Canning Pumpkin

 Home Canned Pumpkin

Canning pumpkin has become one of my favorite things to do in the fall. Starting late September, pumpkins begin to show up in stores. Typically all you will find at the store are the ones people carve for Halloween. They have a wonderful taste when home-canned. There are other pumpkins that you may find taste better. Your best bet to find them is at some kind of pumpkin festival or church and hometown hayride. These venues will have a wider variety of pumpkins for sale.

If you do a bit of research online you can find pumpkin names and taste profiles and decide what you are looking for in terms of tastes for eating and for baking. My favorite thing in the world is  mashed pumpkin with butter salt and pepper. By canning pumpkin, I can have pumpkin for pies at Thanksgiving, and buttered pumpkin all year round.

I found these pumpkins at the store. This was literally the only type they had. A word of advice when choosing pumpkins. Look at all the pumpkins, usually, stores will store them in a large container. Look at the pumpkins and see if any have mold or mildew or rot starting on them or at the stem. If so do not buy them or any near them if possible. You have to check the stems very carefully. Make sure they are strong and firm with no softness or rot.

Take the pumpkins home and wash them right away. Use a mild soap and simple bleach water. Just a solution with a bit of bleach in it to kill the pathogens from the field that might facilitate stem rot. Dry them very well especially around the stem. Kept in a cool dark place on a table or up off the floor.

You can keep pumpkins, and other winter squashes for several months or usually most all of winter. They usually will keep until you are ready to home can them or just rotating them into your meals.  Usually, I will keep mine on a piece of cardboard on the floor all along my dining room wall.  I also keep them in racks layered alternately in different directions so air can move through and also on my kitchen table.

My daughter and I found a really great sale on winter squash so we bought quite a bit as it keeps so long and is seasonal. We are currently doing the GAPS diet. and winter squash is part of the introduction part of the diet. The acorn, butternut and spaghetti squash was a great find. When it no longer becomes feasible to store on the table and the rack we will home can the squash.

Gut and Psychology Syndrome




When you are ready to start canning the pumpkin there is going to a lot of prep work to get to the point where you can safely can the pumpkin.  It ends up being a lot of work at the beginning yet at the end is well worth it.  Not to mention by home canning you control what is in your food. Nothing but food! Being able to open a can of home-canned pumpkin and in five minutes have hot buttered pumpkin as a meal or with a meal is well worth the work at the front end.  After experiencing the ease of putting a meal together post canning. I have come to love canning. I am very willing to put the hard work in at the beginning for the fast and easy reward at the end.

Pumpkins have a lot of steps to get it to the canning jar, or stored. if you cut it in half, deseed it, and roast it in the oven to deskin it, you can no longer home can it. You can only freeze it. So that leaves hand deskinning.

You can do this in several ways. After multiple years of canning pumpkin in the fall, I found my happy method. Rather than peel the whole outside as this picture shows,

 I cut it into the desired chunk sizes. I then cut the peel off from the one-inch chunks. This method seems to go faster. The recommended size to cut your pumpkin is one inch as recommended by all ball canning books and the National center for home food preservation.

My two favorite ball canning books are: The Complete Guide To Home 
Preserving

The All New Ball Book Of Canning And Preserving

The removal of the seeds, deskinning, peeling,  chopping, and cutting into one-inch squares is highlighted below.

You can hot pack or raw pack vegetables when home canning. The method below is a hot pack. After cutting the pumpkin into one-inch squares, I rinsed it and then blanched in boiling water for 2 minutes. I then placed it in jars with one inch of headspace. You then pour clean boiling water up to one inch creating the one-inch headspace. Typically I would add one teaspoon of salt in vegetables, but as pumpkin also has a sweet profile I left out the salt. Debubble with a wood or plastic skewer pushing the pumpkin around gently. This will force out any air bubbles inside the jar in or around the pumpkin. After de-bubbling the water or pumpkin may shift allowing you to either add more pumpkin or more water to realign back to one-inch headspace.

 Fill your canner with the jars as you are filling them. As you are hot packing turn your canner on low and begin to slowly bring up the heat so that the canner and jars are of the same heat. My canner the All American 921 holds seven, one-quart jars.

All American 921 Canner

Once you can have canned the pumpkin for the recommended amount of pressure for your area, and the recommended amount of time per either the ball canning books or the NCHFP, turn off your canner and let it come down off of pressure. Once it is down from pressure you can remove the pumpkin from your canner and let it cool. Follow all instructions as per your personal canner. Once cooled for twelve to twenty-four hours, check all your seals, wash the jars, and store them on your shelves. I have found that with average size pumpkins that I get almost seven-quart jars per pumpkin.

From start to finish the pumpkin is delicious and beautiful in jars. I get wonderful satisfaction looking at my canning closet seeing the fresh in-season produce I have canned that I can have all year long.  I have been doing three to Four pumpkins for my household. This takes me through the holiday season and pumpkin for me and the occasional guest who loves pumpkin as much as  I do.
Happy Canning!!

Canning Green Beans

Home Canning Green Beans

Having home-canned items on your shelf is a boon. Controlling what is in your food is a must these days if you are on the path to becoming food conscious. We eat green beans often, so having them canned on our shelf is something I love. I replenish my home-canned shelf based on the season. Fresh if they are in season, or frozen if they are not. "They" the food commentators do advise that although you "can" can green beans that have previously been frozen safely, it is not recommended.  They will be too tender.  I grew up with my Mom making what she called; six-hour green beans. Perfectly southern seasoned, melt in your mouth green beans. So I do not mind them going from frozen to home-canned. Once seasoned they taste as if I cooked them all day like my mom used to,  I especially go out of my way to can frozen as all of Costco's frozen vegetables are organic. 

Canning can be and is a lot of work, so when I can items I try to have enough to run a complete canner load. I use an All American 921. Here is a link. 

 All American 921 Canner

 If you have Prime on Amazon with free shipping it is cheaper to buy on Amazon. The storefront is the actual manufacturer of the canner and is the same price as on their website.  

This canner will allow me to bottle up 19-pint jars or 7-quart jars at one time. I chose this canner as I wanted a sturdy nonrubber sealed canner that I felt would be safe, which would also allow me to can food anywhere I needed too. The big lockdown screw bolts went a long way to calming my irrational fear that home canning isn't safe because it will explode and kill you. In reality, if a canner explodes it is more likely the Person doing the canning did something wrong, not the canner. In the event the Home Canner does do something wrong, there is a pressure release valve on the top of every home canner to bypass mistakes. If the pressure gets too high the relief valve will blow, and not the canner.
 I am long since over that irrational fear as I have become more experienced home canning foods.

Size Matters!

I mostly can pints and I mostly can single ingredients and put meals together myself. I can some soups and sauces, but most of my canning is single-ingredient foods and I combine upon cooking. Like beef, potatoes, and carrots. I make five minutes Stews. Drain the carrots and potatoes, add beef as is and add carrots and potatoes. Add a thickener and heat till thick and serve with green beans. Supper in Five! With it just being my husband and me, we really do not need quart items. I also typically try and serve two vegetables per meal. I even can my soup in pint jars.

Green beans I can in my favorite jar  The Ball pint and a half or 24-ounce jar. When canning the jar is treated like a quart jar in the way it fits in the canner and the time that you would choose for the individual food item. 

The jar is wonderful for green beans, asparagus, and whole carrots. Sadly Ball replaced the jar with a 28-ounce jar that I do not care for, They sell four jars for the same price as they used to sell nine jars. When I heard Ball was discontinuing the 24-ounce jar I set out to find and buy as many as I could. I ended up buying nine cases over a few weeks time as I found them. You can find them in the canning isles of most big box stores, and even the grocery store. You can still find them both on Ball's website and stores.

Nine Cases!!!!! It seems a lot but when canning on a regular basis you would be amazed at how quickly you run out of jars. Let us say I did the green beans, carrots, and asparagus. That would be only one canner load each of 7.   At just seven each, that is twenty-one bottles. and only twenty-one meals with vegetables. You think it is a lot, but it actually goes fast.  It is only fourteen meals if you serve two vegetables as I do. Once you start home canning you will find you give a lot away. You are so proud you want to share your babies. Rarely do you see the empty jar or bottle return home.

Preparing your environment for canning 

My method is simple. First I wash and sterilize my working environment. I wash my jars based on how many I think I will need.  *

I gather all my items at the ready so I don't have to go looking for them. I also sterilize many of my utensils inside my water bath canner. 

I wash and drain my green beans. In this case, they were frozen. I set them in the fridge the night before; then on the counter to thaw on the morning I was going to can.

I used what would be called the raw pack method for preparing and canning my beans. 

Once the jars are filled, you would then add salt. I put a quarter teaspoon per jar. Salt is not required, but it adds to taste and clarity of jar and color when your items are canned. I do not always add salt to vegetables, but I do green beans. 

I then added boiling water to each jar to the proper level, then I used a wooden skewer to stir and remove any air bubbles that have settled in the jar. You want to remove air bubbles so you have a proper seal. I then checked jars for nicks or chips, wiped the jar for any debris that might impede sealing in the canner, and added the new canning lid and screwed down the top fingertip tight.

Once the jars are ready, place in the canner, make sure your canner is filled to the manufacturer's recommended depth of water in the canner, add vinegar to assist if you have hard water. A quarter cup will help the jars not be cloudy with lime at the end of canning. It isn't necessary, it just helps with the overall look of the jar afterward. 

Remember to always check the vent area is free of debris.

Once the canner is full,  place the lid on and in my case I line up the arrow on the lid to the groove on my canner. 

Once the grooves are lined up you would then alternately tighten the screws down catty-corner from each other all the way around

Let us get the fire going!

Turn on the fire and bring it up to temp to begin venting. Eventually, you will get used to your stove and know at what setting will bring your canner up to temp. I no longer put mine on high. I know to keep my canner at ten pounds of pressure I need it to be on medium. I just set mine there and do other tasks or read while I wait. I'm never far from my kitchen and canner when canning. 

When the canner begins to heat up inside it will begin venting air out of the vent hole. At first, it is light. You want the venting to become a very strong vent out.  Once you know it is a strong vent, set your time and let vent for 10 minutes. This is very important. Venting pushes out all the air from the canner itself and from the jars also. This will allow for your jars to eventually set a proper seal.  The heat is also building in the canner, which will kill bacteria and other bad microbes. I did not post a picture as it is very hard to show the canner venting in a photo. Below are three videos that show a canner venting, another under pressure and how to use an All American in general. I chose Starry Hilders as she actually cans outside on fire as she lives off the grid in Idaho

Venting a canner

When canner reaches pressure

How to use an All American Canner

Now the waiting begins.

Once the canner had vented for ten minutes I add the weighted gauge and wait for the canner to come up to pressure. When it begins to make a jiggling sound the canner is now up to pressure.  I set my timer for the time recommended for green beans in a quart jar.  In my case at sea level, I would can with ten pounds of pressure for twenty-five minutes in a quart jar.  At the end of twenty-five minutes, turn off your canner and let it come down off pressure. This can take a while. Do not become impatient and try and make it come down faster as it could cause your jars to break, or spew out some of the liquid in the jar. This could cause your jar to lose its seal or not form one at all. Once the canner has come down off pressure, remove the lid carefully away from your face so that any steam left in the canner will push out away from your face. Set beans to cool on the counter for twelve to twenty-four hours. Then wash the outside of your jars in hot soapy water. Dry them off to write with a sharpie the date of canning and the items you canned. Now you can put them up in your cabinet. 

Always research any canning recipe for yourself. 

As always when following someone else's directions for home canning, ALWAYS do your research on home canning techniques and times. Never trust anyone else to be your authority. Always check and double-check yourself. I have watched many canning videos where someone decides to do a how-to. I have actually seen videos on water bath canning food that should be pressure canned.  A good rule of thumb is pickles and foods in brine,  and foods very high in PH can be water bath canned. This includes most fruits, as well as jams and jellies.  All vegetables, meats, and beans are pressure canned. Again the exception with vegetables is if you are making them into pickles. These have vinegar and sugars which change the ph. Why, what is the difference? The Ph level that controls the acidity level that stops bacteria and microbes!

Books, Books, and More Books. Does one ever have enough books?

Balls books are trusted immensely. They test all their recipes in test kitchens and labs for precise times and temps. I have many of their books. The one listed below is a good one. It is good to have on hand. It is very in-depth and covers more than canning. It is recommended that after a canning publication by an accepted authority is ten years old to replace with an updated version. This book was originally published in 2006 and is now over 10 years old, but it is full of almost anything you might ever want to can. I think it is a must on your shelf if you plan to start home canning. It has classic recipes from the past. Whereas the newer one is more hip for our Foodie society of today. One should always have a classic! You can always look up times and anything else that may have changed by cross-referencing with newer versions.


 Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving: 400 Delicious and Creative Recipes for Today

The new book that replaces this one is here.  The All-New Ball Book Of Canning And Preserving: Over 350 of the Best Canned, Jammed, Pickled, and Preserved Recipes

The National Center For Home Food Preservation is probably one of the most trusted how-to sites all around. I use this website often. I have also bought their latest book from an extension service, publisher. That information is on their website,  How to buy the Bound version.  You could save time and money and print the PDF on their website and put it in a binder. 

 National Center For Home Food Preservation

There is a learning curve to becoming a home canner. Society today has taken away from us home food preservation as it was in the past. Things we used to learn growing up are no longer taught to us. Why bottle up your food when you can go to the store and buy it. I take this step by step, but there are many, many things you need to know and understand on home canning that ensures you have canned the food item at the proper temp, in the proper canner, for the proper amount of time. With the time spent canning, you want to make sure that while you are canning you are safe and ultimately your food is safe for you to eat.  You want proper seals and long shelf life. I watched many YouTube videos learning how to can. Honestly, I still watch them and I still learn something I did not know. For Example, Why do my beef cuts sometimes have a metallic taste after it is canned and sometimes it does not. When browning in cast iron pans the food item sometimes takes on the taste of the iron. Eureka! I only use stainless steel pans now to brown and par brown meat items for home canning. No longer have that problem and curiosity of taste.

Two home canners that do excellent how-to canning videos are:                  

 2leelou Preserves  2leelou is a professionally trained Master Food Preserver.  She gives precise and proper instruction. She is an instructor at her local state extension service. 

       imstillworkin   is very, very, thorough and by the book as a canner. With these two you will get the best hand and visual instruction there is out there. Neither of the two deviates from proper and safe canning instruction. If you are new to canning that is exactly what you need.   Keep your eye out for more canning articles.

Happy Canning!!

*Note I take all my own photos. Crooked at times on purpose. Some photos are generalized and not the actual canning session. Washed jars at the ready are not the size used in this article.