Directions: |
Directions:Blanch - This is the method of cooking or par cooking food in boiling water. This stops the ripening process of the food.
Bulk Purchasing Options - Pint - Quart - Peck - Half Bushel – Bushel
ClearJel - This is an approved thickening agent for canning. It is an enhanced cornstarch.
Cold/Raw Pack - This means to fill the jars with raw ingredients and cold liquid. For example, canning Green Beans. You are going to pack the jars tightly with the beans, add salt and water. You will put these in a cold canner and let everything come to temperature together.
De-bubble - This is the process in canning to remove the air bubbles from the products in the jar. If you fill your jars with Green Beans and then add the water, there is almost always air trapped in between the beans, during the canning process these air bubbles will move to the top of the jar causing your liquid to go down and leave beans exposed. To de-bubble there is a tool you can get to do this, it is like a plastic knife and you just push it down the sides and it moves the contents around enough to take out the bubbles. You can use a chop stick or what I do sometimes is just spin the jar around a couple times and the motion moves them out. After this you may need to top off the jar with the more liquid.
Food Mill/Squeezo Strainer - A food mill is a device that looks like a sauce pan with a ton of holes in the bottom and has a hand crank that moves a blade around on the inside and a wire on the bottom to push the foods through. This is used for making sauces and pureeing foods such as Apple Sauce, Spaghetti Sauce; its main purpose is for pureeing, removing skins and seed; which makes it great for making jellies!
Gauges - You will either have a dial, weighted gauge or both on your pressure canner. The Dial is a circle on the top with numbers 0-15 this shows your PSI. The weighted gauge goes over the steam vent with certain weight set to it. If you have a dial gauge only you will also have a pressure regulator that goes over the steam vent to keep the pressure in during processing. Please refer to the Processing lbs. - Altitude/Weighted Gauge/Dial Gauge, listed below.
Headspace - This is the amount of space between the top of your item in the jar and the top of the jar. A good rule is the neck of the jar where it starts to flare out is about 1 inch, to give you a better idea!
Hot Pack - This means to fill the jars with hot items. For example, Apple Pie Filling; you will be filling the jars with hot pie filling. You are going to want a hot canner ready to go, if the jars and product is hot the canner needs to be also.
Jar Lifter - Tool that is like a a set of tongs for lifting jars out of the canners. They grab the jar around the neck just below the ring.
Jar Sizes -
Small Jelly Jar (4 oz.)
Half Pint (8 oz.)
Pint (16 oz.)
Pint and a Half (24 oz.)
Quart (32 oz.)
Half Gallon (64 oz.)
Lid Lifter - Lifts lids out of boiling water with a magnet at the end of a stick.
NCHFP - National Center for Home Food Preservation, this is a Department of the USDA. They test lots of methods and recipes to come up with the safest ways of preserving your food!
Process lbs. - Altitude/Weighted Gauge/Dial Gauge
0-1000/10/11
1001-2000/15/11
2001-4000/15/12
4001-6000/15/13
6001-8000/15/14
8001-10000/15/15
Pressure Canner - This type of canner processes foods at higher temperatures and is the fastest of the processing methods. See Intro into Canning for more of a description.
Ring - Holds the seal in place. Do not tighten too much, this will cause seals to buckle. Just go to finger tip tight.
Seal - Flat part with a rubber ring around the edge on the bottom.
Roaster is what you would cook a turkey in for example. You can either use an electric one or one that goes into an oven. Some refer to this as a roasting pan, turkey pan, roaster oven.
Water Bath or Boiling Bath Canner - This is basically a large pot like a crab boiling pot. See Intro into Canning for more of a description. |
This recipe for Canning and Processing Terms is from