Preserving The Season's Fruits With A Canning Evangelist

[sudsmaster]

This story showed up in my NPR news feed. I was able to get a good start on gardening this year, and expect to have a large surplus of home grown tomatoes. So this article will be helpful (as will my various canning equipment the the Ball food preservation manual)...

 

[whirlcool]

I think home canning would be an interesting project to do, but I'm afraid I'd mess it up somehow and end up poisoning ourselves.

But we do know several people who do home can stuff and it always comes out ok.

 

[sudsmaster]

I'm not so worried about screwing it up, as I am for all the time it takes to do it right. Time, organization, and space.

It's interesting, but all the tomato recipies in the Ball book are for boiling water canners. And my BWC has seen better days, but have a brand new 22 qt pressure canner that I suppose I could use for boiling canning. In the past I've blanched, peeled, and frozen paste tomatoes... still have a fair number somewhere in the chest freezer. Might have to start using them up in sauces etc to make room for more later this summer.

Saw an interesting way to save extra summer squash/zucchini from the garden: run them through a grater, then freeze the gratings. Use them later in soups, stews, breads, etc.

 

[kenmore71]

Two things...you can easily boil quart jars in a 22 quart pressure canner, that said, most canning recipes involving tomatoes can be pressure canned in a fraction of the time (and with a fraction of the mess in my opinion) in a pressure canner at 5 lbs.  According to the USDA, raw pack tomatoes are supposed to be processed for 1-1/2 hours in a boiling water canner and can be done in 40 minutes at 5 lbs. in a pressure canner.  I have tried both methods and think that the pressure method actually produces a slightly better product. 

 

[tomturbomatic]

I agree about pressure canning tomatoes; faster and easier. Ball just lets you know that high acid tomatoes CAN be processed in a boiling water bath. Some newer varieties of tomatoes are lower acid and should be processed under pressure for safety. I used to can a lot of stuff. It's not hard if you have an air conditioned or otherwise cool kitchen. Pressure canning takes most of the danger out of canning. The lids let you know right away if the seal is perfect or if the food should go into the refrigerator and be used within a couple of days. The main thing is not to overfill the jars and to wipe the rim, which is the sealing surface clean with a wet cloth. Using a funnel simplifies that process especially when ladling sauce into jars. It is something you can do if you enjoy it. It is not something you have to do to live through the winter like it used to be. If you want to try it and you have a 4 quart pressure cooker, you can process pint jars which would be ideal if you have a garden and pick the most ready beans each day or the ripest tomatoes. You don't have to worry about canned food going bad if the power goes out like you have to with frozen food.

 

[whirlcool]

How long do foods that have been home canned last? Do they need to be refrigerated or can they just go on the pantry shelf?

 

[kenmore71]

Most folks say that canned foods are best used within 2 years when stored in dark-ish places at temps below about 70 degrees (50-60 degrees is better)  Canned foods are easily safe for 3 - 5 years if kept below 70 degrees or so but they lose some nutritional quality and appeal after about 2 years.  The whole point of canning is to not have to refrigerate or freeze things!

 

[mattl]

I have never cooked canned tomatoes for 1 1/2 hours!  That seems ridiculous. I'd have to look at my old book but I think I boil them for 45 minutes for quarts and 30 for pints -- timing starts AFTER the water comes to a boil!  We have been doing it that way for 5 or 6 decades, well before I was born and no one have ever gotten ill. 

 

I usually can a bushel of tomatoes in the fall, get 18 or 19 quarts and 2/3 are gone by summer.   I usually split it over two days, takes 45 minute to prepare a 1/2 bushel, not that long.   Much cheaper and much better than buying stuff in cans for the store..

 

[kenmore71]

I was only quoting the current USDA recommendations.  I have older books that have MUCH shorter times in a boiling water bath as guidelines.

 

[sudsmaster]

Thanks for the advice on using a pressure canner for tomatoes. Unfortunatley the Ball manual does not discuss times for pressure canning tomatoes, and neither does the manual for the 22 qt pressure canner (Mirro).

The Ball Blue Book from 1999 recommends 45 minutes for tomatoes packed in water in a boiling water canner. Oddly it recommends 1 hr 25 min for same packed in own juice. In both cases its recommended to add 2 tbs lemon juice to each qt.

 

[frigilux]

Friends with two gardens---lots of tomatoes and various peppers---come to my house to can every year. I provide the kitchen and equipment, they provide the bounty, and we split the finished product. We make tomato sauce, a V-8 clone we call "V-Ain't" and salsa.

I follow the latest USDA guidelines to the letter when canning, as I believe not doing so puts my guests (and me!) at risk for getting sick. I rarely eat other peoples' home-canned products unless I know they're similarly safety-conscious during preparation.

The same friends have several outdoor "block party" get-togethers each summer, and I always make the macaroni salad, potato salad, and cole slaw. That way, I know they've been held at a safe temperature and are kept cold during the event. I always bypass mayonnaise-based salads at outdoor events when they aren't kept on ice. I have several shallow, rectangular coolers which are perfect for holding bowls or 9" x 13" pans of salads surrounded on all sides by ice. You can keep the insulated lids on the coolers until serving, and again once everyone has made their first trip through the buffet.

Had serious food poisoning from someone's home-canned food in 1977 and was very sick for weeks. They relied on the "well, my mom/grandma/whomever has canned this way for 50 years" argument. Unfortunately, their son and I paid the price. And I never, ever want to go through anything like that again.

[this post was last edited: 6/30/2013-07:35]

 

[sudsmaster]

I'll have to look up the USDA guidelines and follow them.

However I'm surprised that mayo is still getting a bad rap. Mayonnaise itself is not overly prone to spoilage. It is acidic and therefore tends to slow bacterial growth. However foods that are put into mayonnaise may be more prone to spoilage - esp. foods like chicken which are known to be dicey to begin with, as in chicken salad, which likely overwhelm the inherent acidity of mayo and bring along their own menagerie of bacterial contamination, salmonella being most common. Those do need to be kept cold.

When I bought this house there was a cupboard in a covered patio area that was full of canned home grown veggies from the 1970's. Stuff like green beans and cauliflower. Interesting artifacts but I wound up dumping the lot in the trash - I didn't want to take any chances. Esp since some of the canned beans had grown interesting mold over the years.

 

[tomturbomatic]

If you look on eBay for pressure cooker manuals, especially the ones from Mirro for the 6 and 8 qt. models, you will find canning timetables. Pressure canning keeps all of the steam generated by boiling water confined to the canner instead of escaping into the kitchen and lots of steam does escape because the water has to be kept at a rolling boil and replenished with more boiling water over the course of long processing times.

 

[retromania]

Pressure Canner

I've used a pressure canner. It's not that hard to can once you get familiar with it. At first I was the same way. I was scared I would leave out a step and end up poisoning my dinner guests with some beans from hell. I got a book on canning and preserving from the local library. That was 20 years ago. You can find canning instructions on YouTube. My mother never canned. She blanched and froze her fresh veggies. I miss them too. My mother was a fabulous cook!

 

[tomturbomatic]

I still follow the instructions to boil anything that's canned for 10 minutes. Boiling in the presence of oxygen is proven to destroy botulin toxin IF it should be present, but don't come looking in my canned goods to get your wrinkles relaxed. I did that when I opened a jar of the Manwich Sandwich mix I made last fall when the storm was threatening the power supply.

 

[frigilux]

Oh, I think we need to hear the whole story on that one, Tom. C'mon, spill it.

 

[mickeyd]

A long day's work, but they loved it.

Geraldine and Margaret canned Chili Sauce every fall. We knew the day because when we came home from school, the distinct aroma of tomatoes, onion, and red bell pepper were in the air a few house away from ours, and there would always be many flies on the back screen door drunk from the aroma and dying to get in. No way. I always loved seeing the pretty pink foam in the top of the truly enormous porcelain cooker as the sauce cooked and the big spice bag that never sank. This stuff was delicious and took a bushel of tomatoes and a peck each of onions and red peppers, all ground raw in the aluminum crank grinder. The color of the finished product was one of richest reds you'd ever see.

Other tomatoes would be in the less deep of the two enamel sinks in the basement floating in just boiled water waiting their turn for a skinning. We were all invited to help, but it was mainly me. Gee, I wonder why? LOL. The coolest part was the hush in the evening every time we'd hear a lid make its distinctive pop, indicating the seal was true and good to go.

This was the most delicious condiment I've ever known in my life. Best on eggs of any style, roast beef hash, char-grilled hot dogs, and as an ingredient in homemade Russian dressing. In a good year, they'd make two batches and it would last all through the long northern winter.

They also canned fresh peaches, and once you've had them, nothing in the store ever comes close, no matter what you try. One of my favorite breakfast treats as a kid was peanut butter whole wheat toast, and a bowl of these glorious peach halves. I would put in a spoonful of peaches after taking a bite of the toast, and chew them together. Heaven came into my mouth. Ah, what intense sensory memories !

 

[tomturbomatic]

Eugene, it was Sandy and the weather people were predicting apocalyptic damage in the DC area. I did not want to loose a few pounds of ground chuck if the power went out, so I hastily browned it with chopped onions, added seasonings and the canned sauce and put it into quickly washed canning jars of various sizes. I used the 16 qt Mirro canner on the heat minder unit of the 61 range in the basement and processed it for about an hour. I kept expecting the power to go out at any time, but thank heaven, it stayed on and the fierce winds did not materialize here. New York and New Jersey were not so fortunate. I have the jars of the stuff on the shelves as a memento of the storm. I did not need to eat it after the storm like I had planned. I mixed an 8 oz. jar with some salsa and had it with taco chips a while back.

Sorry it's just a story about cooking.

 

[wetguymd]

My mother always canned tomatoes in the oven. I have done this also for probally 10 years and never had any problems. I did however read last year that this is not recommended. Maybe I have just been lucky over the years and maybe should do the water bath boil instead this year....before my luck runs out.

I pack the clean jars full of whole tomatoes and add 1/2 teaspoon salt to each quart and put the lids on tight. Place on a cookie sheet in the oven with the temp on 400 degrees for 1 hour and then just turn the oven off and leave them in there until they are cool... without opening the door. I usually do this at night and then just turn the oven off when I go to bed and the next morning they are all sealed and cool.

I also cook tomatoes down and add onions, peppers, garlic, and lots of seasonings to make a good sauce and then ladle the boiling liquid into hot clean jars. I then boil the lids for a minute and put them on the jars tightly and you will hear them "pop" as they seal tightly in about an hour.