Pressure Canning

Over the years Rob and I have canned a lot of salsa and sauce. We tried chili once but that didn't work out well. Our process was basically hot jars, hot lids and hot salsa. We would fill them and put on the lids and rings and then listen to them pop as they sealed. So now I am trying new processes. A lot of people I know can with a hot water bath method. But the water will never get over 212 degrees F. With a pressure cooker or canner you can get temps around 240 degrees F. That will kill most nasty things that can ruin you canned ingredients.

So I bought me an 8 quart pressure cooker. I bought it for cooking, because you can do beef stew in 30 minutes. Today I experimented with pressure canning. I put a rack in my cooker with several inches of water. My product was just a quart jar of raw potatoes and salt. Once the lid was sealed and the fire on I waited for the safety valve to pop up and then let it vent steam freely for 10 minutes, then I installed the 15 psi weight. Once the weight started gently rocking I let it cook for 30 minutes.

At 30 minutes I turned off the heat and let the steam vent off until the safety valve fell back down. I took out the quart of potatoes and let it cool. I just now heard the pop of the lid being sealed. This is the first time I have ever pressure canned anything, so I did it outside on my turkey cooker burner. Because of the wind I had to constantly adjust the heat to keep the weight rocking.

Tmorrow I will open the jar and see how it is. Hopefully good. So far it is and successful experiment.

Enjoy.