{"id":543,"date":"2011-04-12T05:24:00","date_gmt":"2011-04-12T05:24:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/2011\/04\/canning-101-or-jam-tomorrow-jam-yesterday-but-never-ever-jam-today.html"},"modified":"2013-02-20T00:15:27","modified_gmt":"2013-02-20T05:15:27","slug":"canning-101-or-jam-tomorrow-jam-yesterday-but-never-ever-jam-today","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/2011\/04\/canning-101-or-jam-tomorrow-jam-yesterday-but-never-ever-jam-today.html","title":{"rendered":"Canning 101: Or "Jam Tomorrow, Jam Yesterday, But Never Ever Jam Today!""},"content":{"rendered":"

* Name that tune!<\/p>\n

Oh, never mind! \u00a0Here’s the whole song, just for you! \u00a0This Carol Channing act sent my sister and me into a flurry of giggle when we were little. \u00a0Prepared to have it stuck in your head for a while, ha ha!<\/p>\n

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With all those strawberries I brought home on Monday<\/a>, I had to get cracking to make some of the freshest strawberry jam EVER! \u00a0For the first time since 2007, I dug out my canning supplies.<\/p>\n

“As if you don’t do enough…you do\u00a0canning?”<\/b><\/i><\/p>\n

YES! \u00a0I remember my Mom doing it when I was a kid, and it turns out canning your own food is easy, inexpensive, and incredibly nutritious! \u00a0It’s great knowing what’s in your food!<\/p>\n

I bought my hardware in summer 2001 when we grew so many tomatoes, I was able to preserve several jars of whole tomatoes, along with several jars of homemade pasta sauce. \u00a0I’ve used it off and on in Ohio, Florida (2002-2005) and North Carolina, but then the equipment sat dormant while we were in Nebraska.<\/p>\n

How does canning work?<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

Like everything else I blog about, a little science\/history lesson is in order. \u00a0According to the authority on everything, Wikipedia, home canning<\/a> is the process of preserving foods by putting them in jars and heating them to kill organisms that might cause the food to spoil. \u00a0I mainly stick to the easy-to-preserve foods (strawberries and tomatoes), and I’m now comfortable enough with the process that I’d like to delve into the more challenging foods soon, such as corn and peppers.<\/p>\n

When foods have a pH of lower than 4.6, you can effectively kill the microorganisms by simply boiling the food at 212 degrees F for a specified period of time. \u00a0This is why preserving tomatoes, berries, and pickles is so easy. \u00a0And the hardware is inexpensive.<\/p>\n

On the other hand, if you’re interested in preserving meats or low acid vegetables (such as corn and non-pickled peppers), you need to boil the food at a HIGHER temperature than is possible by simply boiling. \u00a0Perhaps you’re wondering, “How is this possible?” \u00a0Easy: you need a pressure cooker<\/a>! \u00a0A pressure cooker, which allows the air pressure inside the vessel to increase as you heat it, the boiling point of the liquid can increase over 250 degrees F! \u00a0WOW, how cool is that? \u00a0Now, you can boil the canned foods at a high enough temperature to kill even the Clostridium botulinum<\/i> spores, which can’t live in temperatures higher than 240 degrees!<\/p>\n

As I’ll discuss in the next section, venturing into the pressure canning world involves a more lofty investment in a quality pressure cooker<\/a>, large enough to hold the jars.<\/p>\n

What kind of equipment do I need? \u00a0And how much will this cost me?<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

If nothing else right now, get this book! \u00a0Or at least a version of this book, since it’s constantly being updated. \u00a0This is the one I have from 1999. \u00a0It offers easy guidance on what equipment you need, along with dozens of canning recipes — not just for the minimally prepared foods, but also for salsas, sauces, and assorted flavors of pickles.<\/p>\n