your efforts will give you the following:
A pantry full of freshly preserved, homegrown foods. Having a stocked pantry offers a cushion against the fluctuating cost and availability of healthy foods. If you enjoy specialty foods from gourmet stores but dislike the high prices, home-canning is a safe and economical way to preserve large or small quantities of high-quality food.
Convenience. You can build a pantry of convenience foods that fit into your busy lifestyle and that your family will enjoy.
Confidence in the ingredients that go into your food. If you love fresh ingredients and like to know what goes into your food, doing your own canning and preserving is the answer.
Protection against rising food costs and temporary shortages. The whole idea of canning and preserving is to take advantage of fresh food when it’s abundant. And abundant food generally means lower costs. If there is a temporary shortage of food, you will have what you need in your pantry.
A sense of relaxation and accomplishment. For many people, working in the kitchen and handling food provides a sense of relaxation, and watching family and friends enjoy the products of your efforts gives you a great sense of accomplishment. Taking the time to select your recipe, choosing and preparing your food, and packaging and processing it for safety is fulfilling and a source of pride for you, the home-canner.
A good time. Producing canned and preserved food in your kitchen is fun and easy — and who doesn’t like fun?
WHO’S CANNING TODAY?
Although home-canning and home-preserving have skipped one or two generations, one thing is certain: They are on the rise. Men and women of all ages practice the art of home-canning. It no longer matters whether you live in the country or in the city or if you grow your own food. Fresh ingredients are available just about everywhere. Farmer’s markets are commonplace in many cities and towns, making it easy to find the perfect foods to preserve for an affordable price.
Exact statistics regarding home-canning vary, but today, most home-canned products are used in the home where they’re produced. In addition, a rising number of people are committed to eating locally, and these folks want to know what is in the foods they eat. By preserving their own foods, they can find the freshest food available and control what goes in their food.
Introducing Your Techniques: Canning, Freezing, and Dehydrating
The techniques discussed in this book are safe for home use and produce superior results when you follow all the steps for each method. You compromise the quality and safety of your food if you make your own rules. An example of this is shortening your processing period or not timing it correctly. Either of these adjustments can cause food spoilage because the food doesn’t heat long enough to destroy all of the microorganisms in it.
You’ll have no doubts about preparing safe home-canned and home-preserved food after you discover what each method does, which method is best for different foods, the rules for the technique you choose, and safe food-handling techniques. The following pages introduce you to both ancient and modern-day techniques that will help you can and preserve with ease.
About canning food
Canning is the most popular preserving method used today. Don’t let anyone tell you that home-canning is complicated and unsafe. It’s simply not true. Canning is the process of applying heat to food that’s sealed in a jar in order to destroy any microorganisms that can cause food spoilage. All foods contain these microorganisms. Proper canning techniques stop this spoilage by heating the food for a specific period of time and killing these unwanted microorganisms. Also, during the canning process, air is driven from the jar, and a vacuum is formed as the jar cools and seals. This prevents microorganisms from entering and recontaminating the food.
Approved methods
Although you may hear of many canning methods, only two are approved by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). These are water-bath canning and pressure canning.
Water-bath canning: This method, sometimes referred to as hot water canning, uses a large kettle of boiling water. Filled jars are submerged in the water and heated to an internal temperature of 212 degrees for a specific period of time. Use this method for processing high-acid foods, such as fruit, as well as items made from fruit, pickles, pickled food, and tomatoes. Chapter 4 explains this method in detail.
Pressure canning: Pressure canning uses a large kettle that produces steam in a locked compartment. The filled jars in the kettle reach an internal temperature of 240 degrees under a specific pressure (stated in pounds) that’s measured with a dial gauge or weighted gauge on the pressure-canner cover. You use a pressure canner for processing vegetables and other low-acid foods, such as meat, poultry, and fish. For more information about pressure canning, see Chapter 9. Don’t confuse a pressure canner with either a pressure cooker or an electric multi-cooker that includes a Canning button, both of which are used to cook food quickly. A pressure cooker does not have adequate room for both the canning jars and the water needed to create the right amount of pressure to preserve foods. At one time, manufacturers of some consumer pressure cookers stated that they were safe for pressure canning; however, they have since issued a correction and acknowledged that their pressure cookers cannot be used safely for pressure canning.
Canning methods to avoid
Older canning methods are unreliable and, for that reason, aren’t used or recommended today for home-canning. Occasionally, these methods are “revived” as being faster and easier than water-bath or pressure canning, but using any of the following