Tuesday, Jul 6, 2010Canning Basics

You can boost your food budget if you can learn canning basics.  It isn’t even necessary to have your own garden, although that adds even more savings to the budget.  You can purchase home-grown, nutritionally-rich foods from local farmers markets and then preserve them yourself. This home canning guide will be a brief tutorial.

Sterilization is important when canning, so be sure to follow instructions and don’t improvise. There are two methods for canning and each one has different equipment needs.

Acidic foods like tomatoes, fruits or fruit juices, jams and pickles are canned using the boiling water method.  All you’d need for this is a rather large pot that can hold your canning jars while they are boiled for the recommended time.

Preserving vegetables, meat, or beans uses the pressure canning method where the canning jars are placed in two to three inches of water and boiled under pressure to destroy the microorganism Clostridium botulinum. Important Note: If pressure canning is not used, botulism can result.

Other necessary canning equipment:

• Mason Canning jars in a variety of sizes
• Two piece self-sealing jar lids
• A Jar Lifter
• A Canning Funnel
• General Kitchen tools like wooden spoons, measuring cups, etc.
• A Large Pan and/or A Pressure Canner
• Hot Pads

You can find information about canning at the U.S. Food and Agriculture Department, your local College Cooperative Extension Services and major food processing equipment manufactures.

Once you go through your learning process and the purchase of needed equipment, it’s time to decide which foods you want to can.  Fruits? Vegetables? Meats? Poultry? Seafood?  There are many websites dedicated to canning food recipes and  you’ll enjoy selecting from their wide variety. Here’s a great site for beginners.

Canning Fruits

Only purchase or pick fruits that are perfectly ripe and not over ripe.  You’ll need to get them canned within the three hour period following picking. Wash the fruit to remove dirt, sand or any chemicals they may have been sprayed with. Research the cold pack or the hot syrup method to choose your preference. Be sure to leave enough head space in the jar above the fruit before you put the lid on.

Canning Vegetables

You’ll need to choose which vegetables you want to can from a wide variety of choices:  corn, green beans, tomatoes, onions, peas and carrots, or just carrots alone. Using the internet will provide hundreds of recipes for pickles and peppers as well.

It might be interesting to create a Canning Club with your friends to spread the cost of equipment, to spread the research for the learning cycle of canning basics across several of you, and to have fun preparing the food at your get-togethers.  You might create a Home Canning Guide from your learning experience that could be commercially viable.