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Pressure Canning...How-To?

fineexampl

fineexampl

So i bought this at Walmart tonight.
http://www.amazon.com/Mirro-8qt-Pre...?ie=UTF8&s=home-garden&qid=1225688186&sr=1-68
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Now, this is what i can afford, so don't gang up and freak out that there's no pressure regulator.

I do have a PH meter i have yet to try out, so i'll get that out of the way.

My question is, how can i safely can using a standard 8qt pressure cooker? Is it doable to just boil away at full steam or let it boil an extra 10 minutes on top of the standard 15min to be safe? I don't want to kill anyone here. I just want to make a safe sauce i can mail to my friends and buyers.

I know AJ is familiar with this, i hope he chimes in. I'm looking for the basics here. I only HAVE the basics. Once i get some $$ coming in i'll invest in a better pressure cooker, but hey man it's lean times over here.

So let's get this ball rolling and we'll all learn from my mistakes. I will include photos of my progress to help out for posterity.

My plans will be to keep a boiling water bath on my back burner for jars/bottles. A hot water bath on the other rear burner for lids. I'll be boiling sauce on the main burner and bottle em up hot. Once filled i plan on switching over to the pressure cooker, loading up, filling with water, closing up, and letting boil 20 min from when steam spews out. Think i'll be okay with that?? Am i on the right track?
 
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huvason said:
You are correct sir.... Heat to 190-195degF for 15 minutes. Hot Fill the woozies, invert, repeat.... I leave them inverted until I am done bottling then flip them over.

MAKE SURE THE CAPS HAVE A PLASTISOL LINER (the little white thing). IF not, then the bottels will not seal at all.

Also, make sure the PH of the sauce is below 4.2, preferrably in the 3.6 range.....
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Those little white things are hard to find. I ordered my woozies and shrink wrap from pepperomania. Beth stated I didn't need the little white things. I take all precautionary measures, the boiling, the ph, sterilized bottles and caps. Invert bottles. But still keep the bottled sauce refrigderated to be on the safe side. I think it would have a certain amount of shelf life because of the fact it is strained peppers, vinegar and salt. The vinegar in itself is a preservative. But don't want to take any chances. I'm concerned more right now with the gallon glass jar I have filled 3/4 with ground up habs and salt for fermenting. Recipe says 4 weeks in a dark location. I've made sauerkraut using this same method. Safety is an issue here. I haven't been on this site in quite sometime. Need to check others experience at fermenting peppers.
 
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cyotefishing said:
I'm concerned more right now with the gallon glass jar I have filled 3/4 with ground up habs and salt for fermenting. Recipe says 4 weeks in a dark location. I've made sauerkraut using this same method. Safety is an issue here. I haven't been on this site in quite sometime. Need to check others experience at fermenting peppers.
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Can you explain fermenting and why someone would want that? I might sound a bit naive here, so i do apologize. Is it like a pickling thing?
 
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fineexampl said:
Can you explain fermenting and why someone would want that? I might sound a bit naive here, so i do apologize. Is it like a pickling thing?
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Well, I always thought it twas like making a pepper mash. Have you ever read the Tobasco deal. They ferment thier said peppere for quite a spell prior to making sauce.
 
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Sickmont said:
They do it for a couple of years, right?
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yeah if you go to their website there is a video about the process. They age the 'mash' for 3 years in white oaks barrels before combining it with vinegar, mixing it for 1 month, and then straining out the seeds/pulp.

I wonder if you could do this yourself at home with whatever peppers you want? My only question would be what to age your 'mash' in? All my barrels are full of moonshine...er i mean what barrels? Actually would glass jars work just as well?
 
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I make a 'habasco' sauce from time to time using a variation of the McIlhenny method and use large mason jars (I'll save the detail for another thread as I don't want to hijack this one as I'm interested in learning more about water bath techniques).

so, I'm right in saying that I don't need to water bath for making sauces but for putting up whole or sliced peppers it's recommended that I use a water bath?
 
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