I did some canning yesterday, for the 1st time and I have a question that I cannot find an answer for. I cold packed chicken into pint jars with a teaspoon of chicken bullion in each jar. I really do think that I packed the jars without enough headspace in them. Some of the broth from the jars boiled out into the pressure canner. I was concerned that they would not seal since some of the had boiled out, but each and every one the sealed. My question is, would some of the water from the pressure canner (which had vinegar add to it due to hard water) have leeched into the jars? I do think that canning your own food is kinda cool. I cannot wait to can some bacon!!! Thanks for you help!!
Wouldn't think so, but then again it's been a while since I have pressure canned. I don't remember my jars being submerged to the point that while the canner was cooling they would have pulled in the water. I would still be concerned about the seal. You have a contaminate between the glass jar and the lid, that will cause early failure. What was your headspace?
About 3/4" . I too was concerned about the seal, but they all went "ping" and I can pick up each jar by the lid so I think I am safe there.
If you measure the Center of the LID using a Straight Edge it should be sucked in MORE than 1/32 of an Inch. If so your vacuum is sufficent. If not you need to reSeal the Jar. In the commercial Canning Business they have what is called a "Dud Detector" that makes this measurement, Ultrasonically, and kicks any that fail, into the Reject Bin for reprocessing. .........
Pressure canning is not like water bath canning where you submerge the cans in the water. I typically fill the water in the pressure canner no more than 3/4 to the top of the jars for quarts and 1/2 to the top of the jars for pints.
I used pint jars and had the water about 2/3 to the top of the jars. It was my 1st attempt at canning and I was paranoid about running the canner dry. However, when I was done, 75 mins @ 15 pounds there was still plenty of water. A newbie fear I suppose, but I bought a All American pressure canner & they ain't cheap and I did not want to screw the thing up. I will bust one open tomorrow and make tacos with it and see how it is.
Caution in canning is healthy.. Have heard of two people in the area that have been paralyzed from botulism poisoning from home canned goods..
You can use an everyday wal-mart pressure cooker to ya know. MUCH less expensive. The primary advantage of the canner is larger capacity.
I almost went that route. But I like the fact that there is NO rubber gaske,t that could/will need replacing at some point, and that it is made here by Americans
Will have several canners going at our spring gathering 2-3-4 May. Have two Americans and 4 others. Need to sell a few but would probably just buy more. Just cannot pass by a canner at a yard sale for $5. Bought one brand new for $3--still had the papers in it.
Same here, also we hit up the local farmers market for "canning tomatoes". I'll get a box (about 20lbs) of "bruised, split,over ripe" tomatoes for $8.00. Last year I think I came home with close to 100lbs of tomatoes. Spend the next 2 days canning them, but we also get a fair amount of "good" tomatoes from the boxes. The first year I started doing this, one of the vendors asked "how many boxes you want?" I asked how many they had, took 4 boxes. If a vendor doesn't have a box ready to go, many of them will go through there stock and make a box for me, course I tip the workers putting the box together for me, that couldn't have anything to do with it?
We opened a jar of chicken that was canned last week and it tasted fine, the jar was full of juice, but the meat was actually dry. Is this normal? I figured it would be really moist. It still made some good taco's.
"Full" as in completely covered , or "full" as in partly full ? Did you raw pack or cook the chicken first ? How long was it sitting in the can ? We only do raw pack and while some of the meat in not covered it all turns out tender. Currently we are eating some items canned about 15 months ago.
The chicken was raw-packed & the juice fills the jar, except maybe the top 1/4" of chicken. It was my 1st time ever canning & it is only a week old. It is very tender, just dry.
Ok I'll admit I'm stumped. If the meat is covered - ok except for the top 1/4" - and only in the jar a week - presuming s good seal, then it should be moist.
These were boneless chicken breasts that had every last scrap of fat removed. Maybe leaving a little fat on them would help?? I dunno either. It tastes just fine and is very tender, it actually shreds, so I am still happy with outcome of my 1st canning project. Oh well, I am still going to can 36 LBS of bacon the 1st of the month.