How To Pressure Can

Hey there everyone, I have had many requests for recipes and how to's on my canning recipes, today I will be giving a tutorial on how to use a pressure canner.

 So many of my followers on facebook have requested information on the basics to canning, I figured this will be a great start for most of them.

Pressure canning shouldn't be scary, and with today's pressure canners and their safety features there isn't much worry of the canner exploding in your kitchen, if done correctly pressure canning is totally safe!

 I will go through all the steps from sanitizing your jars, lids and rims.. To filling your jars, and loading and processing in your pressure canner.

Here is a list of things you will need to pressure can.

• Pressure Canner and canning rack 
• Jar Lifter
• Non Metallic Spatula
• Funnel    
• Mason Jars
• Rims and Lids
• Ball Canning Bible 

To get you started these are the essentials you must have!! Here is a link to a set of canning essentials Canning essentials. Walmart also carries the ball canning essentials kit as well.

This is the pressure canner that I have.. it fits 7 quart jars, 10 pint jars or 12 half pint jars.

 Here is a photo of the essentials I use everytime I can. Ladle, funnel, jar lifter and my non metalic spatula.

 These are the walmart brand canning jars. They are a few bucks cheaper and haven't had one issue with them yet.

 The lids are a one time use only, unless you buy tattler lids. You can still use processed lids for dry canning but you cannot pressure can with them once they have been used.

These are just part of my quart collection, as you can see from the photo above I keep a mass supply of canning jars big and small


After you have gathered all the things you need to start pressure canning you must find a recipe to can. I like doing already made meals as well as just canning individual items, such as potatoes, tomatoes, green beans .. etc..

This is where the Ball Canning Bible comes in handy, they have recipes for meals as well as individual items.

Here is an example. Green bean recipe from The Blue Book Guide to Preserving by Ball

"1 1/2 to 2 1/2 pounds beans fresh per quart
salt ( optional )
water

Raw Pack: Wash beans; drain. Remove string, trim ends and break or cut freshly gathered beans into 2 inch peices. Pack beans tighly into hot jars leaving 1 inch headspace. Add 1/2 tsp salt to each pint jar, 1 tsp to each quart jar, if desired. Ladle boiling water over beans, leaving 1 inch headspace. Remove air bubbles. Adjust two piece caps. Process pints 20 min, quarts 25 minutes at 10 pounds pressure. " - The Blue Book Guide to Preserving by Ball

If you prefer to hot pack the only thing different is blanching the beans for 5 minutes, which is not necessary but you can if you want to.


Sanatizing your jars, lids, and rims.

Hot soapy water, wash thouroughly and rinse. I place my jars in a 200 degree oven to keep warm after I have washed them. You may also use the sanatizing cycle on your dishwasher as well.

Place lids in a pot on your stove to keep warm, do NOT boil them, you can interfere with the sealing on the lids if they are boiled.

Preparing to pack your jars.
Take your product and raw or hot pack your jars remembering to leave the appropriate amount of headspace in your jars. Click the link to see a photo of the correct levels for headspace.



Correct headspace

Take your non metalic spatula and run it along the inside of your jar 2 - 3 times to remove any trapped air bubbles inside of your jars.

Take a damp cloth and wipe rims to remove anything that may have been spilled during the packing process.

Adjust your lids and rims, don't screw the lid on too tight, just so it is snug.

Place 3 quarts of water into your canner.  On my canner there are lines on the inside of the canner, as I point out in this picture.

Using the jar lifter place jars inside of the canner.

Once all your jars are inside of your canner place lid on your canner and tighten. Bring heat up, and wait for a slow steady steam of steam to pour out of the vent pipe. With my electric range it is hard to regulate heat so I do a lot of turning up and down the heat to get the right temperature, I've found that between med and med high is the perfect temp for my range, different ranges will have different results. Express steam for 10 minutes then add weight. In the green bean recipe it called for 10 lbs of pressure.  Place the weight on top of the vent pipe and wait for the cover lock to pop up and the weight to start rocking. Time starts when your weight comes to a steady rock. If you have never used a pressure canner before, you will know it's rocking when you see it.

After the time is up immediately remove canner from heat and let the canner cool down on it's own. Once the cover lock has dropped down remove weight and allow to cool for an extra ten minutes.

Twist canning lid off and lift AWAY from you. Trust me you do not want a steam facial from this puppy.

Using your jar lifter remove jars from canner and set in a place to cool for at least 3 hours.

You will start hearing the pings sometimes right away! Once jars have cooled make sure all of them have sealed and remove rings.

Do not leave the rings on, bacteria can grow underneath the rings and if the seal somehow gets broken, having that ring on there prevents you from knowing!


That is my tutorial. I hope this will help you all who are new to the canning world or want to get started. If done correctly this process is not difficult and is very safe. Remember all pressure canners aren't the same and if you do not have my exact model your instructions may be a little different. Please make sure you read your manual on how to use your specific model, this is just a guide to help introduce you.

Resources - Ball Blue Book Guide to Preserving