Canning - Making your own recipes
 

I'm not an experienced canner. I just started a bit more than a year ago. I've had a great deal of fun making everything from stews to pickles to salsa to veggies to jams and jellies. And I've largely been pleased with the results.

Here is the problem. I am an avid home cook, and my family and friends, and even people at picnics I've catered have told me that. Every canning book I have, and every canning recipe source I've ever found online, warns repeatedly that you MUST NOT DEVIATE FROM THE RECIPE!!!!! To do so, it would seem, is to invite the heartache and potentially FATAL unpleasantry of BOTULISM.

I understand that botulism is deadly. I'm not open to playing canned russian roulet. I want to produce safe and healthy canned food... but I don't want to be constrained to canning only that which some food authority has deemed safe.

I regularly doctor the recipes I can in terms of spices and broths and minor substitutions, making sure I stick pretty closely to the original recipes primary ingredients, viscosity, proportions, and so forth.

But what I really want to do is try to can some of my own favorite recipes, of course from a less-cooked starting point, in order to enjoy foods that no one else has happened to concoct a "safe" recipe for.

Do any of you do this? Are there guidelines to follow for length of processing? Do's and Dont's for artisanal home canning? How do you determine the right processing time for a new recipe? How do you tell if the result is safe?

I really don't want to be any more constrained in the area of canning than I am in the area of cooking in general, where recipes at most serve me as guidelines. What do y'all do?

Re: Canning - Making your own recipes
 

I just use canning directions for something similar. Its very rare that I actually follow the recipe that I started with. If you are going to the trouble of making it, it might as well taste the way you want it to.

Re: Canning - Making your own recipes
 

I'm glad you asked this. I have questions about it, too. In particular, onions can trigger my migraines (weird, huh?), so I almost never put onions in anything I'm going to eat, and if I do, it's only a tiny amount. Most canning recipes for soups and stews call for a ton of onions. It doesn't seem like leaving them out would make a big difference in canning time or safety, but I'd feel better knowing for sure.

Re: Canning - Making your own recipes
 

That sounds like good advice, Ima, about canning for the longest time recommended for any particular ingredient.

I know that pressure cooking foods and slow cooking (crock pot) foods calls for different kinds of adjustments in spices (increase spices for pressure cooking, decrease for slow cooking, in general). I guess some small batch experimentation in canning will reveal the right mix. I don't mind experimenting.

I'm fortunate in that I can eat all foods (that I've ever tried) without any particular ill effects. What foods are in the nightshade family?

Re: Canning - Making your own recipes
 

So do any of you out there just totally ignore tested and approved canning recipes and simply can whatever you feel like? I'd like to hear about some of your favorite personal recipes.

I want to try my red beans and andouille sausage recipe. It would be great if I could manage to get the flavor and texture to be almost as good as a fresh pot of beans. And if I could can my chicken and andouille gumbo, that would also be great. But I've never heard of canning smoked link sausage, either as an ingredient in another dish or by itself. Does anyone do that? I have no idea how many minutes under pressure would be needed.

Re: Canning - Making your own recipes
 

I have read that 70% of migraines are caused by dehydration. Next time you get a head-splitter, take a big drink. Sure helps me.

Re: Canning - Making your own recipes
 

When you guys talk about canning, especially in a pressure cooker, are you talking about canning in metal cans, glass, or both?

Re: Canning - Making your own recipes
 

Glass canning jars, for example those from Ball or Kerr. Also known as Mason jars.

Now there could be some people who are canning in metal cans, but that is not nearly as common as using glass canning jars. Most people on this forum, I'm fairly certain, are canning in glass.

Re: Canning - Making your own recipes
 

Thanks...and thanks for using pics!