Re: Canning & Preserving 101

Nonna.PapaVino 9/4/2012, 6:46 pm

Wow! Happy Camper, I really share your pain. No, never seen anything like it. After I mentioned having more failures with Kerr than Ball, someone told me the two are now the same company. I looked at the lids for each purchased this fall and, sure enough, both Kerr and Ball packages of lids/rings say: "This product is brought to you by Jarden Home Brands." Even the telephone number to call for tips or questions is the same: "800.240.3340 M-F 8:30am to 4:30pm (EST)" I'd give the Jarden folks a call (and perhaps a piece of mind) at this number, right? Nonna

FamilyGardening 9/4/2012, 6:52 pm

we bought

a pressure canner!

came home and found another one sitting on our front porch cyclops

that my momma had found used for 5 bucks Shocked

not sure what to can first :drunken:

hugs
rose

Nonna.PapaVino 9/4/2012, 6:56 pm

Wow, congratulations to you Rose! If you have 6 burners, you could do double batches. I'm envious, I admit. Nonna

**camprn** 9/4/2012, 7:02 pm

FamilyGardening wrote:we bought a pressure canner!

came home and found another one sitting on our front porch that my momma had found used for 5 bucks

not sure what to can first :drunken:

hugs
rose

Awesome !when it rains it pours! Well now all you need is an outdoor kitchen eh?

happycamper 9/5/2012, 11:04 pm

Familygardening, congrats on the canners!

Nonna, thank you for the Jarden phone number, I gave it to my cousin and she is going to call them. She saved eight of the lids and was going to take them back to the store but will call instead.

Camprn, great idea, I should have taken a picture but didn't think of it. To answer your question, we reprocessed the peaches. Suncrest peaches are delicate and I am sure the quality went down by doing so. Ultimately they were water bathed two times for 35 minutes and it seems to me that they would be squishy by doing so. I guess I will find out when she opens a jar this winter.

**camprn** 2/16/2013, 8:39 am

A simple tutorial.
http://www.emergencyhomesteader.com/canning-your-food-boil-and-pressure-canning/

happycamper 2/16/2013, 10:56 pm

Nice website, thank you for sharing.

cheyannarach 2/17/2013, 8:54 pm

That's a great tutorial, I havn't got the chane to pressure can yet, but I am starting to get the hang of water bath canning! I am looking foward to picking my first batch of beans this summer!

**camprn** 3/11/2013, 9:19 pm

The Wartime Kitchen and Garden

CapeCoddess 5/25/2013, 6:09 pm

I didn't read this whole thread so this may be redundant but I just found a reusable canning lids experiment here and will be buying some of these lids:

http://www.rural-revolution.com/2010/07/reusable-canning-lids.html

CC

**camprn** 5/25/2013, 10:25 pm

CC just so you know, the FDA nor the USDA have approved these the tattler lids. Are you going to just order a few to try?

mollyhespra 5/25/2013, 11:11 pm

We've got the tattler lids. Haven't used them yet, but we figure not only are they reusable, but they're BPA-free.

An excerpt from their website:

"Are TATTLER Reusable Canning Lids Safe?

In one single word, YES! TATTLER Reusable Plastic Canning Lids are manufactured using a plastic compound that is safe for direct contact with food products. We utilize an FDA and USDA approved, food grade product known as Polyoxymethylene Copolymer (POM) or Acetal Copolymer.

The rubber rings (gaskets) are made from a food grade nitrile rubber and contain no latex.

Neither formulation contains any Bisphenol A (BPA) or phthalates!"

They shouldn't be heated to over 250 though, which concerns me a little for pressure canning, but should be OK for just "regular" canning.

**camprn** 5/25/2013, 11:23 pm

I am not convinced that BPA is released from the metal lids either.

Nonna.PapaVino 5/26/2013, 9:16 am

As to FDA and USDA approval, remember these two government departments insist GMOs and Roundup-type chemicals are okay. Nonna

CapeCoddess 5/26/2013, 9:20 am

Nonna.PapaVino wrote:As to FDA and USDA approval, remember these two government departments insist GMOs and Roundup-type chemicals are okay. Nonna

+1 !!!

**camprn** 5/26/2013, 9:42 am

CapeCoddess wrote:
Nonna.PapaVino wrote:As to FDA and USDA approval, remember these two government departments insist GMOs and Roundup-type chemicals are okay. Nonna

+1 !!!

Interesting that you bring that up Nonna, but it is hardly part of the subject. We in this country do enjoy the benefits of both of these Departments doing research and determining safety on many products. The USDA has determined that it is unsafe to can in the old glass dome lids for solid scientific reasons. They have not yet made a determination of the safety of the Tattler product in canning. I stand by my previous comment and suggest a test run of the tattlers. If it was me, I would not want to loose my entire pantry to an inferior product.

Nonna.PapaVino 5/26/2013, 11:36 am

Camp, have you had a chance to watch the video CapeCoddess directed us to? An avid canning advocate did a pretty thorough test of the Tattlers. It helped relieve my skepticism about reusable lids enough to give them a try this year. With some 35 tomato plants, I'm a gonna need LOTS of lids this year! Very Happy

Nonna

**camprn** 7/28/2013, 8:36 pm

*** NEWS FLASH***
Ball and Kerr are apparently now making BPA free lids. Ball switched their manufacturing in January.

http://eatdrinkbetter.com/2013/06/12/is-there-bpa-in-your-canning-jar/

mrwes40 7/29/2013, 8:35 pm

Nonna.PapaVino wrote:As to FDA and USDA approval, remember these two government departments insist GMOs and Roundup-type chemicals are okay. Nonna

So does the World Health Organization (WHO)

http://www.who.int/foodsafety/publications/biotech/20questions/en/

Bill

**camprn** 7/29/2013, 8:38 pm

This thread is about canning and preserving.

mrwes40 7/29/2013, 8:57 pm

camprn wrote:This thread is about canning and preserving.

Sorry about that, you can certainly remove my post if you feel it's necessary.

Bill

**camprn** 7/29/2013, 8:59 pm

Thanks Bill, I know it was in response to a previous post so I'm leaving it, just trying to keep threads on track. thanks for posting the link though. Very Happy

FamilyGardening 8/10/2013, 1:17 am

HELP!

First time pressure canning potatoes.....we canned 8 QT's of potatoes yesterday.. a mix of red's and Yukon golds....

we washed, peeled, cut into med/LG size cubes, blanched them in boiling water for two min's.....

put the hot potatoes into hot jars.... filled to 1 inch head space....then added fresh hot water and pressured canned them for 40 mins

all of the jars have a mix of cube potatoes and what looks like mashed potatoes....??....we don't mind the mashed potatoes ....but ....is it ok that they came out looking like mashed potatoes?....is that normal?

I have read you are not able to pressure can mashed potatoes as they maybe to thick for the heat to penetrate.....so Im worried....help

thanks
rose

**camprn** 8/10/2013, 7:48 am

Roses, did you use a recipe? Your potatoes are fine but it sounds like maybe they were cut too small and then over cooked. They will make great mashed potatoes later.

No worries, you did not put mashed potatoes in the jars and the heat got to all parts of the jars.
http://www.pickyourown.org/canning_potatoes.htm

FamilyGardening 8/11/2013, 12:50 am

thank you camp......yes we followed the directions that came with our pressure canner.....

we opened a can tonight and tried it for dinner Very Happy

the potatoes seem fine and tasted good....we made them into mashed potatoes....

but there was only a tiny amount of liquid in the jar....its like the potatoes absorbed it all......

I think they over cooked being blanched.....we dumped all the potatoes at one time into the cooking pot to be blanched....it seemed like it took forever for the water to get back up to a boil to start the 2 min blanching....I think next time we should put the potatoes into the boiling water and only leave them in there for the 2 mins and not wait for the water to come back up to a boil.....what do you think?

happy gardening
rose

Sponsored content


	Hello Guest! Welcome to the official Square Foot Gardening Forum. There's lots to learn here by reading as a guest. However, if you become a member (it's free, ad free and spam-free) you'll have access to our large vermiculite databases, our seed exchange spreadsheets, Mel's Mix calculator, and many more members' pictures in the Gallery. Enjoy.