10-05-2024, 04:58 PM
(10-05-2024, 05:44 AM)FlyingClayDisk Wrote: So the wife and I have been getting more into canning stuff. We've done water bath canning for a long time, and I had a pressure cooker for pressure canning, but it wasn't one of the fancy ones so I never really trusted it. Well, I finally broke down and bought the gold standard for canning, an American pressure canner. My future plans are to get into canning things like meats and fish and other low acid things which require pressure canning (water bath doesn't get hot enough). This weekend though, I'm just going to do some Salsa. I didn't realize it, but Salsa is actually pretty tricky to can because it's right on the borderline of 4.6 PH which is the decision point between water bath and pressure canning. Above 4.6 PH must be pressure canned, and below 4.6 PH can be safely water bath canned. Add altitude into the mix and things get even more complicated. We're at about 6,500 ft ASL, so I can't ignore altitude.
Anyway, I'm looking forward to putting up some decent Salsa. The Hatch chilies are in season right now, and those things ROCK, so I've got a bunch of super hot ones roasted up and ready to go. I'm looking forward to it! This way, I can have some delicious homemade Salsa this winter.
On a side note, about 10 years ago I canned some steak. It was the very first time I'd ever done it. I was downstairs the other day cleaning out some of our long expired store bought canned goods and came across my canned meat. I figured for sure it would be a death sentence to eat it, but on a lark I decided to check the seals and they were still all good. Soooo, I popped the lid on one to give it the smell test. Surprisingly, it smelled like I'd just taken it off the stove fresh. I was still too much of a skeerdy-cat to actually taste it due to it being so old, but I guess I did it right (amazingly). Gave me a little more confidence. Now, with the new canning setup, I can hopefully put up some beef and other stuff like spaghetti sauce with meat and some of my Rocky Mountain Madness competition chili. I can get (18) pint jars or (8) quart jars in the canner at a time, so I should be able to put up a decent amount of "vittles" for winter. Plus, we're looking at possibly retiring to Alaska, so I need to get my shit together when it comes to canning. All sorts of awesome stuff to can up there! I didn't know this, but you can actually can King Crab and Dungenous crab too.
Anyway, wish me luck. Maybe I can keep from blowin' the joint up!
You had me at Hatch chilis.
I am going to make green tomatillo sauce tomorrow. It's a two hour process, if I'm lucky. I get where you are at, and we are in the same place. I am making my own sausage, and loving it. Haven't quite advanced to the fermeted stage and truly looking forward to that; it's the pinnacle of sausage-making for me. I look forward to next week, where my buddy is going to kill and package a pig. I am going to make black pudding, and not just a little bit of it. Nope. Probably about 50 feet of it. That's an odd measure of sausage isn't it? Casing length, rather than pounds. More measurable in my world.
You were right to acquire the gold standard of pressure cooker. You want to go all in on these kind of endeavors, and really learn them and lean into them, and in doing so, you can really benefit those around you. Otherwise, it ends up a project on a shelf for someday. That someday-wish-I-woulda sometimes doesn't come. I like using natural hog sausage casings, but I'm conducting an experiment with freezing artificial sausage casings, and their relative elasticity after thawing, and what rates to do either, and if various solutions benefit the artificial casing.
I wouldn't mind a bit and would likely contribute if you began a homestead-ish country cooking recipe thread. I can't wait to unveil my jerkey recipe for low-quality beef (or other meat).
