Tired of random power outages? Did your fridge just stop working? No problem. You can keep food from going bad by canning it up.
What is This Canning Stuff Anyway?
Canning is one of the best ways to keep your food from going bad. This will probably happen if you’re too good at gardening.
Best part is that once you do it, it has a far longer shelf life than keeping in your fridge, and maybe even your freezer. Praise God and let’s learn more about canning. ????
Canning Methods
There are two ways to do food canning: water bath and pressure canning. Water bath canning is a canning method that involves the use of a water bath. Pressure canning is the canning method of pressure canning your food.
Required Tools
- Mason jar
- Lids & rings
- Jar grabber
- Canning salt
You’re going to need tools to store your food. A Mason jar is the container that you’ll store and preserve your food in. You’ll also need tools to work with the containers that store your food. Lids and rings are used to seal your can or jar. They cannot be used more than once, otherwise you’ll expose yourself to illness and food going bad sooner. Finally, the jar grabber snatches the jars out of the boiling bath pot.
Protect Yourself by Cleaning Your Jars
Safety first before boiling any cans. Some things you don’t want to deal with after canning is bacteria wrecking your food or falling ill from bad food.
Protect yourself. Wash your jars by hand or without a washer. Wash your jars in warm, soapy water. Once that’s done, put the jars in a boiling water pot for ten minutes to soften the rubber edge. This helps the lids grip the top of the jar when you screw on the rings. Once that’s done you’ll pull the lids and rings out of your package and put them in a pan of simmering water, letting them sit for a few minutes. Finally, dry your jars to make sure that your food doesn’t spoil sooner than it needs to.
Filling Jars
You’ll need to run a thin, non-metallic spatula around the jars’ insides after they’re filled to remove air bubbles. Wipe down the rims with a damp paper towel to ensure a good seal.
You’ll need to leave one inch of headspace near the top of the can to let the canned food expand during processing. This can vary depending on the recipe.
You’ll have to put warm lids onto the rims and screw them firmly into place, but not as tight as possible. Once the jars cool is when you can tighten the rings some more.
Canning Methods
It is VERY important to pick the right canning method. Why? So that you store and preserve your food properly. The main methods for preserving your food are water baths and pressure baths. Before doing any canning, it’s generally best to set a ten minute timer for most recipes, including most jams, jellies, chutnies. You can make your timer slightly longer for fruits, pickles, or follow the specific food’s recipe instructions.
Water Bath
Water bath is a canning method suited for highly acidic foods. This includes foods like fruit, tomato, pickles, jam, jellies, and fruit juice.
How to Water Bath
To bath your jars you’ll have to do the following:
- Put your prepared jars in the canner.
- Fill your canner with water to completely cover the jars (1 inch headspace)
- Bring the canner’s water to a boil.
- Set a timer once the boil starts. Usually it’s ten minutes, but can be more depending on the recipe.
Pressure
Pressure bath is a canning method suited for foods low in acid and for meat.
How to Pressure Bath
To do pressure bathing you’ll have to do the following:
- Put your prepared jars in the canner.
- Fill your canner with around 3 quarts of water, unless the owner’s manual says otherwise.
- Bring the canner’s water to a boil.
- Secure the lid to your canner & let it build pressure on the stove.
- Bring the water to a boil.
- One the pressure is up keep the right amount of heat to keep it steady. You don’t want the pressure too high or too low.
- Set a timer once the boil starts. Usually it’s ten minutes, but can be more depending on the recipe.
Timing Jars
It’s a good idea to time jars. A safe time to pull the jars out is after ten minutes. Otherwise, it depends on the recipe for the food you’re canning.
Dodging A Can of Explosions
Once again, safety is first. After processing time is done you can turn off your burner and let the canner’s pressure drop. DO NOT open the canner lid until the pressure is completely dropped. Doing this will cause a minor explosion to happen.
After the Bath
The bath will stop usually after ten minutes, unless the food you’re canning needs more time. Once the pressure drops use the jar grabber to get your jars from your canner. You’ll sit them on a flat surface without disturbing them for one hour.
How to Tell if Your Jar is Sealed
This is how you know your jar is sealed. After bathing your jar, you’ll let it sit on a flat surface for 24 hours. Within the first hour you should hear a set of “ping” sounds. That’s confirmation that your can is sealed via the little round button in the lid centre sealing.
If you don’t hear this sound after an hour or if the button is still up after trying to push down with your finger, you’ll have to remove the lid, replace it with a new one, and reprocess the jar. NEVER use a lid more than once, otherwise the seal won’t work and you’ll risk bringing illness or losing the food.
Labeling
Labeling is very important. You will only label jars that are definitely sealed. You must label the jar’s food name and date. This is because most food has an expiration date of a year. Knowing this, you can know how long it’s safe to eat the food in each jar. This helps avoid illness.
Storing Jars
You want to store your cans or jars away from direct sunlight. The best location is somewhere cool and dry. A typical shelf is one year, but there’s lots of food that can go longer without going bad. Don’t eat and throw out any cans if you see mold, discoloration, or a weird smell from your can, your jar loses seal, or if you doubt how safe the can’s food is.
Summary
You’ve walked by those weird looking glass jars in the grocery story. Maybe it’s a hint. A hint to try the cool hobby called canning your food. It serves so many uses, such as keeping yourself fed. Besides that, if you know how to garden way too well and your fridge broke down, then you can munch on some canned food while waiting for it to get fixed.
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