Pressure canner, would you buy this?

[Marmalady]

The tend to americans use canning rather than just bottling like we do because at the higher altitudes of many of the mountain states, liquids "boil" at much lower temps - and so often do not reach the required temps for long-term sterilisation/storage

You can bottle fruit & veg without a pressure canner the old fashioned way -- by immersing the jars upto their necks in boiling water for specified times. I expect the canner will just reduce the time (and therefore the fuel costs) this takes

Also another point to bear in mind when buying from USA (or anywhere outside EU) is the vat & customs charges on your purchase which will add a hefty whack to anything over £18 in value. Plus an £8 "handling charge" on the collection of such fees -- so your £70 canner could end up nearer £90 - 100

[Nomada]

Oh yes, I've been burned by that once before! Buying a fairly cheap t shirt from an american website for my friends birthday years ago that ended up being so much more expensive than I'd planned

I cant speak for Lee (my allotment partner) but personally I'd only want to bottle tomatoes and maybe some fruit like kiwis so other preservation methods would suffice for other things. Like I love spiced pickled pears but she thinks thay are

Can I just ask, I've never done anything other than tomatoes before, is it possible to bottle fruits in an acidic juice rather than a syrup? I've been following the instructions in my preserving book but it only gives instructions for a sugary syrup to bottle with. But then it covers bottling using a water bath. Is it safe to bottle in juice without the pressure canner? I'm guessing the sugar is for flavouring, not for adding to the preservation of the food. There doesn't seem to be much out there on the more traditional bottling, more canning with pressure.

[Nomada]

oooh, by the way. My tomato sauce that I bottle contains added balsamic vinegar. Do you reckon this increases the acidity enough or would it be wise to add a dash of lemon juice or some citric acid to it?

[Marmalady]

I've never done any bottling/canning so cant give advice from experience -- but this site seems to have some good info :

http://www.allotment.org.uk/allotment_f ... ethods.php

the links at the bottom of the page lead you onto the different methods & recipes for different fruit & veg

Its also a uk site which is better for a more local viewpoint!

[Jandra]

If home-canned food which has been infected with botulinum clost-thingium is cooked for a number of minutes (not sure exactly how long), any botulism toxins wil fall apart and be rendered harmless. You don't actually kill the bacteria at normal cooking temps, but it's the toxins that the bacteria made while they were swimming cosily in their can on your pantry shelf that'll harm you.

That's probably why people eating home-canned food get away with it more often than not, even if contamination has taken place.

I use a pressure cooker for canning my tomatoes, just to be on the safe side. Most pressure cookers are NOT suitable for this, as they don't get to the required pressure to get to 121 Celcius. A real pressure canner would be a marvellous investment, I think. But normal veg looses much of the quality in canning, in my opinion. Tomatoes an pumpkin pieces taste just fine! And, though I haven't done that myself yet, you can also can meat.

[jackieinspain]

I have just taken delivery of a 23 quart pressure canner from America. It was new, and cost me €128 incl postage
Pressure canning is the only method of preserving approved by the US Department of Agriculture

I decided to buy one as we have so many tomatoes, (I did 7 litres only the other day) and you can pressure can just about anything.
If anyone wants to investigate further here is the company I bought from (it arrived in Spain 6 days after payment)
http://www.limitedgoods.com/itemView.php?ProdID=771872

[grahamhobbs]

Did it come with comprehensive guide to timings for various things, eg. bottling apples without sugar. I have been pondering whether to get one because we bottle lots of apples and tomatoes in particular.

[jackieinspain]

Yes Graham, there is a guide. For apples it says, " Wash, peel and cut apples into pieces. PLace apples in ascorbic acid solution (lemon juice?)to prevent darkening during preparation. Drain well Boil apples in a light syrup or water for 5 minutes

Pack hot apples in clear , hot, Mason(sic) jars. etc etc.......................

I have on order from my sister in law in Dallas, the "bible" for home canning and preserving - "The Ball Blue book guide to Preserving" (http://www.amazon.com/dp/0972753702?tag ... KPNKKY75FK&).

We too have about a zillion tomatoes, and I´m bottling them as sauces, ketchups, soups etc.
There are very comprehensive guides to timings and presuures, to include changes in altitude too.

Hope this helps.

[grahamhobbs]

Thanks Jackinspain, it sounds the business, we are fed up trying to do it each year without good equipment, it just takes too long.