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apple butter
I made mine in the crock pot
peeled and cored the apples
put in crock pot so full the lid will not fit on
pour some sugar over and add cinnamon, all spice and what ever you want
put lid on and cover with towel
they will settle down and the lid will be on in a few hours
in 12 hrs stir and pour in clean jars (I boil my flat lids) place lids on jars and you will hear the pop of the jars sealing in a few minutes
before putting the apple butter in jars, have another batch of apples ready to put in the crock pot
so, when you empty it, just add the next batch of apples (no need in washing the crock pot either)
I kept mine going for a week one time
I have cabin fever here. The weather has been too wet for my garden but I finally got my Ball Blue Book guide to preserving. The first book I got only had recipes and no instructions. I ordered this book 2-3 months ago and the bookstore just got it. Yay. Now I am really excited about canning.
What size pressure cookers do you all use? What is the difference between weights and gauges?
I have never canned anything other than jams and jellies so don't be hard on me, lol.
Can you can ground beef? Cooked or raw? What is the process please.
I would also love to can a soup that I make and we eat every day for lunch. It has store canned tomatoes and northern beans along with fresh carrots, celery, cabbage, spinach, rice and seasonings. I will leave the rice out and add it in when I open the cans. What about the canned tomato and beans? Can those be re canned or should I omit them from my recipe? Can I use dry beans and then how?
Sorry for all the questions but I really don't want to poison my DH and I
Tonight I will be reading my new book and searching for recipes. Woo hoo.
I've been analysing some of these: Pressure Canners (http://http://www.canningpantry.com/all-american-pressure-canners.html - broken link) We need a new one. Each one comes with a recipe book I would think. Also the local County Ag Extention office usually has a wealth of materials.
Quote:
Originally Posted by younglisa7
I have cabin fever here. The weather has been too wet for my garden but I finally got my Ball Blue Book guide to preserving. The first book I got only had recipes and no instructions. I ordered this book 2-3 months ago and the bookstore just got it. Yay. Now I am really excited about canning.
What size pressure cookers do you all use? What is the difference between weights and gauges?
I have never canned anything other than jams and jellies so don't be hard on me, lol.
Can you can ground beef? Cooked or raw? What is the process please.
I would also love to can a soup that I make and we eat every day for lunch. It has store canned tomatoes and northern beans along with fresh carrots, celery, cabbage, spinach, rice and seasonings. I will leave the rice out and add it in when I open the cans. What about the canned tomato and beans? Can those be re canned or should I omit them from my recipe? Can I use dry beans and then how?
Sorry for all the questions but I really don't want to poison my DH and I
Tonight I will be reading my new book and searching for recipes. Woo hoo.
I have cabin fever here. The weather has been too wet for my garden but I finally got my Ball Blue Book guide to preserving. The first book I got only had recipes and no instructions. I ordered this book 2-3 months ago and the bookstore just got it. Yay. Now I am really excited about canning.
What size pressure cookers do you all use? What is the difference between weights and gauges?
I have never canned anything other than jams and jellies so don't be hard on me, lol.
Can you can ground beef? Cooked or raw? What is the process please.
I would also love to can a soup that I make and we eat every day for lunch. It has store canned tomatoes and northern beans along with fresh carrots, celery, cabbage, spinach, rice and seasonings. I will leave the rice out and add it in when I open the cans. What about the canned tomato and beans? Can those be re canned or should I omit them from my recipe? Can I use dry beans and then how?
Sorry for all the questions but I really don't want to poison my DH and I
Tonight I will be reading my new book and searching for recipes. Woo hoo.
Thanks
Glad you got the BBB guide I saw the new ones out at Wal Mart a couple of weeks ago.
My big canners are 16 qt I can put 7 quarts I think at a time in them. Weights and gauges really depend on the person canning I prefer weights but some don't like the constant spitting/hissing noise. Gauges you have to be right in the kitchen all the time making sure the needle stays in the correct pressure. With the weights I can be at the other end of my kitchen or the next room and by the sound I know if it is holding pressure correctly while I am cleaning for the next load. Gauges have to be calibrated every few years to make sure they are still set correct or if not you can adjust your pressure and time accordingly. A lot, not all, extension office don't check the gauges anymore so it is getting harder and harder to find places that will check them. Of course with your handy DH he probably has a tool to check pressure gauges.
Ground beef: I have canned up ground beef both raw and precooked. If you do it raw leave 1" head space for sure and be extra, extra careful about wiping down your rims from grease. I take a long wood handled spoon and poke 4-5 holes through the middle of the jar, helps to transfer heat through the jars. Done this way it will "clump" up in your jar it is a gray color also instead of the brown. Nothing wrong with it but color and maybe some texture difference. My family doesn't like it like when I raw pack it so I don't anymore.
I make a mix of green bell peppers, onions brown that a bit then add the hamburger. Leaving it pink a bit since it will finish cooking in the canning process. Others cook the burger all the way but to me it is over cooked after processing a bit.
Hamburger Mix
10 lbs. ground beef
2 lg. onions
6 bell peppers
8 cups hot water
2 level tablespoons of beef base
2 tablespoons oil
Dice onions and peppers in 1/4 inch dice
Sweat onions and peppers in oil
Combine Ground Beef with onion and pepper mixture (12 qt. Pot)
Add beef base to 8 cups hot water
Pour broth into beef... mixture
Simmer 15 minutes or so on low heat
Fill up your jar leaving a little more than 1/2-3/4" headspace.
PC 90 minutes @ according to your altitude
Yield 7 quarts or 14 pints
Use this in your casseroles as is or drain off liquid for sloppy Joes, spaghetti sauce, goulash etc.
Your soup would be fine following a vegetable soup recipe in your BBB leaving out the rice. Pasta and rice don't can well add those 2 ingredients fresh when using our canned jars of foods. Once your fresh veggies get here you could sub your fresh tomatoes instead of store bought canned ones. You could use dry beans soaked over night & drained in the recipe they would be fine after processing too. When I put up soup beans I fill my jars with half beans that have been soaked and half liquid no salt.
Make sure you have an old thick towel or a wooden board to set your jars on when they come out of the canner. They can damage your counter tops because they are so hot. Never have any problems setting them on thick towels though leaving enough room around them for air to circulate.
Don't be afraid to ask that is how we learn girlie!
Nomad is right the extension office has a wealth of knowledge just for the asking too.
We even pressure can our tomatoes. I think we will try and get two canners eventually. Once we get a place where we can grow a ton of stuff again. We canned green beans, sweet potatoes, and tomatoes, and I don't remember what all else. We had a chest type freezer for broccoli and sweet corn.
We even pressure can our tomatoes. I think we will try and get two canners eventually. Once we get a place where we can grow a ton of stuff again. We canned green beans, sweet potatoes, and tomatoes, and I don't remember what all else. We had a chest type freezer for broccoli and sweet corn.
Tomatoes can be done by water bath or pressure canning I usually do water bath guess from habit. I have never tried to can sweet potatoes.
Tomatoes can be done by water bath or pressure canning I usually do water bath guess from habit. I have never tried to can sweet potatoes.
My mother water baths tomatoes all the time. She loses a few but not many. Never a loss with the pressure canner. Sweet potatoes were easy. Want to do Irish potatoes too one day as well as pole beans with potato chunks in them....with some bacon of course if I can find out if it will not make them turn rancid...
We even pressure can our tomatoes. I think we will try and get two canners eventually. Once we get a place where we can grow a ton of stuff again. We canned green beans, sweet potatoes, and tomatoes, and I don't remember what all else. We had a chest type freezer for broccoli and sweet corn.
Sure Nomad, now I can't wait for sweet potatoes to go on sale. I love those.
Sure Nomad, now I can't wait for sweet potatoes to go on sale. I love those.
i was strolling through and i saw this thread. i thought ya'll might be my kind of folk. i see that you use the pressure cooker method for your tomatoes. i never have done my tomatoes by that method. my reasons are two-fold. first, it takes more time than i want to give. i usually put up about 5 or 6 bushel. i waterbath all of mine; 9 quarts at a time or 6 half gallons. my dear grandmother did hers this way, and she taught me. i had to start out learning by washing all of her fruit jars---by hand: not the dishwasher. two or three-hundred of those humbles a fellow. afterwards, i got to separate the tops and lids. boiling them, after making sure the lids were properly separated and that the rings were not bent or rusted. those were some good times, and i can smell that familiar smell of canned tomatoes as they permeated the rooms of that great big country house. usally, the kitchen would be so hot, you would almost keel over, even though the air conditioner was at 65 degrees. everything started early in the morning and proceeded through the day and on into the late night, and early the next morning. sometimes pickling would be included in this activity, as cucumbers in our area were plentiful by july 4th. the second reason i do not pressure my tomatoes is because of the change it causes in the sugars of the tomatoes. my sister would not have hers any other way. as far as losing any, i have never lost a jar. i have a teacher friend---she has a doctorate in education, bless her heart---who put up 27 quarts by cold packing...did not sterilize jars, rings, or lids. she thought that putting the hot tomatoes in the jars and putting on the lids and rings constituted enough work. in about three days she found out that she was mistakened. lol. well, anyway, enjoyed seeing some of these methods used today. good luck to you, and keep on canning!
kingchef welcome to the canning thread be sure to pop back often! I think we are going to see a big resurgence in food preserving and gardening.
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. The first book I got only had recipes and no instructions. I ordered this book 2-3 months ago and the bookstore just got it. Yay. Now I am really excited about canning.
tomatoes and northern beans along with fresh carrots, celery, cabbage, spinach, rice and seasonings. I will leave the rice out and add it in when I open the cans. What about the canned tomato and beans? Can those be re canned or should I omit them from my recipe? Can I use dry beans and then how?
sitting on the can....!
