Canning and Preserving For Dummies (32 page)

4
Pack the boiling hot pulp into the prepared jars, leaving 1-inch headspace. Add 1/2 teaspoon salt to each pint jar or 1 teaspoon salt to each quart jar. Release any air bubbles with a nonreactive utensil (refer to Chapter 3), making sure that no air is trapped inside the thick pulp. Add pulp as necessary to maintain the proper headspace.

5
Process the filled jars in a pressure canner at 10 pounds pressure for 55 minutes (pints) or 1 hour 25 minutes (quarts). Allow the pressure to return to 0, wait an additional 10 minutes, and then carefully open the canner lid. (Head to Chapter 9 for detailed processing instructions for pressure canning.)

6
Remove the jars from the canner with a jar lifter. Place them on a clean kitchen towel away from drafts. After the jars cool completely, test the seals (refer to Chapter 4). If you find jars that haven’t sealed, refrigerate them and use them within two weeks. Prior to eating or tasting, boil the food for 15 minutes.

Per 1/2-cup serving:
Calories 65 (From fat 2); Fat 0g (Saturated 0g); Cholesterol 0mg; Sodium 295mg; Carbohydrates 17g (Dietary fiber 5g); Protein 1g.

Using Canned Vegetables

Seeing a shelf lined with pressure-canned vegetables is quite rewarding, knowing all the care and effort applied to the process. Are you wondering, though, what you can do with all this nutritious food? Try the following:

Serve a canned vegetable as a side dish:
Use vegetables that have a firm texture such as corn or carrots for a side dish. Softer vegetables like squash and onions are better used as a flavor ingredient in a recipe.

Combine your canned vegetables with meats and other ingredients to create easy, nutritious meals.
The following recipes offer a few suggestions.

When using low-acid, pressure-canned vegetables, always boil your food for 15 minutes
before you taste the food.
For altitudes over 1,000 feet above sea level, extend the boiling period 1 minute for each increase of 1,000 feet.

Easy Vegetable Soup

Don’t have time to make vegetable soup from scratch? No problem! You can whip up a delicious vegetable soup in no time just by using the canned veggies you have in your pantry. This recipe uses canned corn, carrots, peas, and bell peppers, but you can use any combination that strikes your fancy — or that you have on hand. Serve this hearty soup in large bowls with Parmesan cheese shavings and sourdough bread.

Preparation time
: 30 minutes

Yield:
4 servings

1 pint jar each of corn, carrots, peas, and bell peppers (or any combination you prefer)

1 cup dried pasta, any kind

1 teaspoon Italian seasoning (optional)

1/4 cup Parmesan cheese, grated

1
Combine one jar each of corn, carrots, peas, and bell peppers (or your favorite vegetable mix) along with their canning liquids into a large soup pot. Add enough additional water to cover the ingredients by an inch. Bring the vegetables to a boil over medium-high heat and boil for 15 minutes.

2
Add the dried pasta and Italian seasoning to the boiling vegetables. Continue boiling the soup until the pasta is tender, about 15 minutes longer.

3
Ladle the soup into four large serving bowls and sprinkle each with 1 tablespoon Parmesan cheese.

Per serving:
Calories 435 (From fat 40); Fat 4g (Saturated 1g); Cholesterol 4mg; Sodium 1,713mg; Carbohydrates 90g (Dietary fiber 18g); Protein 17g.

Beans with Beef

Served over noodles with warm dinner rolls as a side, this hearty meal is great for a warm fall night. Add canned peaches for an easy and delicious dessert. (You can find instructions for Canned Peaches in Chapter 5.)

Preparation time
: 30 minutes

Yield:
4 servings

1 quart Canned Ground Beef (Chapter 11), or any ground meat

1 quart canned beans, any variety

4 ounces dried elbow noodles

1/2 teaspoon Italian or Mexican Herb Mix (Chapter 19), or to taste

Salt and pepper, to taste

1
In a 10-inch frying pan, bring the ground meat to a simmer and heat for 15 minutes. Season with salt, pepper, and your favorite herbs or spice blend. (
Note:
If you’re not using canned ground beef, brown your meat over medium heat until done.)

2
While the meat is reheating, bring the canned dried beans to a boil in a large pot. Boil the beans for 15 minutes.

3
Carefully add the heated meat to the beans. Simmer over medium heat for 10 minutes to combine the flavors. While the meat and beans are simmering, prepare the noodles according to the package instructions, keeping them warm until ready to use.

4
To serve, divide the noodles evenly onto four plates and ladle the beans and beef mixture over the hot noodles.

Per serving:
Calories 600 (From fat 215); Fat 24g (Saturated 9g); Cholesterol 116mg; Sodium 655mg; Carbohydrates 47g (Dietary fiber 9g); Protein 49g.

Baked Chicken with Peppers

Here is a fast-and-easy dinner that can impress unexpected guests. With the ingredients at your fingertips, dinner is ready in a flash. Serve the chicken with the bell pepper pieces over your favorite rice, with a salad on the side.

Preparation time
: 15 minutes

Yield:
4 servings

4 to 6 boneless, skinless chicken breasts

1 pint of canned bell peppers

1 teaspoon Italian or Mexican Herb Mix (Chapter 19) or any other seasoning mix

4 cups cooked rice

1
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

2
Boil 1 pint of canned bell peppers and the canning liquid in a 6-quart saucepan for 15 minutes. While the peppers boil, arrange the chicken breasts in an ovenproof pan. Pour the bell peppers and their liquid over the chicken breasts. Season as desired.

3
Tightly cover the pan with aluminum foil to seal in the moisture and bake the chicken at 350 degrees for 30 to 45 minutes, or until the chicken is done.

4
Serve over rice.

Per serving:
Calories 380 (From fat 34); Fat 4g (Saturated 1g); Cholesterol 73mg; Sodium 649mg; Carbohydrates 52g (Dietary fiber 4g); Protein 32g.

Chapter 11

Don’t Forget the Meats!

In This Chapter

Why canning meat is so important

Selecting the best cuts

Instructions and recipes for canning beef, pork, poultry and seafood

Combining meats and other ingredients for complete canned meals

Canning meats is an often forgotten area of home canning, which is a shame. Canning a variety of meats is a great way to add a protein component to your pantry and build up a quantity of the most expensive part of your grocery bill as you can afford to. In this chapter, you discover how to safely can meat, game, poultry, and fish and seafood. These items will add variety to your pantry and give you delicious dinner foods that your whole family will want to eat.

The Lowdown on Canning Meats

Canning meat results in a tender product. Since canning meat draws out, but keeps, the natural juices, the meat is succulent and delicious naturally. Often, no additional seasoning is necessary, meaning you can rest assured that your family is eating only healthy food and not flavor-enhancing additives and preservatives.

Without fail, canning meat, as well as poultry and seafood, means using the pressure canner. These foods are low-acid foods and are unsafe to can using the water-bath canning method. Meats cannot be successfully canned using any method other than pressure canning, regardless of stories you may have heard to the contrary.

Canning meat and poultry can be done either
hot pack,
lightly cooked and then put into the jars while still hot, or
cold packed,
placed into jars raw so the canning pressure cooks the meat thoroughly (refer to Chapter 5 for more on these techniques) As a rule, cold pack recipes are generally for delicate meats and seafood that may fall apart from too much handling. Hot pack is usually used for partially cooked meats that are a bit firmer and won’t fall apart so readily. You can, however, find both hot and cold pack recipes for any type of meat. Each results in a different end product. You may find that your family likes the results from one method over another.

Be sure to follow the directions of the recipe carefully. Making changes can result in serious illness.

Tips for safety and efficiency

Meats need to be cut and canned as quickly as possible. Because bacteria can grow quickly in meat and poultry, your goal is to can the meat before it reaches room temperature, and not to allow your cut-up meat to sit out for any length of time between cutting and canning.

If you find that you have more meat cut than you can possibly process in one day, keep the extra in a refrigerator at 32 – 38 degrees Fahrenheit, and can that meat first the next day, before cutting more. Keep canning all the meat until finished, even if it means working for more than one day. (Although you can freeze meat as soon as you purchase it for canning later, you risk canning an inferior product. Better to buy it the day you plan to can it.)

Usually when canning meats, you will be processing a large portion at a time. To can meat in the safest and quickest way possible, follow the advice in the next sections.

Practice first

Every time you can — and no matter how many times you’ve canned in the past — set up all the necessary equipment and supplies and do a dry run to be sure you have everything ready and in the right place.

Be sure that you know how to close the canner properly and quickly; do it a few times if you need to. Once it’s filled with steaming hot water and filled jars, closing it is a bit harder. If your canner doesn’t get closed properly, you may not know it until after it’s been filled and is coming to a rolling boil, at which point the canner may leak steam, hiss, and spit hot water. Then you’ll be forced to wait until the canner cools and the pressure gauge returns to normal before you can reopen and reclose it. This is wasting valuable time that your raw meat is not being processed.

Stick to the plan

Canning meat is not the time to experiment with a recipe. Follow the recipe to the letter, making notes on your experience, so you can then see how to change your technique, if desired, the next time.

Check everything twice

Make sure
your pressure canner is in excellent condition (refer to Chapter 9 for what constitutes “excellent condition”). Before using the pressure canner, be sure to check its safety valve. You can do this with a string or fine wire. A sure way to know that the safety valve is clean is to hold the lid up to the light. When clean, you will be able to see light through the hole. Check the safety valve every time you can. Check it between loads of jars during a single canning session as well. It only takes a couple of seconds and can eliminate any major accidents.

Also make sure to check all your jars for nicked rims before and after sanitizing (glass jars with lids and bands are recommended). Sometimes a jar will be perfect when coming out of storage but will get a small nick or crack in the cleaning process. A nicked rim won’t keep a jar sealed.

Be as clean as a whistle

Wash all your work surfaces with hot soapy water and rinse well. You may want to add bleach to the rinse water and let the surfaces dry on their own. This ensures you have a sanitary work surface to sit your jars and utensils on.
Note:
You don’t have to sanitize the entire kitchen, just the area that you will be working at (doing a trial run lets you know exactly where your work surfaces are). You also need to ensure that your jars, rims, and lids are sanitized (go to Chapter 4 for details).

Selecting and preparing the meat

When canning meat, use only the best meat you can buy. This means the freshest meat that has been raised and handled properly. Here are some ways to ensure that you are starting out with the best meat.

Raise your own food animals

Buy from a local small farmer

Buy from a local butcher

You can certainly use meat from the local big-chain grocery store, but note that they won’t have the freshest meat available, and the meat itself may be raised in a way that you may not want to support.

When preparing meats to can, you remove as much bruising, gristle, and fat that you can. You remove the first two because they’re blemishes that don’t can well. You remove the fat because fatty meat shouldn’t be canned; it increases the chance of spoilage and can lend an off flavor to the finished product. You won’t be able to remove every trace of fat, but cut off as much as possible during preparation.

How you cut the meat — into cubes, strips, and so forth — depends on the type of meat you’re canning. You can find specific guidance for the various types of meats in the upcoming sections.

Only prepare enough meat for one canner full of jars at a time. You do not want meat to sit out at room temperature for any longer than necessary. Meat is more susceptible to bacterial growth than other foods and must remain as cold as possible until used.

Meat canning, step by step

Your equipment and supplies are checked and assembled, and you’re ready to begin. The following steps provide a general overview of the process for canning meat; for detailed instructions on canning low-acid foods, refer to Chapter 9.

1. Place the wire jar rack into the canner and add the water to the canner following your canner’s manufacturer’s instructions
.

2. Fill the jars following the recipe’s instructions and close them hand tight.

For info on preparing your meat, refer to the earlier section “Selecting and preparing the meat.”

Don’t overtighten the jars. By hand-tightening them, you leave a miniscule amount of room between the rim and the lid, enabling the pressure of the canner to force air out of each jar as it becomes pressurized during the canning process. As the pressurized cans then cool, the lids will be sucked tightly onto the jars, providing an airtight seal.

3. Place the hand-tightened jars in the canner and then place
the lid on the canner and fasten, following the manufacturer’s instructions. Begin processing.