Home canning is a labor of love. Each of us puts a great deal of time into planning, preparing, and processing our canning recipes.
One way to lessen the load is to have friends or family join you in the fun. As the old saying goes: many hands make light work. Working together will greatly lessen the time it takes to prep ingredients, cook the recipe, and fill the jars. I will often get together with three or four girlfriends and rent a local commercial kitchen so we may create an assembly-line production type of setting to really crank out the jars. At the end of our six-hour session, there’s nothing more satisfying than hearing the sound of 150 lids sealing. We then divvy up the jars and enjoy going home to clean kitchens.
Top 10 Rules of Pressure Canning
1. Treat your glass jars like you would a glass coffeepot! Avoid vast temperature swings when working with glass.
2. Keep the vent pipe clean and free from debris. The vent pipe must be able to adequately exhaust steam. Hold the canner lid up to the light. If you do not see light through the vent hole, it is dirty and must be cleaned with hot running water and mild detergent.
3. Consult your manual for the proper venting time. The canner must adequately vent prior to processing. The most common venting time is 10 minutes.
4. Add one ounce of vinegar to the canner water prior to adding the jars for processing. Doing so will keep mineral deposits off your canning jars.
5. Use a reliable timer to avoid under- or overprocessing your food in the jars. And do not start your timer until your stovetop pressure canner has reached the required processing PSI.
6. Do not ever let your stovetop pressure canner’s PSI get below the required PSI. If you’re using a dial gauge pressure canner, going over the required PSI by 2 to 3 PSI is okay, but you must never go below it. If the PSI gets below the required amount, you will need to reprocess the jars.
7. Always let your pressure canner drop to zero pounds of pressure before removing the lid. Rushing this process could cause injury to you and your jars.
8. Once you are permitted to remove the canner lid, allow the jars to sit for a minimum of 5 minutes in the pressure canner before removing the jars to cool on a towel-lined cutting board on the countertop.
9. Food within the jars stays hot and active during cooling. Do not disturb the jars while they cool or you could prevent the second phase of thermal processing.
10. When using a digital canner that doubles as a water bather, be sure you have selected the proper pressure-canning setting to process low-acid foods.
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Unlock health and happiness through the art of home canning
The Canning Diva Presents Meals in a Jar, by Diane Devereaux, features over 100 delicious, ready-to-eat meals to enjoy anytime, anywhere. As you learn the science behind international favorites such as Spicy Beef Fajitas, Thai Chicken Larb Gai, Zuppa Toscana, and more, you will discover how easy it is to safely and confidently can and store complete meals. Simply pop open a jar, heat, and eat!
Learn more about Meals in a Jar here.
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