I started water bath canning a few years ago, and have enjoyed making my own salsas, pasta sauces, relishes, pickles, jams, jellies and syrups. The itch to can more has always been there, but the fear of pressure canning has always held me back.
There are just so many things that can go wrong, from exploding canners to broken jars, and of course, the threat of botulism. (Although I think if you've water bath canned for any length of time you've probably gotten over the fear of botulism.)
My mom, who is one of the best cooks I've ever known, does not pressure can. She tried many years ago on some corn and after discovering all of her jars had exploded and ruined a good couple hours of work, she gave up. I've kept this knowledge of exploding corn jars in my mind and quite honestly, I think it's really held me back.
Since we started butchering our own chicken, the idea has been building in my mind. At the end of processing I always end up with a pretty healthy amount of cooked, pulled chicken that ends up vacuum sealed in the freezer. Not terribly easy to use without some forethought or some defrosting in the microwave. Then there is our journey into the prepper lifestyle, and a freezer, though wonderful now, just may not always have the electricity to run.
I'd purchased a Presto 23 quart pressure canner back in January. It sat in the corner for months, nearly taunting me, until I broke it out in March to can some strawberry jam. (The nice thing about a pressure canner is that most will easily double as a water bath and/or a pressure cooker.) I wanted to try my hand at the pressure canning, but just wasn't ready.
Yesterday the day came. I was finishing up the vacuum sealing process of Thursday's butchering session, and just kept looking at the bowl of pulled chicken. Finally I decided to just go for it. I pulled out two quart jars and three pints, heated the chicken up, made up some extra broth (bouillon cubes), and began heating the water in the canner.
Not long after, the jars were filled and sitting in the canner, and this is where I started to get nervous. I read the canning manual. I reread it. Then, I read it again. Do or die time. I put on the lid and adjusted the heat. Watched for the steam. After 10 minutes of steady steam I put on the pressure regulator. After several minutes the canner was making noise but no movement on the gauge.
Ummm...
A few minutes later, still no movement. Uh oh.
So I removed the regulator and turned down the heat. Google led me to a page that said that sometimes, on the first pressurized load, the dial doesn't immediately read. Relieve pressure (done), then try again.
I'd put extra water in, so I did the 10 minutes of steam again. Then added the regulator.
And waited....
And a few minutes later, the dial began to move! Success! Well, at least to this far.
At 10# I dialed the heat back to medium as most online sources suggest. I should have dialed back sooner to get and keep 11# like I wanted, simply because I was canning on a smooth top range and they don't make temperature adjustments very quickly. The pressure climbed to 12# though and stayed there, and my manual said that a difference of 1# to the high side isn't a problem.
Once pressure was achieved, I set the timer for 90 minutes and sat back to wait. Honestly, I could probably have gone and done other things, but following the advice of the manual I didn't leave the kitchen. I checked the pressure about every 2 minutes for the first half hour and then....
The power went out.
Ugh. We live in the country and have more power fluctuations than anybody else we know. At first I didn't know what to do. Worst case, if the jars are okay, I'd just drain them and freeze the meat.
While still in the throws of panic....
The lights came back on.
Fabulous! Just a short blip. It had only been a few minutes and pressure hadn't even dropped, so I reset the timer and continued.
Thirty minutes later.... the power went out AGAIN!
This time I wasn't bothered. I checked the pressure - still 12#. A few minutes later, the power came back on. No harm, no foul. Reset the timer.
Thirty minutes later.... you guessed it.... power's out!!! Argh! Seriously? This was turning into the canning attempt from Hades. I didn't worry too much though. As long as pressure is being maintained, so is temperature.
I figured the power would come back on in a few minutes. But it didn't. When fifteen minutes had gone by, I started to worry. The pressure had dropped to 11#.
And that's when it came back on. Thankfully we were still okay. We finished out our remaining time with no more troubles. When time was up I turned off the heat. When the dial read "0" I removed the regulator and per the manual let the canner rest for another 10 minutes. Then I removed the lid, and moved the jars to a cooling rack. Within moments I heard the sweet popping noise of success! All of my five jars sealed correctly!
Despite the fear and anxiety, I am ready to try again. In our area sweet corn is hitting the stores and I'm thinking I may take a stab at canning some.
Wish me luck!
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