Look at canning websites and study which method is used for which food. Some require pressure canning for safety

 

Some things, such as green beans, meats, and other low-acid foods need to be done in the pressure canner to be safe. If you are only going to get one, I would get the pressure canner, because it can be used as a water bath, but a water bath canner cannot be used as a pressure canner. I would also recommend getting a good pressure canner like the All American if you are going to be doing this for years to come and want to pass down the canner to your heirs.

 

It is not entirely a case of personal preference.Low acid foods must be canned in a pressure cooker.I was told that there is a tv program coming that teaches all about preserving food.Educate yourself all you can before you begin.Good luck.It is fun and can save money if you watch your ps and qs.

 

I would suggest starting with a water bath canner myself. They are cheap and easy to find. This way you can experiment with things like fruits and salsa and see if you enjoy canning first. If it turns out not to be your cup of tea, you don't have much of an investment in it. That's my 2 cents anyhow.

 

We have always used both. Water bath for acidic foods and pressure for lower acid content.

 

Pressure canner, far more versatile. You can can far more useful foods like chili and stew for when you are in a hurry.
Water bath you are pretty much limited to fruits, jam and salsa. Not that those aren't good, but they just aren't that useful.
No need to buy an all-American, just get one that is well supported with parts. Mine was $120

 

Water bath you are pretty much limited to fruits, jam and salsa. Not that those aren't good, but they just aren't that useful.

Don't tell my husband salsa isn't useful LOL. He eats tons of it for snack and it's much better for him than sweets.
I put up lots of fruits for use with baking and it's much cheaper than buying pie fillings.
These things have their place in the diet just as everything else does.

 

I noticed above that someone stated that you processed acidic foods in a water bath and you 'had' to process non acidic foods like meats in a pressure canner. I wonder when that 'had to' idea came into being. Most folks around here that are over 50 never heard of a pressure canner. I know my mom did everything and I mean everything in the same thirty gallon cast iron kettle with a lid on it over a wood fire and I don't remember any of us kids getting food poison. Guesses???

 

True but when we were working on the farm on weekends we practically lived on home canned chili, beans and stew. If you have a pressure canner you can do both so why not have the option?

Spur it's not that you have to but you are rolling the dice. Improperly canned foods are the leading cause of botulism. People die or end up in hospital every year. Many make it through a lifetime without coming up unlucky, but if I am relying on my canned goods in an emergency situation I want to know 100% that they are safe.

 

Check your local craigslist.org or second hand venue. You can find a pressure canner much less expensively that way. Take it to the local extension service and they'll test the guage for you so you know that it is reading correctly. Once you get into canning, I suspect you'll want to venture into veggies and meats. They're certainly cost-, time- and labor-saving to have on your shelf.
Kit

 

I second getting a pressure canner big enough to use for a bath. It gives you much more flexibility both in canning and cooking. I have a Presto that can be had new for less than $100. Works fine.

Over the years there's been more rigorous evaluations made of bath vs pressure canning. There are bugs (e.g. the one that causes botulism) that can't survive an acidic environment but can take lower heat of a bath. A better understanding of the canning process leads to better canning practices.

I think the two best places to start reading are the site http://nchfp.uga.edu/index.html or a copy of Ball's Blue Book (http://www.amazon.com/Jarden-Home-Brands-21400-Ball/dp/B001DIXG9A)

 

My MIL never had a pressure canner and always did her green beans in a water bath. She had them in the water bath for 3 HOURS. Yikes. And even then they say they are not safe. Anyway get both when you can afford too but like others said start with the pressure canner first. Those vegetables you grow need the pressure canner.

 

Simple physics- for every pound of pressure the boiling point goes up 3*F.
Once an object hits 270* F, this temperature is considered instant sterilization.
You can boil it forever but the temperature will not go beyond 212* F. At this temperature organisms survive due the temperature. Want to kill the germs then the temperature goes up. Even the sterile water at the hospital is ran at 250* F for 30 minutes at temperature to kill. Be safe and healthy.

 

I noticed above that someone stated that you processed acidic foods in a water bath and you 'had' to process non acidic foods like meats in a pressure canner. I wonder when that 'had to' idea came into being. Most folks around here that are over 50 never heard of a pressure canner. I know my mom did everything and I mean everything in the same thirty gallon cast iron kettle with a lid on it over a wood fire and I don't remember any of us kids getting food poison. Guesses???

The only risk involved with hot water bath canning is some very nasty bugs require higher temps than boiling to kill them... botulism can kill.... it also messes with child hood memories causing people to forget they had siblings.

 

I second getting a pressure canner big enough to use for a bath. It gives you much more flexibility both in canning and cooking. I have a Presto that can be had new for less than $100. Works fine.

Over the years there's been more rigorous evaluations made of bath vs pressure canning. There are bugs (e.g. the one that causes botulism) that can't survive an acidic environment but can take lower heat of a bath. A better understanding of the canning process leads to better canning practices.

I think the two best places to start reading are the site http://nchfp.uga.edu/index.html or a copy of Ball's Blue Book (http://www.amazon.com/Jarden-Home-Brands-21400-Ball/dp/B001DIXG9A)

They're not "bugs." It's a bacteria (clostridium botulinum) that produces a toxin (Botulism) when in a low-/no-oxygen environment. Cooking above around 185 for 5-10 minutes is sufficient to destroy the bacteria spores. The "old timers" didn't have pressure canners and they were, by and large, just fine. It is entirely possible for a water-bath canner to reach the required temp, but it takes a long time to get the CENTER of the jar to the appropriate temperature. Pressure canners bump temps to 200-240ish (off the top of my head), so there's a much bigger safety margin wrt a water bath canner.

 

I noticed above that someone stated that you processed acidic foods in a water bath and you 'had' to process non acidic foods like meats in a pressure canner. I wonder when that 'had to' idea came into being. Most folks around here that are over 50 never heard of a pressure canner...

I think it went through a "it's a good idea to" phase first. That likely started when the home-grade pressure canner became available. It probably didn't hit the "you have to" phase until after the price came down and they became affordable.

I took some canned corn up to my grandmother this past summer and it bought me a valuable story:

When she left Kentucky in the early 1950s, they'd never heard of the pressure canner. They water-bathed their veggies, and the corn always worked out well, but had a short shelf life. She married my grand-father and they moved to Ohio where he could find work OTCM (other-than-coal-mining).

During the summers my grandmother traveled back to Kentucky to help with the harvest and putting up. When my granddad picked her up in the fall, most of the things she brought back with her did well. Except the corn. Within a week or two of getting it home, the corn started to turn. Her theory was that they had always water-bathed it and put it immediately, gently into their cellar, and the WB'd corn couldn't survive the long ride through the mountains on the rough roads of the time.

Not to be consoled, my grandmother was not going to live in Ohio with my granddad if she couldn't have corn from home. The corn in Ohio was "no good", and my grandmother wanted her corn from home. They were poor and really only grew dent corn (feed for their mule-tractor, they only kept what was extra according to how well the garden did that year), but it was my grandmother's favorite vegetable- but that is beside the point of the story. My granddad was going to lose his 16 year old bride to her mother's garden back home.

During their second spring in Ohio, my granddad had to go to Pittsburg for training for a couple weeks, and he came back with a pressure canner for his mother in-law- a VERY expensive thing at the time. That summer, my grandmother took it home, gave it to her mother, and they pressure canned that garden.

The corn survived, my grandparents stayed married, my mother was born, and...

Afterword
Because they were so expensive and rare, my great-grandmother's pressure canner earned local fame. From late summer through fall, it stayed on an almost permanent wood fire, canning vegetables from every garden in the holler. In the early seventies, when my great-grandmother stopped gardening, she brought the canner home with her to Ohio. Most of my baby food went through it. Grandma is slowing down, but she still uses it from time to time. The wife and I are the only canners in our generation of the family so, despite looking like its been through two world wars, we consider it an heirloom and know the sad day will come when we end up with it.

FIN


you're all welcome

 

I only use a pressure canner. It saves water and it does not heat up the house as badly as a water bath.

 

According to the CDC(Center for Disease Control and Prevention) There were a total of 9 foodborne cases of Botulism in the US in 2010. Only three were proven to be caused by home canned food, one from home canned beets, one from "home canned foods" and another from home canned tuna. Several were from eating seal blubber, fermented fish heads, and other strange(to most of us) native Alaskan dishes.
So, 2 proven and 1 suspected case from home canning. No one died. Out of 309 million people in the US, and no telling how many jars of home canned food consumed.
You are much more likely to hit a hundred million dollar lottery.
The Ball Blue Book is the Bible of home canning. Follow directions.

http://www.cdc.gov/nationalsurveilla..._CSTE_2010.pdf

And, in 2011, once again, 2 cases of home canned food cause botulism in the entire country. One from corn, one from green beans. Once again, no deaths.
http://www.cdc.gov/nationalsurveillance/PDFs/Botulism_CSTE_2011.pdf

 

We started with using our pasta pot to do water bath canning. It would hold 5 pint jars and still have 1 to 2 inches of water covering them. Only had to buy a few items special to canning. It was a way to start canning high acid foods without much expense.

If you have a larger stock pot all you need to find is something to hold the jars off the bottom to use it.

WWW

 

And while Botulism is really scary and deadly (unless you're filling the laugh lines around your eyes) - there ARE symptoms and for *now* we still have some pretty awesome doctors who can probably hook you right up. I am not so sure I'd feel this way in 5-7 years after we are smack in the middle of BOcare but for now ... it's kind of like raw milk. If you're paying attention to what you're doing and care about the end result - chances are you won't be killing off folks in droves.


I canned lots and lots with just a water bath canner for several years before I decided to set aside my mother's fears and learned to use a pressure canner. And we are all still alive and kicking and have tons more variety put by these days than ever before.

 

From reading I've done (but not practical experience), the toxin is also denatured... made harmless... by a fairly brief time (a few minutes) of heating even somewhat below outright boiling. So, IF folks were cautious about handling even actually contaminated preserved foods and then did a thorough stovetop cooking before serving, they might never know they were consuming potentially dangerous foods. I'm pretty sure I've also read that the toxin can have an effect even from aerosol particles being inhaled, much less careless tasting of canned batches before re-cooking. Obviously, it's much, much smarter and safer to pressure can and follow the instructions carefully, but also evidently possible to avoid the poisoning by cooking *everything* non-acidic before serving and scrupulously discarding jar scrapings then being very careful while cleaning the jars for reuse, also. Kinda sounds like sushi chefs preparing fugu, lol.

 

The more I come here the more I like what I take away. Thank you folks!

 

They're not "bugs." It's a bacteria (clostridium botulinum) that produces a toxin

Yes, you got the latin name correct.

produces a toxin (Botulism) when in a low-/no-oxygen environment.

Technically, the toxin itself is called botulinum toxin, whereas the disease it causes is called botulism.

Cooking above around 185 for 5-10 minutes is sufficient to destroy the bacteria spores.

NO, this is very much incorrect. Vegetative Clostridium cells that have not yet formed spores may be killed at that temperature, but mature cells containing spores will not be. I think you are confusing the distruction of the botulinum toxin with the botulism bacteria. Heating to 185 is hot enough to denature and kill the toxin, but will only activate the spores to germinate.

The "old timers" didn't have pressure canners and they were, by and large, just fine.

I think the only thing that saved "old-timers" was that they were reheating water-bath canned foods before eating it. Warming back up the boiling is enough to destroy the toxin that formed, which may be why people weren't dropping dead left and right.

It is entirely possible for a water-bath canner to reach the required temp, but it takes a long time to get the CENTER of the jar to the appropriate temperature. Pressure canners bump temps to 200-240ish (off the top of my head), so there's a much bigger safety margin wrt a water bath canner.

No, this is very much incorrect. Even 100 hours of boiling at 100C is not enough to kill botulism spores, even if penetrating to the center of the jar. They start to die off at about 110C, fairly quickly at 115C and quite quickly at 121C. Those three temperatures roughly correlate to 5, 10, and 15 PSI of steam pressure. The standard canning pressure is 10 PSI, which heats the jars to 240F. The 15 PSI setting is for high altitude, where water boils at a lower temperature. Use the same times at 15 psi at high altitude (up to 7000 feet I believe) that would use 10psi at sea level.

Lastly, I have to say that a canner does NOT have to be expensive, and that everyone should have one. Amazon was selling a nice Presto for 60$ a couple of months ago. But, I have yet to purchase a single canner retail. I've purchased five different canners (some new in the box) for 10-15$. I've checked each and every one of them with an autoclave thermometer, and all were operating at the correct temperature even though used. Never had to even change a gasket yet, though I have bought replacements.

I've been giving away those "new in the box" canners to friends to get them started.

 

Yep, $60 bucks for an easy to use Presto pressure canner = canning foods like meat and low acidity veggies with peace of mind :grin:

Also, keep in mind the vegetables we can today are not necessarily the same that our grandparents and great grandparents canned. Most tomatoes require lemon juice added since they're not as acidic as the heirlooms were. If you're growing heirloom varieties, you're probably fine, but most hybrid tomates need more acid in the jars.

 

I noticed above that someone stated that you processed acidic foods in a water bath and you 'had' to process non acidic foods like meats in a pressure canner. I wonder when that 'had to' idea came into being. Most folks around here that are over 50 never heard of a pressure canner. I know my mom did everything and I mean everything in the same thirty gallon cast iron kettle with a lid on it over a wood fire and I don't remember any of us kids getting food poison. Guesses???

I'm 43 and I grew up with pressure canning, it's not new. I have a pressure caner in my basement (that we don't use) that is 60+ yrs old!

Love my $69 Presto caner!