Canning Questions

[DawnSuiter]

I'm trying to find a recipe close to the ones that I usually use at home...

I found a beef stew recipe...
Can someone tell me if tomato sauce, water & broth are interchangeable in a meat recipe???
and could I use chicken instead of beef or by the same token, ham or pork interchangeably?

 

[patandchickens]

This is for pressure-canning, yes?

It does not really matter what liquid you use, nor what kind of meat. Basically any normal recipe can be used for pressure-canning as long as it does not produce an excessively thick result that can't be guaranteed to heat through evenly. So probably the easiest thing would be to just use your existing fave recipe for stew and pressure-can it according to the time requirements for a recipe that has things similarly-thick-or-thin and cut in similar-size pieces.

Good luck, have fun,

Pat

 

[DawnSuiter]

Yes, for pressure canning. Thanks Pat!

I'm actually trying to can some of the cuban dinners I make... one is most like a beef stew with tomato sauce as a base and either chicken or beef as the protein.

The other is my Black Beans recipe... for which I am guessing a basic bean soup recipe is most like what that is... beans, broth, veg, water, pork... cover and cook forever.

Does that sound right to you too? A bean soup as an example?

 

[patandchickens]

Sounds good to me. (Also yummy ). Just pick a processing time for a structurally-comparable recipe and you should be fine.

Remember that processing cooks the food further, so you may want to leave it somewhat undercooked (no, I mean, thoroughly cooked not 'raw meat' or anything, but, you know, not yet boiled to death <g>) when you put it in the jars, so it does not end up excessively mushy after its time in the pressure canner.

I'd suggest writing down exactly what you do, b/c getting the cooking stage timing right for your recipe may require a bit of trial and error. I know it always SEEMS like obviously you'll remember whatcha did later on, but I always forget and have learned to write things down if I might want to duplicate them at some future time

Good luck, have fun,

Pat

 

[ducks4you]

I'd like the recipe, too. Do you brown the meat, like you normally do with a stew? That, I know, precooks the meat a bit. I guess you could leave the vegetables a bit hard by adding them late, but thoroughly cooking the meat first, right?

 

[DawnSuiter]

Ok.. I'll keep good notes, promise! Cuz your right.. several things this last year I totally forgot... the mind isn't quite what it used to be

And I'd be happy to share. How about I post my regular recipes and then you guys can take it from there. Of course too I'll post the results of my canning efforts with them.

Working on baked beans today.. potatoes tomorrow/wed and will work on both of these recipes later this week.

 

[journey11]

Yes, let us know how it turns out... Hope you'll share your recipe once you get it tweaked!

I am new to pressure canning too. My neighbor was telling me how to can brown beans and she doesn't cook or soak them at all...just rinses them and puts them in the jar with water, etc. She told me that some beans will cook quicker than others, I guess if they're smaller sized.

 

[DawnSuiter]

Well.. I packed up 9 jars of baked beans... canned them BY THE BOOK or so I thought, but I have another failure

The jars were practically dry when I took them out, I mean no liquid left in my beans

I was SO careful... I KNOW I got the headspace right this time. The only 3 things I can think could've gone wrong are:

1. I didn't get enough or all the air bubbles out
2. I processed for too long, because one book says I should wait until a steady stream of steam is coming from my cooker before I count 10 minutes, THEN add the rocker THEN when the rocker starts to rock, start counting processing time. But another book says to start my 10 minute count as soon as steam is escaping... that is a big difference in time.. maybe 10-15 minutes.
3. I didn't preheat the lids.. again one book says nothing of this.. another says I should heat them in a pot, NOT BOILING, before I use them to soften the stuff around the edge.

The Ball Blue Book is the new guide I have from the library that makes mention of the steam & lids as I have not seen that before in my cooker's book.

I need to keep trying but I don't want to waste anymore!!!! My bean jars started popping last night, a few days later

CAN I PROCESS ONLY A COUPLE JARS IN MY CANNER??? OR DOES IT HAVE TO BE FULL???
it would be nice to just fill up a couple jars at a time, until I get this system figured out... less waste.
Thank you for your input... please I'd like to do some more beans tomorrow if someone could help me out with an answer to the question in bold.

 

[patandchickens]

Sorry to hear your beans didn't work. Did you let them cool in the canner for a reasonable while -- not just leave the whole canner alone untouched til the pressure comes down, but then *also* leave the jars undisturbed in the opened canner for ten or fifteen minutes longer? If not, perhaps that's the problem; if you did that correctly, then I would guess your loss of liquid is probably hidden airspace in the beans when you put them in the jars, although it sounds like a *lot* for that.

You really ought to heat the lids before applying to the jars; the red stuff around the edge, that makes the actual seal, needs to be softened first. Some mfr's say put in boiling water for 5 min, some say just hot water for 5 min, honestly I don't think it makes a big difference which but it *does* make somewhat of a difference if you don't heat them at ALL. You're screwing the bands on snugly, yes? (Not hard, but til they stop wanting to tightne further without application of Muscles?)

CAN I PROCESS ONLY A COUPLE JARS IN MY CANNER??? OR DOES IT HAVE TO BE FULL???

It seems a shame to waste all that time and utility bill heating up the canner for just a few jars but otherwise there is no reason not to do just a few jars at a time. It won't affect how they get processed.

Good luck, have fun,

Pat

 

[ducks4you]

I save those advertising freebie round rubber "jar openers", you know, they're floppy?--THOSE things. I hold one on the top of the jar to turn and another on the bottom of the jar. This helps a lot to get mine tight, and I also will tighten again after processing.