Dry Packing, Pressure Canning, Water Baths, Jams, Jellies, Pickles, and Dehydrating

	Home | Contact Us Jump to... 72 Hour Kits Chart Your Progress Chemical Emergency Communications Cooking Source Death Dry Packing Earthquakes Employment / Career Extras Extreme Winters Family Escape Plan Financial Fire Fire Starters First Aid Food Storage Gardening Heat Heat Waves Helpful Hints Hurricanes Important Papers Important Phone Numbers Insurance Light Lightning Nuclear Disaster Personal Hygiene Physical Preparedness Prepare by the week Pressure Canning Recipes Review Questions Sanitation Sewing and Clothing Shelf Life of Food Shelter Snakes / Animals / Insects Spiritual Preparedness Sprouts Storage Areas Stress Management Surprise Theft Tools Tornado Utilities Water Wills and Trusts       Pressure Canning and Water Baths There are four main ways to preserve food for your food storage: dry packing, pressure canning, water bath and dehydrating. The advantage of pressure canning and water bath canning is that you can process your own fruits and vegetables to save money. You also process vegetables with water in the jars so that there is no need to worry about extra water storage as you do with dry packing and dehydrating. The disadvantage is that the jars used in this process is glass and can easily break. But with some precautions, this problem can be minimized. (see the storage section) Always remember that you can pressure can meat!!!! BASIC THINGS TO REMEMBER check jar rim for cracks or chips DO NOT reuse sealing lids Fruits, tomatoes, pickles, jams and jellies may be canned in a water bath canner.  Vegetables and meats MUST be canned in a pressure canner to insure a safe product. To prevent fruit from darkening during preparation, drop it into water containing 2 tablespoons each of salt and vinegar per gallon. Drain just before heating or packing raw. To insure that tomatoes are acidic enough to water bath can, add 1 teaspoon of lemon juice to each pint. Always wipe jar rims before putting on hot or cold lids. Date jars before storing them. Salt and sugar are not necessary for safe processing of fruits and vegetables. The salt in recipes for pickle products and sugar in jams and jellies should not be reduced as the measures given are needed to provide good quality. Mayonnaise jars can be used ONLY for water bath canning for 30 minutes or less in processing.  Standard canning lids and rigs will fit both wide mouth and narrow mouth jars. Put the ring on snug and then give it another turn. If the ring is on to loosely, the lid has a hard time sealing. When you are going to open a bottle that has been canned, first tap the middle of the lid to make sure the lid is still sealed. If it is not sealed, DO NOT use the product inside. Get another bottle to use. Also as you open the lid of the bottle, listen for the suction sound. If NO suction sound, DO NOT use the product in that jar. If you are canning for the first time, have someone who has canned before be with you to answer the following questions: PRESSURE CANNING How much water in pot? What to listen to if you have a jiggler? What to watch if you have a dial gauge? When do you start timing the process? How long to cool down? Hot or cold pack? How tight do the rings need to be? How much water in bottle? Do you need to add salt to the bottles? Can you store the bottles without the rings on? How to check bottles before opening? What sound should you hear when opening the bottle? Can you combine many vegetables in one jar to can? What happens to onions in canned jars? Can you bottle meat? If the canner is not at pressure, can you take the canner off the stove to add more water to it? Should the water be hot or cold? WATER BATH How to water bath? What is a rolling boil? How much water in pot? How much water to cover bottles? How to hot pack? JAMS AND JELLIES AND FRUIT Do you need to process the bottles? How do you make the syrup? What is certo and why do you need it? PICKLES Do you need to process the bottles? Can you use mayonnaise jars? Why put the jars upside down when hot? Do you process hot or cold? Why soak cucumbers in ice cold salt water overnight?