Safe Canning - Debbie's Back Porch

sanderson wrote:Soose,  Check out this Facebook site: https://www.facebook.com/groups/SafeCanningByTheBook

Debbie also has detailed videos on YouTube under "Debbie's Back Porch."

If the recipe isn't in a recent Ball or Bernadin book, further testing may have been conducted on an older recipe and deleted from safe canning.  Don't use canning recipes found on this Forum, unless they are also found in the Ball/Bernadin books.

You are already used to dehydrating, now you can add canning and freezing.  I love my Food Saver vacuum sealer for freezing things that can't be canned safely, or if the frozen method produces a more palatable product than if it was pressure canned.  Think canned peas verses frozen peas!

Another SFG gardener turned me on to Debbie's Back porch.  

Soose wrote:Ty Sanderson.  I will check out Debbie's channel right away!  

I didn't realize until I watched the program this week that there were newer canning guidelines.   But it's been many many years or decades since I had heard our tomato varieties are less acidic nowadays. Whether that's accurate or not, it have me a sense of caution about blithely canning just any way.

 I need a book!  (Which do you recommend?)  

And I bet my local cooperative extension agency will have more info as well.

Do you use both water bath and pressure canning?  I did jot down a list of what would be safe for each.

I need a vacuum sealer.  The reviews have given me pause. Recent models of previously reliable brands of all sorts of machines including the Food Savers seem to have problems.

Vac sealer bags are probably something to stock up on.

Scorpio Rising wrote:Hi Soose, welcome!  I bought the Big Ball Book of canning.  I only water bath can, not pressure can so my items must be pickled, or made into jam, etc.  

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&ved=2ahUKEwi4_cfb2OH2AhXOKM0KHeV6DdkQFnoECBYQAQ&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.com%2FBall-Complete-Book-Home-Preserving%2Fdp%2F0778801314&usg=AOvVaw0D-AnabSOvY8agsxw17sXR

I love it!  Very helpful!

I freeze my squash. My kids got me a dehydrator for Christmas, so will play with that, too!

Soose wrote:Ty Scorpio, I am going to order a Ball canning book.  Should be safe with them.
I am thinking I have not accumulated any where enough canning lids.  For dehydrating
and vac'ing, you can use older lids more than once.  For canning you have to use a brand new lid.
How did our ancestors survive?

I bought - or a friend bought for me - a 4 gallon crock for sauerkraut.  With plunger. 
Now I think I need other stuff to make sauerkraut?  I haven't even had a chance to look
at recipes.  All I've ever looked at was countertop sauerkraut used for a raw diet.

And I want to make pickled beets. 

I also picked up two of the smallest 1/2 gallon pump sprayers 
https://www.harborfreight.com/05-gallon-multi-purpose-sprayer-56167.html
and two of the regular liter hand spray bottles at Harbor Freight for garden use.
I had no idea what sizes to get.  These pump sprayers were on sale.

OhioGardener wrote:

Soose wrote: For canning you have to use a brand new lid. How did our ancestors survive?

Interesting question. As recent as my childhood, we grew up in rural America with no electricity and preservation of food was necessary for survival. When we butchered a cow or hog, the meat was salt cured to preserve it. Vegetables and fruit was canned in Ball jars with a glass lid and a new rubber seal. All were stored in a hand dug underground fruit cellar for the winter. Somewhere around the mid-50's the modern-day canning lids and bands were made available in our area. Around that same time REA brought electricity to our farm, with refrigerators and freezers to follow.  What a difference 80 years makes!

Frost? wrote:

Soose wrote:I bought - or a friend bought for me - a 4 gallon crock for sauerkraut.  With plunger. 
Now I think I need other stuff to make sauerkraut? 

Cabbage.

Soose wrote:

OhioGardener wrote:


Interesting question. As recent as my childhood, we grew up in rural America with no electricity and preservation of food was necessary for survival. ...

Ty, Ohiogardener.  I am not a Spring chicken myself.  I remember my grandmother poured hot paraffin on fruit preserves in mason jars.  (Safe?)  I'd forgotten the glass-lidded jars, and would not have known they require a new rubber gasket each time. Root cellars and cellars were common and lined with home canned jars. There was also an ice house down by the river, where my grandmother rented storage lockers -- I remember going to retrieve green beans. I remember her first refrigerator, and before that, the ice man dropping off a block for the old ice box, but I must have been very young for that. I wish I'd picked up more skills in food preservation than shelling beans and peeling pears.

Scorpio Rising wrote:Hi Soose, welcome!  I bought the Big Ball Book of canning.  I only water bath can, not pressure can so my items must be pickled, or made into jam, etc.  

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&ved=2ahUKEwi4_cfb2OH2AhXOKM0KHeV6DdkQFnoECBYQAQ&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.com%2FBall-Complete-Book-Home-Preserving%2Fdp%2F0778801314&usg=AOvVaw0D-AnabSOvY8agsxw17sXR

I love it!  Very helpful!

I freeze my squash. My kids got me a dehydrator for Christmas, so will play with that, too!

sanderson wrote:

Soose wrote:. . . .  I am not a Spring chicken myself.  I remember my grandmother poured hot paraffin on fruit preserves in mason jars.  (Safe?)  I'd forgotten the glass-lidded jars, and would not have known they require a new rubber gasket each time..

Parafin is definitely a no no.  I also used to on pour hot paraffin on top of jams.   I think the glass jars with the rubber gasket is no longer consider safe.  But, reusable Tattler lids have been tested and are now on Debbie's approved list.  Debbie's FB page has good topics to preview.

sanderson wrote:

Soose wrote:  All I've ever looked at was countertop sauerkraut used for a raw diet.

Debbie's Back Porch has a video on making small batches of sauerkraut.  I make them in pint jars and store in the refrigerator.  They can also be water bathed or steam canned.

And I want to make pickled beets.

Me, too.  They have to be pickled, though, not fermented.  The only other thing that can be safely fermented are young cucumbers.  https://nchfp.uga.edu/how/can_06/prep_foods.html

lisawallace88 wrote:. . . Just checked and the rubber gaskets safe for both water bath and pressure canning!  Apparently the FDA recommends using a new ring each time....but it was ok for 100 years, so....do with that what you will

Scorpio Rising wrote:Yeah, canning stuff….I just scored a bunch of lids.  And I was basically out of picking spice which I got some of.  Seems to be better now than in the 2020-2021.  Wow…

Soose wrote:. . .
Scorpio Rising, what brand lids do you use, please?  And where ordered? Thanks.

OhioGardener wrote:. . .We stopped at Rural King and they had pallets of Ball canning jars, lids, and bands in middle of the aisle. So, we are now well stocked for the coming canning season.

Soose wrote:I like visiting Rural King. I just don't know how many lids to BUY as I've not canned.  I have only been dehydrating and vac packing in the mason jars so far.  I don't know if I'll have enough of a harvest to actually can anything but I have stocked up on mason jars, and built a shelf to hold them.

sanderson wrote:Can't go wrong with Ball/Kerr.  I would go with these now that they are back in stock.  Check Walmart.

Hopefully you bought the latest Ball Canning book(s) for safe canning. https://squarefoot.forumotion.com/t23564-safe-canning-debbie-s-back-porch

Pur is made in China (they stepped up to fill the vacuum when everyone went crazy buying up supplies).  I can't remember the success/failure rate in forming a safe seal for Pur, nor for Golden Harvest.  I'll see if I can find the information.  Denali is also made in China.  Just because something is made in China doesn't mean they are inferior.  Found the Denali review by Debbie Seagraves. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ESveBlJLnis

Anchor Hocking is supposed to have a high success rate in sealing.  However, one order had dings in over half of the lids and rings.  I suppose this could happen to any company, but to drop the ball on quality control after years of a good reputation isn't a good sign.

Here is the video review by Debbie Seagraves on Tattler lids. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B5kYetXfl7o

Scorpio Rising wrote:I have Ball, but you are right!

Soose wrote:

sanderson wrote:Hopefully you bought the latest Ball Canning book(s) for safe canning. https://squarefoot.forumotion.com/t23564-safe-canning-debbie-s-back-porch

Sanderson, on your advice I went to Debbie's Back Porch.  I think she does not recommend the new Ball canning book anymore, and I saw reviews that consistently said it's changed, since some buy out.  Not sure when that was.  I did look for an older version but they go for an arm and a leg.  (If I went to estate sales I might find one.)

Anyway, Debbie's Back Porch pointed me to a book I bought from the cooperative extension at Uni of GA, "So Easy to Preserve." I have no idea how good it is or if the recipes are good.

I will watch for Ball lids.  (Again, just don't know how many to buy.)

sanderson wrote:The title sounds familiar. Okay, bottom row, middle book. I believe Univ. of GA is the testing facility for approved recipes.  I also look online at NCHFP for recipes.




My book is 2013 so it's time to buy an update.  I think I will go with this one: https://www.amazon.com/Ball-Blue-Book-Guide-Preserving/dp/0972753745

OhioGardener wrote:Dave's Garden newsletter this week has a couple interesting articles on food preservation that many may find interesting.

Creating a Summer Produce Preservation Plan

Eliminate Fruit and Vegetable Waste and Preserve the Bounty

Scorpio Rising wrote:I have this one…


2012