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I'm looking into getting into some preserving (especially as our garden is producing bounteous quantities of tomatoes and zucchini, with capsicum and chillies not far off).
The kind of things I will most likely be canning are high acid, and so don't need a pressure cooker (and the resultant high temperature) to can.
However, all the online info I can find only refers to this kit as use for bottling fruits or pickles. My understanding of the food safety is that the temperatures required for doing these two things are also adequate for any other high acidity food (chutneys, relishes, tomato based sauces etc) but inadequate for low acidity (bottled vegetables, meat, fishes etc). So if I did get this kit, I could make salsa/tomatoes sauces/chutneys.
Does anyone know anything about this? Or has the google fu to find out more about the kit?
posted
(I am aware there is a much bigger, much better Fowlers kit, but I can't afford $500. If I didn't get this kit, I would have to at least get a big stock pot, as my biggest won't fit the jars and water allowance needed.)
Posts: 4393 | Registered: Aug 2003
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posted
I always used a couple of canning pots myself for the traditional hot water bath. I think what they're trying to do is eliminate that hot water steam up the kitchen and make everyone hot part of the process.
Posts: 8355 | Registered: Apr 2003
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Yeah, I thought so too. So given that, it should be ok for anything that would have been ok in a hot water bath?
Posts: 4393 | Registered: Aug 2003
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I would, but to buy a big enough canning pot and the jars, I'm looking at $80-90 anyway. The ease of this system seems worth the extra money.
(Also, there's the off chance my mother might buy some of it for my birthday present - even cheaper! )
Posts: 4393 | Registered: Aug 2003
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Well, if your area is anything like mine, estate sales are a great source of really, really cheap canning supplies (I got my about $30 new canning kettle and rack set for $5; canning tongs for $2; a box of brand-new jars and rims for $3, etc.)
Posts: 21182 | Registered: Sep 2004
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I got both my canning pot at a garage sale and paid about $5 each, too. Bought my first jars used for $1 or less apiece and got donations of more jars from other family members, so my initial outlay was more like $20-30.
Posts: 8355 | Registered: Apr 2003
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my one piece of completely unsolicited canning advice: Make sure that your usage of canned foods will approximately equal your input (i.e. total number of jars preserved/year ~= total number of jars eaten/given away/year). Otherwise, you become my mother, with 20 year old jars of pickles in the basement because EVERY year yields far more cucumbers and tomatoes etc than she can possibly use...
Posts: 1038 | Registered: Feb 2006
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My dad gives jam to everyone at Christmas. He gets most of his jam-making fruits from friends with trees-- they give him the fruit, which he cans and then gives them back 1/3 to 1/2 the fruit in exchange for his labor, so he keeps 1/2 to 2/3 and gets the fruit for free.
Posts: 21182 | Registered: Sep 2004
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