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Post by Peter on Jul 17, 2015 13:18:46 GMT 10
Are we going to start a canning section, and show our results. I have been watching youtube not stop since yesterday on how to can different things. I have never done it before and don't want to stuff it up so any tips would be great. Paul Anyone can start new threads under ausprep.com/board/4/food-storageIf a few people think it's worthwhile, I see no reason why a dedicated sub-board couldn't be arranged. I'm keen.
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kiwi
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Post by kiwi on Jul 17, 2015 20:10:50 GMT 10
Thanks for the heads up Wellrounded. Ordered one yesterday
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shinester
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China's white trash
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Post by shinester on Jul 18, 2015 23:45:06 GMT 10
Some thoughts on canning; After some calculations, I think I'll be mostly using the litre size [more bang per buck], in standard mouth and combining with Tattler lids. You can get 7 in one of those pressure canners, which is a pretty decent amount of food for one batch. For those who don't know, your standard 'bell' lids have a 2 part lid and you have to throw away one part of the lid [$.33 ea time] and use a new one each time you pressure can. The Tattler lids [$.99 ea] are reusable and last for 10 years+ at which point only the rubber needs renewing [$.29]. In terms of numbers, I'm going to eventually aim for about 200 for 2 people, but start small and see how things go and it's $3.40 a pop. I already do cauldrons of meals when I cook and generally freeze, so switching to 'canning' is an extra step but pretty easy to implement as I could run the canner straight after I cook up a batch. Being able to empty the contents into a bowl [or even leaving in jar with the lid off] and nuke [microwave] is also quite appealing.
If you're in Vic [or perhaps it's cheaper to get posted?], Red Back Trading company have a warehouse in Croydon and look to be the best prices in the country. Some thoughts that they may be out of business shared by a member, will advise if this changes.
As already mentioned Big W have a bell section which might work out cheaper if you have to pay postage. I noticed coles also had some suitable 2 piece jars today, not 'bell' and were more expensive [$3.50], though they're there under the coles brand.
Kind of looking forward to getting started!
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Post by wellrounded on Jul 19, 2015 10:18:34 GMT 10
shinester I reuse my ball inserts many times. Do love my tattlers though.
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shinester
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China's white trash
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Post by shinester on Jul 19, 2015 13:16:02 GMT 10
Noted wellrounded. Since you're much more of an authority than myself, what's your recommendations or lids, on sizes and so on?
Note, redback may not be trading or are a poor traders. I have contacted them and will see what happens from there.
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Post by graynomad on Jul 19, 2015 15:42:07 GMT 10
Oh dear, I'm well ahead of most people but still so far behind. Do one of you guys want to live at my place
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Post by Fractus on Jul 19, 2015 19:53:03 GMT 10
Last night we used three pint jars ( i canned it several month ago. It has a high vinegar content so cans well) of a secret sauce (sauerbraten) on roasted scotch fillet with knurdel. Gotta love European food
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shinester
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Post by shinester on Jul 20, 2015 8:23:19 GMT 10
aldi have pressure cookers at the moment as well. Pressure canners are not the same thing as pressure cookers, and it is important to understand the difference. Pressure cookers or pressure saucepans are used to rapidly cook meats, vegetables and other foods for a family meal. But they may not maintain adequate pressure, and they heat and cool too quickly to use them to safely pressure can foods. Pressure canners have either dial or weighted gauges. Pressure canners are necessary to safely can foods such as meats and vegetables that are low in acid.
Pressure canners and pressure saucepans come in a wide variety of sizes. Pressure canners may hold up to 22 Quarts of canned food, and are able to process food at pressures up to 25 pounds. Some popular brands of pressure canners are Mirro, Presto, and All American. Pressure cookers usually hold no more than 4 to 6 Quarts, and they may, or may not, have a way to regulate the pressure. Some pressure cookers come equipped with a weight to cook at 5, 10 or 15 pounds of pressure, while others have no way to regulate pressure settings, or simply have settings of ‘low’, ‘medium’ and ‘high’. Pressure cookers do not come with pressure gauges, and they cannot be safely used to can foods. - source
I had to look that up myself, being fairly ignorant in this area. ---------------------- For Victorians, there's THIS supplier on ebay, with an excellent reputation online, who has reasonable competitive pricing and they're based in Carrium Downs. aussiemasonjars9 / 9 Elite Way Carrum Downs Victoria 3201 Mon, Tues, Turs, Fri 10am - 3pm contact Russell on 0420 958 716 Edit; Grabbed some today and they're friendly people, have good prices got a 10% discount on 4 cases, aka 48 [and they will also do better again if by the pallet] and have good stocks. I recommend them via ebay or direct.
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Post by Peter on Jul 20, 2015 12:54:56 GMT 10
Last night we used three pint jars ( i canned it several month ago. It has a high vinegar content so cans well) of a secret sauce (sauerbraten) on roasted scotch fillet with knurdel. Gotta love European food Oh hell yes. Give me a big serve of that with a big cold Weizen and I'm a very happy camper indeed.
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shinester
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China's white trash
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Post by shinester on Jul 20, 2015 16:08:45 GMT 10
I'm a total noob with all this food preservation stuff, the only thing I've been involved in is making jerky. How useful is a pressure canner for storing food in a long term grid down scenario? Do they use a lot of power? How can you store long term the excess fruit and vegetables from your garden if you had no power? As usual, I'm well read, though with little 'actual' experience which typically will trump my info as did wellrounded who suggested reusing the standard lids many times. Speaking of, when I spoke to the suppliers of the jars, they suggested that the reason that they say one use is to cover themselves. In essence you can make whatever you've ever seen in a tin can with a pressure canner as it uses the same process. How it works is because the 'canner' pressurizes above atmospheric temperatures, water heats up past it's normal boiling point [super heated] with 115C and 15PSI that is much the same as an autoclave used in the medical field for surgical instruments to sterilise. Super heated steam and this kills everything. Since the jars seals themselves in this environment, you're sealing in the food whilst sterilised, as mentioned just like every day canned foods. So, soups, stews, meat, butter, fruit, veggies, even milk! Once it's in a jar [can] you don't need any power or refrigeration and the food lasts a year plus. [think of them as canned foods, some will last a very long time!]. You know if the food is safe because it will make a 'pop' when you open it and obviously you would discard anything that doesn't and then you stick it in the fridge/etc like you would any other canned food. I would guess direct sunlight wouldn't be good for the jars in storage, though not sure. In terms of power, as you can see above, it's pretty much like a pressure cooker, the difference being it's thicker so holds the temperature and pressure better as well as being taller so you can get in more jars. You stick it on a stove, wood fired or whatever for heating, a more stable temperature would be preferred I would imagine, though that can be done with wood with a decent stove. The one above does 24 x Half-Pints / 240ml, 20 x Pints / 500ml, 7 x Quarts / 1000ml, 4 x Half Gallon / 2 Litre, so that gives you a pretty decent amount to do at one time [7-10L of food] and I suppose you could always do a second batch if you had a larger quantity after the first. For me personally, I'm not a fan of canned foods generally as they're usually cheaply made foods with poor taste, though I really like being able to take the food I cook in giant cauldrons and sticking it in the cans, instead of the freezer like I usually do. The 1L containers look good as that's about the size of 2 normal sized cans, which gives you an instant meal for 2 people [if precooked] and as I've already mentioned is the best economically in terms of buying the jars/L. Whilst I've got tons of food in storage, it's all long term and adding a couple of months of meals I 'want to eat' will certainly be handy, even in the every day. Once the jars are bought the ongoing costs are fairly minimal, perhaps a new seal for the pressure canner [us preppers might consider getting a spare one or get the 'All American' which doesn't need a seal] and replacement tops which are 33c ea [use them a few times according to above, so lets say 10c] or the Tattler tops I showed above [91c ea] which are good for 10 years+ The usefulness in your situation might be that you take that deer you've hunted and turn it into canned meat instead of having to freeze it. See below for an example and a good description. You can really preserve a LOT of things without refrigeration doing 'canning' [ironically using jars] Hope that helps
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Post by Fractus on Jul 20, 2015 20:08:35 GMT 10
Preserving and canning are slightly different. Canning is for meats and other low acid foods ( simplification) preserving (bottling). The higher than boiling point temperature used in canning kills all the bugs. The best part is the prevention of waste in a glut and the availability in a shortage. Carefully done and canning could be done on a fire but it would be easy to destroy the lighter cheaper pressure cookers like mine in the heat of a fire. Not cheap to set up but can save $$ in the longer term
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scoutmum
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North Queensland
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Post by scoutmum on Jul 21, 2015 11:46:21 GMT 10
Ours arrived today!
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shinester
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China's white trash
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Post by shinester on Jul 22, 2015 5:04:33 GMT 10
Pretty cool and comprehensive video for beginners. [me]
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Matilda
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Post by Matilda on Jul 22, 2015 5:22:23 GMT 10
And ours is on its way!! Yippee! UPDATE! Mine has arrived!! UPDATE: Just opened mine as I had ordered the lid sealer too. It was well wrapped and the only place it could be was inside. After taking the lid off, there it was all protected with extra bubble wrap. BUT, I received a free pack of six lidded, handle jars! WOW!!
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Post by Peter on Jul 22, 2015 14:25:28 GMT 10
Mine arrived today. That's a week from over east to Perth, so I'm happy with that.
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Post by wellrounded on Jul 22, 2015 16:34:20 GMT 10
Oz farmer are usually on the ball . I ordered some Penicillium roqueforti from them on Thursday and got it Monday.
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Post by Peter on Jul 23, 2015 21:30:07 GMT 10
I've opened my pressure canner up, and even if the pressure aspect was to fail, it's a decent large pot. I feel a trip to Mandurah for a few hours of crabbing in my near future...
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shinester
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Post by shinester on Jul 24, 2015 0:49:42 GMT 10
Yeah, got mine today. Think I'll get a spare sealing ring for it soon [Prepping and all] though I think in a pinch I could use some silicone for splits. Was in Kmart and found their drinking bottles which so happen to be the right size for standard ball lids, 250mls and only $1. They do have warnings of no-dishwasher and not too much heat but that would be the drinking straw, not the glass I would say. I'm going to try pressure canning butter in them as a test run.
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shinester
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China's white trash
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Post by shinester on Jul 24, 2015 20:48:50 GMT 10
Well that's my first test canning. I just did some butter at 10lbs pressure and 75mins which should get rid of any risk of botulism, though butter being a fat will go rancid in time, so not really a long term option in this case and you have to shake it whilst it's solidifying to keep it from separating. Ghee I still think is the 'fat' solution for preppers [fats are essential nutrients] as it stores the longest and besides I usually have a years worth of olive oil for cooking. Upon tasting the butter, I had noticed it changed flavor [having been cooked for a while] as suspected and whilst still quite edible, is not as nice as the refrigerated stuff. Probably not going to keep doing butter based on the info out there [safety concerns], though was fun to get going doing some canning. The jar on the right is the 250ml one I mentioned above, worked just fine in the canner and it's nice and thick so ought to last just fine and costs $1 at Kmart. Over all, it's REALLY easy and fun, just make sure you set a timer. Here's a vid of what I'm going to try next, canning beans without soaking!
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Matilda
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Post by Matilda on Jul 24, 2015 21:43:13 GMT 10
Pretty impressed shinester - well done!! Hopefully I can do some canning on Sunday, although we have a wedding and a birthday this weekend to fit in.
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