CANNING FOODS – a lost art

[Slaw901]

@mltplmom wrote:

TIP / HINT for canned foods bought from the store; to make these last for several years – you will need to buy some parafin wax. Melt the wax and dip the cans / coating them one side at a time – allowing each side to cool befor dipping the otherside. This will extend the shelf like A LONG TIME.
Happy canning!!!!!!!

Neat Tip! I just made a thread about Spam.

I have not begun to can yet but my wife actually studied it at the local university with her degree studies. I have been lazy and frozen my surplus veggies each season thus far. (I know, I know, bad idea power outages….) I am in the market for canning equipment and hope to begin this harvest season.

I really appreciate the info presented and look forward (greedily 😛 ) for more. lol

[Alaska Rose]

I use a small single burner camp propane burner, that is really cheap, to do outdoor cooking and canning on in the summer, I also have a huge All-American canner too big to lift easily on a stove, that has been fitted into the upside down metal trash can with the bottom cut out, and vent holes for air cut around the bottom. Then a weedburner unit was cut and angled so it faces up onto the bottom of the huge pressure canner, so it can be hauled to the river or ocean to can super fresh fish on site.

[Empress]

What if you have a large canner? I purchased the American canner that holds 14 qt jars, and My husband is afraid that it’s weight filled will crack our new stove. (the old one would have worked with it) just looking for advice. Thanks

[D_Loki]

You can always use it outside on a coleman stove……..

[Alaska Rose]

Yes, use a propane camp burner or coleman stove. Any easily regulated burner unit should do okay. The most important thing is that you can maintain a steady heat source to keep the pressure steady. Fluctuations in pressure will cause a pumping action in the filled jars, causing the contents to spew out and most probably won’t seal because of ingredients staying on the rim of the jar under the rubber strip on the lid. With a really large canner, it is best to have 2 people to place on heat and remove from heat. You really don’t want to be hugging something that hot against you to move it around.

[Alaska Rose]

Not sure why some of my posts show up twice. Also not sure how to just delete one. Computer illiterate, that’s me.

[okmom]

I have read what you all have been writing about canning veggies, fruit and meat, but did you know you can do cheese and butter too? I have and it will last for months.

[Alaska Rose]

Yes, you can can anything, pretty much. Canned butter is sold in stores here in Alaska.

[Alaska Rose]

I will try to put a photo here of one of my sketches, showing how to cut a skinned out large animal, and get the least amount of insides and gore on you. I am not too sure on loading photos into a post, so we will see if it works for me or not. If you are working on an elk, this is almost a necessity for gutting, as they have sheets of muscle hanging down inside, to hold the intestines in place, since they are jumpers.

[ReadyMom]

@Alaska Rose wrote:

Yes, you can can anything, pretty much. Canned butter is sold in stores here in Alaska.

Home-canned butter, Alaska Rose?

[Alaska Rose]

Darn satellite outage, just lost that entire post.

In the 2 sketches above, the first shows an alternate way to gut an animal without getting in up to your shoulders and working blind with a sharp knife. That has never been high on my list of things I really want to do, LOL. Cut along the ribcage to the back, then follow the inside of the back leg on around. Fold back the flap of flesh and roll out the guts, cutting any connective tissue holding them back. This large flap of flesh should be used for burger or make rolled stuffed roasts out of it, cook long and slow to tenderize and you will have a nice meal that is usually wasted meat. The second sketch is a standard skinning, gutting diagram, showing where most folks cut, skinning and gutting and removing the lower leg sections.

[Alaska Rose]

To me, the best method for safety and good flavor for home canning butter, is to clarify it and can the clear butter with no moisture or milk solids remaining in it. This has been made for centuries in India, where it is known as Ghee.
Use a large pan with a heavy bottom to reduce the chance of scorching the butter when clarifying it. Use unsalted butter as salted butter will be concentrated quite a bit and very salty when finished. The butter will foam up quite a bit when it is heating, so be sure you have a very large kettle to do this in. Stir often and once the milk solids start to settle and brown, make sure you stir even more often. Have your jars sterilized and dry and the lids ready, also. You do not want any moisture getting into the jars. Moisture is what botulism needs to survive. Ladle the hot golden liquid into the jars to within an inch of the top, place lids on and into a water bath canner or use the pressure canner without the pressure. As I get closer to the bottom of the kettle of butter, I place a coffee filter in the funnel I use filling the jars, and make sure no browned milk solids get in the jar.
Cover the canner and boil. It should be processed at least 10 minutes, I go for 20, just to be sure, remove jars from canner and allow to cool. Store in a cool, dry, dark place. Clarified butter doesn’t spoil as fast as regular butter and doesn’t require the refrigeration butter needs. The texture is different than plain butter, but the flavor is wonderful.

Today I canned cheese with salsa, very tasty.

[ArtDeco357]

When I was first dating my wife I cooked her a dinner with my mom’s canned food. Chicken, Stewed Tomatoes and a Peach Cobler. My family lived on the food we canned in the summer & Fall throughout the winter. I’ve forgotten how over the years, but would like to start again. Thanks for these threads.

[Alaska Rose]

You are welcome. Here, I still live on the canned foods and have managed to can almost anything to extend the items I grow or harvest wild or buy in large quantities in town. I like having a varied diet year around. With no electricity other than a few hours of generator each evening, it is easier to just can everything.

[jhuk05]

SCORE!
I just picked up a presto aluminum 16 qt pressure canner at walmart . Last time i was there the last one had been snagged, and was a 7 qt I think i got this 16 qt for the same price… 64.88 . Seemed like a deal i could not pass… so i put some uneccesary items back and broke myself also got a case of quart jars(7.88) and a case of pints(7.70). almost ready to start picking peas! cant wait o start this learning experience. I may be broke today ( and a lil smelly as one of the items i put back was aftershave), but i feel like i am one step closer to self reliance, and stopping the gushing wound of tax money paid to our king and queen :p

[Author]

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