Author Topic: pressure canner (Read 31233 times)

iddee · « **Reply #20 on:** January 29, 2014, 10:10:20 pm »

I have the 1954 edition. I use it more than the new one.

Crofter · « **Reply #21 on:** January 30, 2014, 09:42:49 am »

What do you folks feel is the worst risk organism? Botulism?

iddee · « **Reply #22 on:** January 30, 2014, 09:50:17 am »

In canned foods, yes, botulism is the greatest danger. Fortunately, it is extremely rare. Most foods contaminated with botulism smell so bad no one is going to eat it anyway.

Irwin · « **Reply #23 on:** January 30, 2014, 04:48:31 pm »

Iddee is 100% right. If it don't smell good don't eat it. And if any one has old or new canning book's let me know I lost every thing.

iddee · « **Reply #24 on:** January 30, 2014, 05:21:02 pm »

Irwin, there are several 1960s and 70s Ball Blue books on ebay for 5 to 7 dollars, including shipping.

LazyBkpr · « **Reply #25 on:** January 30, 2014, 10:57:44 pm »

Pickled eggs? I just dropped eggs in the left over pickling juice this year, but they left a lot to be desired over the pickled eggs I remember eating.. most places I check on talk about the danger and advise against pickled eggs completely...
My grandfather used to own the tavern here in town, and he always had a jar of pickled eggs and pickled turkey gizzards sitting out on the bar.. I LOVED those things.. but everything I read now says its too dangerous... far as I know, no one ever got sick from eating those eggs or gizzards.. I know I never had a problem with them.. I am pretty sure they sat out there on the bar often a month or more, without refridegeration, they smelled and tasted as good eating the first, or the last one from those big jars....

Crofter · « **Reply #26 on:** January 31, 2014, 08:59:17 am »

I tried a tip I read someplace to give you just a bit more of an edge against botulism is to use curing salt. The nitrite is the trick. This should work for the pickled eggs as well. I used it on canned green beens. With meat it makes it taste like Fray Bentos canned beef.

Marbees · « **Reply #27 on:** January 31, 2014, 10:10:14 am »

Quote from: LazyBkpr on January 30, 2014, 10:57:44 pm

My grandfather used to own the tavern here in town, and he always had a jar of pickled eggs and pickled turkey gizzards sitting out on the bar.. I LOVED those things.. but everything I read now says its too dangerous... far as I know, no one ever got sick from eating those eggs or gizzards.. I know I never had a problem with them.. I am pretty sure they sat out there on the bar often a month or more, without refridegeration, they smelled and tasted as good eating the first, or the last one from those big jars....

Lazy, things changed, people changed. Growing up I never knew of any one allergic to peanuts, milk or wheat flour.
Curing salt Crofter mentioned, was regularly used for canning, meat and bacon curing for sausage and smoked meat.
Now days nobody is using it...

skydiver · « **Reply #28 on:** January 31, 2014, 01:56:26 pm »

Irwin · « **Reply #29 on:** January 31, 2014, 05:40:58 pm »

When I was a kid nobody died because of lead paint but now they do.

Crofter · « **Reply #30 on:** January 31, 2014, 07:07:21 pm »

I think we spend a lot more on diagnosis so it might be better known what the cause of a death really was. I have been into some bad environments (besides the smoky poolrooms) with lead paint, asbestos and just about everything they say is deadly. My best man, with similar exposure just went a week ago for a florescent bronchioscopy to try to take a close look at a lesion on a lung; waiting for results.

I think though that this level of health care cost will not be sustainable and we will return to a simplified system. You will ask the doc what he thinks, and his answer will be "I think you're gonna die!"

Just to be on topic, lol! I think the next generation or two may be relearning some of the almost lost ways of preserving food like canning, fermenting, drying, smoking etc.

Slowmodem · « **Reply #31 on:** January 31, 2014, 08:06:41 pm »

Quote from: Crofter on January 31, 2014, 07:07:21 pm

Just to be on topic, lol! I think the next generation or two may be relearning some of the almost lost ways of preserving food like canning, fermenting, drying, smoking etc.

Katrina showed us that there's a very thin line between civilization and anarchy. I remember that my wife remarked during that time, "This country is one truckload away from starvation." I feel bad for people that live in a city or urban environment. At least I have some land to grow a garden and game that I can eat.

I read a book once called "Alas, Babylon" Although it's a fiction book, I learned that if you can't eat it, if it doesn't keep you dry or keep you warm, it really has no value.

It would be in everyone's self interest if they learned a few things about how to survive for a week or two without cars, electricity, telephones, tv, etc.

Marbees · « **Reply #32 on:** January 31, 2014, 08:07:57 pm »

I also believe that next generation(s) will be preserving food in larger numbers.
That's why it's important to save as many as possible of non hybrid seeds.

Crofter · « **Reply #33 on:** January 31, 2014, 08:32:23 pm »

Try to get people today to eat tongue, liver, kidney, ox tail soup, chicken gizzards etc., and you will get a stare like you were from another planet! Now after about a week without food the attitude adjustment would be remarkable; we are just too well fed but unfortunately we have been putting the bill on credit so to speak.

I have read some on what took place in Cuba when the soviet economy crashed. 40% of the population went from factory work to being trucked out to work the fields raising simple food. The average adult weight apparently dropped about 20 pounds and the death rate dropped the same amount. In a dictatorship those changes can be accomplished rapidly. We might have a difficult time with it.

iddee · « **Reply #34 on:** January 31, 2014, 09:04:58 pm »

I love sousmeat, liver pudding, boudin, frog legs, squirrel, turtle, raccoon, goat. I don't care for 'possum, tho. Just too greasy. My father and mother married in 1931, so I have eaten it. My father thought of it as just another game animal when hunting.

LazyBkpr · « **Reply #35 on:** February 01, 2014, 05:07:55 pm »

Eaten everything on your list except possum Iddee.. I was about nine, went to look at that dead cow in grandpas pasture... thought back then it was pretty COOL to go look at a dead cow... smelled REALLY bad... so I hit it with a stick just to see what would happen.. what happened was a possum came out the bloated hind end like the cow gave birth.. covered in nastyness... one of the first animals I ever beat to death with a stick.. I've never looked at a possum the same again.. Dont get me wrong.. If I am hungry, There isn't much I wouldn't eat.
I even tried a Porcupine.. Not bad! I wouldnt bring it home for the table like I do squirrel and rabbit, but if hunger set in I'd certainly add them to the menu.. not that we have them things here in Iowa..
I think the biggest problem living rural, is that if hunger sets in, we wont be alone on our small farms long. All them folks that think of us as uncivilized hicks will start getting hungry.. the only advantage we do have is that some of them have no clue where milk and meat come from.. once the grocery store runs out they will think EVERYONE has nothing.

mamapoppybee · « **Reply #36 on:** February 06, 2014, 03:37:02 pm »

dad would fix us beef toung and heart sammiches. grew up that you always tried some thing. dad had me try mountain oysters at age 7 i spent the next week asking him how they got oysters to grow on the mountains.

one of my better memories of him. Kids are such picky eaters now a days too. Its because parents only have them try it once and decied thats that. I always have my kids try things more than three times.

riverbee · « **Reply #37 on:** February 09, 2014, 06:34:58 pm »

i grew up in western montana, my father was an okie mama.....

he fell in love with montana (hunting and fishing) and fell in love with my mother,......(montana girl) working a pipeline, then after his service in the armed forces, came back to montana.

we lived primarily in very rural areas growing up, there was 5 of us kids, and then a little later 2 more. money was pretty tight. my father hunted and fished, and at an early age all of us kids were taught to hunt and fish for subsistence on the table throughout the year. i can't remember at what age i had store bought bread, milk, eggs, or even beef, probably high school, or canned food from the grocery store. our freezer primarily had deer, elk, moose, bear, buffalo once in awhile, fish (mostly trout and catfish) and lots of game birds. once a week we would get fresh milk, cream, and eggs from my great uncle. my mother baked everything, breads, rolls, pancakes and waffles, from scratch. the pressure canner was a staple. she canned everything from a garden, and what we harvested from wild berry bushes for jams, jellies and syrups. fresh fruits and vegetables as we could use them, but everything was canned up.

there was no store bought junk food in our house, except for potato chips, or maybe hotdogs on a camping/fishing trip. my dad had a craving for hersheys chocolate bars once in awhile and popcorn. we always had popcorn around. i think the first pizza i ever had, my mother made the crust, the sauce was canned from tomatoes in the garden, and the meat was vennison, and the veggies on it, also out of the garden. once in a great while, there was this great place near where my father worked that served up slider hamburgers with onions, pickles, ketchup and mustard on them. little bite sized things that were tasty and a treat for us kids. he would get a bag of them with some french fries and bring them home.

kids are picky eaters today, amazing to me, and all the junk foods that are eaten. i still enjoy the foods i grew up eating, and appreciate the hard work my parents did to provide food on the table. i don't hunt anymore and haven't since high school; (are given and appreciate any wild game and birds given to us and some fish from friends, salmon and walleye); i do fish, but mostly for fun. once in awhile i keep one, but sure enjoy the garden and the wild plants we can to put away for the winter months.

ps great thread you started here!

robo · « **Reply #38 on:** February 26, 2014, 08:25:21 pm »

Quote from: Irwin on January 23, 2014, 04:27:45 pm

My x gave away every thing I had for canning. So they gave me the canner to help me get back to canning. When I was a kid that is how we did every thing canning was a way of life and big garden's.

Irwin, I still remember the jar of canned salmon you sent me quite a few years ago.... Good things are hard to forget

blueblood · « **Reply #39 on:** February 26, 2014, 08:52:52 pm »

Good score on the canner. I have a Blue Book but haven't canned one jar yet. It is a great book though. And, I love pickin flea markets and yard/sales. I buy and then sell on Ebay to make extra cash that always finds it way into the bee yard.