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Pressure canning

WilderbeastWilderbeast Posts: 1,415
in Fruit & veg
Hi all not sure if anyone can help, I'm interested in trying pressure canning to preserve fruit and veg (counting chickens before they've hatched comes to mind here). Has anyone here tried this or perhaps knows where to get a pressure canner in the UK. 

Lots of research has led me to lots of dead ends any advice greatly appreciated 

Posts

  • ObelixxObelixx Posts: 30,090
    I'm not good with even a basic pressure cooker  - too explosive - so have never tried pressure canning.

    What works for me when I make passata, chutneys, jams and marmalade is to sterilise the jars in the oven, fill while still hot, put the lid on as tightly as possible then submerge in a pan of boiling water for 10 minutes then turn off the heat and allow the water to cool in its own time.   It makes for a very good vacuum seal.
    Vendée - 20kms from Atlantic coast.
    "The price good men (and women) pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men (and women)."
    Plato
  • SkandiSkandi Posts: 1,723
    I cannot find pressure canners in Europe at all. I think you would have to import one and all the jars and lids you would need from the US. Which is a shame as I would like to have a play with one as well, but I do not fancy spending upwards of £300 just to find I won't actually use it.
    For anything pickled or anything preserved in sugar you can just put it in the jars hot and turn them upside down and it's fine, for tomatoes and fruit in syrup you can do as Obelixx suggests, but for "fresh" veg and meat we appear to be out of luck.
  • DovefromaboveDovefromabove Posts: 88,147
    edited January 2021
    ‘Home Preservation of Fruit & Vegetables’ published by HMSO is a good resource. It doesn’t (or my 1989 edition doesn’t) cover actual ‘canning’ but includes a lot about bottling and many other methods of preserving including juice extraction, making sauerkraut and freezing. 
    Really useful and available from here
    https://www.abebooks.co.uk/book-search/title/home-preservation-of-fruit-and-vegetables/ and other secondhand book sellers. 

    Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.





  • WilderbeastWilderbeast Posts: 1,415
    @Obelixx yes your way with tomatoes is 1 I will try and works without the pressure canner, vegetable's need the higher temperatures a canner can provide to give proper long term safe storage. I'm trying to stay away from chutney's, jams and pickles with all that sugar which is yummy is bad for me (not interested in sweets but I do like a little cheese and biscuit with my chutney 🤣). 

    @Skandi the jars are available in the UK mason ball, weck and kilner screw top work, it's as you say it's the pressure canner. I found 1self sufficiency blog in the UK recommending a piece of kit and when I contacted the US manufacturers they said 'no,no,no this not safe'. Never tried importing anything so not sure of costs but some people seem to have spent vast sums to get things posted in.

    @Dovefromabove thanks for the suggestion I'll take a look.

    I'll keep looking to find a bargain 
  • ObelixxObelixx Posts: 30,090
    @Wilderbeast I don't do jams anymore as we just don't eat enough so I have some jars over 10 years old and still well sealed.  I mostly do chilli jam these days and lime pickle for OH and then jars of passata to take us thru winter for soups, curries and pasta sauces.
    Vendée - 20kms from Atlantic coast.
    "The price good men (and women) pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men (and women)."
    Plato
  • SkandiSkandi Posts: 1,723
    I did see the jars for sale but the prices are insane and even more so for the use once lids. I wanted to do some meat to try, I hate tinned meat it tastes of tin but jarred meat as it were may not! I also wanted to do baby potatoes and carrots. Oh well the only way I would shell out for one is if I got to try someone else's first though I fear. I have an entire cellar full of tomato products, jams and various pickles, I did try preserving green beans in salt and it really does work! The beans need to be shredded though or the salt doesn't come back out.
    I will say the Americans are horribly paranoid over food preservation. they consider the European ways of doing Jam to be deadly so do take what they say about using pressure cookers with a pinch of salt, the only real info I could find was that timings would be thrown off if the pressure cooker is smaller than a tested pressure canner. If the worry is botulism then note also that while the spores can survive boiling the dangerous bit is denatured by heating to 85C for 5 minutes. so if you have any doubts about a jar boil it before consumption.
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