Allotment Gardening Advice Help Chat
Eating and Drinking => Cooking, Storing and Preserving => Topic started by: bunnykin on November 30, 2009, 17:22
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I want to bottle/jar low acid foods, but dont want to poison the family!
I have managed to do it prefectly well in my pressure cooker, but - one jar at a time is very time consuming and obviously costly.
Does anyone know of a shop (as I cant find ANYTHING on the net) where they sell these items?
I am wondering if they sell them in France, as I am going there at Christmas so might be more choice?
Or is there another way to process low acid foods?
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Welcome to the site, feel free to pop into the Welcome forum and introduce yourself there :D
This thread:
http://chat.allotment-garden.org/index.php?topic=43445.0
may contain some useful info
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I can have a look for you, Bunnykin, but I'm not surewhat you mean. Do you want to bottle, or can ?
Are you just looking for a way of heating 5 or 6 Kilner jars at once ?
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Well, kind of yes. I am ok bottling jam as I have a large preserving pan I use as a water bath, but I am trying to avoid additives in food, so as my freezer is getting full of bags of stew, I want to bottle stewed vegetables, ratatoille, dhal, curry sauces, baked beans etc.
I might also like to do meats or other dangerous easily spoilable goods, so I need something that will be safe for us.
I know low acid foods need to be done at a higher temperature than normal boiling water, so pressure is the only way apart from oven (which I havent considered...), and although I have a pressure cooker, its long lost is little trivet (not really a problem), and I can only really do one jar at a time which is a pain, and very time consuming.
There is one on ebay right now, but its a lot of cash. If thats what they cost, then ok... but I wondered if they sell them anywhere else to make a comparison?
If you think it could be done in the oven, I am up for trying that, but wouldnt know how to go about it.
cheers
Claire
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As far as I know, the only way of getting higher temps. is by using pressure cooker.
The biggest I've found is 50 liters, but it costs an arm and two legs :ohmy:
Several models here (http://www.idealo.fr/liste/2121833/autocuiseur-lacor-50-litres.html), but they do seem expensive !
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Came across this thread while searching for canning info. I've searched the net too and can't believe how poor we are in this country for these kind of supplies at a reasonable price.
There must be another way, think i'll have to trawl the survival forums for some ideas :mad:
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I'm not sure if this will be of any help to you, because I have no experience of pressure canning.
I have been canning for a few years and now produce approx 100 jars a week, and then sell my wares at market. For my sterilizing I use a vegetable steamer, you know the plug electric kind (about a tenner from Tescos).
I steam the jars and lids for 30 minutes before decanting the food, and then steam a further 20 minutes once sealed.
I have been using this method for about three years and haven't had a jar go bad on me yet!
I hope this makes someone's life easier, I know it did mine!
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I haven't started canning yet as i'm waiting for my veg to grow still so i can can it when there is an excess (here's hoping) but I had to order my pressure canner from Sears.com. Warning though, the shipping charges are as expensive as the canner. Mine was a Christmas present though, fortunately!
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I'm not sure if this will be of any help to you, because I have no experience of pressure canning.
I have been canning for a few years and now produce approx 100 jars a week, and then sell my wares at market. For my sterilizing I use a vegetable steamer, you know the plug electric kind (about a tenner from Tescos).
I steam the jars and lids for 30 minutes before decanting the food, and then steam a further 20 minutes once sealed.
I have been using this method for about three years and haven't had a jar go bad on me yet!
I hope this makes someone's life easier, I know it did mine!
Thanks for that it sounds a really interesting method. What sort of things do you sell at the markets? I have a stove top steamer I'm sure it would achieve the same outcome.
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What sort of things do you sell at the markets?
Mostly chutneys and jams, but I am currently experimenting with baked beans. I am working on the preserving of them right now. They taste fantastic, but it may be that they are too distinct from Heinz for people to get past the taste conditioning in the long run... I'll let you know in time!
Your stove top steam should work just fine I imagine. I much prefer the steaming method to boiling, and less opportunity for me to burn myself, I can be such a cluts sometimes!
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never thought of using a steamer to do this - thanks I will give that a go, now where did I put Vals book? ;) :lol:
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What sort of things do you sell at the markets?
Mostly chutneys and jams, but I am currently experimenting with baked beans. I am working on the preserving of them right now. They taste fantastic, but it may be that they are too distinct from Heinz for people to get past the taste conditioning in the long run... I'll let you know in time!
Call them something else and they will sell fine, now come on folks what can she call them?
How about "Country Bean"? "Haricot in Tomato Sauce"?