Got To Question A New Cookbook

[big rockpile]

Bought a Amish Cookbook the other day all seems well and good other than Canning she Cold Packs everything even Meat.

No I will not do this but I found it strange.

big rockpile

[Belfrybat]

The book doesn't call for pressure canning the meat? That is downright dangerous. When I can meat, I ALWAYS pressure can after packing the jars. If the meat is already cooked, the time is less than if packed raw, but it has to be fully cooked somehow.

[Our Little Farm]

Do you mean packing the meat raw? I do do this when I can venison. I still pressure can it though.

Not sure what you mean BRP....

[Macybaby]

My Ball books have instructions for both cold pack and hot pack for most meats. I can all my meat raw- sometimes with hot broth and sometimes without. Just canned up some rabbit yesterday.

Often the reason to hot pack is do get some of the shrinkage done before you can - and it reduces the chance of thermal shock to the glass. I'm talking about pressure canning - not some BWB where you really do need to start with hot product.

[big rockpile]

I'm sorry it says Hot Water Bath the meat for something like two hours.Had canning Green Beans in the Oven Like I told my wife maybe people did this for years but we have a Pressure Canner and I will use it.

The Book does have some good recipes and ideas other than the Canning.

I have a Mennonite neighbor that reuses Canning Seals says she is just careful how she takes them off,like I told my wife they are cheap enough we will just buy New.

big rockpile

[Our Little Farm]

I'm with you BRP, this method was used many years ago, but has also been proven as unsafe. I would not risk my family by water bath canning meat, ever. Pressure can only.

Pressure canning is not hard to do, why take the risk?

Be very careful with the recipies in the book, they may not be up to standard either. I'd relegate the book to the outhouse for emergency toilet tissue.

[Macybaby]

no matter how long you process, with BWB it simply won't get hot enough to kill the botochilsim.

However if you boil the canned goods well (like 10 mns) it will kill any spores that grew once the item was canned.

Botchulism is rare, but it can occure anywhere. And there is no way to tell on the surface if it is there or not. Just about anything else that can go wrong with the food will be noticeable in taste, looks or smell. But the problems resulting from ingesting botchulism spores are rather horrific, so you are taking a small chance that something horrible will happen. Most of us choose to do that each time we get in a vehicle . . .

But with canned goods, it's not that hard to eliminate this risk.