UPS brought the All American Canner!!!!

[lesa]

I am sure you are right, hoodat. It is a bit intimidating, but certainly a joy to be able to preserve these low acid foods...

 

[Kim_NC]

Really, a little practice and it gets quite easy. Plus, you will love the quality and convenience of your own pressure canned foods.

We've done it for so many years that I cannot imagine life without a pressure canner. We actually go to our root cellar to "shop". LOL....really, we carry a shopping basket down there, and gather supplies for the week to bring to the kitchen. And we call it "shopping".

Right now there are less than 10 cans of commercial items in my cupboards; yet you could make anything you want without going to a grocery store.

These are the home canned "basics" we keep in stock (only pressure canned in this list):

Meats - chicken, beef, venison
Stock - chicken, , turkey, beef, pork
Snap Beans, Snap Beans & New Potatoes
Mixed veggies (my own version of Veg-All)
Potatoes
Mushrooms (in jelly jars, perfect for recipes)
Beans - to replace store bought cans for recipes, like pinto, black, kidney, chickpeas, etc
Pork n Beans
Seasoned Pintos, Field Peas, October Beans, Butter Beans
Brunswick Stew (our favorite), other Soups and Stews
Black Bean & Corn Salsa
Tomatoes with Peppers & Onions, Tomatoes with Zucchini, Tomatoes/Okra/Corn (all for soup bases, pasta sauces, and quick meals)
Pumpkin and Butternut Squashes for pies and other recipes

I'm sure I forgot something. The possibilities are endless.

edit: love, not lve , LOL

 

[lesa]

Wow, Kim you don't fool around! What a lovely cupboard and feeling that must be! Do you prefer canning to freezing of all those items? You have inspired me-

 

[hoodat]

Canning has two advantages over freezing. Firstly you only use the energy once to can them. In freezing you have to use some energy every day to keep them down to the right temp. The second is that if the freezer breaks down or you lose power in a storm the frozen food could spoil while the canned is still fine.

 

[Kim_NC]

Wow, Kim you don't fool around! What a lovely cupboard and feeling that must be! Do you prefer canning to freezing of all those items? You have inspired me-

Yes, we do prefer those items canned. Corn is one veg that we prefer frozen over canned. So other than mixing it with other things, like in a soup, I never can it.

We do freeze some beans and peas - mostly butter beans, field peas or crowders and purple hulls. There are some recipes where I prefer to use them frozen and/or unseasoned.

Hoodat is right, freezing takes more power and has it's risks in a power outage.

We raise cattle, hogs, chickens and quail for retail meat sales. Our license requires that the meats be frozen. And too....customers wouldn't buy them canned. Sooooo, we have 4 freezers stocked full of meat! LOL. But I can some for personal use, and all of my stocks are canned, never frozen.

Since we make money from our freezers with the meat sales, all freezer space is at a premium here.

 

[anthonyjame]

I do not have a gas stove. And I am trying to find a electric pressure cooker and canner. Does anyone make one that does both?

 

[hoodat]

I've pressure canned on an electric stove. You just have to put a short spacer under the canner if you have a ceramic top. I've also canned on a wood stove (grandma didn't have anything else), and even over an open fire and boy does that take some fiddling to keep the pressure even.

 

[lesa]

We don't use the stove. We do all our canning outside using a propane burner. It was sold as a turkey fryer. Keeps the heat out of the kitchen.

 

[trunkman]

I bought an All American 921 model a few months ago and love it, I didn't know you could can all those foods till I read the Manual. Since I didn't have any vegetables to can I made a batch of baked beans, the following week, chicken, then beef, I love it!! It got me so excited I built an eight foot by six foot by 2 foot deep closet in my basement to store all the goodies I'm gonna make! Every time I got grocery shopping now I pick up a couple cases of canning jars, I think I'm up to a couple hundred jars now, this canner turned me into a canning monster!!

 

[hoodat]

Check your local thrifts. They often have canning jars a lot cheaper than new ones. I've gotten into the habit of making my soups, stews and chili in large batches and canning what I don't eat immediately. It comes in handy on a day when you just don't feel like cooking. Just open a jar and pop it into the microwave and Suppers on the table.