Re: The Great Challenge - Your Fears Pressure-Can-Along

**AtlantaMarie** 7/11/2015, 7:51 am

NHG - do you have a turkey fryer?

That's what we're going to use for my Nov canning class for DNR.

mollyhespra 7/11/2015, 8:10 am

That's a good point Boffer. I'll have to check the weight limits. thanks

**Scorpio Rising** 7/11/2015, 8:35 am

boffer wrote:SR, to quote one of our young members from a couple years ago, 'If I can do it, you can do it!'

I bet if you asked around you would find a friend or family member that would be happy for the company if you asked to watch them do their canning.

Or look for a Continuing Education canning class or classes taught by local government agencies.

Funny that you say this boffer, my secretary said just the other day that she and her mom do a big canning day come August, when the tomatoes and beans are in full swing here. She said come over, and we make a day of it, just the girls! So I thought there is my intro, by a seasoned veteran no less!

boffer 7/11/2015, 10:46 am

Perfect! Some OJT will be a valuable compliment to your book learnin' ! The Great Challenge - Your Fears Pressure-Can-Along - Page 3 3170584802

I bet that you don't go home empty handed!

mollyhespra 7/11/2015, 10:25 pm

Rats! The side burner on my grill will definitely NOT support the weight of the canner empty, let alone full.

Plan B: find the single electric burner I have somewhere and see if that will do the trick...

**Scorpio Rising** 7/12/2015, 9:41 am

boffer wrote:Perfect! Some OJT will be a valuable compliment to your book learnin' !

I bet that you don't go home empty handed!

Oooooo! Yeah, I bet you're right! Collateral benefit! Lol

CapeCoddess 7/12/2015, 2:41 pm

Oh my gosh, this is all so complicated for my little pea brain. No wonder you guys are nervous. I have a pressure canner / cooker called a Fagor. No rattling, no jiggling, no bumping, no anything. Just turn it on, wait a few minutes for the orange button to pop up, turn down the heat to the mark I've made on my stove dial that is perfect for my canner , set the timer on the stove for the recipe you are canning, walk away and clean the house, come back when it's ready to be turned off. No hassle. I never knew pressure canning was so complicated because this is the only one I've ever seen or tried.

CC

plantoid 7/13/2015, 12:01 pm

I looked into the Fagor canner before I got our 22 &1/2 quart All American Canner .

Just to clarify things for safety sake.

" The 10 quart Fagor " is the only one in their range recommended to use for pressure canning as at this size the amount of heat with in it is sufficient to sterilize the food within .

The smaller ones don't have the same amount of heat available internally once the pressure is up to be able to penetrate the volumes of food in the containers enough to wholly ensure total safe sterilization of the jars contents .

It is for this reason that the smaller volume ones are not used to be used for any pressure canning . The same applies to all other brands of smaller pressure cookers as well .

Safe canning folks.

**AtlantaMarie** 7/14/2015, 7:29 am

So.... Uh.... How 'bout some updates from those of you who were going to try it over the weekend??

Inquisitive minds want to know how it went!

mollyhespra 7/14/2015, 9:49 am

Well, I was all set to go when I realized that the side burner on the grill would not hold up the weight of the canner. I know I have a single electric burner somewhere that might work but the interruption of the original disappointment was enough to let other things side track me and so that is where I'm at. Embarassed

I need to set a new goal: find the single electric burner this week so that I can try again next weekend. cyclops

**sanderson** 7/14/2015, 1:05 pm

Uh, . . .

Actually, I spent that time blanching and freezing produce for use later. Plus, spent the last 3 days harvesting, pruning, top dressing and applying a thick layer of chopped straw as a mulch. Hoping this helps with BER as well as general survival for the rest of the hot summer. That's my story and I'm sticking with it

NHGardener 7/14/2015, 1:45 pm

Well, I was going to non-pressure cook my strawberry preserves in the breadmaker and then store them in the boiled mason jars and boil it all for 5 or 10 more minutes BUT I didn't have tongs and then I did have tongs but didn't feel like doing it right then and then the strawberries started to get mushy in the fridge so I just trimmed the good ones and put them in the freezer............

I guess it's going to have to wait until next year, unless I feel like preserving once-frozen berries.

NHGardener 7/14/2015, 1:46 pm

sanderson wrote:Plus, spent the last 3 days harvesting, pruning, top dressing and applying a thick layer of chopped straw as a mulch. Hoping this helps with BER as well as general survival for the rest of the hot summer.

What's BER?

mollyhespra 7/14/2015, 1:53 pm

Blossom end rot.

NHGardener 7/14/2015, 2:14 pm

Thank you!

Even if it doesn't alleviate the BER, I love mulch. I'm crazy about mulch. I could marry mulch.

LOL.

**sanderson** 7/14/2015, 2:57 pm

https://squarefoot.forumotion.com/t12249p80-blossom-end-rot#227428

littlejo 7/14/2015, 5:00 pm

NHGardener wrote:Well, I was going to non-pressure cook my strawberry preserves in the breadmaker and then store them in the boiled mason jars and boil it all for 5 or 10 more minutes BUT I didn't have tongs and then I did have tongs but didn't feel like doing it right then and then the strawberries started to get mushy in the fridge so I just trimmed the good ones and put them in the freezer............

I guess it's going to have to wait until next year, unless I feel like preserving once-frozen berries.

What kind of a breadmaker do you have? How do you get the preserves to cook without making a mess? (I'm such a klutz) Gosh, I'm just curious.

I keep a freezer bag for whatever fruit. I add fruit, cleaned and topped, til I get enough to can. I've not noticed a difference in flavor, but, I've been doing this a long time.
Jo

NHGardener 7/14/2015, 5:43 pm

I have a Breadman breadmaker. I never knew it made preserves until I was thumbing through the recipe booklet recently and saw the instructions for preserves. I like the recipe because it only calls for strawberries and sugar - nothing else. How easy.

I'm not really stuck on the making of them, but just on the preserving part. I don't think I can eat that much strawberry preserves in one shot. Well, I might try it anyway. I think it was 3 cups mashed strawberries to 5 cups sugar.

Edit: I see it's actually jam, not preserves.

**sanderson** 7/15/2015, 12:08 am

You can send the extra strawberry jam this way! Very Happy

johnp 7/16/2015, 5:04 pm

Read my instructions twice. Going to be brave and do a four cups of water trial run as the instructions said. I have stolen my wife's two burner propane pot cooker out of her weaving storage shed. She will never know. Rolling Eyes

**AtlantaMarie** 7/17/2015, 7:51 am

How'd it go, JohnP?

johnp 7/17/2015, 8:22 am

Started well. Ran out of propane. Will retry today.

boffer 7/17/2015, 1:33 pm

Working up the nerve to try it and sneaking the wife's stove must have distracted you from the basic essentials.

Reminds me of the weeks long chaotic preparation for our family car vacation, then running out of gas 10 miles from home as we started out on our trip. My dad never lived that one down!

**sanderson** 7/17/2015, 2:42 pm

johnp 7/17/2015, 2:51 pm

I think she knew all along that I was going to use her equipment. I think she knew how low her bottle was and now I get to refill it for her. Off to the propane store this afternoon and will try again tomorrow. If I was a car thief I would probably steal the one car with no gas in it. Cool

Will report the dry run tomorrow.

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