Canning Questions

[DawnSuiter]

Hi Pat thanks..

t 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.

It maybe a bit of waste BUT.. I just wasted 3lbs of beans and the 8 or so hours it took to cook them AND the canning time on the stove...

so.. I figure better to waste smaller amounts until I get the hang of this

ducks.. thanks, I will try that too.

 

[patandchickens]

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.

If that's worked for you so far, then great, but in general both things are a bad idea and tend to lead to spoilage.

If you tighten the lid *hard* before processing, air may not be able to escape the way it's supposed to, meaning no vacuum is produced, meaning when you remove the ring you will not have a durable seal.

And if you retighten after processing, it can pop a previously-ok seal. (Also don't forget you really should remove the ring altogether and wipe the threads after processing; normally one then stores the jar that way, with no ring, although if kids or cats have access to the shelves or if you are giving them as gifts, you may put the ring back on, not too tight, just as a security measure against spills).

Pat

 

[journey11]

I simmer my lids for 10 minutes before closing the jar, as per Ball Blue Book (softens the rubber). You don't want to heat them at a boil. I hear that could denature the rubber and make it fail.

 

[NurseNettie]

Did the liquid siphon out ( would mean not enough headspace, of course) or just cook into the beans? If it cooked into the beans, maybe next trip around you should cook them more first, or make a "runnier" bean than normal, and have more liquid in the jar than you'd normally have in your beans. I know I like a thick, syrupy bean, but I'd think you'd have to have a bigger ratio of liquid in the jar to offset that extra cooking.

Big question-- how do they taste ??

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.

 

[DawnSuiter]

we opened them tonight... the beans ended up like refried beans consistency and half of them popped... I opened them... they smelled mostly normal I thought, so we tasted them but something didn't taste quite right... and then the smell was obvious as it matched the taste...

so out they all went

I did 4 pints of white potatoes... it has worked beautifully!

I think I finally have this figured out... and your right.. I think they needs lots of liquid.. they weren't very liquidy for sure

thanks

 

[BlackThumb]

The only jars I have had pop are those with beans in them in some form or other. I found a lot of moisture on the rim of the jar when they popped. I also wonder if the beans were cooked almost all the way through before you processed them? Some of mine absorbed so much of the liquid that they were almost completely dry. I found more success by increasing the water-to-bean ratio slightly and adding extra head space, maybe 1 1/4 inches. I had one jar siphon almost completely when i removed it from the canner and placed it on the towel. That told me that the temperature change was too sudden, so I left them in the canner about 15 minutes after the button dropped the next time, and that helped.

 

[DawnSuiter]

Thank you for posting your beans experience. I've got 2lbs of black beans soaking right now and I was thinking I would fill the jar halfway with beans, halfway with liquid after a nice long cooking cycle.

Also on my potatoes last night, which are SO BEAUTIFUL to me right now because they are perfect... after I opened the canner, I let the top sit on the canner slightly open to slowly acclimate them to the temperature of the room.. and then after an hour or so I took them out.

I'm also going to try split pea soup today since we have some ham bone left over from last night.