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Pressure canner
- Thread starter Biscombe
- Start date
Biscombe:
Welcome to the addiction.
Rule of thumb: Use Ball to look up the pressure and time for each ingredient, then use the highest and longest for the whole thing. You can pressure can meat. Egg and Dairy is generally thought off limits, so are some puree like pumpkin. But it is absolutely amazing how many low acid foods can be safely pressure canned. Unless it is something where texture is ultra important, I tend to pressure can some things that would be traditionally water bathed because it makes me feel a bit safer.
One of my favorite things to do is to pressure can broths. I'll make things like garlic sauce, basically a garlic broth, pressure can, and put them up so that cooking later is much easier. It is crazy easy.
Check out the recipe site from Ball and you will be frigging addicted:
http://www.freshpreserving.com/recipes
Welcome to the addiction.
Rule of thumb: Use Ball to look up the pressure and time for each ingredient, then use the highest and longest for the whole thing. You can pressure can meat. Egg and Dairy is generally thought off limits, so are some puree like pumpkin. But it is absolutely amazing how many low acid foods can be safely pressure canned. Unless it is something where texture is ultra important, I tend to pressure can some things that would be traditionally water bathed because it makes me feel a bit safer.
One of my favorite things to do is to pressure can broths. I'll make things like garlic sauce, basically a garlic broth, pressure can, and put them up so that cooking later is much easier. It is crazy easy.
Check out the recipe site from Ball and you will be frigging addicted:
http://www.freshpreserving.com/recipes
AJ's puree works perfectly in the pressure canner, the recipe can be found someone on the this site.Biscombe said:
I pressure can tons of sauces. Mainly tomato based. Anything that you feel is suspect pressure can. I ph check all my sauces from fresh to fermented if there in the safe range below 3.9 I use as a gauge. Then I just water bath can but everything else gets pressure canned. Just follow the rules from ball as Ajdrew pointed out you'll be addicted!! 
Do low acid foods like fermented hotsauce need to be pressure cooked for long time storage?
Or does the pH alone mean it can be safely stored without pressure cooking?
Is the idea of canning things like fermented hot sauce to both sterilize and remove oxygen?
Or does the pH alone mean it can be safely stored without pressure cooking?
Is the idea of canning things like fermented hot sauce to both sterilize and remove oxygen?
If your ph is low enough I believe 4 and below the sauce is considered shelf stable. And can be HOT water bath canned or just heat sauce to boil let cook 8 minutes then pour mixture into heat sanitized Woozies and cap turn upside down to cool hot mixture.total noobsauce said:
With pressure canning you bring above the boiling point and kill all bacteria. This method is best used if you have any doubts about ph.
Fermented hot sauces are usually well below the ph levels required for safety. Most of mine are around 3.2 the heating and canning process is to stop fermentation to allow for safe canning. The fermented mash would become a hot sauce bomb!! If canned without killing the lab. So it's boiled a few times before processing.
You can leave a fermenting mash in your refrigerator loosely covered if you like to eat the mash. It's awesome stuff and lots of good probiotics great for digestion!!
So water bath canning for low ph and pressure canning for everything else!!
Is their a safe way to pressure can Fish? Always wanted to do that but contamination been a bit of a scare.
salsalady
Business Member
dragonsfire-
fish can absolutely be pressure canned!
Fish doesn't have any natural acidity, so the only safe way to preserve it (other than salting or smoking, etc) is to pressure can.
here's the recipe from the Ball canning site, they also have other meat recipes-
http://www.freshpreserving.com/recipes/fish
I know some can fish with oil, there's probably a recipe out there for that also.
I've canned chicken pieces with a few veggies like onion carrot celery and a bit of broth.
Biscombe- what kind of a chilli sauce are you looking for? Something like sambal, a basic chilli-vinegar based hot sauce, tomato-chilli hot sauce?
fish can absolutely be pressure canned!
Fish doesn't have any natural acidity, so the only safe way to preserve it (other than salting or smoking, etc) is to pressure can.
here's the recipe from the Ball canning site, they also have other meat recipes-
http://www.freshpreserving.com/recipes/fish
I know some can fish with oil, there's probably a recipe out there for that also.
I've canned chicken pieces with a few veggies like onion carrot celery and a bit of broth.
Biscombe- what kind of a chilli sauce are you looking for? Something like sambal, a basic chilli-vinegar based hot sauce, tomato-chilli hot sauce?
On pressure canning vs. water bath. I am fairly sure anything that can be water bath canned is safer if it is pressure canned. The issue is that pressure canning achieves a much higher temperature than water bath. The result is that things can loose texture. I have pressure cooked pickles and no matter how much pickle crisp you add, the things go to mush.
I am sure the commercial hot sauce folk are right about boiling and then bottling in the standard hot sauce bottle. After all, those folk have the FDA or local health officials looking over their shoulders and approving their methods. But unless you are concerned about texture, I can not imagine the extra heat of pressure canning will hurt anything. Maybe color, but I am sure it wont make it less shelf stable.
Here would be a cool experiment. Make sauce, let cool, but into mason jar. Heat back up and both pressure can and water bath. Let all cool to same temperature and then look at them side by side, see if there is any color difference, taste them and see if there is a flavor difference. I know I would like to know the results and I am fairly sure others would.
I am sure the commercial hot sauce folk are right about boiling and then bottling in the standard hot sauce bottle. After all, those folk have the FDA or local health officials looking over their shoulders and approving their methods. But unless you are concerned about texture, I can not imagine the extra heat of pressure canning will hurt anything. Maybe color, but I am sure it wont make it less shelf stable.
Here would be a cool experiment. Make sauce, let cool, but into mason jar. Heat back up and both pressure can and water bath. Let all cool to same temperature and then look at them side by side, see if there is any color difference, taste them and see if there is a flavor difference. I know I would like to know the results and I am fairly sure others would.
Thats were a crock pot would work best, long low extended cook, keeps the flavours.
ajdrew said:
I have done both water bath/pressure canning on hot sauces. It does not change the color or taste or texture at all imo, since the sauce is already cooked down/blended/etc.
I have a 15 year old virgin pressure canner I bought years ago to use for salmon and tuna I caught but never got around to using it. Its about time I use it and learn to pressure can some hot sauce. I heard some horror stories about them so I was a little chicken to use one lol. Its a really big one made by presto. Pressure canner/cooker.
SavinaRed, presto is a very good name. If it is a modern model, you will have three separate safety devices which will prevent the horror stories of previous designs from happening. There will be a blow off valve which will release pressure long before it goes boom. There will be a rocker weight which releases pressure even earlier. Usually the rocker will be either a five, ten, or fifteen psi regulator but sometimes it is a single weight with different slots. No clue how that works, but it does. Then the final safety device is a pressure gauge so you can visually know whats up. If the pressure gauge reads more than the rocker weight should allow, there is a problem. Just turn off the heat and find what is blocking the rocker valve.
The new models are really very safe. The usual problem is just the opposite. The rubber seal dries out if not used and you loose pressure. For a presto, a replacement rubber seal is easy enough to get. As long as you dont let food cake up and block the safety devices, you can have years of use without much problem.
I would either buy a new pressure gauge or bring yours to the county extension office and see if they will test it or tell you who can. Ideally they should be tested once a year, even if not used.
BTW: You can save tons of money with one because you can buy things when they are on sale and put them up for later.
The new models are really very safe. The usual problem is just the opposite. The rubber seal dries out if not used and you loose pressure. For a presto, a replacement rubber seal is easy enough to get. As long as you dont let food cake up and block the safety devices, you can have years of use without much problem.
I would either buy a new pressure gauge or bring yours to the county extension office and see if they will test it or tell you who can. Ideally they should be tested once a year, even if not used.
BTW: You can save tons of money with one because you can buy things when they are on sale and put them up for later.
Mine is forty years old and hadent used it for years because of the ring turning hard, one year finaly the internet provided a site to replace the ring and now its happy days also I find adding olive oil to the rings to make a good seal helps
also I find adding olive oil to the rings to make a good seal helps Tried one jar for Canning Fish, 7 jars in PC, 6 are with Rye for mushroom growing. The fish jar broke 
Used my Turkey coating Chile powder on the haddock, wiped the inside of the jar with Olive Oil, thats it. PC'ed 95min
Used my Turkey coating Chile powder on the haddock, wiped the inside of the jar with Olive Oil, thats it. PC'ed 95min
According to the instruction you dont put liquid in.
Directions:
Directions:
- DISSOLVE pickling salt in water in a large stainless steel bowl to make salt-water brine. Cut fish into pieces just long enouch to fit into jars. Place fish in brine and let soak in the refrigerator for 1 hour. Drain well for about 10 minutes.
- PREPARE pressure canner. Wash jars, but do not heat.
- PACK fish, skin side next to glass, into jars to within a generous 1 inch of top of jar. Do not add liquid. Remove any visible air bubbles. Wipe rim with a paper towl moistened with vinegar. Center lid on jar. Apply band and adjust until fit is fingertip tight.
- PROCESS filled jars in a pressure canner at 10 pounds pressure 1 hour and 40 minutes for both half pints and pints, adjusting for altitude.
I have been canning for about 10+ years with two pressure canners, All American 41&15, and a couple different sized water baths.
Every summer we catch & can 3-4 cases of Salmon into quarts, among other things we catch, kill & can.
All American has an online instruction manual / recipe book, that I use & trust, and is USDA compliant(just like any other current publication).
http://www.allamerican-chefsdesign.com/admin/FileUploads/Product_49.pdf
Generally the only reasons jars break is because of thermal shock or over pressurized due to over tightening the ring. They almost always break on the bottom plate(thermal) or the neck(pressure) of the jar, because they're the weakest points. The other most likely thing to break a jar is freezing it with the contents filled up too far, food & fluid has to stay below the neck when freezing. When you tighten the ring, before heating, it only needs to be tight enough to keep water out til the lid pops, after you remove it from the caner.
Jar parts description:
http://www.ehcan.com/JarsClosure.html
Every summer we catch & can 3-4 cases of Salmon into quarts, among other things we catch, kill & can.
All American has an online instruction manual / recipe book, that I use & trust, and is USDA compliant(just like any other current publication).
http://www.allamerican-chefsdesign.com/admin/FileUploads/Product_49.pdf
Generally the only reasons jars break is because of thermal shock or over pressurized due to over tightening the ring. They almost always break on the bottom plate(thermal) or the neck(pressure) of the jar, because they're the weakest points. The other most likely thing to break a jar is freezing it with the contents filled up too far, food & fluid has to stay below the neck when freezing. When you tighten the ring, before heating, it only needs to be tight enough to keep water out til the lid pops, after you remove it from the caner.
Jar parts description:
http://www.ehcan.com/JarsClosure.html