Food preservation and storage.

[10mmfan]

My girlfriend and I have started canning vegetables. We have been doing this for a vegetable source in winter months. We have only done vegetables so far. We are planning to can more than we need this year to have a surplus to stock a SHTF food stash. We have heard that properly canned items can last for years so it seems like a good plan with the only downsides being the fragility of glass jars and weight and bulk making it less than ideal for a bug out situation. We have heard of canning meats, stews and soups and would like to know more about that type of canning so we don't end up with botulism or salmonella ruining our food and making us sick if we do it wrong. Any recipes or suggestions would be appreciated.

 

[HeadlessRoland]

Pressure canning is required for anything which is not high-acid or extremely high sugar content. Boiling water canning does fine for salsas, pickles, jams, and jellies, but if you're going to do vegetables or meat or anything aside from high-acid or extremely high sugar consumables, you need a pressure canner. Rural King has an adjustable 5/10/15 # 23 qt. for less than a hundred bucks.

An excellent starting guide is the Ball Blue Book of Preserving and Canning. (Title is approximate, it's across the room at the moment.) It gives excellent recipes and very thorough knowledge base to build on.

Pay very close attention to lids and seals. It is vital to never re-use lids, and to only re-use seals if they have no damage or are out-of-shape in any way as it could over time affect the seal and C. botulinum is no joke. Some jars Ball makes are even freezer-friendly. This will be marked on the side of the plat. Only use straight-wall wide-mouth jars if you will be freezing your consumables.

One year is recommended, and given the alloys in the lids and seals, I wouldn't trust them much longer than 2-3. They probably would be fine even after that, but I'm not about to stake my health on 'probably'. Neither should you, in my opinion, but that's up to you.

Dial-gauge pressure canners exist and I have no use for them. They allow very precise "weights" of pressure if you're using a finicky or precise recipe, but for all but the most discerning of chefs, weighted pressure canners are much better, and do not require calibration, which dial-gauge canners do.

You will need a canner, jars, lids, seals, jar lifter, (magnetic) lid lifter, and a few potholders never hurt anyone. You can also buy pectin for jams, jellies, etc. Same for citric acid/ascorbic acid in those recipes in which higher acid content is desired or needed, or to prevent fruit from turning brown. There are also several blends of pickling limes and pickling salts. You can also find recipes on how to make your own, but if you really are raring to get cracking, they'll speed you up some. (Warning, good pickles take more than a month to make.)

That all said, welcome to the Classifieds, which I'm sure is what you were after the whole time.

 

[10mmfan]

Thanks for the info. Especially the part about what NOT to use and the part about some canning jars being freeze safe.

 

[pjt]

My wife and I haave been canning for 3 decades. I didn't know a magnetic lid lifter existed. It must not be too "required".

Buy WIDE MOUTH jars. Anything you do with a regular mouth jar, you can do with a wide mouth, but not visa versa. Easier to clean, too.

 

[kawasakiridrzx6r]

How do you can food??

 

[88GT]

My wife and I haave been canning for 3 decades. I didn't know a magnetic lid lifter existed. It must not be too "required".

Buy WIDE MOUTH jars. Anything you do with a regular mouth jar, you can do with a wide mouth, but not visa versa. Easier to clean, too.

What can you do with a wide mouth jar that you can't with a regular? Other than easier access to the jar opening for ladling food items in it, I don't see a difference.

OP, get THIS. Goes well beyond jam, jellies, and veggies. Meats, stews, chlis. For starters, this can't be beat.

Of course, there are other ways of preserving meats too. but the Ball book will be the single best resource for canning instruction, IMO. Simple, but thorough. You can always go more complex, but why if you don't want/need to, right?