Pressure canning questions

[ORChick]

I have done water bath canning of fruits, jams, chutneys, etc. for years, and value having those jars on my shelf.

I dehydrate herbs, and certain vegetables and fruits, and find them very useful in my pantry.

I have started to get more interested in fermentation, and have a crock of sauerkraut in my pantry, and am thinking of starting some kim-chi, as well as fermented green beans this year.

My (organic) garden is, unfortunately, small, and can't get much bigger; and local sources of veggies are "local", but not "organic", for the most part - better than shipped in to the supermarket, but not out of my own garden.

Mostly we eat fresh, and from scratch.

But I have a problem with pressure canning. Quite honestly, there isn't much of the commercial pressure canned sort that DH and I actually like to eat. He likes canned peas (what can I say? He had an odd childhood ) Canned corn is OK, but frozen or dried is preferably IMO. We have some commercially canned soups on the shelf for emergencies (that haven't yet happened), as well as some canned fish. I understand that if the power goes out my frozen food will be useless, and wasted. But I can't convince myself that buying a pressure canner is worth it. We don't hunt or fish.

I understand all the reasons why, if TSHTF, it is a good idea to have food that isn't dependant on the electrical grid to hand. But I also am not convinced that TS *will* HTF any time soon, and am more concerned with being able to feed us if the drive is snowed in for a few days (and so far my pantry - frozen, dried, fermented, shelf stable, and waterbath canned - has been sufficient for that).

Can anyone give me good reasons to change my mind? I am already convinced that having a full and varied pantry is a good idea; I just have trouble with the idea of spending money for a canner, and then finding that home canned beans (for example) aren't any more palatable than store bought.

Thanks for your thoughts on this.

 

[keljonma]

Unless you are planning on canning meats or non-acidic foods, you can get by without a pressure canner.

If you want to get away from purchasing canned beans from the store so that you are aware of the origins of your food supply, then a pressure canner is probably going to be something you do investigate soon.

Sometimes you can get good buys at thrift stores, instead of purchasing a new pressure canner.

I'm not worried about the fan...

 

[patandchickens]

I'm not going to try to talk you out of it, I feel the same way myself. If and when I come across a mint-condition really really cheap secondhand pressure canner I will undoubtedly take it; but I am not going to spend $300 on something to produce a relatively small number of foods that we'd realistically use.

If I had a pressure canner, I'd mostly do corn and beans (both of which I freeze right now, and our power supply is more reliable than probably 99% of anybody's, and about 5 months of the year an outage would just result in our putting frozen foods temporarily out in 'the big walk-out freezer'), and juice (just because I could - we don't really drink much juice, I can or freeze fruit instead), and chicken stock (only for convenience and liberation of freezer space).

I think a pressure canner makes lots of sense for some people but not so much a priority for others.

Good luck, have fun,

Pat

 

[SKR8PN]

A couple of advantages to pressure canning is length of shelf life. We also do a lot of our own meat processing,from butchering to canning. It saves a lot of freezer space having some of it processed into ready to use cubed, stews or chili. Just this weekend the wife opened up a jar of our own chicken that we had canned, and made shredded chicken for sandwiches. Quick, easy and delicious, not to mention very low in preservatives, sodium and fat. We would be lost without our pressure canning! We also do a lot of hot bath canning, vacuum sealing and freezing for our food preservation, but the pressure canning is the most important to us. $.02

 

[farmerlor]

My biggest reason for pressure canning is that I was becoming concerned with the preservatives and chemicals in commercially canned food. I can everything-Spaghetti sauce, tomato sauce, all my soups and creamed soups, condiments, meats, tomatoes, stock, beans, etc, etc, etc,.... So I don't have to worry anymore about excessive salt content, coloring, msg, preservatives, high fructose corn syrup or anything like that. And generally, I can can my food for less than I can buy the same foods.

 

[freemotion]

I have no intention of canning up a bunch of mushy, flavorless veggies when I can freeze them. But I got mine for meat, and things that normally benefit from long cooking times and are for convenience, like soups and stews, broth (a major health food for digestion and healing), chili, pizza sauce, spaghetti sauce, etc. I need to keep the freezer space free for the veggies that I don't like canned.

In my canned soups and stews, I only use veggies that hold up well to long cooking, like carrots and collards. I don't use potatoes, white or sweet, or any veggies that pressure cook to mush.

We really, really like having this kind of variety. It also allows me to bring one-jar meals to my folks, who live 600 miles away, which does not allow for bringing frozen pre-prepared stuff. I do go up and make and freeze stuff on occasion, but canning allows me to send stuff back when they come here for any reason. It will serve me well as they get older, too. Peace of mind.

I love my pressure canners, I ended up with two for this reason. If you are not doing too much, you can get away with a cheaper Presto canner. They have a smaller one for something like $70.

 

[farmerlor]

I agree. The only veggies I like canned are beets and tomatoes (which aren't really vegetables but we won't go there). All other veggies must be frozen or dehydrated.

 

[ORChick]

Thanks everybody, its good to get other peoples' opinions on things like this, and I value yours. Other than that I lack the "big outdoor freezer" I think my situation mostly corresponds to patandchickens; like her, I would snap up a good, cheap canner if I find one, but will otherwise let it be (unless my situation changes). Canning chicken broth to get it out of the freezer is something I would do, but that is not worth the expense on its own. I think for this year that I will put more effort into expanding my fermentation experiments.

 

[keljonma]

Just three thoughts on getting a used pressure canner.

Don't let anyone convince you that a pressure cooker can be used as a canner. It just isn't safe.

Make sure you get a manual. The companies that make pressure canners will have old manuals available, so if you buy a yard sale pressure canner, the first thing you need to do is get the manual. Sometimes you can find these online.

The second thing is to have the gauge checked (worth doing once even if you have a weighted gauge) and to make sure that the gasket still fits tightly. If you see or feel steam persistently coming out along the gasket, you need a new one. You can order a kit from the company to fix it, or find a different pressure canner.

 

[TanksHill]

Ok so I have a related question. If you raw pack the veggies do they still come out mushy??? I would hate to waste my time and my veggies if they are going to be yucky.
thanks, g