Preserving MI Harvest - Canning: Back to Basics
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EmailFebruary 25, 2025
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Whether a beginner to home canning or looking for a refresher on best practices, this class is for you. Join us to learn how to properly use your water bath and pressure canner.
The 2025 MI Ag Ideas to Grow With conference was held virtually, February 24 - March 7, 2024. This two-week program encompassed many aspects of the agricultural industry and offered a full array of educational sessions for farmers and homeowners interested in food production and other agricultural endeavors. More information can be found at: https://www.canr.msu.edu/miagideas/
Video Transcript
And welcome to MI Ag Ideas to Grow With. Thank you to our sponsors, our sponsor, platinum sponsor AgriStrategies, LLC. And welcome to Preserving MI Harvest - Canning Back to Basics. Alright, so we're going to start off before we jump into the canning process itself, talking about produce. So it's nice to see the sun shining here today in Michigan. Hopefully it's shining where you're at. But as you know, we are, you know, still in winter. And so we're kind of getting ahead of the game here for you to start thinking now about your spring and summer and fall, planting and produce and preservation. So when we think about produce for preserving, um, unless it is preserved in some manner, produce does begin to spoil soon after harvest. It's important to preserve food before it becomes spoiled. So if you do grow your own gardens this summer, pick produce at the proper stage of maturity, inspect carefully for cuts and bruises. And if there's lots of bruises and cuts on a surface, rinsing will not help, and it's not recommended you preserve that produce. Also, don't use under ripe fruits or immature vegetables unless the recipe specifically calls for them. The quality of fruits and vegetables doesn't improve after harvest. So it really is better to hold those ripe fruits and vegetables for a day or two in the refrigerator as you wait for others to ripen, rather than picking produce that is not yet ready. Once you do harvest that produce, chill your fruits and vegetables as soon as possible so that quality doesn't drop. Try and harvest your produce early in the day. And if you're shopping at a farmer's market to get your produce, you know, again, try and do that early in the day and then return home to process. Remember, fresh fruits and vegetables are grown in dirt or on bushes or vines or trees. So rinsing that produce under cool running water just before using before preserving is ideal. Rinsing them effectively ensures that you're not eating any of those remaining contaminants. Remember, you don't need anything special to wash your produce. No soaps or detergents or commercial washes. All you need is running water, and then the friction of your hand or a vegetable brush on those tough skin fruits or vegetables. All right let's talk about recipes. So one of the most important messages I will share, and really, you'll hear on any preserving class that you attend through MSU extension is that we recommend you only use research based recipes when you're preserving at home. It's always important to follow those directions exactly on the recipe and to not skip or alter any of the steps or the ingredients in these recipes. So these research based recipes are the most up to date. They're tested for safety, and we do have a huge variety of recommended resources we would hope you would consider and we would recommend you consider using. Now, if you want to put your email, let me make sure I have the chat enabled. If you want to put your email in the chat, I can send you a follow up email with some resources as well, and I will include access for how you can locate these recommended resources that we suggest. We highly recommend using the research tested recipes from the National Center for Home Food Preservation. They have a wonderful, very comprehensive website that's a program of extensions across the country, but it's housed at the University of Georgia extension. The National Center for Home Food Preservation, it's a wonderful website. They also publish a book called So Easy to Preserve, and it is a great resource that can be ordered online, and then you can receive that book in the mail. Also we would recommend the United States Department of Agriculture's complete guide to home canning. And so that picture can be seen in the middle there of the middle column, the middle photo. You can download that from the National Center website if you want to print it yourself or print out certain recipes or print out certain sections of the guide to home canning, or you can order it as a spiral bound book as well. That can actually be ordered on Amazon and probably some other online retailers as well. We also recommend our MSU Extension, Michigan fresh website and the fact sheets that go along with that. We have a program called Michigan Fresh, where we have fact sheets for pretty much everything that grows in the state of Michigan fruits and vegetables and Christmas trees and poultry and the list goes on and on. Plus, there's gardening fact sheets, and it really is a great resource. MSU Extension Michigan Fresh. If you want to Google that, or again, I will send you these resources later today. But on that Michigan fresh website, you can find fact sheets again on preserving methods, like you can see here, the basics of waterbth canning, the basics of pressure canning you can also find fact sheets for tomatoes and peaches and peppers and winter squash and melons and peas, just the list goes on and on and on, and it will tell you how to use and store and preserve that produce safely usually has at least one recipe on as well. So that's another resource. Then the last one would be the ball blue book, and we always recommend you use the most recent edition, which actually was published last year in 2024. They did an update, and so you can see the middle column, that top photo, the ball bluebook, it's got a dark blue color around the edge of the front cover now. And so that did, like I said, get updated and was released, not quite a year ago. I think it was like in March of 2024. So that'll be the one you'll want to look for if you're purchasing in stores or online. So there's just a wealth of resources here and recipes, just hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of them. And so if nothing else, today, the biggest thing I would encourage you to remember and take away is to consider looking for these research based recipes to use when canning and preserving at home. Like I said, it looks like a lot of you put your put your email in, so I will definitely send those to you as well. Now, you might be thinking to yourself. You might think, though, well, I've got some family recipes, we have recipes we've always used, and we realize that family recipes can be part of family traditions, which connect generations and even can be reminders of fond memories. Many people preserved in the past with their grandparents or moms and dads or aunts and uncles, and so there is some tradition there, which we completely understand and that was the same for me. My grandma and grandpa can, my mom can. But family recipes and older recipe books with canning directions can have methods or ingredients that should not be used anymore. Research has provided scientific knowledge that these recipes may not be safe. The processing times, the temperatures, the acidity levels, the ingredients for some of these products might not be sufficient. So that's why we recommend using the most up to date research based recipes. What we would suggest is if you do have some family recipes you really enjoy grab that recipe, look through the recommended recipes I just shared and find a recommended recipe, research based recipe that is as close to your recipe as you can find. Okay? So then preserve it according to the research based recipe. And then what you can do when you go to open that jar of salsa, let's say, or sauce or something, this fall or next winter, then you can add those other ingredients that were part of your original recipe to make it, taste like you remember or taste like you wish. So that really is the best way to still, you know, preserve some of those family recipes, but to do it safely. You know, one thing to remember is food preservation is a science. So it's not like cooking when we can just add a little bit of this or add a little bit of that or switch up ingredients. You know, we don't like this ingredient, so we're going to add this one instead. With cooking, that's fine, right? But with preserving, we really have to follow that research. And then, like I said, when you open the jar, then you can add those other special ingredients to make it like, you know, you want or like you hope or like you remember. So that would be our best recommendation right there. Um, I don't know what's wrong with that bottom picture there. That's funny. Let's look now at some of these canning utensils that could be helpful for you in preserving. Um, The first one there in the top left is a headspace measurer and a bubble freer on the other end. So it's got a series of steps that range from a quarter inch to 1 ". And these steps are the distance needed to determine your headspace, which means how far the food in your jar is from the top rim of the jar. And we'll see more about headspace a little bit later. But it is a key component to safe canning and proper canning. The other end is a bubble freer, and it looks like a long wand and it's curved so you can put it into the jar with the food product and remove any air bubbles. Next, we have a jar I'll just go through these here. In the middle, we have the jar lifter. This really is a great tool, and if you don't purchase any other tools for home canning, I would suggest you get this one because this really does make lifting those jars into and out of the water much easier. None of these utensils are required. They're just helpful, especially if you plan to do canning and get into it and do a lot of canning through the years. They're pretty inexpensive utensils as well. But the jar lifter really is great because you don't want to tilt the jars. You need to pull them straight up and out of the water. And they're obviously especially coming out of the canner very, very hot. And so the jar lifter is a great tool that not touching the lid, you're impacting the sealing process going on because that jar lifter will just pull it up straight up and out without any trouble. The next utensil in the top right corner is a magnet, which you can also use one end as a bubble freer to. One end has the magnet for picking up canning lids. You can easily place them on the top of your clean jar rims. Then again, the other end you could use to free bubbles. Bottom left, we've got a timer. This is essential for monitoring your processing. We would highly encourage you to set a timer because it's so easy to lose track of time. Don't rely on your memory, set that timer so you know that you vented for ten full minutes and you know you processed for the full 40 minutes or the full 25 minutes or whatever the case might be according to your research based recipe. Then the last bottom right corner there is just a wide mouth funnel, nothing fancy, but it does make the task of filling jars much easier and cleaner. It's always helpful to have also a variety of cutting boards, hot pads, spatulas, spoons, other utensils like that as well can definitely be very helpful. Just some ideas of things. If you're thinking about canning more this summer, you can keep your eye out once they start putting the preserving items back in your stores if they're not in your stores currently, sometimes they pull them in for winter, but keep an eye out for some of these and these would be helpful tools to use. Now let's talk about the canning jars and the canning lids. So we do recommend a two piece lid, which includes the metal lid, and then the metal screw band or the ring, whatever you might want to call it. The lids are held in place by the metal screw band. You can see though under the lid, and that's the picture of it on the right there upside down that the outer ring of the lid is filled with a sealing compound. This compound is what forms the seal on the top of your jar. When you heat the jars, the sealing compound on the lid softens during processing, and then it flows just a little bit to cover the jar sealing surface. Even with that sealing compound in place, air is still able to escape from the jar during your processing in your canner. Then as the jar cools, that sealing compound forms an airtight seal, and that's when you'll hear the ting ting tings of the jar sealing after you take them out of your canner. We recommend only purchasing enough lids for about a year, get you through year to year. Um, generally, lids will work well for five years. They don't usually have dates on the boxes per se, but you can kind of think about when you purchased them. We did have issues for a few years with having access to lots of lids, and I think we're finally past that now that we can usually pretty easily find them in most stores and most areas when you're looking to use them, especially in the summer and the fall. Always read the directions on your lids. Most lids now do not require heating of the lids before use. Some of you might remember boiling lids in the past. That's not recommended with most lids now. So check the box of lids you buy, but most of them now just say to wash them in warm soapy water, and then you can use them just like that. All right. So with our jars, canning jars can be reused from year to year, as long as they are a standard canning jar, like a mason type, you know, ball type jar, which is designed and tempered to specifically withstand the heat, they will, um, getting inside that canner. Check for cracks or chips and jars before using them, then wash them in warm soapy water and dry. You will need to keep your jars hot before you fill them with whatever you're canning by either placing them in hot water in an extra canner on the stove or you could keep them hot inside of the steam canner. But just using some mechanism, you will notice that on the research based recipes, they normally say to fill your hot jars with salsa, to fill your hot jars with green beans, to fill your hot jars with, you know, whatever you're preserving. So you can take a look at that and look for that on the research based recipe as well. Filling jars. After you have prepared your produce according to your research based recipe, and you have your jars hot washed and hot and you have your lids ready, it's time to fill your jars. So here's where that funnel can come in handy. Filling your jars using that wide mouth funnel, ladle your product into the clean hot jars. Now, your recipe will always tell you how much headspace to leave at the top. So the picture here shows us filling our pickled carrots into our hot jars. Okay. Now on the next slide here, I said we talked more about headspace, so let's take a look at this. Headspace is the amount of room between the inside of the lid and the top of the food or it's liquid. Follow that research based recipe when calculating how much head space because it'll range from a quarter inch to 1 ". Normally, a quarter inch is for jams and jellies. Usually it's a half inch for high acid foods, like pickled products or like salsas or fruits. Then 1 " is normally recommended if you're pressure canning. If you're pressure canning vegetables or meats, things like that. But always follow that research based recipe. Leaving that specified amount of headspace is important to ensure your vacuum seal forms. If you leave too little headspace, the food may expand and bubble out when air is being forced out from under the lid during processing. And that bubbling food might leave a deposit on the rim of the jar and prevent your jar from sealing. On the other side, if you leave too much headspace, so your jar is not full enough, the food at the top is likely to discolor. And also the jar might not seal because there won't be enough processing time to drive all the air out of the jar. So let's take a quick peek at a short video here, demonstrating how to measure head space. It's really very simple, but it is a really important piece of safe canning. One way to ensure your jars will seal is to leave the specified amount of headspace according to your research based recipe. There is a headspace measuring tool for canning with pre measured amounts from a quarter inch to 1 ". You can also just use a ruler or other measuring tool. Each recipe will call for a specific headspace amount depending on the product you are preserving. If there's too little headspace in the jar, your product may expand and bubble out when air is forced out causing your jars not to seal properly. If there's too much head space in the jar, the product at the top may discolor. Your jars may also not seal properly because not enough of the air is forced out of the jars during processing. Adjust your head space. If too little or too much product is in your jar. Remeasure after making adjustments to ensure you have the correct head space. This will help to ensure your jars seal properly. So we do have a number of videos on different parts of safe home food preservation. I will show you two more today, two short ones, but when I share the resources, I will also send the information on how to view the rest of those. Headspace is really important. Get your headspace measure out or another mechanism and measure every time. Next, we would free our air bubbles. Using a bubble freer, run that around the inside of the jar to release any air bubbles just by moving it up and down throughout the jar. You can use anything. You don't have to again, purchase a bubble freer, headspace measurer. Just make sure that whatever you're using is plastic, not metal, since it could scratch the inside of your jar and compromise the jar. Move that utensil up and down to remove any air bubbles and then remeasure your head space to make sure you're where you should be because you might need to add a little bit more liquid. Okay. All right. Next, we would attach our two piece lid. So we would start first by using a clean damp cloth or paper towel to wipe off any food or liquid from the jar rim. I want to make sure there's nothing on the top of that that could compromise the seal. The next step would be to put the lid on, and you can see they're using the magnet, or, again, any mechanism just so we don't want to be touching the sealing compound underneath the lid with our hands and our fingers. Okay. Then we would put the metal screw band or the ring, whatever you choose to call it, and we would twist that on, ensure that the rubber seal fully contacts the rim, and then screw on the metal band. Okay. To what we call finger tip tight. So what that means is when you're screwing that metal band on, finger tip tight describes how tight you should turn the ring onto that jar. Turn the ring until it stops turning easily. We don't want you to force it or use a lot of super strength to make it really, really tight because that could also cause an issue with the lid ceiling. So just finger tip tight. Just turn it kind of until it stops you. We don't have to use superman strength or anything. All right. Now let's look at the different types of canners. Now that we filled our jars with products to process, let's explore the different types of canners. So we have first approved canners that can be used for canning high acid foods, and that would be water bath canners or atmospheric steam canners. Let's talk about those first. So when you are getting ready to preserve or even getting ready to plant your garden, you might be thinking about what food you and your family enjoy. So you can decide what to preserve later on through the summer and into the fall. When canning produce, we categorize produce as low or high acid. So first, we'll talk about high acid foods with a pH of zero to 4.6. They contain enough acid so that the botulism spores will not germinate. So high acid foods that you can process in a water bath or atmospheric steam canner include most fruits, jams and jellies, tomatoes and figs that have been acidified. Sauerkraut, as well as pickles, relishes, chutneys, salsas, other products that have had large amounts of acid added to them. These are the kinds of products and foods you can can with your water bath or atmospheric steam canner. So let's spend some time now explaining the water bath canning process first. So some key components of your water bath canner include first, a rack on the bottom, which is necessary to keep the canning jars off the bottom and to allow for proper water circulation underneath and around the jars. There needs to be a tight fitting lid on the canner to keep the heat for processing inside because that canner must boil the entire time of your processing. Another important note about water bath canners is they need to be tall enough, so there's at least one to 2 " of water above the canning jars. And so if you're doing pints, probably not a problem on the size of your canner. But if you're doing quarts, you have to make sure again because quarts are taller, the quart jars are taller, that you can have one to 2 " of water above those quart jars. Now on this slide, you can see a couple of different types of water bath canners. The one on the left is an enamel canner. You can find them usually in blue or black colored, pretty inexpensive, usually pretty easy to find. They come with a rack inside. On the right is more of a stainless steel canner with a clear lid, which is nice as well. Also comes with a rack. You might find them in different colors, again, variety. Usually, you can find them during preservation time, you know, at lots of hardware or grocery stores or Meijer, Walmart, Costco, places like that. Um, might not find them this time of the year. You might have to wait till more of the summer or fall time, or you can order them online as well. The enamel canner there is usually about $30 or less. And the stainless steel one might be a little bit more, but they are good investments, and they do hold up well over time. Now, if you don't have a water bath canner or you choose not to purchase one, you could use a large stock pot with a tight fitting lid. Remember, though, you have to have something in the bottom of the pot to keep the jars off the bottom. You can sometimes purchase a rack. You could make a rack there. You could see a couple ideas of using some canning rings that you zip tie or twist tie together. You could use aluminum foil and make a aluminum foil ring per se, but something you have to have something on the bottom to keep the jars off the bottom of the pot. On the right is another product that you could purchase. It's a little plastic type basket. Um and then this could be just placed right inside the pot. As you can see, though, it doesn't hold much. This would just be for small batches of maybe jam and jelly or something, salsas, things like that. But it is an option because it would provide a rack there because it keeps it off the bottom in that little basket. So how does water Bath canning work? So it's a pretty simple process. Once you've prepared your product, according to your research based recipe and filled your jars, you're ready to process. So let's say we're doing some salsa. We can do that in our waterbath canner. So you'd start by filling your canner half full of water. Turn the stove on and get the water preheated. And then you'll place those filled canning jars on the rack in the canner. And then lower that rack down into the canner. Then if we're doing pints of salsa, we'd want to make sure that there is at least one to 2 " of water above the jars once they are submerged into the canner. It is a good tip to have some extra water boiling in a separate pot on the stove just in case you need to add extra water. So after you have lowered them in and you've checked the water level, cover the pot with the lid, and then you'll need to turn the heat back up if necessary, but you need to get that water back to a full boil. And then once it reaches a full rolling boil is when you would set your timer. If the salsa was supposed to process for 25 minutes, let's say, and I just pulled it out of my head. I didn't look that up. We would set the timer for 25 minutes, and it has to boil the whole time. Again, you need to monitor that, make sure that nothing happens, that the water stops boiling, and then at 25 minutes, you would be done processing. I want to show you just a short video snippet here what this looks like in the kitchen. So let's take a peek at this. Using a water bath canner to preserve high acid foods like fruits, pickled products, acidified tomatoes, and jams and jellies is a simple process. Start by filling the canner half full of water and put the lid on the canner. Pre-heat the water to 140 degrees Fahrenheit for raw pack and 180 degrees Fahrenheit for hot pack foods. Once the water's hot, remove the lid and carefully place filled jars onto the canner rack. A rack is necessary to keep the jars off the bottom of the canner and prevent breakage. After jars are placed on the rack, lower the rack down into the canner. There must be one to 2 " of water above jars for proper water circulation during canning. If not, add more water and place the lid on the canner. Processing begins when the water comes back to a full rolling boil. Set your timer according to the research based recipe. When the timer goes off, processing is done. So turn off the heat, remove the canner lid, and wait 5 minutes to allow for cooling. Next, lift the rack out of the water and remove jars using a jar lifter. Being careful not to tip them. The water on the lids will evaporate. Place the jars on a towel, cutting board, or rack to cool. After 12 to 24 hours, once jars have sealed, label each jar with the date and name of the product. If a jar do not seal, you have the option to reprocess using the same processing time, freeze or place in the refrigerator and consume. To store your jars of canned food, remove the ring, place in a dry, dark area, and use within one year. So that kind of gives you an idea of what it looks like kind of in action in your kitchen. A lot of people start out with water bath canning because, you know, again, it's not terribly difficult. Takes some time, obviously, like all canning does, but it's probably one of the easier methods. And you can do a lot of different items in your water bath canner. So when you think about what you want to preserve, you really need to again look at if it's a high acid food, and you can use water bath or steam canner. If not, we're going to talk about the pressure canner in a minute, as well. Now, I just wanted to show you briefly about the atmospheric steam canner. This is something that is a little bit newer of a method that's approved. And you can purchase atmospheric steam canners online as well. I don't know that I've ever seen one in any of my local stores. I live in a rural community. But I've never seen one so far at a Walmart or a Meijer in my area per se, but I have seen them online. The atmospheric steam canner has a large dome and a short pan for water, and then also has a rack because like we said, racks are really critical. There's also a steam port and a vent. Um, and with the atmospheric steam canner, one key piece to this is you can process any high acid food like your water wrath canner, as long as the processing time is less than 45 minutes. There are some tomato recipes and a couple of others that are over 45 minutes. Those you may not use your atmospheric steam canner for because they'll boil dry. So it's only for processing times less than 45 minutes. Jams and jelies would be fine, salsas, things like that, a lot of tomato things, but check your processing time. Some benefits to the atmospheric steam canner are that they're easy to fill. They don't take much water compared to that water bath canner. They're lighter, they're easier to handle, easier to empty. And your kitchen will stay cooler than when using that water bath canner that's half full of water. And it's really easy to maneuver around the kitchen as well, compared to trying to dump the water out of that big water bath canner when it's over half full. But they both work just fine for high acid foods. Some people really enjoy using a steamer atmospheric steam canner. Others like me, I just stick with my basic water bath canner. But just so you know you have options, with your steam canner, you're only going to use usually about two quarts of water. You always want to check your directions with your steam canner. But you'll put your filled jars on the canning rack after preheating the water and then put the lid on the steam canner. Turn the burner on high and when the indicator knob reaches your altitude zone, you can start counting your processing time. Then you also have to have a thermometer in the vent port to measure and make sure that temperature is staying above 212 degrees. That's where we get pure steam. So I'm going to show you just a short snippet here on one of our older videos just so you can see what the atmospheric steam canner looks like in case you are interested in exploring it. I will send you some links to some fact sheets as well. One's about atmospheric steam canning, water bath canning, and pressure canning. I wanted to show you how the atmospheric steam canner worked. I filled the steam canner with 2.5 quarts of water. The water is just below the canning rack. I set my jars on the canning rack over the already hot water. I placed the dome lid on the canner base, covering the filled jars. I made sure the vent port was where I can see it. It is important to make sure the steam is exiting the vent port while processing. At the same time, I'm watching the dial at the top of the atmospheric steam tanner, so I will know when I can start timing process. Before the indicator needle reaches my elevation line, I am going to check the temperature, making sure the internal temperature reaches 212 degrees Fahrenheit. I place the biometallic thermometer in the vent port. I allow it time to register the temperature. After it has reached 212 degrees Fahrenheit, I remove the thermometer and watch the dial. Once the dial has reached my elevation line, I start the timing process. After the timer goes off and process has been reached, I turn off the heat, allow five more minutes for the canner to rest. Then carefully remove the dome and remove the jars and set them on a towel on the counter where they will not be disturbed. Allow them to cool for 12 to 24 hours. So like I said, just a little sneak peek there at what the atmospheres. looks like and what it can do. So if you are interested, I would encourage you to check that out. You can purchase that and then I'll send you that fact sheet as well. But remember, only high acid foods like the water bath canner. Let's move into pressure canning as we get ready to wrap up for this afternoon. Botulism is a rare but potentially deadly illness caused by a poison most commonly produced by a pathogen called clusridium botulinum. This bacteria can be found in soil and it can survive and grow and even produce a toxin in circumstances when food is improperly canned, that toxin can be deadly if we consume it. We can't see or smell or taste botulism toxin, but even taking a small taste of food containing this toxin can be deadly. Many cases of foodborne botulism have happened after people ate home canned foods that were contaminated because they were not canned correctly. And so we don't share that to scare anybody, but just to let you know the reality of the reasoning behind why we must pressure can our low acid foods. A pressure canner gets to temperatures of 240 degrees inside that pressure canner, and it can handle and take care of that botulism bacteria if it is present. Water bath canners will never get that hot inside. And so if you want to preserve by canning these low acid foods like vegetables, red meat, seafood, poultry, mixtures of low acid and high acid food. An example of that might be if you're making a spaghetti sauce with meat, that would be a mixture of high acid tomatoes and low acid meat. You would need to pressure can that spaghetti sauce with meat or certain tomato sauces, things like that. That's why we need to use the pressure canner because of the risk of botulism. With pressure canning, we do have two different types and we'll take a peek at these. Dial gauge and weighted gauge are approved methods for home canning with a pressure canner. All pressure canners would also have a rack. They have a pressure regulator. They have a dial or a weight depending on if you have a dial gauge or weighted gauge. They have safety valves and over pressure plugs and a vent pipe for pressurizing. They have safety locks, and they have a gasket inside the lid unless you have the all American metal to metal type lid canner. So let's take a look at each of these individually. The dial gauge is just like it sounds. It's got a gauge with dial on it with numbers and you can see the increments for when you're processing. Five, ten, zero, five, ten, 15, 20 pounds of pressure. Also remember with your pressure canners, the lid twists to lock in place. Unlike the water bath canner where we just step the lid on top, with the pressure canner, the lid will actually lock in place. This pressure canner has a vent pipe to exhaust the canner to create that vacuum inside. Once the canner has been exhausted for 10 minutes, we put the weight on the vent pipe to close the canner and allow the pressure to begin building. Canners have safety valves that will melt when the internal pressure becomes too high. There are safety mechanisms in place for using them. The way to gauge is very similar. The difference would be the gauge is usually just a weight of some sort. Could be circular, could be round shaped with a little knob on there depending on the type of weight to gauge you have. And so instead of watching the needle rise and the number go up on your dial gauge, with the weighted gauge, you'll need to listen for gentle rocking sounds or jiggling and that will let you know that pressure is being maintained. I can't remember which video we have in here, but we do have a video on the weighted gauge that if I don't show it here, I'll send you the link to that so you can see and hear what that looks like because it is a bit different than watching the dial gauge. Always read your manufacturer's instructions as well. Now with the pressure canner, we start out with only a couple inches of water. We're not canning and processing with the water, it's with the steam that's created inside, so we don't need lots of water. After you gently place your jars on the canner rack in the bottom, you place the lid on the canner and twist it to lock it in place, and you leave the weight off of the canner at this point. Then you'll turn the heat on high. And this next step is really, really important. It's called venting the canner. You need to exhaust all the steam out of your canner for ten full minutes. So you turn the heat on high already. So when the water boils inside, steam will start to come out of that open vent port, and we'll see this in a minute. Wait until there's a constant, strong funnel of steam. Then start timing for 10 minutes and for a full 10 minutes. After 10 minutes and your timer goes off, now you'll place the weight on your canner, and this will start to pressurize the canner, and this will even out the pressure inside the canner. It's a safety step. You'll start counting your processing time once the correct pressure is reached. So normally with a dial gauge, they recommend processing at 11 pounds of pressure. So once it would get to 11 pounds of pressure, you would start timing. With the weighted gauge, it's usually ten pounds of pressure. And so once it gets to ten, and it's making that rocking and jiggling sound, then you would start your timing. So let's take a peek at what this looks like. Looks like the video I have included here is for the dial gauge, but like I said, there is a weighted gauge, short, two minute video, and I'll send you the link. So you can see what that looks like, too. Pressure canning is the only method recommended by the US Department of Agriculture for safely canning low acid foods such as vegetables, meats and fish. Low acid foods must be canned at a temperature of 240 degrees Fahrenheit or higher and held there for the time specified in the recipe to destroy the bacterial spores naturally present in these foods. Pressure canning utilizes pressurized steam to reach this superheated temperature. This pressurized heat destroys the potentially harmful bacterial spores. Dial gauge canners have a dial on the top of the lid with numbers for monitoring the pressure as it builds and during processing. Dial gauges should be checked for accuracy every year. A rack goes on the bottom of all canners to prevent jars from sitting directly on the canner, which gets very hot and can cause jar breakage. Place your rack in the bottom of the canner. To use your pressure canner, first read the manufacturer's directions. Then add two to 3 " or two quarts of hot water to the canner, heat water to simmer. Next, place filled jars carefully on the rack using a jar lifter. Then place the lid onto the canner and lock into place. Now it's time to vent the canner. Leaving the weight off the vent port, turn the stove burner to its highest setting and heat the canner until steam flows from the vent. Let the canner steam until a steady stream of steam starts to flow from the valve. Once you have a steady stream, set a timer for 10 minutes. You will need to vent the canner for a full 10 minutes before pressurizing. Next, pressurize the canner by placing the weight on the vent port. As the canner pressurizes, you will see the needle increase on the dial gauge. Monitor the pressurizing, so once it reaches the recommended pressure, you are ready to process. Set your timer according to the research based recipe. Regulate the heat under the canner to maintain a steady pressure. If the pressure reading goes below the recommended pressure, bring the pressure back up and start the timing process again. Once the timer goes off, turn off heat to the canner. Pressure canners take time to depressurize after processing and before the lid can be open. Wait until the needle drops to zero. After the canner is depressurized, remove the weight from the vent port, unfasten the lid and remove it carefully. Open the lid away from you so that the steam does not burn you. Leave the jars in the canner for 10 minutes to keep liquid from leaking out. Then carefully remove the jars using a jar lifter by lifting them straight out of the canner. The water on the lids will evaporate. Place jars on a towel, cutting board, or rack to cool for 12 to 24 hours. After 12 to 24 hours, once jars have sealed, label each jar with the date and the name of the product. If a jar did not seal, you have the option to reprocess using the same processing time or freeze or place in the refrigerator and consume. To store your jars of canned food, remove the rings, place in a dry, dark area, and use within one year. All right, so just so you can see what that looks like, we're doing green beans there, which are, you know, a low acid vegetable. And so it's a process. But again, it can be done very safely. I always encourage people when you are pressure canning, you know, to be focused on the kitchen. You know, we all like to multitask to a certain extent, it seems like. But when you're pressure canning and you have something going, you know, in a canner, it's not a great time to try and be switching laundry or, you know, making dinner or doing these different things, stepping outside to hang clothes on the line or whatever the case might be. So we really want to, again, be focused on what's going on. And one reason is because if there's a loss of pressure during processing, you have to um, start that processing all over again. Again, we do have to be paying attention to the dial gauge and the weighted gauge because if you're supposed to process that 11 pounds of pressure in your dial gauge and you walk away and come back and you find that the pressures dropped to five pounds, that's a problem. And if it's under process, there's a risk of issue and concern and it could be contaminated. Again, we've got to stay focused because we'd have to start the timing process all over again once we get it back up to that 11. When you're canning in the kitchen. Lifting straight out of the jar after the pressure has dropped after you wait 10 minutes with the dial gauge or with the weighted gauge, 30 to 45 minutes after processing ends. Again, bring them straight out of the jar or out of the canner, I'm sorry. No tilting or moving those contents inside the jar around because we just want them to seal. So lift them straight up and out and put them on a clean towel or a cooling rack, and then cool for 12 to 24 hours. Normally, within the first hour or two, you're going to hear the sealing go on. You know, the little ting ting ting sounds when they're sealing. But we do want to just let them sit 12 to 24 hours undisturbed. After that, label and date the jars, and check the seals and remove the screw bands, remove the rings. Some people like to leave them on during storage. If you want to do that, that's fine, but it's not required because the lids are sealed. So a lot of people will also take them off and then use those metal screw bands, you know, the next time they're going to process something next week or next month. They're not required to stay on. So that's a personal preference. So what happens if something doesn't seal? Sometimes that'll happen. You'll have a jar that doesn't seal. You have 24 hours to reprocess. So if you were, you know, doing salsa, let's say, and you had one or two jars that didn't seal for whatever reason, and you're going to do another batch of salsa tomorrow, put it in the refrigerator, and then tomorrow, put that salsa Excuse me. The salsa will go into a new jar with a new lid because we don't know if the issue was with the jar, the rim of the jar or the lid, it's hard to tell. Add that new lid and then reprocess with your next batch of salsa using the same processing time. Or the other options would be you could just refrigerate it and eat it. Maybe you'll just have that be your jar of salsa that you're going to use for the next few days and use for dinner or snacks, or you could freeze the food in another container as well. So if you don't want to reprocess or if you were done, let's say that was your last batch and your last canner load of salsa, then freeze it or just eat it up. And then storage, we again want to make sure we're storing in a cool area away from a lot of direct sunlight. We recommend storing after they're labeled and dated for a year or longer. Always try and use up your older items first before you get into your new items. But ideally you want them used up in a year. So it's a lot of information I know. This is a link to our YouTube channel that has all the videos plus more, some other included. So you can scan that QR code or just watch for the link in your email and as well, and you can use it to access all of them. Okay, so I'll send that out. I want to leave a couple of minutes for questions here. Also, just to let you know, we do have a home food preservation and online course. It's a self paced course. You can do at your own time and your own schedule. I'll share this information for registration with you. It's free, but I will share that with you as well. We have a food safety hotline. Please call with any questions you have, whether it's about preserving or anything related to food safety. You'll talk to one of us on our team. If you call between Monday and Friday, 9:00 A.M. To 5:00 P.M. So just a great resource. And then ask extension is a way for you to ask questions via nights or the weekend. Is that way, too. And then we have a Facebook page. If you have aren't following us, I'd encourage you and invite you to follow us. It's called Think Food Safety. We host food recalls. We post upcoming classes. We have lots of free online classes like this one today that we do on different topics like cottage food law and food pantry safety and safe food healthy kids. And we do preserving classes every Thursday. It's a different topic every week. And so we invite you to follow us on Facebook to have access to all of that, as well as some food safety tips and recordings of some sessions can also be found there. I didn't put the slide in, but yeah, preserving my harvest Thursday classes take place every, most Thursdays at 1:00 P.M. And 6:00 P.M. It's a live session like this where you can get on and listen, you can ask questions, and I will include the information in the email to you for what's coming up. I believe is it this week or next week is a session on Maple syrup. I can't remember off the top of my head right now, but I will share that with you. And again, they're all free, so we would invite you to join us for that always anytime that you'd like. Alright, so hot packing maple syrup. I know the bottling process is different. I'm curious if there's a standard for the glass bottle to ensure it is stable. I do know that I am supposed to live off. Lisa, let's see here. Where's the rest of the question? Where did it go? There it is. Lisa, what I'm going to do is connect you with my colleague Karen, who does maple syrup and she'll be presenting that session either this week or next week as well. I'm going to connect you with her. I'm not sure I have the correct answer for that for you. Someone asked, can you use a pressure canner for water bathing if you don't use the pressure gauge? So, yeah, you can use that big pot. That would work as well. Yep. How much height is required for rack alternatives? Not a lot. Really, there's some thin rubber ones that they have out there for sale. But if you make your own with, like, the aluminum foil kind of snake per se, or with the um, all fit together. Those would be probably Oh, probably a good half inch maybe longer. Good question there. Let's see here. But wait. Let's see, can you use Let's see. Um, yeah, we do have Instagram as well. Think food safety? Yes, we do we had it, then we stopped, then we started again. So yeah, we need to add that back into our information. So yes, we do have Instagram for think food safety as well. Somebody must have looked this up for me. Oh, yes. So thank you, Katherine. We are doing a maple syrup and honey session through MI Ag Ideas to Grow With, and that's actually tomorrow. But we will also be doing a maple syrup session on our Thursday preserving MI Harvest weekly classes. So I'll share both those pieces of information with you guys. So yes, Catherine, thank you for that reminder. We have a family member who reuses his lids. That isn't safe, is it? Great question, Lucy. It depends on the brand. There is a brand of lids called tattler that are reusable. So if that's what they're using, there are some stipulations. You can only reuse them a certain number of times. And so you're supposed to keep track of that, actually make little hash marks on the lid each time you use it. So that can be investigated. If they're like a ball brand lid, and they're reusing then no, that is not safe. Ball lids are intended only for one time use. So check and make sure what type they have. I'm not having any luck finding canning recipes for black current syrup. Any recommendations? I'd have to take a look at the resources. I know there is one syrup that you could use lots of different fruits with, but I can look at that, Catherine, and I will let you know as well. Sweet hot pepper jam, and ate the surface off of the interior lid. Well, that's interesting. Mmm. If you were following a research based recipe, yeah, I'm not sure. That's another great question. I can, one of my colleagues makes hot pepper as well or hers is a jelly, but, um, I don't know why that would be I mean, if it's a research based recipe, the acidity should be okay. Was it like a ball type lid? We did have issues over the past few years with some lids that were kind of imitation lids and did not seal as well and work as well. So unless that's part of the issue that maybe it was a issue with the lid, it was well sealed. Okay. I'll like to know that one, as well, and I can definitely follow up and get back to you on that one, too. So it was corroded, huh? Wow. Yeah. So a couple of you, I will get back to you. Watch for an email from me. I can do some research and follow up. But really, thank you for joining us today. And yes, we have the honey and maple syrup class tomorrow. There's more MI Ag Ideas to Grow sessions all through next week. And then when I share resources, I'll let you know about our other food safety programs that we offer, you know, all through the year, that are going on week by week and month by month. So Um, hopefully you enjoyed it. Hopefully you picked up a couple of pointers and always reach out through the hotline or you can reply to my email I send you as well. If you have any other questions, I would be happy to help get answers for. So, have a wonderful afternoon and I hope this gets you kind of excited and thinking about what's hopefully to come, you know, once the weather finally breaks, and we know it's really spring. It's not teasing us. So enjoy your day and we will see you in a future session. Thank you.
