Canning & Preserving Food

Kate Ellery said:
View attachment 185 It’s a wonder someone hasn’t commented on her dangerous methods …I’ve seen others… DRY …canning potatoes ( no water in jars) ..don’t know that I’d bother …we eat very little potatoes 🥔
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If you watch the video on youtube, there are several comments. A couple of knowledgeable canners told her she was risking poisoning her family and that the video should be removed. Surprisingly, several "canners" posted positive comments, obviously "rebel canners" who don't follow safe food practices.

I noticed that she was canning dry potatoes which I thought was also considered a dangerous practice.
 
Beth Gallagher said:
If you watch the video on youtube, there are several comments. A couple of knowledgeable canners told her she was risking poisoning her family and that the video should be removed. Surprisingly, several "canners" posted positive comments, obviously "rebel canners" who don't follow safe food practices.

I noticed that she was canning dry potatoes which I thought was also considered a dangerous practice.
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I watched the whole video , seen she’s blown the top off a baby food jar she was using , if they normally only have a very light / cap rather than what we’d call a lid ……. Beth ….
but didn’t scroll down to comments ….
 
Canned Coleslaw recipe discussed in the Fermenting thread...


CANNED COLESLAW

Ingredients
* 1 Medium Cabbage
* 1 Large Carrot
* 1 Small Yellow Onion
* 1 Red Bell Pepper
* 2 Tbs Canning or Kosher Salt
* 1 1/2 C Apple Cider Vinegar
* 3 C Sugar
* 1/3 C Water
* 1 1/2 Tsp Celery Seed
* 1 1/2 Tsp Mustard Seed
Instructions
1. Prep your jars, lids, and rings. Wash them well and set them aside.
2. Chop the cabbage, bell pepper, carrot, and onion and then add in the salt. Mix well. Cover and let sit for 2 hours.
3. Prep your water bath so it ready to go after the cabbage mixture has rested for the 2 hours.
4. Rinse cabbage mix several times. Let it rest while you prepare the brine.
5. In a sauce pot, combine the apple cider vinegar, sugar, water, celery seed, and mustard seed. Bring to a boil and let it boil for 1 minute. Stir consistently. Remove from the heat.
6. Pack the jars with the cabbage mixture tightly into the jars. Make sure to leave 1-inch head space.
7. Pour the brine into the cabbage filled jars and fill to the 1-inch headspace. Use de-bubbler to remove air bubbles from filled jar. Wipe the rims of the jars with a clean rag and then put your lids on and then the rings. Tighten the rings carefully. Make sure to not over tighten them or the lids will buckle.
8. Carefully place the packed jars in the water bath. Process for 15 minutes.
9. Remove the jars from the boiling water and set on a towel. Do not touch them until they have completely cooled. Preferably overnight.
10. For jars where the lids did not seal, store in the refrigerator. The jars that did seal can be stored on the shelf. Don't forget to write the date on the lid!
11. To serve, strain the coleslaw and then add mayonnaise or serve as is.

Notes: This is shelf stable for 2 years.
 
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On a bit of a side note, I have always told people never to use homemade vinegar for food preservation, and I have been called all kinds of names and been accused of being in the pockets of Big Ag. Those name callers don't know much about chemistry. Most home folks cannot titrate the acidity of vinegar (if they even know what it means). It is not just pH but you have to titrate the percentage of acetic acid in the vinegar in order to do safe pickling and such. Anyone can use homemade vinegar for fresh preps, like salad dressings, but for canning, it must be 5% acidity or greater to be safe. 5% is chosen as it is the lowest acidity that is safe. If you use higher acidity it will be safe but may taste terrible. On a homesteading site, I found a way to test the acidity of homemade vinegar. You boil red cabbage (the outside tough leaves are okay for this) and save the water. The red color is a pH indicator, so if you use a dropper and standard 5% vinegar and count the drops until a color change of a small amount (1/4 cup or so), then do the same with the homemade stuff and the number of drops to color change should be the same or fewer. If it takes more drops to color change than the commercial vinegar, it is not safe for canning, but would be fine for fresh use.

I don't know if anyone here makes their own vinegar, but maybe those with apple trees or curiosity may want to know this.
 
What interesting info about testing vinegar @Don Alaska it was only recently I was wondering how you could actually test it , the reason was to test I wanted to try killing weeds on the outside edge of our small patch of lawn I believe it’s called Oxalis it’s got darkish brown leaves
the recipe was + 5 % vinegar epson salts and dish washing liquid and water of course
It did little ..it browned / crisped the leaves …then new growth came up so it needs something stronger

The vinegar I bought said it was double strength ….but double what . ….it stated on the bottle it was 7+ percent
 
Kate Ellery said:
What interesting info about testing vinegar @Don Alaska it was only recently I was wondering how you could actually test it , the reason was to test I wanted to try killing weeds on the outside edge of our small patch of lawn I believe it’s called Oxalis it’s got darkish brown leaves
the recipe was + 5 % vinegar epson salts and dish washing liquid and water of course
It did little ..it browned / crisped the leaves …then new growth came up so it needs something stronger

The vinegar I bought said it was double strength ….but double what . ….it stated on the bottle it was 7+ percent
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Vinegar will kill annual weeds, but perennials will die and regrow. You can get 30% vinegar here, and that does a better job but is quite expensive. I have heard that the 30% vinegar saturated with NaCl will do a better job and that would be similar to your Epsom Salts. The salt solutions may make it impossible to grow anything where it is used, however, so be sure you want that before using. That is why so many people use the herbicides.
 
Since I somehow managed to order 4 bags of coleslaw mix in my grocery order, I've decided to use them to try the canned coleslaw recipe. I'm planning to use pint jars since it's just the 2 of us. It sounds simple but I'm sure I'll manage to mess it up.

I also have some dry beans and I'm going to do a test run of those, also in pints. This will be my first attempt at pressure canning. So tomorrow will be interesting.
 
Was it successful @Beth Gallagher …I hate cabbage even tho, ive made fermented cabbage to try …..it still tasted like cabbage …it was nice and crunchy / and …bland ….thats all I could say for it …( not canned) I used cabbage , carrots ,dikon radish , celery and red capisums
 
Kate Ellery said:
Was it successful @Beth Gallagher …I hate cabbage even tho, ive made fermented cabbage to try …..it still tasted like cabbage …it was nice and crunchy / and …bland ….thats all I could say for it …( not canned) I used cabbage , carrots ,dikon radish , celery and red capisums
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I didn't get to the cole slaw, Kate. I had to learn how to use the electric pressure canner and I hovered over it most of the afternoon. The beans appear to be a success; I made 5 pints of red beans from a pound of dry beans. All the jars sealed and they look good. I guess I'll work on the cole slaw tomorrow; it's water bathed so no pressure canning.
 
Beth Gallagher said:
I didn't get to the cole slaw, Kate. I had to learn how to use the electric pressure canner and I hovered over it most of the afternoon. The beans appear to be a success; I made 5 pints of red beans from a pound of dry beans. All the jars sealed and they look good. I guess I'll work on the cole slaw tomorrow; it's water bathed so no pressure canning.
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So do you add vinegar ? or is it canned in brine / water …. @Beth Gallagher

Oops ..I just seen your recipe up here ^^^ 👍👍 ( that I’d liked) …....that sounds like it would be far tastier then the fermented cabbage I did
I might try that where I go home
 
Kate Ellery said:
So do you add vinegar ? or is it canned in brine / water …. @Beth Gallagher

Oops ..I just seen your recipe up here ^^^ 👍👍 ( that I’d liked) …....that sounds like it would be far tastier then the fermented cabbage I did
I might try that where I go home
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I'm just making a couple of jars to see how we like it. The woman who posted the recipe said it can be eaten as is from the jar or drained and add mayonnaise for creamy coleslaw.
 
I finally got in the kitchen and made the canned coleslaw. It was pretty easy considering that the bagged coleslaw mix (shredded cabbage and carrots) was already prepared. All I had to do was chop up the onion and some bell pepper, then make the brine. Two bags of coleslaw mix made three pints, which was just about right for a test run.

I didn't get my waterbath canner out for such a small run. I put a trivet in the bottom of a stockpot, filled it with water, and placed the jars in there to process them.

I just checked the jars and all of them have sealed. I was kind of hoping one would fail so I could taste it. I'll wait about a week, then open a jar to try. The woman who posted the recipe said the cabbage stays crunchy so we'll see. If this tastes good, I will make several more jars because we like coleslaw and it will be nice to have some stored in the pantry.
 
Bean report: Yesterday I pressure canned 5 pints of small red kidney beans (from dry). I decided to put a tiny amount of bacon grease (about 1/3 teaspoon) in each jar, plus a bit of salt. I opened one jar to go with our supper tonight, and they turned out pretty good. I think next time I will forego the bacon grease and just can plain beans. That should be better for use in soups and stuff, though the bacon flavor would be good in a "red beans and rice" supper.

I really like the electric canner; it removes so much of the anxiety of pressure canning. I guess this is my new hobby. :D
 
Beth Gallagher said:
Bean report: Yesterday I pressure canned 5 pints of small red kidney beans (from dry). I decided to put a tiny amount of bacon grease (about 1/3 teaspoon) in each jar, plus a bit of salt. I opened one jar to go with our supper tonight, and they turned out pretty good. I think next time I will forego the bacon grease and just can plain beans. That should be better for use in soups and stuff, though the bacon flavor would be good in a "red beans and rice" supper.

I really like the electric canner; it removes so much of the anxiety of pressure canning. I guess this is my new hobby. :D
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I wonder if you could just use bacon or bacon bits. If you cooked the bacon first, you could save the grease
 
John Brunner said:
Were they cooked before you canned them or did the process do it?
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I did the "quick soak" method where the beans are covered with water, boiled for 2 minutes, then left to soak for an hour or so. Then I drained them and put them into jars with fresh water and a bit of seasoning. So they were mostly reconstituted but still not cooked. They cooked in the canner (high pressure for 75 minutes).

There is another method where the clean dry beans are added to the jar (about 1/2 cup dry to a pint), then the water and seasonings added. The pressure cook time is the same. I'm going to try this but it seems to me that it would be difficult to gauge how much the beans are going to swell and fill the jars.
 
Don Alaska said:
I wonder if you could just use bacon or bacon bits. If you cooked the bacon first, you could save the grease
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Yes, it's possible to add a very small amount of meat to a jar, but it seems that the pressure cooking intensifies flavors a lot. The tiny amount of bacon grease was really almost too much flavor for a pint of beans. Next time I'm leaving that out.
 
Beth Gallagher said:
I bought the stovetop pressure canner on Amazon so I can return it easily. I'm just not convinced that I should buy the electronic canner. It has not been "approved" by the government agency that puts their seal of approval on food safety stuff. (I'm not sure which agency but people are complaining that the Trump administration cuts have done away with so many govt. employees that a lot of things are falling in the cracks.)

Kate, do you know whether the electric pressure canners are approved for use in Australia?
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Just a followup to this post. I have done extensive research on electric pressure canners and uncovered the fact that NO canners of any type have been approved by any government agency. (USDA provides guidelines but no "approvals."). So people clutching their pearls over electric canners must have overlooked that tidbit.

Also, not that anyone cares, I ended up returning the stovetop pressure canner to Amazon. The process for stovetop canners requires too much "oversight," plus they are heavy and unwieldy to deal with. I'm sticking with the electric canner and small-batch canning.
 
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