Canning Season.

[Worth1]

Originally Posted by imp

I haven't done any canning since...well, putting wax on jellies was the thing.

Last night or this morning at 4 a.m., I gave up on trying to can 9 pints of pork. I had trouble getting the pressure canner up to 10 pounds as the steam was blowing out the side, x 3 attempts. All American 915, brand new.

Finally, after doing a test run as the nice lady at AA foundry suggested, got the lid seated right and now am trying again with more pork.

Belle, the lab, enjoyed one of the jars tonight on her kibble, from this mornings disaster.

Hopefully all will go right this time, it's up to pressure, and now timing it.

You have my number and always welcome your calls.

Worth

[imp]

Thanks, actually, I don't have it. Those idiot boys had thrown away my rolodex, and made life a bit more awkward.

So far so good. Besides wasting meat, though Belle thought it was dandy!, was that all those jars sealed pretty as a picture. But not enough pressure or time. Just a learning curve.

[imp]

This time it worked!!!! YES!!!!!

8 pint jars of seasoned pork ribs, boneless!!

I am ridiculously pleased with myself for learning ( the start of learning anyways) a new to me skill. All already have sucked down lids and are still so hot they are bubbling in those pint jars.

Bad pictures, sorry. <grin>

Next chicken breasts with carrots & mushrooms, maybe some celery too. More pork to do as well. Have a chicken carcass, too, maybe make some stock to can...

I have frozen roasted hatch chilis to add some of the pork butt roasts I will can up later, maybe that will be yummy.

[Worth1]

Let me guess you weren't tightening the lid down evenly and in order like lug nuts on a wheel.

The product looks nice.
Another thing I have known people that are scared to death to can meat and never do it.
You jumped in head first.
Worth

[taboule]

Originally Posted by imp

This time it worked!!!! YES!!!!!

I am ridiculously pleased with myself for learning do as well. .

Bravo, welcome to the addiction, the fun is just starting.

[Worth1]

There were an older couple in the thrift store when I picked up the canner.
The lady said you found yourself a canner.
I said yes it will be part of my old canner collection.
She said you collect canners why would anyone collect canners?
I said someone has to.
Her husband said that is a fantastic answer I collect replica cannons.
Then we got to talking about victory gardens preserving food and so on.
My guess is they were in their mid 70's about the age of my oldest brother.
The man said he was 5 years old when WWII started.
My brother was born in 1938 or 39 somewhere in the 30's.

[clkeiper]

Imp, good job. glad to see you had a success. You could probably still eat what you tried the first 3x's though. no need to waste it as dog food. just refrigerate it.

Worth, I don't call my canners collecting... we use them all. I loan them out to friends and family (except for the AA) I hav 4 of them sittng on the back deck this week as I have been canning on and off for the past couple weeks. I still have 4 or 5 more in the basement and one in the garage I just bought to give to a friend. almost brand new mirro pressure canner. woot woot! it was a bargain. I just tell people I like to eat. it isn't as if it is optional, ya know. unless you are a breatharian.....or whatever that story I saw was trying to pass off as a real way of living. geesh!

[imp]

Yes, worth, the lid wasn't even though to me, it looked right. So now I check it much closer and it is getting broken in some.

The lids were sucked down last night and still down this morning. I am still smiling a bit over it.

Carolyn, the other batch sat out for more than 12 hours, so it will go into the fridge today and Belle will be delighted. I tend to share with her, LOL, though I hadn't intended to can her her own jars!

I can see the obsession, pun intended, as I am thinking of many things to can and get my little top of the fridge freezer cleared out.

My confession is that I actually have 5 canners. Maybe 6 if those boys did not steal the presto one, new in the box. I have the AA 910 & 915 new, a National 18 quart with a petcock, and an AA 25 quart with a petcock, last 2 used and purchased for not much. Now, I will have to either change those out to a vent tube and weighted type or figure out how to use the petcock.

And some scary monster given to me, I think it is a Qwik Kook? has a metal "belt" and is too big for me to lift empty! Huge. The local ag service will not even test the gauge on this one as they said it was just too old to use.

[Worth1]

The scary monster is a kook kwick I just bought refurbished pressure tested and canned a batch of stuff in it.
Age as far as I'm concerned has nothing to do with it.
Cracks swelling and pitting does.
Is it the gasket or gasketless type?

I have two old Kook Kwick canners one around 100 years old I use it all the time.
It is a number eleven with lugs on it.
The other with the band is a monster.
See them all in Operation old pressure cooker thread.
Worth

[imp]

I can't get the monster open, but it IS a kook Qwik and says 10-20 on the lid. Not quite as hevy as I recalled it being, but tstill big. Have no idea how to use or how much it holds.

[imp]

Okay, another batch in, this time pork country ribs with some celery, a few mushrooms and carrots plus broth, quart jars; sort of the start for a pork soup or stew.

Probably everyone else has used these for ever, but was buying a knife the other day, and along with the ceramic knife came a ceramic harp type peeler. Boy, I like that peeler. Peels good, but thinly and quick quick to get it done.

Shame I don't have chickens anymore, they would have loved the carrot peels.

[Worth1]

Originally Posted by imp

I can't get the monster open, but it IS a kook Qwik and says 10-20 on the lid. Not quite as hevy as I recalled it being, but tstill big. Have no idea how to use or how much it holds.

I know how to use it and how much it holds.
7 quarts or 19 regular mouth pint jars.
Mine is a 10-20 also.
The ones with the pressure release valve and petcock are like running a steam engine.
Here are the instructions.
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=...OZPgfdfNLjwerA

[imp]

I know nothing at all about running a steam engine LOL. Not even much about a gas engine - I like the idea of either fairy dust or putting underemployed squirrels to work.

I'm cooling off the first batch of quarts, then going to put up 9 pints of chicken breast.

Think that's it for the night for me, LOL.

[imp]

Chicken pints in and heating up so the canner can exhaust; it's 8 pints of chicken and 1 pint of pork as I ran out of chicken. I did put in some broth with the chicken breasts as they are such a lean meat and I didn't want them to be dry.

I still have about 6 packages of pork to can up, but not tonight.

Edit:

Finished a while ago, and he chicken came out terrific looking. Glad I added broth to the jars though. The first batch of quarts are all sealed now and the chicken pints were pinging as I took them out of the canner. Tomorrow, another round of pork.

Fat in the jars looks like mold threads, LOL!!!

[Worth1]

Canned chicken is expensive and something we should all learn to do.
You cant even find canned pork I dont think in the US.
At least not around here.