As a New York City girl born and raised, I never thought that I would even consider doing something such as canning produce. Didn’t that go along with prairie skirts and living on a farm? Now I know better. When we were blessed with an abundance if inexpensive organic apples, I learned fast.
Canning isn’t as hard as it might sound. And despite my fears that I would do it wrong and give myself and my family food poisoning, it all worked out and was pretty easy actually.
There are two big things that you need to know about canning. You’ll need to have clean sanitized jars and you need to use new lids and rings each time you can. The jars can be reused but the lids and rings should be new to ensure a tight seal. To be frugal, you could always apply the used lids for storing dry goods or when you are just covering something in a jar to refrigerate it. Once they have been used to seal, though, don’t attempt to seal them again.
Now, to address the food poisoning concerns you might have…
If the jars are cleaned and have sealed properly, bacteria can’t get in, so there will be no spoilage. You can tell pretty easily that a jar has sealed. You can sometimes even hear it pop when it seals. The lid will dip down in the center, the lid won’t give in when you press it down, and my favorite test, tap lightly on the lid and it will make a nice cheerful ringing sound (get the kids to try when the jars are cooled).
When you begin to practice canning, start with a food item that is easy for you and normally has a longer shelf life. For example, the apple butter I made was perfect for a first canning experience. Dealing with a dairy-based Alfredo sauce would have been much more difficult.
What about equipment?
While there are different methods of canning, choose an easy one for your first time. There is pressure canning and water bath canning. Water bath canning can be done with just the materials that you probably already have in your kitchen: a good stockpot, a pair of sturdy tongs and a cooling rack. If you decide later than you will be doing a lot of canning, you can invest in equipment specifically made for the job.
The one thing that you will need to buy is a set of canning jars (with lids and rings). Don’t be tempted to reuse pasta sauce or other glass jars you got from the supermarket and want to reuse. They are not made for canning and may wind up shattering.
If you try canning for the first time, let me know how it goes!
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