My Weekend Canning Session
 

I know that this is small change compared to some of you guys but I am pretty pleased with my first canning marathon. I'm new to canning and was expecting more failures as I'm on my learning curve but only one failure to seal. I'm concentrating mainly on recipes with meat so that I can bulk up my protein preps. Thanks to TN Andy, TechGuy and Mighty Spuds for their great threads and wisdom for us canning newbies.:clap2:


Attachment 54990 Beef Stew

Attachment 54991 Chicken Breast Pieces

Attachment 54992 Chili con Carne

Attachment 54993Ten Bean Soup

Attachment 54994Zucchini in Tomato Sauce

Attachment 54995:banana: I did it!:banana:

Re: My Weekend Canning Session
 

I misread the title and thought you wrote caning.

Good job on your preps.

Re: My Weekend Canning Session
 

I'm impressed, first because I recognize how much work that represents. And I recognized the beef stew! Looks like the Ball Blue Book recipe at work.

Re: My Weekend Canning Session
 

Looks like a dang impressive start to me !

I can also appreciate the HOURS that went into getting to the point of those photos, which are great, by the way.

That is a MONTH's worth of a good meal a day.....throw in a little bread and some fruit, and you more food than a LOT of the rest of the world gets by on for a whole day.

My beef stew comes out a little cloudy compared to yours because I roll the meat in flour and brown it prior to canning, to thicken the stew. Lot of conventional canning advice says don't do this, but I do and it works for me, though the jar doesn't look as pretty as yours.

Re: My Weekend Canning Session
 

Good for you, Ant! I've yet to attempt any wet canning... I guess I'm just relying on megatons of commercial crap to get me by... but hell, I've come this far, may as well go for the gusto! Thanks for the inspiring pics.:9536::ARMS1:

Re: My Weekend Canning Session
 

That's good to know. The one can that didn't seal was a can of beef stew and when I ate it I was thinking it would be a little better if I had been able to thicken it. The Ball Blue Book and Putting Food By put the fear of Botulism in me so I stuck hard and fast to the recipes, though I think as I get more experience I will find my way around the rules. :)

Re: My Weekend Canning Session
 

The next time I can beef stew, it's going to have some tomatoes in it, darn it. I can thicken the broth when I heat up the stew; but I want the broth to have that familiar red color. By the way, I don't see how anything that's been processed for 90 minutes in a pressure canner could possibly pose a threat for botulism.

Re: My Weekend Canning Session
 

About the only hard rule I stick to is 90 minutes/10lbs on quarts and 60 min/10lbs on pints for ANYTHING with a meat in it.....that's enough time at enough heat to kill any spores of anything that will give you the runs or kill you.

In fact, it's probably way overkill, considering the number of stories I hear about "Well, momma never pressure canned, just did water bath and she put up stew, meat, etc, etc".....which goes to show you can play canning roulette and get away with it right up until the last time....ahahahahaaaaaa

Re: My Weekend Canning Session
 

Very nice... makes me want to go to the store and stock up on meat to can.

Next weekend plans are to make apple and peach pie filling.

Last weekends work (Wife did this, not me this time). All in all she did a little over 150 jars. We kept around 50 of them, but we kept the larger jars (not pictures here).

Notice the leftover 'batch' jars on the table. With preserves you cannot really reuse the left overs from the batch, so those went into 'eat now' and 'refrigerate now' jars.

And yes, this is VERY messy work!

Re: My Weekend Canning Session
 

Cool, where are those threads at?

I was just thinking about stocking up on some dried beans & oatmeal...lots of protein, carbs & fiber...and just need to add water?

Re: My Weekend Canning Session
 

I love the seeds in them....mmmmmmmmmm.....

Also, we've found the 1/2 pint jars are too small......makes a nice gift, but you run out too quick with toast.

Re: My Weekend Canning Session
 

That jam looks so good, Techguy. Kudos to Mrs. Techguy. I want to try some strawberry jam next but I'm a little intimidated by jam. Do you use pectin or not with yours? I've seen recipes for both types.

Re: My Weekend Canning Session
 

Schwing!! A weekend canning party? :565:

Re: My Weekend Canning Session
 

My grandmother raised her three daughters through the great depression when her husband died at age 30. This woman, who had only an eighth grade education, worked as a cleaning woman in other peoples' homes and peeled tomatoes at a canning factory just outside of town (had to provide her own paring knife, which had been sharpened so many times the blade was half worn away.)

There was never enough money. But she had a huge garden in her back yard because her family needed the food to last through the winter. She did not own a pressure canner because she couldn't afford one. So everything got canned with the water bath. And every year, about half the quarts of green beans went bad and turned black before the winter was over. I know this is true because I saw it happen. I suspect that the people who claim their momma's never used the pressure canner have forgotten or are leaving out part of the story.

Re: My Weekend Canning Session
 

Thanks, blackberry/raspberry jam is my favorite! It will easily store for at least 2 years (ours never makes it past that, we eat it.) Yes, we use suregel low sugar pectin.

It is actually a lot easier than pressure cooking meats or tomatoes. It is just REALLY messy and it makes the house smell so sweet you are not hungry for ANYTHING sweet that day!

Re: My Weekend Canning Session
 

Exactly! That is precisely what we are using the smaller jars for. The rest stay with us!

And yes, the seeds are the best part!

Re: My Weekend Canning Session
 

Don't know about you, but I had three women in my kitchen this weekend.

It was a good time to get some outside work done!

Re: My Weekend Canning Session
 

[QUOTE=Little Ant;1338184]I know that this is small change compared to some of you guys but I am pretty pleased with my first canning marathon. I'm new to canning and was expecting more failures as I'm on my learning curve but only one failure to seal. I'm concentrating mainly on recipes with meat so that I can bulk up my protein preps. Thanks to TN Andy, TechGuy and Mighty Spuds for their great threads and wisdom for us canning newbies.:clap2:


I've been canning beef stew (and every thing else I can lay my hands on) for years. Looks like you did an EXCELLENT job! That stew looks exactly like mine.
As far as thickening the sauce, when I'm ready to eat it, I dump it in a pot, start heating it, and when it comes to a boil I add cornstartch or flour to thicken it up...OR, just cook some biscuits and use them to sop it up :emotions16:

Re: My Weekend Canning Session
 

Congrats on the session, Little Ant. Canning has become one of my favorite hobbies. I often buy huge slabs of meat when they are on sale at places like smart&final and make various stews to can. I've also canned carnitas, my homemade sauerkraut, and others. The used pressure canner was bought for $15 on craigslist and it was worth every penny. I only use widemouth Kerr/Ball cans and lids, and I've never had a seal fail yet. I always make extra sure the rim is clean before I put the lid on.

It's a lot of hard work but it's so rewarding when you open that delicious stew can and compare the taste to storebought cans. If my depression-era grandparents were still alive, I know they would be proud of this skill I've acquired.

Re: My Weekend Canning Session
 

Skilsaw- The best thing is to get these books for pressure canning.
Ball's Blue Book is considered the Bible of Pressure canning and another good resource is Putting Food By by Greene, Hertzberg & Vaughan.

Here are a few online resources:

http://www.uga.edu/nchfp/publication...ions_usda.html

http://www.ag.ndsu.edu/pubs/yf/foods/he188w.htm

http://ohioline.osu.edu/hyg-fact/5000/5344.html

There are several good canning threads on this forum. Not so much as complete how to's but with lots of wisdom regarding tips and problem solving. In my case the posting of GIMers successes was the encouragement I needed me to attempt canning myself. Use the search function and have fun. :smile:

Re: My Weekend Canning Session
 

WOW!..looks great!!. congrats! The stew looks just like mine too..Ive been canning a lot lately. seems to take my mind off of shit lol. But I need to restock on the lids as I am out. I was going to do up another load of grape, apple, raspberry, and some more 4 berry jam. as well as some more apple sauce as soon as i can find a good price on the different types of apples that we use . Question for ya tho, is that chili & chicken breasts also out of the ball blue book too?

Re: My Weekend Canning Session
 

Yes, the chicken is from Ball's Blue Book as well as the Beef Stew, and Ten Bean Soup. I love that book! The Zucchini in tomato sauce and Chili Con Carne I got here:
http://www.recipezaar.com/109490
http://www.recipezaar.com/134151

Re: My Weekend Canning Session
 

Thanks little Ant.

Another good site that I like is the Ms survival canning section..lots of good info here as well.. http://www.mrssurvival.com/forums/ub...oard=30&page=1