Canning with Liz

Time for the Q & A with A Master Food Preserver!

Last week, Liz was the first featured guest in the new feature Home Is A Verb. Now she is back to answer your canning questions.  I started with a few questions to get things rolling.  Thank you to all who participated!

If you have points to clarify or anything additional, feel free to carry it over in the comments section.  Once again, I bring you Liz of Food Snobbery Hobbery.

How did you get started canning?

When we moved into our current house we discovered we had a mulberry tree.  I couldn’t let all those berries go to waste, but we couldn’t eat them all either!  So I made some jam.  That was the gateway can for me.  Now I can’t stop.  I’ve only been canning for 3 years or so and I’m thoroughly obsessed.

Tell me about why and how you earned your “Master Food Preserver”title – it is so cool to see after your name!

I really wanted to feel more confident as a canning instructor and saw the title on someone else’s name.  A little Google time later, I found the brochure for the program.  My boss agreed that it would benefit the co-op, so the co-op paid my whopping $75 tuition and hotel fees.  I took some vacation time on the shores of Lake Superior, learning to can in an un-air-conditioned home economics room for 3 days.  It was freaking amazing.  I’d go again just for the camaraderie and collection knowledge absorption.

How has your canning evolved?

The handiwork of one of Liz's classes

I’m much more organized.  I set goals for what I’ll need to get through the year without buying salsa, tomatoes, jam, tomato sauce, pickles, peppers, etc.  I log everything I harvest from the garden and everything I preserve.  And I’m much less stressed out about killing everyone with botulism.  I’m really confident in my skills now.

What other methods of preserving are you into?

I also like fermenting, drying and freezing.  But my heart belongs to canning and pickling.

Wonderful.  Now let’s move onto Reader Questions.  Here’s the first one: Why is it called canning when the jars are glass?

Seriously good question.  This one made me reference my history of food preservation book! When commercial canning was developed (with actual cans), the word “can” became a common term (short for canister).  It appears that home preservers adopted this term since it is a similar process that preserved home “jarred” foods.  There are lots of other terms for canning, though!  Putting up, putting by, preserving, jarring, pickling, jamming, etc.

Liz's Kimchi Kraut

What advice do you have for people just looking to get started canning?  Any resources you’d recommend?

#1 Get yourself a trustworthy canning book.  No using random internet recipes or recipes from the early 1900s. The Ball Blue Book or Ball Complete Guide to Home Preserving are best!

What about websites?  Any reliable websites you’d recommend?

I highly recommend The U of Georgia’s National Center for Home Food Preservation.  Tons of recipes and links and all of them are safe, tested recipes!

Can you recommend a novice canning starter kit – an easy investment both money and time wise?  Where is the best place to continue to get supplies? I know that the hardware store has some stuff, but it seems expensive and unreliable. Looking for THE local canning outfit!

Okay, I’m a little biased…But we’ve worked really hard to have all the canning accessories and supplies at Mississippi Market and our prices are some of the best in St. Paul.  I also love the Frattalone’s Ace Hardware on Grand Ave., near Macalester College.

If you don’t have anything yet, I recommend the Ball Accessory Kit.  It’ll give you a jar lifter, bubble remover, lid lifter and funnel.

Can you turn a stockpot into a water bath canner?  Do you have to buy a rack?

Sure can!  Just make sure the pot is tall enough to have at least one inch of boiling water over the top of the jars!  I can process pint jars or smaller in my stockpot, but quart jars have to go in the actual canner.  It all depends on your stockpot, though. You can buy a rack, use a rack/disc from another pot or use a dishtowel in the bottom of the pot to cushion the jars.  Or you can live life on the edge and forgo a rack altogether.  You’re more likely to have jars break, though.  I’m dangerous like that.

Why is it bad to use metal utensils while you’re canning?

Some metal utensils (like aluminum, copper and cast iron) can react with acidic foods and leave a metallic taste in foods.  And a cold metal knife can crack a hot canning jar if you use it to remove bubbles and just barely tap the jar.  You think I’m kidding, but I’m not.

Can you use an enameled cast iron pan for cooking things to can?  That’s the biggest pot I have.

Yep- enameled cast iron is great because it’s good and thick.  The heat evenly distributes and things are less likely to burn in one spot like with thinner walled pans.

Let’s talk about headspace.  Can you talk a bit about the importance of it and how to measure properly?

I have no shame in keeping a ruler nearby when canning.  While microscopic precision isn’t necessary, I like knowing that my headspace is correct so that I can avoid overflowing jars or discolored food.  I measure from the outside so that I don’t dip my ruler in the food!  Just measure from the top of the food/brine/mixture to the top of the jar rim. And do all this with the jar at eye level so that you can properly ready the ruler. Typically 1 inch is used for pressure canning, 1/2 inch is used for pickling and other high acid foods and 1/4 inch is for jams and jellies.

Is there any wiggle room with headspace?  Specifically with fruit spreads.  I have a hard time hitting that 1/4 inch head on, and tend to under-do it.  One of my last batches has 2 jars with headspace closer to 1/2 inch.

Liz's Beer Mustard

The danger with this is that the headspace is specifically chosen so that all the air from that space can be forced out by the expansion of food during heat processing.  If you leave too much headspace, there could be air left inside the jar, opening the door for mold and bacteria.  Plus, the air can cause the food to discolor and look unappetizing.  If you overfill the jars, the food is likely to overflow during processing.  This increases the chance of a jar not sealing because of food residue between the jar and the lid.  It’s really best to just follow the headspace in the recipe- If you don’t have enough jam to fill a a jar properly, just store that one in the fridge and eat it first!

Can people mess with sugar levels in jam making or not?   I feel like there is a lot of controversy about it.

It really shouldn’t be done because sugar acts as a preservative and helps the product gel.  The best bet is to make a fruit butter that already calls for less or no sugar or to use a low-sugar pectin recipe.  I like the Pomona brand low sugar pectin best.

I’m getting ready to make my own baby food. Could I can some of that (my own baby food jars) and if so, how do I make sure it’s safe for baby to eat? How long does it last on the shelf? Better than freezing? Worse?

Freezing is going to be the best preservation method for nutrients in the baby food.  There aren’t tested and extension-recommended processing times and recipes for many pureed veggies (but they would definitely need to be pressure canned).  Pureed applesauce can be safely boiling water bath canned and an all-fruit puree (any type) would be another option without sugar.  Both recipes are in the Ball Blue Book!  Make sure the baby food jars that you’re planning to use have a 2-piece canning lid, too (they can’t be re-used commercially canned baby food jars).  The little 4 oz. jars are perfect for this!  The applesauce and fruit puree recipes won’t be tested/written for this size jar, though, so you’ll have to process at the time listed for pint jars to know for sure that they’re safe.

What about floating fruit or pickles?  Why does the food float?  When is it okay, and when is it not okay?

Floating food in jars isn’t harmful, but it probably won’t win in the state fair.  The floating is due to air in the food.  You can avoid this by doing a “hot pack” or heating all the food before adding it to the canning jars.  Typically your recipe will describe if this is an option.  It’s nice for plain veggies in the pressure canner and some pickled vegetables (like beets)…but most pickles won’t use this method because it adds to the heating time for the pickles and could cause them to lose some of their crunch.  You can also tightly pack food into the jars to minimize floating and use regular mouth jars to hold things down (wide mouth jars can allow more floating).

We tend to come up with our own recipies for tomato sauces with what’s on hand. I can only do hot water bath canning. If I’m not following a set “recipe”, how do I know whether what I’m canning is safe to can in a hot water bath?

You can’t.  That’s the trouble with making up recipes for canning- you’ll always have a chance of an unsafe product.  It’s best to use a safe, tested recipe and not have to worry!  The Ball Complete Book has several simple tomato sauce recipes that are safe for boiling water bath processing.  Give those a try!

I’d like to bring up pressure canning.  If you say the words “pressure canning” to anyone over the age of 50, you will hear a horror story about burns, explosions, and serious injury. Can you talk a little bit about why pressure canning was (or is?) dangerous, and how pressure canners have changed?

Luckily those stories are mostly a thing of the past.   Pressure canners (and pressure cookers) these days have safety valves, locks and plenty of instructions on how to NOT have something terrible happen.  Here’s 2 things people should know:

#1- A pressure canner and a pressure cooker are not the same thing.  You might be able to pressure cook in a pressure canner, but a pressure cooker is not a pressure canner (confused yet?).  Pressure cookers do not usually have gauges or weights to measure or dictate how much pressure is inside and a recipe will always give the exact pressure with which to process.  Pressure canners will have either a weighted gauge or a dial gauge for this.  So if your pressure device doesn’t have a gauge, it’s just a pressure cooker (not a canner).

#2- Dial gauge pressure canners must be tested for accuracy each year.  You can mail your gauge (not the whole lid!) to the Presto company and they’ll test it for free.  If your gauge isn’t working properly, it can lead to overprocessing or extreme pressure (read: explosions) or underprocessing (read: botulism).  So get those gauges tested, folks!!!

What are important things to keep in mind if you want to pressure can?

Remember that you need to watch the pot somewhat to make sure the correct pressure is maintained.  It’s really easy for pressure to creep up or fall. Consistent pressure is really important for preventing jars breaking and liquids siphoning out of jars.  Plus, if you let the pressure dip below the pressure the recipe indicates, you have to start over with your timing- so sad!

Can you explain why some things are safe to water bath can AND pressure can, and some things are ONLY safe to pressure can?

Generally low acid foods are for the pressure canner and high acid foods are for the boiling water bath canner.  In other words, plain veggies, meats and soups go in the pressure canner and fruits, salsas and acidified/pickled veggies go in the boiling water bath canner.  Tomatoes are just on the borderline of being acidic enough for a boiling water bath canner- That’s why you always have to add lemon juice or citric acid to a recipe.  You can save time on canning tomatoes and tomato sauce by using a pressure canner.  But don’t go trying to pressure can pickles or jam.  The pickles would turn to mush and it’s just not necessary for acidic foods.  The botulinum toxin can’t grow in acidic environments, so there’s no need to destroy the spores with the pressure canner.  It’s overkill.

Liz marked this one "ExtrvaCANza". I'm not the only punny canner out there.

What would you say to someone who is convinced eating home-canned goods are unsafe no matter what?

Learn the science of it.  When following a safe recipe, it’d be really hard to make an unsafe product.

A big thanks to Liz!  Thanks again to everyone who submitted a question.  This was cool to do.

All photos courtesy of Liz.