"that's it you are officially on the .gov watch list"
Unless you are of middle eastern descent and you are trying to bring one into the country thru Detroit from Saudi with pages missing from your passport and a story that crumbles like a house of cards in the wind.
My mother, grandmother and great grandmother canned everything they could fit into a mason jar my entire adolescent life and they never used a "pressure" cooker. They did use a very large pot half full of water to heat the jars full of food before sealing the jars with the proper Kerr/Mason lids. How is the pressure cooker used?
lol i was expecting these remarks, but i really am looking for one. a new 41 quart is over $400, so i'm hoping i can find a used one.
Why one so big Roger? I have a 20something quart and it takes forever to get up to temp/pressure. I can do 7 quarts in mine at one time and that pretty much fits our home use/hobby needs.
My mother, grandmother and great grandmother canned everything they could fit into a mason jar my entire adolescent life and they never used a "pressure" cooker. They did use a very large pot half full of water to heat the jars full of food before sealing the jars with the proper Kerr/Mason lids. How is the pressure cooker used?
What you are referring to is known as cold packing, I just did that with a batch of homemade salsa over the weekend. Cold packing is only safe with foods that have a lot of acid like tomatoes or pickles or some fruits, other foods need to be hot packed in a pressure cooker to insure safety.
Do you mean a presure cooker that holds 30 - 40 quart jars? If so WOW! thats' a lot in one cooker. I can venison in what I thought was a large cooker that holds 8 quart jars. FWIW I got all mine by calling into the local radio station's call in for sale and wanted program. A lot of people buy them and then use them once and get rid of them, the most I paid was $20 and they were all $100+ cookers. I guess it doesn't hurt that I live in the town that Mirro was located in that built preasure cookers for years so everyone seems to have one in the basement.
AHF, a pressure cooker is safer than the methon you describe and it makes things like meat extremely tender so you can use poor cuts of meat and get tender great tasting meat.
Do you mean a presure cooker that holds 30 - 40 quart jars? If so WOW! thats' a lot in one cooker. I can venison in what I thought was a large cooker that holds 8 quart jars. FWIW I got all mine by calling into the local radio station's call in for sale and wanted program. A lot of people buy them and then use them once and get rid of them, the most I paid was $20 and they were all $100+ cookers. I guess it doesn't hurt that I live in the town that Mirro was located in that built preasure cookers for years so everyone seems to have one in the basement.
AHF, a pressure cooker is safer than the methon you describe and it makes things like meat extremely tender so you can use poor cuts of meat and get tender great tasting meat.
no thats total volume, a 41 quart will hold 32 pint jars.
You've probably already thought things through but I'm going to throw this out anyway ...
Why not get two smaller All American 921s?
You'll have greater capacity for doing pint jars, a little less for quarts, and it's a popular pressure cooker/canner that you can find on sleezebay.
A 921 is hefty unit when filled. I have one and I really don't have a desire for a larger one. I can see the advantage of having two units going at once but there's a fair amount of prep work involved with just one.
We use the hell out of an American 930 30 quart and love it. We can get 21 pints in one batch. A 40 quart one would be nice but it was so big we would have to do all the canning outside. The 30 quart fits on the cooktop inside. Good luck finding one I don't think many people would get rid of one once they got it.
We also have a smaller one we use when we have a few left over that wouldn't fit in the 30 quart. Or if we are just doing a small batch of something. It does make it nice to have the versatility of two cookers of different sizes for the smaller jobs it is much quicker
No girls in our family to help out. I was helping with canning at a very young age.
That said, we never used a pressure cooker. My Mom canned chickens all the time. Sterilized lids/caps/rings, put in the chicken or pork, add the spices, boil a while, put on the caps and listen for the to pop when sealed.
It was all done over a wood fire in big cast iron pots.
I canned some straw berries yesterday. I bring the pickling/spice solution to a boil, pour it over the fruit till full and screw on the lids. They seal within minutes. They are good for almost a year, none last a whole year.
My mother, grandmother and great grandmother canned everything they could fit into a mason jar my entire adolescent life and they never used a "pressure" cooker. They did use a very large pot half full of water to heat the jars full of food before sealing the jars with the proper Kerr/Mason lids. How is the pressure cooker used?
What you are referring to is known as cold packing, I just did that with a batch of homemade salsa over the weekend. Cold packing is only safe with foods that have a lot of acid like tomatoes or pickles or some fruits, other foods need to be hot packed in a pressure cooker to insure safety.
Maybe so, but my grandma did the same in a pot of boiling water. Tomatoes, pickles, carrots, okra, beans, and all kinds of jellies/jams. Never owned a pressure cooker. Stuff all sealed well and lasted for years, excepting an occasional one.
I'd think the cooker would be a better ticket though of course.
FWIW the other year there was a shortage on jars... just saw 4 full pallets of jars at the grocery store last night. Thinking I have quite a few but really probably should buy another couple hundred for storage just in case.... and plenty of tops for the lids.
My mother, grandmother and great grandmother canned everything they could fit into a mason jar my entire adolescent life and they never used a "pressure" cooker. They did use a very large pot half full of water to heat the jars full of food before sealing the jars with the proper Kerr/Mason lids. How is the pressure cooker used?
What you are referring to is known as cold packing, I just did that with a batch of homemade salsa over the weekend. Cold packing is only safe with foods that have a lot of acid like tomatoes or pickles or some fruits, other foods need to be hot packed in a pressure cooker to insure safety.
Maybe so, but my grandma did the same in a pot of boiling water. Tomatoes, pickles, carrots, okra, beans, and all kinds of jellies/jams. Never owned a pressure cooker. Stuff all sealed well and lasted for years, excepting an occasional one.
I'd think the cooker would be a better ticket though of course.
FWIW the other year there was a shortage on jars... just saw 4 full pallets of jars at the grocery store last night. Thinking I have quite a few but really probably should buy another couple hundred for storage just in case.... and plenty of tops for the lids.
This is from an article on home canning,..the reason why high temps are needed...
"Controlling Botulism
Whether food should be processed in a pressure canner or boiling-water canner to control botulism bacteria depends on the acidity in the food. Acidity may be natural, as in most fruits, or added, as in pickled food. Low-acid canned foods contain too little acidity to prevent the growth of these bacteria. Acid foods contain enough acidity to block their growth or to destroy them rapidly when heated. The term �pH� is a measure of acidity; the lower its value, the more acidic the food. The acidity level in foods can be increased by adding lemon juice, citric acid, or vinegar.
Low-acid foods have pH values higher than 4.6. They include red meats, seafood, poultry, milk, and all fresh vegetables except for most tomatoes. Most products that are mixtures of low-acid and acid foods also have pH values above 4.6 unless their ingredients include enough lemon juice, citric acid, or vinegar to make them acid foods. Acid foods have a pH of 4.6 or lower. They include fruits, pickles, sauerkraut, jams, jellies, marmalade, and fruit butters.
Although tomatoes usually are considered an acid food, some are now known to have pH values slightly above 4.6. Figs also have pH values slightly above 4.6. Therefore, if they are to be canned as acid foods, these products must be acidified to a pH of 4.6 or lower with lemon juice or citric acid. Properly acidified tomatoes and figs are acid foods and can be safely processed in a boiling-water canner.
Botulinum spores are very hard to destroy at boiling-water temperatures; the higher the canner temperature, the more easily they are destroyed. Therefore, all low-acid foods should be sterilized at temperatures of 240�F to 250�F, attainable with pressure canners operated at 10 to 15 PSIG. (PSIG means pounds per square inch of pressure as measured by a gauge.) At these temperatures, the time needed to destroy bacteria in low-acid canned foods ranges from 20 to 100 minutes. The exact time depends on the kind of food being canned, the way it is packed into jars, and the size of jars, as well as the altitude where you live"
My family on both sides has always canned. We have 4 pressure cookers, of various sizes. Mostly we do fruits/jams/vegetables, but this year I want to try some meats. I am going big on the garden this year.
Small one at home with tomatoes, peppers, carrots, cucumbers, and some peas. I put in six fruit trees out at work (4-5 years before they produce), and have a big garden there. So far it has cantaloupes, watermelons, squash, and pumpkins. It will also have okra and black-eye peas for sure, and no telling what else by the time I am done.
I just got done cleaning out the cellar from when my mother-in-law had the house. There was a ridiculous amount of canned stuff down there, most way to old to chance it. A few jars of okra had 1974 on them. I did clean all the jars though, and have probably 500 pints, plus 3-4 dozen each of half pints and quarts. That is why a lot of garden, I have a lot of jars to fill this year. That isn't counting the stuff we canned last year.
my folks used to pickle alot of stuff, garlic, cucumbers, carrots, I even think they tried rutabaga once, but for mass canning my dad washed out an old 55 gal. oil drum and would heat it on a turkey style deep fryer burner, he'd also boil deer heads the same way but with an old 35 gal trash can.
my folks used to pickle alot of stuff, garlic, cucumbers, carrots, I even think they tried rutabaga once, but for mass canning my dad washed out an old 55 gal. oil drum and would heat it on a turkey style deep fryer burner, he'd also boil deer heads the same way but with an old 35 gal trash can.