Pressure Canning
Originally uploaded by mikeysklar
As our epic tomato harvest continues it forces us to reconsider how we can things. It takes us nearly a hour of boiling water to can a few pints of tomato sauce using the water bath method. We tried out the pressure cooker as a canner and we got the time down to 25 minutes @10psi to can six pints of tomato sauce. There still is a great deal of prep work on the tomatoes such as peeling and blanching before the canning process. Even after the canning there is a long wait period before the lid can be opened and the jars removed (hours). However, this system works for us. We are not canning so much that we need to use the pressure cooker more than once a day.
5 comments:
To cut down on the blanching and peeling a food mill is an invaluable tool for us. I think we found one cheaper than this but here is a link to what they look like. http://www.everythingkitchens.com/back_to_basic_foodstrainer.html
Don't see a pressure relief valve (maybe just not visible in pic). Very important for safety.
My pressure canner has a weighted pressure valve arrangement that jiggles at the proper pressure and which releases excess pressure.
The weighted valve is removable, so when you have cooked a batch long enough, you lift the weight off (with tongs or a long fork). Pressure quickly goes to zero and the lid can be removed.
Just my experience. YMMV.
Cheers.
When I make salsa I have used both a strainer/food mill (as in the link by nortonpc) to make a sauce first, and then I simply tried using the blender keeping the peels and seeds.
I like the texture of salsa better using the blender. I can the salsa at 12 psi with a dial gauge canner for 35 minutes because the peppers are low acid.
For tomatoes 10 psi is probably ok because you can also water bath them, but if you start canning other veggies you'll want to go to 15 psi (with your weight canner) because of your altitude.
I'm finding I prefer to pressure can almost anything I would process for both the time factor and the fact that it's a much cooler process using a lot less water.
I did water bath my prickly pear syrup, but I have 3 more batches to do and I'm thinking about trying the pc for that. My pc is about twice the height of yours and I can stack pints. It holds about 16 pints at a time. If you find this works for you and your tomatoes keep coming on strong, you may want an even bigger monster!
Pressure canning is great for those of us at higher altitudes because instead of increasing boiling time, as with boiling-water-canning, you increase pressure and keep the time the same! Uses less energy and water...
@ nortonpc: That looks like a great food mill. Have you tried using yours as a juicer as well? I've found a juicer to be a great tool for processing crabapples and whole bunches of grapes (!), although I do an additional squeezing of the pulp to get more liquid out.
Martha Stewart once had an episode on one of her previous shows (pre-Jail, before audience) wherein she met an Italian NYC woman who canned whole "paste" tomatoes, skin on, (which totally surprised MS) so she did a whole ep about it...I'm sure it's on her site somewhere; she said they stayed the most beautiful bright red.
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