To all u wood range canners

[FarmboyBill]

Can I take off the lid/s on the stove and set the canner directly over the holes to get a hotter/quicker fire? Also, How long, after I get the water to a rolling boil, do i need to keep my empty jars in the water to steirize them, or is there a better way of doing it now.

[7thswan]

Sure you can take em off. You don't need to sterilize your jars. Washing in hot soapy water.rinse. Then keep them in just hot water and pull one out when getting ready to pack. I don't cann on my cookstove, I can't imagine the heat you'll be working in, in OK. I'd only do it in an emergency and would take the entire stove outside to do it.

[mudburn]

My wife cans on our wood cook stove all the time. Taking the eye out of the stove to set the canner directly above the heat works well, requiring a less vigorous fire. With either hot water bath or pressure canning, the jars are sterilized in the canning process. We just make sure they are clean before packing them.

mudburn

[ceresone]

I put my jars, after they're washed, in the sink and pour boiling water over them.

[FarmboyBill]

& Im prolly not understanding you. From what you say, I get that you have a pan you wash them in hot soapy water, Then you have another pan you rinse them in, which i guess is hot water also, then you have something else you keep several jars in and pull out each individual jar as you pack it, then the packed jar goes into the canner. If thats so, then you jave 2 pans and the holder, beyond the table space taken up with the vegetable to be packed, The canner on the stove, Jars ready to start the cleaning/sanitizing process, jars that are finished, You must have some kind of kitchen, or u do it outdoors.

MB If I understand you rightly, your saying that you take the clean jars, fill them with what is to be canned, pour the hot water in to the top and can, AND that the hot water you are pouring on top the pack will sterilize the jars. Is that right?

Well C, Im cleaning around 350 jars, and so cleaning them, and then pouring boiling water over all of them isnt an option, Im afraid

[MELOC]

no. i think the poster is saying that washing cleans the jars and canning sterilizes them. if i was using old jars left sitting for a decade or two with nasty, rotting food in them, i would probably scrub them five times and sterilize them. if they are new or fairly clean to start with, i would just wash them and be done with it.

when i make jelly or can maple syrup and need to have fairly sterile jars because i am not going to be cooking the product for hours, i will put them in the oven and heat them to @ 225 F before i use them. it not only sterilizes them, but it makes them hot so that they seal better when i put the HOT product into them. now, you don't want to put cold stuff in a hot jar unless you want glass flying everywhere.

hot soapy water, a sturdy brush and lots of elbow grease are your friends.

[Sanza]

I can't see you canning all 350 jars in the same day, so why not just spend a day getting all your jars washed and rinsed before you start your canning? Why isn't rinsing them with hot water an option? Way back when, when we lived without power or running water we washed and rinsed the jars in tubs.
Is there a reason that you can't wash all your jars, rinse them and cover them with a clean towel/sheet until you are ready to use them? Then take as many as you need for your canning and put them in the hot water or oven.
Good luck with your canning! What are you canning btw?

[FarmboyBill]

The jars are empty. They were stored in a shid with a dirt floor. Mice have pulled odds of straw, thread, ect to make nexts in a couple of them. A couple was filled with dirt. Packed, Many, had rust stains in the rings, Many wernt washed out the best they needed to be.

Stanza, thats what im doing. Im washing them clean now. I washed 116 qts this morning. I havnt a place yet to place them umprotected, so ill be putting them back in boxes till I need them, Then ill wash and sterilize the amount I need.

Mel, nobody has mentioned useing the oven to sterilize them. Thats a great idea, Ill have the stove hot anyway with the canner, and I can just load the oven with what Im gonna use, and, when the canner waters rolling hot, I can take them out of the oven and pack them and place them in the canner. If I understand you right, in what ive just said. Thatll work.

[7thswan]

Truth is, I have all my jars in boxes covered inside the box with paper towels. Pull em out of box and rinse with hot water then I pack em and proscess. Yes, I do cann outside on my deck having propaine stoves out there just for canning. I carry the canner out there when it's full.

[lmrose]

I have canned for years on a wood stove. When all we had was soft wood I placed the canner over the fire with stove lid removed.

I wash my jars in hot soapy water and rinse them. Then they go in a preserving kettle [5 or 7 at a time depending on which canner I am using ] of hot water on the stove until I am ready to fill them. Rings and lids are in a smaller pot on the stove in hot water. I lift them out with tongs , fill with fruit or veggies, fill to the necks with hot water, put on hot lids and rings. Then they go in the canner for however long depending on what I am processing.

I have two old pressure cookers I use for canners. Neither has rubber seals or pressure cocks. But because they were formerly pressure cookers they are heavier than an enamel canner and hold steam in fairly well. I have used them for thirty two years with great success.

[uncle Will in In.]

What are you going to can Billy Boy, Billy Boy.
What are you going to can charming Billy????

[FarmboyBill]

Ima gonna can some beans, if they work out , REAL keen, Im a young/old man and wish I had my mother

[Kmac15]

store your jars upside down......nothing to get in them.

I put my clean jars in my canner to heat and sterilize while I am prepping the food to go in them.

[MELOC]

no bub...you gotta be easy with the jars. you can't take a hot jar and fill it with cold stuff or it will break. i would also not put the jars into a rolling boil. you want to bring the jars up to temperature a little at a time. i would put them in warm water and continue to bring them to a boil, but if you put cold jars in boiling water, they may bust on you.

now if you fill hot jars with hot water and hot beans, you could put them in a boiling canner.

what i would do is to wash the jars and fill them cold with cold beans and then fill to within a half inch of the top with water. i would put them in the rack and put them in the canner when the water is warm, but cold enough to put you hand in. then i would crank the heat or put the canner on the fire and start timing the canner from the time it begins to boil.it may take a half an hour to boil.

if you wash the jars really good and let them dry, the canner should sterilize the jars when everything is cooking. remember, it's gonna boil for 3-4 hours.

i guess another way to do it would be to heat the beans in water, like you were cooking them, and fill HOT jars with the hot beans and water and then put the lids and rings on. then you could put the hot jars filled with hot beans and hot water into a boiling canner.

don't forget the salt big guy. 1 teaspoon to a quart jar.

[FarmboyBill]

My books say that salt is used only for seasoning, so that its optional. I DONT use salt in any form, and so I wont be useing it. I cant remember if mom used it or not. My last X was a saltaholic, and now weighs way over 300lbs. That cured me (pun intended lol)

[ceresone]

Sure, you can pour boiling water over them. You can only do however many jars your canner(s) hold at a time, so scald as you go..

[texican]

If you can wash and clean 350 jars at one time, and then be able to put food in them, and can them, on a wood stove, without getting em dirty again.... my hat's off to you! I only wash/sterilize a load at a time, and I have a gas stove. I've never worried about putting em in the oven to heat them up... I do put them in boiling water, for a minute or so, filling up a jar, taking a hot jar out, putting another one in, filling it up, and so on. I'd be afraid of too many broken jars and burnt fingers if I 'ovened' em.

Good luck... sounds like you're getting your winter food source in!

[Paumon]

Originally Posted by FarmBoyBill

My books say that salt is used only for seasoning, so that its optional. I DONT use salt in any form, and so I wont be useing it. I cant remember if mom used it or not. My last X was a saltaholic, and now weighs way over 300lbs. That cured me (pun intended lol)

No canning salt or vinegar for your beans? You were already told in Singletree about the importance of using salt or vinegar for canning non-acid foods such as beans.

If you persist in such bull-headedness when you have no experience with canning perhaps you would be kind enough to tell us now - to whom would you like us to send condolences, flowers or charitable donations after we don't hear from you again?

[FarmboyBill]

Im makeing Bills will out now, thinking about pallbearers.

OK. Tell me whatcher thinking bout my idee. I start the fire, and put my canner on, loaded with empty jars filled with water, as is the canner up and over the tops of the jars. I also have jars in the oven (Do I put them in wet, and setting on a towel, or dry)? Ill also have my smaller canner full of replacement water. I have something else that is small that ill have water in and in that put the lids. (Ive got at least 2 doz 1in sq magnets, im gonna glue one on a stick to fish out the lids with. Ill start at 4 in the morning. When I see the water boiling for say 30mins, Ill pull out the jars one at a time, load it with snapped beans and put it back. When ive got the canner loaded, Ill start my timeing with the advent of the last jar in. When there finished, Ill pull them out and set them somewhere away from a draft, or throw a towel over them, Take a jar at a time out of the oven, load it with beans, fill it with reserve water from my little canner, run a spatula around the outside edge of the jar on the inside, put on lid and ring and insert into big canner, adding water in case I dont need to fill it full. I only have beans in a 4ft X 12ft bed, so I doubt if I have 2 canner loads. But if I feel good about the whole thing after im done, Im going to go Sat to a Farmers Mkt near me, and try to buy a bu or 2 of beans. Tell me whatcha think.

[Sanza]

I think you're brave to try canning! And I'm glad you're not superman to can 350 jars in one day.... But please find a recipe for making them (the way you like to eat them) and follow it properly- don't try to leave any ingredient out!