As you know, I've been making small forays into the world of canning. I've learned that high-acid foods, like fruit, are canned by the water bath method. This is the method I always thought of when I though of canning - putting things in jars and boiling the heck out of them. Apparently that just won't do for low acid foods like soup and vegetables, those have to be pressure canned.
I use a lot of chicken stock in my normal cooking, so I make my own. Normally I freeze it and try to use it all within a few months. But there are a few drawbacks to frozen stock. First and foremost, I freeze stock in soup batch sized containers. Lately I've been making a lot of recipes that call for just a cup of stock, so it seems silly to thaw out a quart of stock for a recipe. Also, defrosting takes time and lets face it, I'm impatient. The other big thing is that if the power were to go out for more than a few days, I'd lose all my stock. I live in earthquake territory, so I try to be fairly prepared for emergencies. So, I decided that I needed to start canning my stock. I ordered a pressure canner from amazon and got to it.
I decided to start off with a small batch of beef stock because I don't use beef stock as often, so having it in a container that will keep for a year is handy. I found the whole process much easier than I expected. I made my stock the normal way. I got 4-5lbs of bones, roasted them for an hour in the oven, then threw them in a pot with some onion, carrot, celery, some herbs, and covered it all with water. I let it simmer for about 7 hours and then added some salt to taste. I strained out all the solids and put the whole batch in the fridge until the fat solidified and could be easily removed. Then I put it back on heat until boiling, put it in sterilized jars and put them in the canner.
All of the books I've read say that you need to follow the directions that come with your pressure canner religiously, so I did. I put 3 quarts of boiling water in the canner, then put in the jars, and sealed it. I let it vent steam, fairly vigorously, for ten minutes. Then I put the regulator on and let it come up to just between 10-11 lbs of pressure. Then I fiddled with the heat to maintain that pressure and let it go for twenty minutes. Then I turned off the heat and left it alone until the pressure went down to zero. Then I took off the lid and ever so slightly scalded myself - I wasn't expecting the gout of steam, I will be more careful in the future. I let the jars sit in the canner for another 5 minutes with the lid off, then put them on a cutting board to cool. The lids popped just like they always do and now I have stock.
I also made a batch of tomato sauce yesterday. The recipe I was following was for a typical water bath canner, however I ran out of lemon juice in the middle of making it. The lemon juice was the essential acid that would allow the sauce to be canned safely at the lower temperature of the water bath. Instead of freaking out and running to the store, I decided to just pressure can the whole thing. I figured that would make up for the lack of acidity - the higher heat would kill any possible bacteria that might survive the lower acid environment.
I followed the same basic procedure as for the stock, but following my pressure canner's directions, cooked it for 15 minutes instead of the 20 for the stock (my canner came with a fairly thorough recipe book that included low acid tomato sauce). All in all it was a very satisfying day.
I use a lot of chicken stock in my normal cooking, so I make my own. Normally I freeze it and try to use it all within a few months. But there are a few drawbacks to frozen stock. First and foremost, I freeze stock in soup batch sized containers. Lately I've been making a lot of recipes that call for just a cup of stock, so it seems silly to thaw out a quart of stock for a recipe. Also, defrosting takes time and lets face it, I'm impatient. The other big thing is that if the power were to go out for more than a few days, I'd lose all my stock. I live in earthquake territory, so I try to be fairly prepared for emergencies. So, I decided that I needed to start canning my stock. I ordered a pressure canner from amazon and got to it.
I decided to start off with a small batch of beef stock because I don't use beef stock as often, so having it in a container that will keep for a year is handy. I found the whole process much easier than I expected. I made my stock the normal way. I got 4-5lbs of bones, roasted them for an hour in the oven, then threw them in a pot with some onion, carrot, celery, some herbs, and covered it all with water. I let it simmer for about 7 hours and then added some salt to taste. I strained out all the solids and put the whole batch in the fridge until the fat solidified and could be easily removed. Then I put it back on heat until boiling, put it in sterilized jars and put them in the canner.
All of the books I've read say that you need to follow the directions that come with your pressure canner religiously, so I did. I put 3 quarts of boiling water in the canner, then put in the jars, and sealed it. I let it vent steam, fairly vigorously, for ten minutes. Then I put the regulator on and let it come up to just between 10-11 lbs of pressure. Then I fiddled with the heat to maintain that pressure and let it go for twenty minutes. Then I turned off the heat and left it alone until the pressure went down to zero. Then I took off the lid and ever so slightly scalded myself - I wasn't expecting the gout of steam, I will be more careful in the future. I let the jars sit in the canner for another 5 minutes with the lid off, then put them on a cutting board to cool. The lids popped just like they always do and now I have stock.
I also made a batch of tomato sauce yesterday. The recipe I was following was for a typical water bath canner, however I ran out of lemon juice in the middle of making it. The lemon juice was the essential acid that would allow the sauce to be canned safely at the lower temperature of the water bath. Instead of freaking out and running to the store, I decided to just pressure can the whole thing. I figured that would make up for the lack of acidity - the higher heat would kill any possible bacteria that might survive the lower acid environment.
I followed the same basic procedure as for the stock, but following my pressure canner's directions, cooked it for 15 minutes instead of the 20 for the stock (my canner came with a fairly thorough recipe book that included low acid tomato sauce). All in all it was a very satisfying day.
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