The government sites do more to scare people about canning then they do good.
There are better ways to get a point across than to scare the devil out of people.
If you are worried about botulism then just put 1/2 teaspoon if citric acid in each quart of tomatoes and be done with it.
You dont need to do this with a set of gram scales magnifying glass and an eye dropper.
The ball powdered critic acid is strong stuff.
Also if the instructions say to process for a certain amount of time dont add more time.
They have already added more time all you will be doing is ruing your produce.
The acid will not let the bacteria grow.
The object behind the processing is to get the jar to seal in water bath canning.
The object behind pressure cooking is to get the temps up to 240 degrees F for the required amount of time to make sure all of the food in the jar has gotten to this temperature for the required amount of time to kill botulism causing bacteria.
Water boils at a lower temperature at higher elevations so you have to take this into account.
The pressure has to be higher to get to that given 240 degrees.
The pressure gauge if it has the temps on it too are set at sea level.
I really do think they need to put real temperature gauges on pressure canners.
And by all means take the rings off once they have cooled.
Worth
|