It’s not difficult once a person gets a little experience, and can be a very relaxing process. Many may consider making bread difficult, tedious, exacting, and time consuming, too. But I have a store of grains, and often bake my own from grinding and sprouting the types I want, to the finished product. I find that enjoyable and rigid only in that certain basic concepts need to be adhered to.
Same with canning, especially high acid fruit products. There are basic principles like proper jars and lids, cleanliness, head room, minimum acid and sugar considerations, density, processing times and storage location. Outside of the safety basics, there is enormous room for creativity.
As with any new endeavor, I do recommend starting with simple vetted recipes until the basics become second nature. I don’t start kids out using a sliding compound mitre saw before they’ve learned the basics of working with wood and hand tools, and have a firm respect for power tool safety.
Yes, Good point. I do boil mine for 10 minutes when canned. When i mentioned 2 minutes I meant to gel. I always process afterward. IMHO 5 minutes is not long enough. That is a professional opinion after-all bacteria is what I’m an expert in. My restaurant routinely received 100% health dept inspection scores. They loved the fact I knew more than they did about food safety. I had a good relationship and we offered each other advice.
Muddy I too add acid to everything, and agree food coloring does not belong in canning. Although I have no objection to using sweet paprika for color. I never have but I might in the future. Of course paprika I make myself.
So do mine. My mom knew how to make canned products taste wonderful!
I myself am not impressed with the National Center for Home Food Preservation techniques. At times it is overkill. I guess it’s OK to be super safe, I myself do not follow all gudelines. For example I never boil vegetables, I put them in solutions with a pH of 4.5 or lower. Clostridium botulinum cannot grow in that low of pH. No further processing is really necessary, but I do boil for 10 minutes anyway once canned to kill any salmonella. If you want crisp pickles, beans, peppers, do not boil them! Well once canned boil 10 minutes, but not before. I have yet to ever have a top pop using this technique.I test pH with a meter. Use technique at your own risk, as it is outside guidelines. You will find hundreds of good recipes call for the same thing online.
Such as these
I sold it, I owed it for 4 years. Yeah I could not figure out what i wanted to do when i grew up
I also was a registered representative and sold securities, a letter carrier for 8 years. A med tech for 5 years. I worked for Michigan State University too. I had a few other jobs for a short time, and probably will have more. Right now I just sell stuff on Ebay.
I also go by the 10 minute boil, even though I’m only at ~300’ altitude. I’m just not totally comfortable with 5 minutes, partly because I assume uneven heat distribution in the bath. I haven’t had a lid pop in storage for at least 40 years. Back when that happened I figured out the most probable cause was a bad batch of lids, either from manufacturing or my pre-use storage of them. I tossed the entire batch when I found some of the lids not adhering properly a couple of months later.
The http://nchfp.uga.edu/ directions are tested to assure food safety. How often have I seen people on Internet forums request, “Where’s the science?” on trivial matters, and when their lives/health/safety may be on the line, the science is completely marginalized: nchfp.uga.edu: Project Summary
For the pickled pepper recipe posted by a random person on food.com, you do not want to use wine vinegar unless you are certain of the acetic acid level. You can be certain with distilled or cider vinegar: Vinegar for Pickling
Look, I don’t have a dog in this race, as I don’t eat non-refrigerator types of concoctions. Home canning recipes aren’t very appealing to me, safe or unsafe.
Actually, you do have a dog in the race, MrClint. Storing and eating refrigerated concoctions also involves food safety measures. Anaerobic and aerobic, bacteria, as well as mold spores, can still grow in there, although at a slower rate than room temperature. From previous posts of yours, I think of you as being someone who tries to be aware and try to avoid possible contamination of food. So, I’ll assume you use care in this area as well. I just don’t want someone in the future to read this thread and get a mistaken impression that refrigerated products don’t also require due care and understanding of the processes, or that they have the same shelf life as heat processed preservation methods. Some pickled and brined products for refrigerated storage do have a lengthy shelf life. Some creations, like fruit butters, do not.
Well science is now a political topic. i would not trust any of it. Some of the most distinguished scientific organizations are now delegated to being propaganda machines.
I use a pH meter. I don’t know what the pH is going to be once you add peppers.
Follow my directions (use a meter) and you’ll be fine.
I would agree, and would add that most all of them are absolutley terrible! Especially the salsa recipes. If you want an inedible product, follow these recipes. They will be safe though
Unless you are Amish you are already trusting a ton of it like it or not. Like when your doctor diagnoses your medical issue and prescribed some drug, trusting that the plane you get on is not going to crash to the ground, trusting that we are reading what you type in here, etc.
That said, I also wonder if some of those official recommendations for canning are not overkill. I have scanned the actual case studies lists and have yet to find a single case of botulism on a high-acid, high-sugar fruit cooked to a jam set (around soft ball stage). The only fruit cases I have found was canning at below softball temperatures - canned peach/pear halves kind of thing, and even those cases are only 1% of all botulism incidents - I found only one in the last ten years in the US for example. I don’t think the scientists are being horrible in their recommendations, they are probably trying to simplify so people don’t mis-interpret them and kill themselves. For example, low-sugar jams are getting popular but they don’t cook to as high a temperature so are in the same category as canned fruit halves.
I do get 2nd and 3rd opinions on medical stuff. Luckily I have pharmacist, M.D and D.O. friends. I drill them. I use 2 medications for high blood pressure. They are old school, used for over 50 years and still on the market. You do have a point though, you have to trust. trust but verify! I try not to fly, and it is very safe compared to driving.
Emotions, and spin rule the day. Here’s some incorrect political spin. Not one person has ever died after consuming a GMO, I can’t think of anything safer? Even water kills a certain amount of people every year.
Yes, I’m certainly not typical in any sense of the word. Never will be either.
Your advice is sound (hopefully that will not get filtered!)
My only caveat is that newbies may follow exact directions and be so dismayed they bought all this equipment to make terrible product. I just want to assure them very good product is possible.
And I certainly stand by what i said.
Information is not knowledge Knowledge is not wisdom. Wisdom is not truth - Frank Zappa
Oh I forgot I’m also a music historian. I am mentioned in numerous books for my work. I work with a few authors helping them with research.
Scott, for a long time my take on preserving has been that items that call only for waterbath canning have an extremely low, nearing non-existent, possibility for botulism because of the sugar and/or acid and/or salt content.
I hope people don’t focus so much on botulism worries that they fail to realize that the goal of preserving food is much broader. We want to prevent deterioration in quality of the product and extend its storage life. This means protecting the products from molds and bacterial invasions, and also to keep color and texture changes to a minimum.
The most important aspect to preserving food is, of course, safety. But creating and maintaining appetizing and aesthetically pleasing products is also a major goal.
Cool, dark storage conditions with as little temperature fluctuation as possible are good conditions for storing home canned foods.
What a neat thread. I spent a couple hours this weekend washing jelly/jam jars, which also included having to open and throw away several full jars from last year that had either spoiled or turned to sugar, so I certainly have a lot to learn! Bust most of mine turn out great, if I do say so myself! I don’t have much fruit this year but did get enough black berries and grapes from a neighbor to make those into jelly and jam. I love to buy the fancy, decorated jars and colorful lids and then print my own label on my computer and give it as gifts. I especially love putting the ingredients: “Grapes, water, sugar”. (no sure-gel or pectin for me, though I know both are fine and natural) But it doesn’t get any more simple or natural than fruit, water, and sugar! Its always fun giving them at Christmas because people are always so shocked that I can actually cook and make such things and I guess it doesn’t fit what people typically think of for a masculine, heterosexual, outdoorsy-type guy. But I love making and eating jams and jellies and preserves. Now that I’m living in the country and growing a much bigger garden, I’ve been meaning to get a pressure cooker and learn how to can many more things. But knowing that improperly canned veggies can cause serious illness or even death makes me a little nervous. So I will definitely be exploring the information and web sites provided in this thread. Thanks all.
Cityman, nice to hear from you. You’ve been rather quiet lately. Almost everyone in my home, male and female alike, have done preserving because we enjoy it. Everyone eats and enjoys good food. The kitchen isn’t just for women. OT, but one son is the best bread and general baked goods maker I’ve met. People are always requesting rolls and bread from him. One daughter was a superb and creative cake decorator, even when she was in high school. That was before it became an “in” thing.
Your jams/jellies had pectin. Just not added pectin. Pectin is a natural fruit product that is particularly high in many grapes and apples, especially at the skins. In fact, one method used long before commercial pectin was the norm, was to take apple peels, wrap them in cheesecloth, and cook them in with the fruit to be jelled. You’d be surprised how many people store apple peels in their freezers for just that use.
I ran a small business out of my house for a couple years canning and selling ketchup and jams. I just wanted to add to the conversation that a pH meter is an indispensable tool for anyone canning their own recipes.
As had already been discussed, higher acid recipes can be preserved using a water bath whereas low acid ones require pressure canning. When canning tomatoes, just add a little lemon juice until the acidity is high enough.
