart, Presto I think it is) but only use it for green beans and deer. For tomatoes, I add a tsp or so of citric acid, and water bath for 15 minutes. Never had a problem. The citric acid is at Walmart with the canning stuff as well. It boosts the acid but doesn't change the taste. The pressure cooker is a long ordeal, and really a pain in the ass unless you have two. From the time you put water and jars in it until it's under pressure is about 10 minutes, then you have to can the green beans for 45 minutes, then it takes about another half hour at least to cool off enough to depressurize and open it. Then you have to start all over. All for 7 quarts of green beans. If you have two, you can rotate them on the cooker, which really speeds up the process. My peppers don't even get a water bath, just boil the liquid, dump it over the slices, and close. Never had one go bad. The biggest thing is boiling the jars first, and making sure the top is COMPLETELY clean and dry before putting the lid on. You could skip everything else, but if you do these they'll be fine.

I love canning stuff.

That pressure cooker work fine for you? Same one I was looking at. I don't have a lot of beans yet, just a row right now, but wanted to make sure I did them right. Do any pickling? Picked up a bunch of jars from my grandparents and gonna go start looking around for a canner.

Yep, pickled cucumbers, beets, and green beans. They're all 50-70% vinegar, so all they get us boiling liquid then sealed. No canner necessary.

That canner works fine. I had to get a replacement, because I bulged the bottom on mine canning venison- ran it out of water. If you do anything that requires more than 45 minutes, full the water to midway between max and min marks, regardless of what the directions say. But like I said, I rarely use mine. For every 1 time I use the cooker, I use the water bath canner 99 times.

RickC wrote:Been interesting in canning but never tried, figured I'd poison everyone


Rick

It's damn near impossible. You'll know if one's bad- one of three things will happen. When you push the lid, it'll click, because its not sealed. The lid will be bulged up, and will foam out when you open, like a shook coke. The lid will seep and/or blow off in the pantry. Either way, you'll know it's bad.

And only use the lids once. Im cheap, and it pains me, but it really is necessary.

Solid advice, thanks man

Throw in some dill seeds, too. Might be a little late, but it's super easy to make pickles. Save any of those big gallon jars you come across, with the self sealing lids. They can be reused for pickles/peppers.

Have two dill plants as of now. Ready to start seeing some fruits of my labor.

That should be plenty. The pickles I make with the dill, salt, and vinegar, I have to let sit for about 2 months to get good. I make a lot with the Mrs. Wage's kosher dill packets from Walmart. You can eat them right away, and they're pretty damn tasty.

assateague wrote:That should be plenty. The pickles I make with the dill, salt, and vinegar, I have to let sit for about 2 months to get good. I make a lot with the Mrs. Wage's kosher dill packets from Walmart. You can eat them right away, and they're pretty damn tasty.

Throw some jalapenos, corriander seeds, onions and cajun seasoning in there with it.

Grape leaf keeps the pickles crisp

I'm still waiting for directions on the appropriate time to piss in each jar.

Helps to disinfect the lids. Urine is sterile, you know. But whatever you do, don't shake them.

If you're canning jelly, jam, or tomatoes you can safely use this method:

Prepare your jars,rings, AND LIDS by cleaning them with soapy water. Rinse well and put them into a 250 degree oven.
While the jars, rings and lids are getting hot make the jelly, jam, or tomato sauce.

I boil the sauce until it is ready and quickly pull out jars two or three at a time as I fill them and put the lids on.

Been doing it this way for over 20 years. Have never had one go bad either.

Sterilizing the jars, rings, and lids is what the oven does. The sauce or whatever is sterile because you just boiled it before you canned.

If you do green beans or anything but jelly, jam, tomato sauce, salsa, or tomatoes do NOT use this method.

There are many videos on youtube that show how to can stuff.

I use the Mrs. Wage's to make pickles as well. The butter pickle mix is VERY tasty.
My wife likes them a lot so we made mostly those kind. We had too many cucumbers last year so I downsized that.

Instead am growing a small punkin patch so my grandson can have free punkins for Halloween.
They are flat out jacking people at the store for a decent one these days.

Going to try growing a giant one.

jehler wrote:Grape leaf keeps the pickles crisp

I'll try this. WAY back in high school my mom had me build a fence for grapes to grow on. Then made me dig holes and plant the grapes. It's HUGE and wild now. Thanks for the tip.

I never use the grapes because they're not that good except for making wine.
Need to advertise on Craigslist and sell them this fall to someone who makes wine.
Maybe get a pair of waders out of the deal or something.

aunt betty wrote:

jehler wrote:Grape leaf keeps the pickles crisp

I'll try this. WAY back in high school my mom had me build a fence for grapes to grow on. Then made me dig holes and plant the grapes. It's HUGE and wild now. Thanks for the tip.

I never use the grapes because they're not that good except for making wine.
Need to advertise on Craigslist and sell them this fall to someone who makes wine.
Maybe get a pair of waders out of the deal or something.

Why don't you make a bunch of wine? Or maybe something a little stronger?

aunt betty wrote:

jehler wrote:Grape leaf keeps the pickles crisp

I'll try this. WAY back in high school my mom had me build a fence for grapes to grow on. Then made me dig holes and plant the grapes. It's HUGE and wild now. Thanks for the tip.

I never use the grapes because they're not that good except for making wine.
Need to advertise on Craigslist and sell them this fall to someone who makes wine.
Maybe get a pair of waders out of the deal or something.

one whole leaf in the bottom of each jar.

What kind of grapes?

Flightstopper wrote:How exactly do you make your sauce? Just blanch, skin and course chop? Add much water?

Here's how I do it. Works well for me, but there's probably many different ways to do it. But don't ever add any water. Tomatoes make their own water, and you have to cook it out, wither before canning or when making your sauce.

Core the top of the tomato. Just use a paring knife, and cut an upside down "cone" out around the stem. You don't have to get a lot, just where the stem attached.
Cut an "X" in the bottom. Doesn't matter how deep or big, just cut a decent X in there.

While I'm doing this I have a big pot of water coming to a boil on the turkey cooker, and I fill a cooler up with water from the hose.

When the water's boiling good, I drop in about 10 at a time. Let them boil for about 30 seconds, then take them out with tongs, and drop in 10 more.

Take the hot ones, and dump in the cooler of water.

Repeat until done. I usually change the water in the cooler once or twice to keep it cool. I have one big pot for hot water, another couple pots of cut tomatoes (or another cooler full of them if I have that many) I have a big stainless bowl for dropping the hot ones in, and then dumping them into the cooler of water. When I'm done, I use this big bowl to shuck the skins in to.

When you're done, just start pulling them out of the cooler and squeeze them. The skins will slip right off. After a couple, you'll get the hang of it, and it goes quick. Then the peeled tomatoes go back in one of the big pots I brought them out in, and into the fridge.

Next day, I run them all through the food processor, and dump back in the big pot. Some people will cook it down to thicken it, but I don't do this, I just heat it up to can it. I cook it down when I make the actual sauce I'm going to use. This next part is important- IF YOU DO IT THIS WAY, DO NOT ADD ANY SPICES OR SALT UNTIL YOU GET IT COOKED DOWN TO THE AMOUNT YOU WANT. I usually cook it until it's reduced by about a third, then add my oregano, garlic, onions, salt, some red pepper, and basil. Either way, I add the citric acid and a pinch of salt to the jars, fill with the hot tomato sauce, then water bath for 15 minutes.

If you want to add your spices and can actual spaghetti sauce, you must cook it down first before canning it, and I don't have time for that. Otherwise, the spices will be too weak, then too strong, and it's just bad all the way around.

Also, if you haven't already got it, only use the pickling/canning salt in all your recipes. It's pretty cheap at Walmart, in a green and blue box. If you use regular salt, the anti-caking agent they put in it will turn pickles cloudy, and give a slightly "weird" taste to other stuff. Doesn't hurt anything, really, just not very appetizing to look at.

Thanks for moving it here. Some great info in this thread

Grandparents finally let go of one.

Flightstopper wrote:Grandparents finally let go of one.

ImageUploadedByTapatalk 21368393253.650427.jpg

Nice, that's the good kind.

Turns out it was my great great grandmothers. Very happy to have it even if I didn't plan on canning.

That is excellent! You can more than likely still order a seal for it, if it needs a new one.

Anything to test besides the seal? Plan on ordering a new seal weather it could remotely need it or not. Could be a hundred year old seal for all I know with y grandparents.

Really nothing else to fail besides the seal- since yours has an attached pressure "gage", there is most likely a seal on that as well, but that should be a simple o-ring around the top of the threads. The other is just a weight, and a pressure indicator. My indicator has no seal- just pops up when the pressure builds to seal it. If you absolutely can't find one, you should just be able to buy a piece of gasket material and cut one.