Canning recipes?

[Poindexter]

First run with my new steam canner today. I got the Victorio with the ferrous bottom that can be used on induction stove tops and can be used as both a steam canner and/or as a water bath canner. About $80 on Amazon, eligible for prime shipping.

I had seen mention of steam canning several times on youtube and ferreted out the actual science here at U of Wisconsin extension:

https://fyi.extension.wisc.edu/safefood/2020/08/18/an-update-on-safe-use-of-steam-canners/

The short version is a steam canner needs less water, so it comes up to temperature quicker, uses less energy to get up to temperature, but for high acid foods, whatever the water bath processing time is, the steam processing time is exactly the same. Doesn't matter if you are short on time or short on money, steam processing is the better choice. I don't know for sure how long it will take me to save $60 on propane, with local water bath canners around $20, but I will break even someday and I am saving a TON of time every batch in the meantime. If I was counting my propane sheckels, the steam canner is cheaper to operate every batch, so sooner or later a propane fired water bath canner user would have been ahead if they had plunked down for the steam canner to use instead.

The bad news is my altitude falls in the "first band" but I forgot to follow the yellow brick road around the dial. If you get one, think of your altitude as being in the inner, middle or outer band so you don't get confused on the other side of the dial. It is more correct to think of my processing altitude as falling at the OUTER band. Thankfully my test run was two half pints of pickled jalapeno, I can get through that in one week easily.

As a MiC stock pot it isn't bad. Doesn't hold a candle to my 20 quart stockpot stamped "Made in West Germany" in the bottom, but the Victorio is pretty OK as an $80 stock pot.

The wire basket on mine can be used for water bathing if I ever need to go there.

I have read some of the earlier product shipped with firm instructions to not use these on propane burners. I read the manual that came with mine very carefully (Aug 22) and did not find that verbiage in the current production product manual. I do have a 15k BTU/hr burner salvaged from a propane grill fabricated in to a turkey fryer burner stand and used that. The biggest burner on the electric cook stove in my kitchen was rated new at 17k BTU/ hr, so should be fine and seemed to be fine.

At full roar the 15k burner took about 30 minutes to get 3 quarts of water in the Victorio up to a full boil, more about the burner and the water, less about the pot. I shut it down, got my jalapeno diced up and my brine simmering, and then relit the burner under the steam canner. Went inside, filled my (warm from the dishwasher) jars with pepper and brine, and would have come back to the cooker in the driveway with simmering water if I was doing a bigger batch.

Overall, I give it two thumbs up after one test batch. Just think inner, middle or outer altitude band and you should do fine. I am planning to do 8-9 batches of tomato in the next few weeks and should be well on my way to breaking even on purchase price versus ongoing energy use before this season is over.

 

[Poindexter]

But wait, there is more. I actually bought two of these, had one shipped to my sister. I mailed her a hard copy of the article linked above.

So she texted me this morning, her new canner doesn't look like the one in the picture in the article. So I put on my Sherlock Holmes hat this morning and went snooping.

Here is the published May 2015 abstract for journal article: https://www.foodprotection.org/publ...-atmospheric-steam-and-boiling-water-canners/

Here is a older image of a VPK-1130 'victorio steam canner' that looks just like the one in Barb Ingam's 2018 update linked above: It has a fairly tall domed lid, and steam outlet holes are way down the sides of the lid. In use the dome fills with steam and doesn't start venting until the entire dome is filled with steam so the steam can start venting out the holes down near the tub/lid junction.

VKPbrands still has a website, and they still have a stock #VKP-1130, and it is called the 'victorio', but it looks a stock pot and has steam vents in the glass lid:

 

[Poindexter]

More troublesome, VKP brands originally sold the victorio as a VKP branded product, then retailed through 'roots and branches' for a while and is currently selling the victorio through 'kitchen crop.'

This information snaps Barb's 2018 steam canning update (linked above) into a different focus than I had previously held.

 

[DuaeGuttae]

I was not familiar with steam canning prior to your posting and reading the article.

I water bath can cups easily in my stock pot. Pints is possible but more likely for me to end up with more water on the stove because I have to fill so fill. Quarts are impossible.

Now that I own a pressure canner, I plan to water bath pints and quarts in it if necessary. It will take more time to get up to temperature with that large amount of water, though. Thankfully my canner is induction-compatible, and so we are able to use it on a free-standing induction burner.

I’m a little confused as to which canner you received. Your sister’s looked like the stock pot. Was yours the same, or do you have the dome that fills with steam? I also got lost with the yellow brick road and inner and outer bands on the dial, but that’s okay since I’m not expecting to get a steam canner. I do have to adjust many of my processing times, usually by adding 5 minutes, since I’m above 1,400 feet.

 

[Poindexter]

My sister and I both have the new one, like pictured on the right above, the big stock pot, that hasn't been signed off on by any USDA food lab I can find. I will be sheepishly shipping her a safety tested model fairly promptly. In fact, I will go do that right now.

 

[Poindexter]

So a little bit of data. I bought 11.4 gallons of propane today to fill my three tanks back up.

Starting with the three tanks all filled, I have put up 147 half pints of salmon, 41 pints of potato, 36 half pints of Hatch chile, 12 pints of poblano, 20 half pints of jalapeno, 20 half pints of dilly green tomato and 6 pints of dill pickle. I think of this as my summer time canning. Reaches for pencil...

So 170.5 pints of food shelf stable food from 11.4 gallons of propane. About 15 pints of shelf stable food per each gallon of propane used. One gallon of propane only has 91.4 BTU/ gallon so this is going to come out good.

The wife and I started canning this year another than buy another freezer. Local to me today propane is $4.75 per gallon, I am paying 29.9 cents per kilowatt hour delivered.

I did boil some water and brine on the electric cook stove in the house while I was filling some of the jars. I blistered all my chili peppers on hardwood lump charcoal in one of my Weber's, so carbon neutral for that.

I used 1.045 million BTUs of propane, canning with propane cost me $54.15, roughly 31.8 cents in propane per pint of food on the shelf, average.

1.045 million BTUs (about 1/18 of a cord of spruce) would have cost me about 20 dollars for the BTUs if I was willing to can over a cord wood fire, or $91.57 as electricity.

Other than a little bit of potato, all of the above are cold/raw packed stuff where I am dealing with room temperature jars, room temperature or recently refrigerated food, possibly bringing a bit of water to a boil to fill the airgaps in the jars (indoors, electric) and just running the burner under the canner on propane.

I filled my propane tanks today because I am transitioning to "autumn canning" where vegetables need to be blanched or par boiled in hot water, then loaded into hot jars recently retrieved from a boiling water bath, and then either water bath or pressure canned while the jars are still at least warm.

I am looking to process 120-150 pounds of tomato and 36-54 pounds of potato before say Halloween or so. In the next few weeks my price of energy per pint of food on the shelf is going to be rather a lot more than 32 cents per pint.

The 50k BTU/ hr burner under my 15 gallon cauldron for parboiling stuff is going to suck down one gallon per 2 hours at full throttle, but I can bring 5 gallons of water to a boil in about 18 minutes. When I drop 9# of diced (room temp) potato in the cauldron I am looking at about 15 minutes at full burn to bring the hot water back to a boil. I wear my forestry helmet for that, it is pretty loud. Not Van Halen concert loud, but I am not going to hear my phone ringing.

I have another burner (modified turkey fryer stand) at ~25k BTU/hr that I can run full roar under my pressure canner or throttle back comfortably to simmer canning jars. If I am pressure canning, I will use this one under the pressure canner, or run it low and slow to heat caning jars for the steam canner.

The last burner stand of mine is rated 15k BTU/ hr off an abandoned gas grill that can consume one gallon of propane in about 6 hours. I can use it to boil water to heat canning jars when I am pressure canning, but there is a fair bit of patience involved. I will be sorely tempted to use my dishwasher in the house upstairs in this instance.

 

[Poindexter]

I honestly do not know how much electricity it would take to bring room temperature food to freezing in my freezer. The general guideline I have found online is one pound of new food per cubic foot of freezer space every 24 hours.

I do get that keeping already frozen food continually frozen is mostly about the insulation envelope when the power goes out, atleasdt for the first few hours. At -50dF when the power goes out I pull my frozen (wild caught, Alaskan) salmon filets out of the freezer and stick them in my garden shed for 24 hours so they will be safe to cut up and serve as sushi or sashimi later. The garden shed keeps the ravens off the filets.

 

[SpaceBus]

I did build a speed rack for hot packing pints and widemouth half pints today. It is nominal 21x13 inches. The only thing I measured was the short scrap of furring strip so I could cut three similar pieces off my long scrap.

I should be able to load this with seven hot jars, and then load the jars and fill with hot water etc etc with adequate room to use 7 canning funnels all at once if I had that many, and adequate space to clean the rims and check the rims and lid the rims, all the steps, without the jars tipping over or knocking into one another. FWIW my canner can handle 14 pints per load, 7 up and 7 down.

I used a holesaw labelled 3 1/4 inches because I had it and it was close enough. For layout I used the two canning funnels I do have. This is strictly scrap plywood and get 'er done WYSIWYG. Pics are glue up. I did use PVA glue for this, yellow wood glue like from Elmer's. I am transitioning to hide/hoof/ fish glue in my shop, but the natural glues can be undone with heat and water and time. Those three items are exactly what this item needs to resist, so PVA is perfect here. I specifically used Titebond 2, which is food safe, but it shouldn't matter, any PVA glue will do.

I used my thickest plywood scrap for the base layer, 23/32 (nominal 3/4 inch) for weight bearing. The second layer could be 1/4 inch luan or possibly even be left out - but I want a glue line to protect my finger tips from boiling hot water after the jars are lidded on their way to the canner.

In pic one you will see I have a continuous glue line around the finger cut outs at each corner, and a line that will be repeated in subsequent layers.

Trying to laminate plywood to plywood is problematic. If you need something you can't buy in stores for a boat, like 1 1/2 inch or two inch plywood you are going to need epoxy, a vacuum bag system, experience, and heart felt prayer to a smiling higher power. Or you can just glue up the areas you really need with PVA, cut your holes a bit over and let it move seasonally. I pushed the easy button on this one, as subsequent pics will show.

Once my glue is dry tomorrow I will take off the clamps, and then add some screws. My plan is two screws from below though and into each furring strip so the fool thing hold together, and one screw into each furring strip from above so the top doesn't come off but is free to move seasonally.

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I'm late to the party. Do you have the All American 21.5 qt canner? That's what I have, but I was too nervous to double stack wide mouth pint jars in mine last weekend when I canned 15.5 pints of fresh mackerel (12 lbs of filets, three half pint jam jars). You canning rack is definitely slick. I'm using a 1,500 watt portable "hot plate" for my heat source. Pretty soon I can switch over to the cookstove.

 

[Poindexter]

I'm late to the party. Do you have the All American 21.5 qt canner? That's what I have, but I was too nervous to double stack wide mouth pint jars in mine last weekend when I canned 15.5 pints of fresh mackerel (12 lbs of filets, three half pint jam jars). You canning rack is definitely slick. I'm using a 1,500 watt portable "hot plate" for my heat source. Pretty soon I can switch over to the cookstove.

I have a pair of them (All American model 921, 21.5 quart capacity). The on deck/ backup version only has three heat cycles on it, the day I did all the salmon I did three loads in each of both canners.

I don't know a lot about canners. My local purveyor listened carefully to my wife and I and suggested the 921 because with just the two of us home we are doing mostly pints the 921 really does hold 14 pint jars; and half pints the 921 will hold 19 of those per batch using regular mouth half pints, the tall skinny ones.

I have done at least three cycles on the primary/ first up one using 14 widemouth pint jars of hot packed potato. I dunno about a 1500 watt hotplate, might take forever to get up to temperature/ pressure, but the jars will fit.

With wide mouth half pints I think it would be limited to 14 jars per run. Mine is anyway. I think there is physical room in there to fit three layers of widemouth half pints at seven jars per layer, but the manual that comes with mine says a third layer of jars is forbidden.

From watching many youtubes about canning it is clear the manual for the AA921 has gone through some revisions over the years.

I am completely and thoroughly satisfied with both of my 921s, but don't really have any meaningful experience to compare them with anything else.

 

[SpaceBus]

I have a pair of them (All American model 921, 21.5 quart capacity). The on deck/ backup version only has three heat cycles on it, the day I did all the salmon I did three loads in each of both canners.

I don't know a lot about canners. My local purveyor listened carefully to my wife and I and suggested the 921 because with just the two of us home we are doing mostly pints the 921 really does hold 14 pint jars; and half pints the 921 will hold 19 of those per batch using regular mouth half pints, the tall skinny ones.

I have done at least three cycles on the primary/ first up one using 14 widemouth pint jars of hot packed potato. I dunno about a 1500 watt hotplate, might take forever to get up to temperature/ pressure, but the jars will fit.

With wide mouth half pints I think it would be limited to 14 jars per run. Mine is anyway. I think there is physical room in there to fit three layers of widemouth half pints at seven jars per layer, but the manual that comes with mine says a third layer of jars is forbidden.

From watching many youtubes about canning it is clear the manual for the AA921 has gone through some revisions over the years.

I am completely and thoroughly satisfied with both of my 921s, but don't really have any meaningful experience to compare them with anything else.

This evening I'll be canning small mouth pint jars with home made broth. Maybe I'll have enough to double stack. Currently there's a batch of home made dog food (chicken meal) in the canner.
The 1,500 watt hot plate is admittedly a bit underpowered, but it does get the job done. I look forward to using the cookstove for canning pretty soon.

 

[PaulOinMA]

Just wanted to mention an old cookbook I picked up at a library book sale. Farm Journal's Freezing & Canning Cookbook. It's readily available. Very pleased with all the Farm Journal cookbooks I've found at library book sales.