When I first started gardening, I learned a very valuable lesson. Only grow what you will eat. Do not grow things that you do not like to eat. I fondly recall the year that I grew eggplant ... a lot of eggplant. Discovering at harvest that I actually think eggplant is well, kind of gross. I gave it all away. I've kept that experience in mind as I have bravely ventured into pressure canning land. I have been making it a point to only preserve things I know I like and that I will eat even if there is no apocalypse. Green beans is the first item on the list. I like green beans. Last year I blanched and froze a few pounds, but when I got around to eating them, they just weren't right. They were kind of tough and chewy and just not appealing so I decided to can them this year. This meant a new skill and a new tool. I picked up one of the newest canning helpers, the digital pressure canner. I have been delighted by the results so far. My beans are classic canned green beans. Without the digital canner I might not be doing this because I'm just straight up afraid of my stove top pressure canner. I'm terrified it's going to blow up. I mean.... Ive blown up stuff before (and set a few accidental fires) so it's not an unreasonable fear. I would have used it in spite of the fear, just probably, not as prolifically as I have done with the digital canner. And my anxiety levels would be through the roof with the stove top canner. So.... I decided the best course of action was baby steps. (I know, uncharacteristically cautious of me) I did my research and to be honest that was mostly reels on how to use it. I was worried that it would be too difficult and would wind up in the back room collecting dust so I bought the smallest canner on the market. The 9 1/2 quart Nesco Digital Smart Canner. The cons are only ...3 and 1 is about the way the directions are written, so we are going to start there. Con 1. It only holds 4 quarts or 5 pints at a time (it takes many half pints and has a little shelf you can use to stack them on top of each other). Con 2. When pressure canning it takes an hour to an hour and a half to cool down before you can open it and refill it. Con 3. The directions that come in the booklet could be a little more clear. But that is pretty much the negative right there. The positive. This thing is great for quick small batches. If you want to can what is coming out of your kitchen garden you wash 5 jars and lids with hot soapy water. Pack your jars with your homegrown produce or homemade stock or whatever it is that you want to can. (The Newest Ball Canning book has easy, simple and safe recipes that make the process go fast) When your jars are ready, you put them in the canner and close the lid. Set the pressure level, set the time and hit start. You have wait about 15 to 20 minutes for the water to get hot and then for the correct pressure to build and then a beep goes off to tell you to close the vent (2 beeps actually but that's part of the complaint about the directions). Once the vent is closed, your job is done. You now have about 2 hours to wander around doing other stuff while the machine does its work. No monitoring necessary. That's the pressure canning. The water bathing is even easier and there is no long cool down time to water bath. The Nesco canner uses a lot less water than water bathing, so you get savings there as well and the mess is pretty minimal. I'm glad I got the small one . I'm not dragging heavy pots of water across the kitchen from the sink to the stove. So far this year I have pressure canned pasta sauce, chicken stock, beef stock and vegetable stock, green beans, collard greens, spinach and sweet potatoes. All of these are things that used to live in my freezer and are now happily living in the pantry and using no electricity to be shelf stable.
Of course, recipes and directions are a necessity. For decades the Ball Blue Book has been a staple in kitchens across the USA. The internet says the first Ball Blue Book was published in 1909 and they are all still usable. When it came time to can this year, I drug out all my canning books. The Ball Blue Book 1937 edition and my Grandmothers Ball Blue Book 1986 edition, I have a copy of the Farm Journal Freezing & Canning Cookbook from 1962 and a copy of the Kerr Home Canning and Freezing Book from 1982. All usable but still.... I thought maybe... just maybe I might ought to bring my canning skills into this century... Not decade .... century. I thought maybe I would see how science has evolved the food preservation process over the decades. So, I bought the New and updated Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving. 448 pages... It's a lot of information and it's also organized very differently from the old books. For example, Granny's 1986 edition is only 112 pages and the 1937 version is only 55 pages. The newest book is a little more idiot proof than the 1937 version but the 1937 version has comprehensive tables so you are not constantly flipping pages. The newest book does not have tables but it has little tips all the way through on how to keep fruit from browning, how to keep pickles crisp, the difference in fruit strains and which one to use for what, what kind of vinegar to use for whatever recipe you are looking at, how to cut the vegetables up for pressure canning, how to pack jars etc. etc. I keep the big three (the Ball books) handy at all times for cross referencing. The most significance difference in the books are the recipes. There are many recipes for salsa in the new book and no recipes for salsa in the 1937 book. You will find mincemeat in the 37 edition but not in the newest edition. No Pasta sauce in the 37. So, in many ways the Ball Books are a good history of foods and the mix of cultural influences in America through the years.
While the recipes are great and very tasty, the number one benefit of all the books is correct processes for preserving foods safely.
I'm putting the amazon links to the canner and the new Ball canning book here at the bottom in case you want to take a look
