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How To Can Foods

If it has been a few years since you’ve canned foods, or maybe you never have but would like to, there are a few basics you will need to know. There are a couple of methods that are available for canning, the boiling water bath and the pressure cooker method, and depending on what you are going to preserve, will determine with method you use. The most important item to remember is that before you start any canning process, you must sterilize all your jars and lids. This is easily done by boiling them for about 10 minutes.

If you are using the boiling water bath method, you will need to have a big enough cook pot with a lid that fits tightly. You will also need a rack that keeps the jars from coming in contact with each other during the process. The rack also allows the boiling water to evenly flow around the jars for better processing. If you don’t have a rack you can also use dish towels to set your jars in. The boiling water bath method is most frequently used for fruits, jams, pickles, and tomatoes. Once you have gathered your fruit, there are two possible methods of filling your jars.

Raw packing (cold packing) consists of placing the fruit into the jars and then covering them with boiling hot sugar syrup, water or juice. Be sure to leave a headspace at the top of the jar to allow for any expansion. Hot packing the jars is done by heating your fruit in the sugar syrup or water before packing it into the jars. Fruits with a high juice content or tomatoes can be heated without adding extra liquid and then packed in the juice that cooks out. Pack each jar leaving about ” of headspace and add more syrup if needed. Place your filled jars into the wire rack and lower into the boiling water so that each jar is covered by 1 or 2 inches of water. Cover the pot with your lid and when the water begins rapidly boiling, begin counting out your processing time.

The other method used to can vegetables, meats, seafood or poultry is the pressure cooker method. A pressure cooker is a specialized cooking pot with an extremely tight fitting lid. Vents, a pressure gauge and a fuse are usually located on the lid, as well as a lock that will hold the lid on tighter. To begin the process, you will place your jars into the pressure cooker with 2-3 inches of water. Heat the water to the boiling point and build up the pressure inside. When the correct pressure is reached for whatever you are canning, you can begin to count your processing time. Pressure cooking raises the temperature of the water to 240 degrees Fahrenheit with allows you to kill off the bacteria Cholstridium botulinum. This bacteria is the reason most lower acidic foods need to be pressure canned instead of using the boiling water method.

When you are looking for home canning recipes, there are many cookbooks available, as well as checking with the Food and Agriculture Department or Cooperative Extension offices. The most important item to remember is to pick your fruits, vegetables and meats that you wish to can at their peak of freshness.

Addison is a wife, a mom, and a food lover who began learning how to can food from an early age. She runs an informational website that provides reviews on pressure cookers and water bath canners, and sharing canning recipes with others who love preserving food. To take advantage of all these food storage secrets, you can check it out at www.howtocanfood.net