Canning meat/what Equipment is needed, how much canning is necessary

[seek10]

Finally, I did some canning with no breakages, but with some challenges . My 30 Qt All American canner with metallic rim is leaking (little bit) while canning. I put some more lubricant hoping it will fix it. but It didn't. Since I had more water in the canner and by occasionally adjusting the heat to maintain , it went out good. Not sure what else to do though. Does any body has experience with this ?. I will be doing some more next couple of days.

Hi seek10,

Don't know how many times you have used your canner since new, but it says in the booklet that the canner needs to be "broken in", that the leakeages stop after a few uses. That has been my experience.

Another tip is to make scroupulously sure that the lid is on perfectly level. I usually put the lid on lightly, then put the screws into the clamp and tighten them very lightly with two fingers and then count the turns that I use to fully tighten so that the lid is pushed down symetrically ... (does this make sense?)

Anyway, I would just carry on, the leak will most likely disappeare over time.

I made one more batch , the leak seems to have reduced more.
I only used once. good to know , this will disappear. I will use some coins or some thing like that to level set 4 sides and see. To day I tested leakage with just water, it is little less than yesterday. so,you may be right. Thank you for the info.

edit: fixed the tags

 

[Aliana]

Hi Aleana,

I recommend buying Nobles Purea, or some other reverse osmosis product you will have no drama's as the water is as clean as it can get. I would definitely be scrubbing the tap water residue off the sides each time after use if your going to keep it that way. I live in Australia so this water is like $6 AU for 10LT which is fairly cheap! Our groceries have always been expensive in this country though so hopefully you find an equivalent cheaper.

My canner instructions recommend putting vinegar in the water to prevent calium buildup and staining. It seems to work well. Overall though, since it never comes into contact with the food, I think the calcium buildup is fairly harmless so I wouldn't worry too much about scrubbing it. Just don't let it build up to the point where it interferes with the canner's effectiveness :)

Good to know about the vinegar - my book did not mention that and it will make scrubbing a lot easier. Also think I will store up several gallons of pur/britta water to use as well. Right now am still struggling to get the lid on evenly before I do a real canning - worried that 90 minutes of water seapage might dry it out, so am working on that - guess it is a process and will improve with use..

 

[Gwenllian]

I did my second batch in the pressure canner with my new jars and twist-off lids. It didn't go so well. One jar was fine, one jar didn't seal and the rest was filled with water, but they did seal.
Perhaps I put in too little water.
Should the jars float? In my water bath canner they never floated, but then the other jars were very heavy.
I will have a go again today, with the one jar and see what I did wrong.

 

[Goemon_]

The jars should certainly not float. But you can put a weight on them.

My 2 cents

 

[Foxx]

I did my second batch in the pressure canner with my new jars and twist-off lids. It didn't go so well. One jar was fine, one jar didn't seal and the rest was filled with water, but they did seal.
Perhaps I put in too little water.
Should the jars float? In my water bath canner they never floated, but then the other jars were very heavy.
I will have a go again today, with the one jar and see what I did wrong.

The instructions (which I've followed with success) for the Presto pressure canner are to add 3 quarts of water to the bottom of the canner, which then barely covers the bottom of the jars (since it's 23 quarts or so). FWIW.

 

[dugdeep]

I did my second batch in the pressure canner with my new jars and twist-off lids. It didn't go so well. One jar was fine, one jar didn't seal and the rest was filled with water, but they did seal.
Perhaps I put in too little water.
Should the jars float? In my water bath canner they never floated, but then the other jars were very heavy.
I will have a go again today, with the one jar and see what I did wrong.

The instructions (which I've followed with success) for the Presto pressure canner are to add 3 quarts of water to the bottom of the canner, which then barely covers the bottom of the jars (since it's 23 quarts or so). FWIW.

My canner instructions are similar - 2 quarts of water and a splash of vinegar. It's enough to just barely touch the bottom of the jars.

 

[Gaby]

I did my second batch in the pressure canner with my new jars and twist-off lids. It didn't go so well. One jar was fine, one jar didn't seal and the rest was filled with water, but they did seal.

Are the twist-off lids sterilizable? Strange, I've done several batches and never had any problems. The first couple of times I over did it because I thought it was supposed to be 3 hours instead of 90 minutes... The other times I did 90 minutes, but instead of removing the canner from the heating source, I just turned it off and went to bed. The morning afterwards, I opened the canner and all the jars were still hot and bubbling. So I took them out and checked them at the end of the day to find that they cooled-off and got sealed. I pack the jars to the very top and only once I found some spillage, but all the jars sealed when they cooled off.

Only once have I done it by the book. That is, after 90 minutes, I remove from heating source, wait until the pressure gets exhausted and then take the jars out so they can cool off. It was okay. Perhaps if you continue having problems, it would be better to find another source for jars.

 

[Andromeda]

The ones I was using are Bernardin, a Canadian company. It only cost me $12 for 12 of them. I've never had issues with their smaller jars, but maybe the 1L ones are of lower quality for some reason. Maybe you get what you pay for in this respect I'll see if there aren't some better quality ones I can find. Thanks nickelbleu.

We are also using 1L Bernardin jars, we get them from Canadian tires, and we had no problem with them at all so far. I used them myself with success, and my roommate has canned in almost a hundred of these jars with the same success. So I think that maybe this particular box of jars you bought was defective in some way? Let us know what the manufacturer answers to you.

Just an update on this - the manufacturer left me a voicemail the other day, but didn't bother to leave a number to get back to them I'm sorting through it now and will update once I get a definitive answer.

As I understand it, the main reason that jars explode is because they have an imperfection - like even a tiny nick or small hairline crack somewhere. We're always super careful to check every jar we use (especially the rim) and out of all that we've done there have only been about 3 explosions. Still, it might just be that particular batch is wonky.

 

[Andromeda]

I did my second batch in the pressure canner with my new jars and twist-off lids. It didn't go so well. One jar was fine, one jar didn't seal and the rest was filled with water, but they did seal.
Perhaps I put in too little water.
Should the jars float? In my water bath canner they never floated, but then the other jars were very heavy.
I will have a go again today, with the one jar and see what I did wrong.

The jars aren't supposed to float. We are able to stack 2 layers of 1L jars in our canner and we fill the water about 1/3 to 1/2 up the first layer. To be sure of a good seal it's important to leave enough headspace (only fill jar to 1 or 1 1/2 inches before top). It's also important to make sure the rim is really clean by wiping it well with vinegar - and to make sure the seals are perfect (meaning no bends or dents or bumps). Oh, and make sure when you tighten the lid that you don't tighten it TOO much or TOO little. Just snug. If you're already doing all of that, it might just have been a weird fluke!

 

[Aliana]

Just wanted to report that I canned my first batch this week and all went well! :D Wanted to thank everyone for all the helpful suggestions - the seal on the canner finally worked after the first two trial runs and there was no seepage! All the cans sealed properly as well.

One thing that surprised me is the amount of food needed to fill up quart jars. A couple of my jars were only half full because I did not prepare enough food, so one was floating. I wedged it between the others and it did seal, but won't do that again!

I also think that quart jars are big if there are only only one or two people in a household and it might be too much unless you want to eat the same thing for days. So, I am planning to make several batches of bone broth with the remaining quart jars and then buy pint jars. The other thing I wanted to mention is the time it takes to get all of the food ready to fill the jars for canning, process and then cool it down. I started my canning right after work one evening and it took the whole evening. So am planning to do this next on a weekend when there is more time.

At any rate, once I read the instructions a few times, read through the posts here and watched the videos, it all went rather smoothly. Happy to say this did not turn out to be as monumental as I had thought Learning new things is fun!!! ;D

 

[dugdeep]

The ones I was using are Bernardin, a Canadian company. It only cost me $12 for 12 of them. I've never had issues with their smaller jars, but maybe the 1L ones are of lower quality for some reason. Maybe you get what you pay for in this respect I'll see if there aren't some better quality ones I can find. Thanks nickelbleu.

We are also using 1L Bernardin jars, we get them from Canadian tires, and we had no problem with them at all so far. I used them myself with success, and my roommate has canned in almost a hundred of these jars with the same success. So I think that maybe this particular box of jars you bought was defective in some way? Let us know what the manufacturer answers to you.

Just an update on this - the manufacturer left me a voicemail the other day, but didn't bother to leave a number to get back to them I'm sorting through it now and will update once I get a definitive answer.

As I understand it, the main reason that jars explode is because they have an imperfection - like even a tiny nick or small hairline crack somewhere. We're always super careful to check every jar we use (especially the rim) and out of all that we've done there have only been about 3 explosions. Still, it might just be that particular batch is wonky.

Well, I finally spoke to someone at Bernardin (the company that makes the jars) and they essentially told me there's nothing wrong with the jars and that it's all my fault they exploded The woman was nice enough, but she didn't really seem to know what she was talking about. At first she kept saying I need to sterilize the jars. I insisted that with pressure canning this is unneccesary and, after checking some document, she conceded that I was right.

She still kept saying that the problem was using room-temperature jars and not heating the broth first before putting it in the jars. I told he I've never had this problem before, but she pretty much wouldn't budge on her position.

Anyway, I'll probably go and grab some more jars (not totally psyched to use Bernardin again, mind you) and give it another go. I'll follow her advice and heat the stock to boiling before putting it in the jars, just in case this does have something to do with it. This time I'll also check for imperfections in the jars (thanks Andromeda; I haven't really been doing this step).

 

[nicklebleu]

I think it is best practice to sterilize jars as soon as the bone broth has been made. This way you avoid two problems in one go:
- the bone broth is still hot (even though I cannot really see why this should contribute to jars breaking more easily)
- no contamination

Normally it is recommended to sterilize low-acid foods for 90 minutes, but bone broth only for 25 minutes for a quart. The reason that I believe this is enough is that the broth is still hot and bubbling and thus sterile. This may not necessarily be the case if the bone broth is left to cool down and then kept unsterilized for a certain period of time.

That's my understanding anyway - please correct me, if I'm wrong!

 

[dugdeep]

I think it is best practice to sterilize jars as soon as the bone broth has been made. This way you avoid two problems in one go:
- the bone broth is still hot (even though I cannot really see why this should contribute to jars breaking more easily)
- no contamination

Normally it is recommended to sterilize low-acid foods for 90 minutes, but bone broth only for 25 minutes for a quart. The reason that I believe this is enough is that the broth is still hot and bubbling and thus sterile. This may not necessarily be the case if the bone broth is left to cool down and then kept unsterilized for a certain period of time.

That's my understanding anyway - please correct me, if I'm wrong!

I'm pretty sure the pressure canning process IS the sterilization process. What reason is there to pre-sterilize jars you're about to crank up to 120 degrees? As far as I know, sterilization is for doing things in hot water baths like jams and fruit and veggie preserves.

Unless I'm not understanding what you mean by sterilization.

 

[nicklebleu]

I think it is best practice to sterilize jars as soon as the bone broth has been made. This way you avoid two problems in one go:
- the bone broth is still hot (even though I cannot really see why this should contribute to jars breaking more easily)
- no contamination

Normally it is recommended to sterilize low-acid foods for 90 minutes, but bone broth only for 25 minutes for a quart. The reason that I believe this is enough is that the broth is still hot and bubbling and thus sterile. This may not necessarily be the case if the bone broth is left to cool down and then kept unsterilized for a certain period of time.

That's my understanding anyway - please correct me, if I'm wrong!

I'm pretty sure the pressure canning process IS the sterilization process. What reason is there to pre-sterilize jars you're about to crank up to 120 degrees? As far as I know, sterilization is for doing things in hot water baths like jams and fruit and veggie preserves.

Unless I'm not understanding what you mean by sterilization.

Sorry, dugdeep, if I wasn't precise enough ...

Sterilizing refers to the process to make food safe for longtime storage. At least in my native language, so maybe this is not the correct technical term in English ... ?

Depending on the type of food you want to sterilize, the method differs. For low-acid foods you need to pressure can, for high-acid foods it is enough to put them through a waterbath type process.

Hope that this clarifies the problem, thanks for pointing this out to me!

 

[aragorn]

What I usually do, prior to processing, is to put the jars into the dish washer for a 30 minute program. I'll open the dish washer when I have everything else ready. In this way the jars are nice and hot before processing. But do not put the lids in the dish washer, the rubber sealing will be compromised.