Who’s canning ?

[lancecolonel]

what does excess pressure do to canned items? i know you absolutely can not go under the required pressure, but what happens if you go a pound or two over?
i'm canning some homemade stock for the 1st time.. instructions are 11lbs for 20 minutes. it kept varying from 11-12 lbs.

 

[Wildweasel]

1-2 lbs over no problem. the bounce around the pressure as long as it is over the goal is fine.

 

[Uzi2]

No problem.

what does excess pressure do to canned items? i know you absolutely can not go under the required pressure, but what happens if you go a pound or two over?
i'm canning some homemade stock for the 1st time.. instructions are 11lbs for 20 minutes. it kept varying from 11-12 lbs.

 

[38ExtraSpecial]

23 half pint jars of Autumn Olive Berry jam done last night.
I have about 22 pounds of apples to make into sauce and can this week.

 

[ToddDubya]

I think I'm going to do some apple butter this week. I'd like to find some 4oz jars to give away as gifts, but I'm not holding my breath that stores will have them. I really need to start buying jars when I see them. I have a dozen or so half pints so I can use those if I can't find the smaller jars.

 

[ToddDubya]

I have about 8# of apples in the crock pot right now. In the morning they should be finished cooking into apple butter and I can process however many jars it makes. I mixed Gala and Macintosh roughly 50/50 by weight. The gala apples were pretty nasty eating, but should cook down nicely.

I'm using this recipe. It calls for a lot less sugar than other recipes I've seen. The down side there is it's not an approved canning recipe. My Ball Blue Book recipes calls for a pound of sugar per pound of apples. I'm not trying to make diabeetus butter. I'll see how it tastes in the morning and adjust sugar/spices as necessary.

 

[ToddDubya]

I ended up adding maybe another half cup of sugar this morning, a dash of each of the spices, and pureed it with an immersion blender. It's a little thin now but has a couple hours to cook uncovered in the crock pot, so hopefully that thickens it up some. I got nervous when I started because there were no juices, so I added about a cup of water to get it going before the apples started breaking down. Probably could have skipped that. It smells and tastes good.

 

[ToddDubya]

I ended up with eight half pints. I expected twice that so I must've mathed wrong. I hope it's thick enough, but it does taste good.

 

[ToddDubya]

Anybody can pork butt? I have about 7# I bought this summer and will likely never grill so I'm defrosting it now. I've seen a lot of people simply cut it into chunks, raw pack into jars, and process in the pressure canner. Thoughts?

I'm also considering chicken, which looks like a similar process.

 

[Uzi2]

Anybody can pork butt? I have about 7# I bought this summer and will likely never grill so I'm defrosting it now. I've seen a lot of people simply cut it into chunks, raw pack into jars, and process in the pressure canner. Thoughts?

I'm also considering chicken, which looks like a similar process.

I’ve done chicken, beef and venison. Raw pack tightly ( removing air bubbles ) in large chunks (about 1 1/2 inch cubes), a teaspoon of coarse salt per qt., 1/2 tsp per pint, leave 1 inch head space, process for 90minutes in pressure canner at 11-12lbs for quarts, 75 minutes for pints.
You can add a bullion cube or garlic clove or other seasonings if you like. ……DO NOT ADD ANY WATER, they will make their own juices.
Larger chunks are better as they shrink a lot.

They all come out very tender…..even the toughest cuts of beef will melt in your mouth. The chicken ( boneless breast ) makes the best chicken salad too.

 

[Manomet]

I find if I don't add water when its all done and they are sitting on the shelf the juice does not cover the top of the meat and it will discolor and might dry out, they are only a year old and while we have tried them it was early in the process.

 

[Uzi2]

I find if I don't add water when its all done and they are sitting on the shelf the juice does not cover the top of the meat and it will discolor and might dry out, they are only a year old and while we have tried them it was early in the process.

It will not dry out. The product is in a vacuum.....there is no place for the moisture to go, it all stays in the jar. I assure you the top of the jar is just as wet as the bottom.

The discoloration is just the difference between the slight liquid difference above the juice line. Turn the jar upside down before opening. There is no degradation of the product.

Do not add water, it will ruin the concentrated taste of the meats.

 

[ToddDubya]

6 pints of pork are in the canner right now. If this works well I'm probably going to grab at least one more pork butt so I can have plenty on hand. And I still want to try the chicken.

I'll have to make a stock and/or soup with the bone later this week. I don't have any vegetables on hand right now and am dreading going to the store. I've seen some folks add the broth to their pork, but I just wanted to go straight pork the first time. I didn't even remember to add salt.

 

[BarnBuilder]

I canned (7) quarts of chicken soup and (5) quarts of meatloaf this past week.

 

[flippinfleck]

I've put up 11 quarts and four pints of chicken stock in the last few weeks. Will be likely trying some actual meat as well, pull out some of the larger cuts that are languishing in the freezer.

 

[ToddDubya]

I canned (7) quarts of chicken soup and (5) quarts of meatloaf this past week.

How the heck do you do meatloaf? Crumbled?

I think my pork came out good. I cut some of the fat off, really just the parts that were straight up fat (fat cap?). The jars all have a layer of fat forming on top. The bit that spilled over smells pretty good.

I picked up a couple trays of chicken breasts today to try in the canner next. I think I'll raw pack that and see how it works for me. I might have some bone-in chicken in the freezer I could try, too.

My current focus has been on stuff that's most of a meal, like beef stew and chicken soup, and on straight up meats to keep the meat out of the freezer.

 

[Uzi2]

How the heck do you do meatloaf? Crumbled?

I think my pork came out good. I cut some of the fat off, really just the parts that were straight up fat (fat cap?). The jars all have a layer of fat forming on top. The bit that spilled over smells pretty good.

I picked up a couple trays of chicken breasts today to try in the canner next. I think I'll raw pack that and see how it works for me. I might have some bone-in chicken in the freezer I could try, too.

My current focus has been on stuff that's most of a meal, like beef stew and chicken soup, and on straight up meats to keep the meat out of the freezer.

The fat layer at the top is a good thing. When you open it you can remove as much as you like easily with a spoon.

 

[ToddDubya]

I canned 10 pints of ground beef last night. Mistakes were made but not to the actual canning process, so they should be just fine.

I added white vinegar to the water in the canner. A bunch of the jars have a black residue on (not in) them that almost looks like corrosion or some ink ran. Anyone have any thoughts on this?

 

[240Geezer]

Haven't tried meats yet so no input on that.
2 weeks ago we did a 12 pints of salsa and 4 quarts of tomato sauce base.
Still have 2 dozen quart jars and a dozen pint jars empty and waiting for something.
IDK. Soup season is here so make a huge batch, eat it once and can the rest maybe.

 

[chidiver]

Did 10 pints of raw pack cubed chicken breast and 6 pints of raw pack cubed beef round this weekend. Pretty happy with the results. Good way to make room in the freezer.

 

[ToddDubya]

Haven't tried meats yet so no input on that.
2 weeks ago we did a 12 pints of salsa and 4 quarts of tomato sauce base.
Still have 2 dozen quart jars and a dozen pint jars empty and waiting for something.
IDK. Soup season is here so make a huge batch, eat it once and can the rest maybe.

I did up a bunch of chicken soup and beef stew and they are super convenient. I did one batch of soup in pint jars and that was a mistake, quarts are better.

I like to heat up one quart of soup/stew in a pot and make dumplings on top. It'll stretch a meal about double for me. So instead of pounding the whole thing for dinner I get dinner and lunch.

This recipe calls for cutting in butter but I've forgotten and didn't notice the difference.

Dumplings

Prep: 5 mins Cook: 15 mins Total: 20 mins Servings: 6
Yield: 6 dumplings

Ingredients

1 cup all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon white sugar
1⁄2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon butter
1⁄2 cup milk

Directions

Step 1

Stir together flour, baking powder, sugar, and salt in medium size bowl. Cut in butter until crumbly. Stir in milk to make a soft dough.

Step 2

Drop by spoonfuls into boiling stew. Cover and simmer 15 minutes without lifting lid. Serve.

Nutrition Facts

Per Serving: 105 calories; protein 2.8g; carbohydrates 18g; fat 2.4g; cholesterol 1.6mg; sodium 385.8mg.

© COPYRIGHT 2021 ALLRECIPES.COM. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Printed from Allrecipes 04/24/2021

 

[flippinfleck]

I canned 10 pints of ground beef last night. Mistakes were made but not to the actual canning process, so they should be just fine.

I added white vinegar to the water in the canner. A bunch of the jars have a black residue on (not in) them that almost looks like corrosion or some ink ran. Anyone have any thoughts on this?

I've seen the same in the past. Your canner aluminum?

 

[ToddDubya]

I've seen the same in the past. Your canner aluminum?

Yes. That was my first thought - aluminum oxide. I've never seen it before so I assume it has to do with the vinegar.

 

[flippinfleck]

Yes. That was my first thought - aluminum oxide. I've never seen it before so I assume it has to do with the vinegar.

Stopped using vinegar in my aluminum pots / pans. I've noticed a general increase in water spots when using it for water-bath canning in my non-aluminum pans as well.

Just about done with it as a cleaning / sanitizing / sterilizing agent. Not that it doesn't have it's place.

 

[ToddDubya]

So I went to use one of the jars of ground beef mentioned earlier and some of the crumbles on top were black. My first thought was it was from the rings that had corroded or whatever caused black spots ON the lids and had gotten in. I opened two and they both had it, so I used something else. I don't want to throw out a bunch of jars, but I'd rather not die either.

 

[Manomet]

How old are they? Was the top of the meat covered by liquid? How did they smell? Tell us more please.

 

[ToddDubya]

How old are they? Was the top of the meat covered by liquid? How did they smell? Tell us more please.

I canned them in November (based on this thread, I'd say Nov 10th). There was a layer of fat above the meat and where the meat isn't covered by fat that's where the black is. No smell. The seal was strong, I typically use a bottle opener to remove lids and these were no exception. Maybe it's just meat drying out?

When I processed it, I first cooked the meat to medium well, maybe a little pink here and there but beyond how I like my burgers. I used a slotted spoon to ladle it into jars to drain the bulk of the grease, then topped the jars with boiling water to whatever the headspace was supposed to be. This was the batch where I added a little vinegar to the water in the canner and got black stains on the rings/lids.

I'll see about some pics tomorrow.

 

[ToddDubya]

Geez, I thought I posted these days ago.

The jar in the back shows the color of the meat that's below the liquid/fat line.



You can kind of see where the meat starts to get gray.



This jar looks a little more gray than black.



But the gray goes deeper.



Closeup of a spoonful.

 

[Jason Flare]

Thank you.

I have been waiting since Tuesday.

ETA: scrape off the top and eat the bottom stuff.

Mrs. Flare suggests you research food poisoning from beef. It may not be deadly.

Her words.

 

[Manomet]

Did they smell bad?