Matter of Facts: All About Canning

[00:00:06] [SPEAKER_01]: Welcome back to the Matter of Facts podcast on the Prepper Broadcasting Network.

[00:00:10] [SPEAKER_01]: We talk prepping guns politics every week on iTunes, Stitcher and Spotify.

[00:00:14] [SPEAKER_01]: Go check out our content at MWFpodcast.com on Facebook or Instagram.

[00:00:18] [SPEAKER_01]: You can support us via Patreon or by checking out our affiliate partners.

[00:00:21] [SPEAKER_01]: I'm your host Phil Ravillay, Andrew, Nick or on the other side of the mic and here's your show.

[00:00:30] [SPEAKER_01]: So you know what's really annoying is when you remember one thing and you forget something

[00:00:33] [SPEAKER_01]: else and I actually changed the intro. I changed the intro for the audio podcast

[00:00:39] [SPEAKER_01]: but I completely forgot to change it here. And now I have to change the whole roll-in video

[00:00:45] [SPEAKER_01]: because it's all like me and Andrew and you're not included so.

[00:00:48] [SPEAKER_01]: I can get you some B-relevant. Yeah, it's just this whole podcast producing thing is a pain in

[00:00:55] [SPEAKER_01]: the behind. I don't know why in the world anybody would do this willingly. I mean

[00:01:00] [SPEAKER_01]: it's kind of fun. Yeah, it is fun. I have to keep reminding myself the fact that I really

[00:01:05] [SPEAKER_01]: do enjoy doing this. I mean, I wouldn't have done it for eight years if I didn't.

[00:01:10] [SPEAKER_01]: But every now and then I think to myself I'm like, oh, kick my own butt. Funny part is when I screw

[00:01:16] [SPEAKER_01]: something up on the other show and Gillian threatens to fire me and I'm like, I don't

[00:01:19] [SPEAKER_01]: know who else you think is going to work for a kiss every now and then.

[00:01:23] [SPEAKER_01]: You're definitely her cheapest option. I am absolutely her cheapest option.

[00:01:28] [SPEAKER_01]: I work cheaper than anybody she knows. And at least Tilpiper figures out computer's real good.

[00:01:34] [SPEAKER_01]: You know, my daughter has no interest in this podcast whatsoever or raising values. She is

[00:01:39] [SPEAKER_01]: totally happy to be like, you know, silent in the background unknown.

[00:01:43] [SPEAKER_02]: That's a beauty of being a producer. If you're a producer, not a host. You can be a silent

[00:01:47] [SPEAKER_01]: background. Yeah, but she would want payment. And for some reason, roof over her head,

[00:01:55] [SPEAKER_02]: bed, food, none of that seems to count. No, no, no, that doesn't. No, for sure.

[00:02:04] [SPEAKER_01]: Well, okay. So it's Phil and Nick on this evening. We're going to talk about canning because I

[00:02:09] [SPEAKER_01]: don't can. I know nothing about canning. My family has never done canning and you know a

[00:02:14] [SPEAKER_01]: lot about it. So maybe by the end of this, you can smooth talk me into getting into it.

[00:02:18] [SPEAKER_03]: But before we... Grandma that knows a lot about it.

[00:02:23] [SPEAKER_01]: Okay. Well, compared me and your grandma could swap notes. I could tell her all

[00:02:27] [SPEAKER_01]: about night vision. She could tell me all about canning, but she's not here and you are.

[00:02:32] [SPEAKER_01]: Fantastic. First though, I do have to read... I do have to give a shout out to all the patrons.

[00:02:35] [SPEAKER_01]: Thank you for supporting the show. You make this not be a financial drain on my pocket,

[00:02:40] [SPEAKER_01]: which I deeply appreciate. It's not like we make money doing this, but it's really nice

[00:02:44] [SPEAKER_01]: not to have to cut checks for like, you know, $500, $600 in a month to pay for bandwidth

[00:02:51] [SPEAKER_01]: and stuff like that. So it's really cool that y'all chip in a couple of bucks and listen to us

[00:02:55] [SPEAKER_01]: ramble on. Also, merch. We've been talking about merch. Merch has finally arrived. So for those of

[00:03:04] [SPEAKER_01]: you who are listening to this in audio, you'll just have to deal with watching, looking on Instagram.

[00:03:09] [SPEAKER_01]: But the first proofs from the batch that we sent out to Southern gals are done.

[00:03:15] [SPEAKER_01]: The Apocalyptics Warlord shirt is kind of a riff off a street fighter. I personally think

[00:03:20] [SPEAKER_01]: it's hilarious because if you're into my humor, then that should resonate with you.

[00:03:24] [SPEAKER_01]: And then there's what would Bert do. If you don't know who Bert is, I question your life decisions.

[00:03:30] [SPEAKER_01]: And, you know, maybe I'm just the only weirdo that grew up thinking that a guy with a wreck

[00:03:34] [SPEAKER_01]: room full of guns and a cute wife was like something to aspire towards in my older age.

[00:03:39] [SPEAKER_01]: But I'm halfway there. I mean, you know, I don't have an elephant gun. I should fix that.

[00:03:44] [SPEAKER_03]: Actually, I know a gal that's got one for sale.

[00:03:47] [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, that's the last thing my checking account needs to find out about or 60 weather beef.

[00:03:55] [SPEAKER_03]: Neither shoulder doesn't need it either.

[00:03:57] [SPEAKER_01]: Neither my shoulder nor my checking account nor my my daughter's college fund,

[00:04:02] [SPEAKER_01]: nor my reloading bench. None of those things need to know anything about a four 60.

[00:04:08] [SPEAKER_01]: I still have this weird urge to build like a 458 socom upper and I'm cringing at that already.

[00:04:15] [SPEAKER_02]: And yeah, you know, if you have a purpose for it, they make sense. Hog hunting fantastic.

[00:04:24] [SPEAKER_02]: But how many hogs are there in Louisiana right now?

[00:04:28] [SPEAKER_01]: Honestly, honestly. Yeah, I almost got a I almost got a call from my wife's uncle to go

[00:04:35] [SPEAKER_01]: out there with my night vision rig and smoke a whole pack of them several months ago.

[00:04:39] [SPEAKER_03]: Well, it sounds like you have justification.

[00:04:41] [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, well, the problem is, like he told me about this and I was like,

[00:04:45] [SPEAKER_01]: okay, I got to really quickly get a hunting license because in Louisiana they changed the

[00:04:50] [SPEAKER_01]: they did relax their laws thankfully. But they they've deemed hogs to be outlawed quadrupeds.

[00:04:56] [SPEAKER_01]: So you can take them in like there is no season. There is no bag limit. You find them,

[00:05:01] [SPEAKER_01]: you burn them down period and discussion. Daytime night time doesn't matter night vision

[00:05:06] [SPEAKER_01]: does no caliber limitations. It's like shooting neutral on the levees out here

[00:05:11] [SPEAKER_01]: like you find a hog, burn them down. The only problem is you have to have a basic hunting

[00:05:16] [SPEAKER_01]: license and at the moment I didn't have one because I didn't grow up in a family of hunters

[00:05:20] [SPEAKER_01]: and by the time I got by the time I got the hunter safety course and the hunter

[00:05:25] [SPEAKER_01]: and the hunting license, I called my wife's uncle and he was like, yeah, my neighbor put

[00:05:31] [SPEAKER_01]: a trap out for him and got like the whole frigging the whole bunch of them.

[00:05:37] [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, unfortunately for him, you know, we do have a hog problem around here. So they'll be back

[00:05:42] [SPEAKER_01]: sooner or later and when they do I got a PBS 14 and I mean he burnt he burnt down three of them

[00:05:49] [SPEAKER_01]: I think with a 556. Nice. So they're not you can do it for sure. Yeah, they're not enormous

[00:05:56] [SPEAKER_01]: hogs, you know, like you could took you could knock them down the 556. But if I had a

[00:06:04] [SPEAKER_01]: 458, I'd be a little bit more enthusiastic about the proposition. Oh, yeah.

[00:06:09] [SPEAKER_01]: I mean, 458 will do everything but convert them to bacon on the you know, like right there in the

[00:06:13] [SPEAKER_01]: field for sure. Also, prepper camp is coming up in September. It's just a few weeks away. If

[00:06:20] [SPEAKER_01]: you're interested, you should go to prepper camp calm and you should find out about it.

[00:06:24] [SPEAKER_01]: It's probably pushing it a little bit to get in this year like you could still get tickets.

[00:06:29] [SPEAKER_01]: But I don't know where in the heck you would sleep at this point because

[00:06:33] [SPEAKER_01]: it's getting really close and the place always sells out. So if you're curious and you think you

[00:06:39] [SPEAKER_01]: can swing it, it's worth looking into. And if you can't swing it, then myself and Andrew and

[00:06:45] [SPEAKER_01]: my wife and my daughter will be out there this year along with a whole bunch of other miscreants.

[00:06:50] [SPEAKER_01]: And I'm sure we'll be talking about it afterwards.

[00:06:54] [SPEAKER_01]: So, Nick, why canning? What is canning first of all?

[00:06:59] [SPEAKER_02]: All right. So everybody's familiar with canned food at the grocery store. So

[00:07:06] [SPEAKER_02]: this is how you did it at home back in the day. Glass jars, lid, ring, a little bit of heat.

[00:07:14] [SPEAKER_02]: The whole purpose behind it is it gives you energy free food storage.

[00:07:18] [SPEAKER_02]: Once you're done with the canning process, the food is fully cooked.

[00:07:22] [SPEAKER_02]: The food is shelf stable. So no refrigeration, no freezing needed. You don't have to cook it when

[00:07:29] [SPEAKER_02]: it's done. It may not taste that great cold, but this stuff will last a considerably long time.

[00:07:34] [SPEAKER_02]: I don't know if this will show up on camera. Hey, this is my uncle's batch of hot peppers from 2021.

[00:07:40] [SPEAKER_02]: We're still eating through that because he grew I think an eighth of an acre of just hot

[00:07:47] [SPEAKER_02]: peppers and canned them all. They're fantastic by the way. It's pickled garlic and hot peppers.

[00:07:53] [SPEAKER_02]: This one, applesauce. So essentially what it gives you is it gives you food preservation

[00:08:03] [SPEAKER_02]: at home at scale whatever scale you feel you need. Everybody's probably seen the

[00:08:12] [SPEAKER_02]: ball mason jars. That's what I use. That's what a lot of people use. They're one of your better

[00:08:18] [SPEAKER_02]: brand of ones and more reliable. I mean, it's kind of a low cost deal on the long term too.

[00:08:27] [SPEAKER_02]: The jars are reusable. The rings are reusable. Some people argue the lids are reusable. I've

[00:08:33] [SPEAKER_02]: never tested that myself, but there are people that claim that you can do it just fine for

[00:08:37] [SPEAKER_02]: a few uses. It extends the lifespan of whatever you're growing in the garden,

[00:08:43] [SPEAKER_02]: whatever you buy from the local farmer's market or anything like that from days, weeks to years.

[00:08:54] [SPEAKER_01]: And I'm assuming it's doing this by putting the food in a hypoxic environment or an oxygen-free

[00:08:59] [SPEAKER_02]: environment? Essentially a hypoxic or a high acid or a super high sugar environment.

[00:09:05] [SPEAKER_01]: That all makes sense. I mean, that's all going to keep bacterial growth to a minimum

[00:09:09] [SPEAKER_02]: and that's what you're really after. Yep, bacterial growth is supposed to keep to a

[00:09:14] [SPEAKER_02]: minimum. It tries to keep the nutrition value as high as possible, but you are clicking it so

[00:09:20] [SPEAKER_02]: you do see some nutrition degradation. And realistically, as far as from like taste

[00:09:29] [SPEAKER_02]: perspective, at least over the course of time that I've had canned food on the shelf,

[00:09:35] [SPEAKER_02]: I've never noticed any taste degradation over the course of like, I think the oldest

[00:09:38] [SPEAKER_02]: home canned stuff I've had has been five years. That's not what the USDA recommends you do,

[00:09:45] [SPEAKER_02]: but it's worked for me. To hell with the USDA.

[00:09:49] [SPEAKER_01]: Well, I guess my question is like, and I'm sure you're probably going to get into this

[00:09:56] [SPEAKER_01]: more later, but like does the shelf life and the amount of taste degradation change

[00:10:01] [SPEAKER_01]: depending on what you're canning? Because I know that like my food storage method has always been

[00:10:08] [SPEAKER_01]: fridge, freezer, deep freezer and then dry storage is really a lot of where we have a

[00:10:14] [SPEAKER_01]: lot of our stuff. And that's like we've tried to expand beyond just beans and rice,

[00:10:18] [SPEAKER_01]: but that's a lot of our dry storage because the way I grew up, we didn't,

[00:10:23] [SPEAKER_01]: we always planned for the freezer to fail. Well, not just that, but like the way I grew

[00:10:28] [SPEAKER_01]: up, we grew up on the Gulf Coast. So it's never if you're going to catch a hurricane,

[00:10:33] [SPEAKER_01]: it's how many years are you going to go before you get the next one?

[00:10:36] [SPEAKER_03]: Or the big one.

[00:10:37] [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, or the big one and the big one can knock out power for weeks on it.

[00:10:42] [SPEAKER_01]: So you just automatically assume if you don't have a generator, everything in your fridge and

[00:10:47] [SPEAKER_01]: freezer is gone. If you do have a generator, your days are numbered. We've tried to make

[00:10:52] [SPEAKER_01]: that a little bit more robust over time, but at the end of the day, like if the power was out,

[00:10:57] [SPEAKER_01]: long enough, everything in our fridge freezer and everything in our deep freezer is going to go.

[00:11:02] [SPEAKER_01]: And we're going to be back to dry goods, which is why I've always put the majority of my effort there.

[00:11:06] [SPEAKER_01]: But I know from dry good storage, there's certain things you can get away with storing for a good

[00:11:11] [SPEAKER_01]: long time in a bucket with an oxygen absorber. And there's other stuff that in the exact same

[00:11:17] [SPEAKER_01]: environment, oxygen absorber, no sunlight, no moisture, it'll still go bad in say six months,

[00:11:22] [SPEAKER_01]: whereas our things will last years.

[00:11:25] [SPEAKER_02]: I have not found anything that I have home can either pressure can or just water bath can,

[00:11:32] [SPEAKER_02]: obviously depending on what it is determines whether you have to do water bath or pressure

[00:11:37] [SPEAKER_02]: canning. And we'll talk about that later. But I've not found anything that didn't get better

[00:11:43] [SPEAKER_02]: over the course of six months to a year. And I've not found anything that I that I

[00:11:50] [SPEAKER_02]: was disappointed by after two years, five years, peppers and pickles, they get a little soft.

[00:12:01] [SPEAKER_02]: That's basically what it is. You kind of you lose the crunch on your pickles.

[00:12:05] [SPEAKER_02]: In my opinion, potatoes, the two times I have tried that, they didn't last that long because

[00:12:12] [SPEAKER_02]: it was really easy to make mashed potatoes out of them. It's basically just chunk up potatoes

[00:12:18] [SPEAKER_02]: in a slightly briny water pressure can that stick it on the shelf. The great thing about that is,

[00:12:25] [SPEAKER_02]: along with a lot of canning methods, everything is entirely cooked. So when you take those out

[00:12:32] [SPEAKER_02]: instead of having to boil the potatoes then mash them, you can basically pull them out,

[00:12:35] [SPEAKER_02]: mash them, heat them up and you're ready to go. You know, it saves yourself a lot of time

[00:12:41] [SPEAKER_01]: later. Yeah, I mean that also sounds like especially given what I imagine most people are

[00:12:47] [SPEAKER_01]: going to use canning for is going to be like beyond the pantry food preservation,

[00:12:53] [SPEAKER_01]: like in an emergency. And in that situation, if it's already cooked and may not be the greatest

[00:12:59] [SPEAKER_01]: taste but you could eat it straight out of the can, then that's saving you wood, propane, fuel,

[00:13:05] [SPEAKER_01]: or whatever else you need to make fire to heat up the food. I mean, even then you're

[00:13:10] [SPEAKER_02]: cooking it, you're warming it. So like your canned green beans, you know, you get green beans fresh

[00:13:17] [SPEAKER_02]: out of the garden, you got to boil them right? You make soften them up a little bit. You don't

[00:13:21] [SPEAKER_02]: have to do that with canned green beans. You take them out of your home canning jar,

[00:13:27] [SPEAKER_02]: dump them in a pot, warm them up till they are slightly above lukewarm or whatever your

[00:13:32] [SPEAKER_02]: family likes, a little bit steam and hot but you don't have to boil them for five or 10

[00:13:36] [SPEAKER_02]: minutes. You ready to go. So sweet corn, we do sweet corn fairly often. A few years ago, one of my

[00:13:46] [SPEAKER_02]: coworkers associates, an old family friend of his grew way too much sweet corn for any sane family

[00:13:55] [SPEAKER_02]: to eat. So they were giving it away in like the big rubber made tubs full and just dumping

[00:14:03] [SPEAKER_02]: those rubber made tubs in the back of people's cars and trucks to get rid of the stuff because it was

[00:14:07] [SPEAKER_02]: going to go bad sitting in the field. So I got two or three rubber made tubs,

[00:14:15] [SPEAKER_02]: one had blanched it, cut it off the cob, threw it in the jars, pressure,

[00:14:19] [SPEAKER_02]: canned it and we're still eating that corn. It's been three years.

[00:14:24] [SPEAKER_02]: Great if we don't need a whole lot of corn just me and my wife, you know, the little

[00:14:28] [SPEAKER_02]: little half time jar or whatever of it is good for us for dinner, but I haven't had to buy sweet corn in

[00:14:34] [SPEAKER_02]: three years and it tastes just the same. Doesn't have any freezer space. To me that's the big,

[00:14:44] [SPEAKER_01]: that's the real gem though is because like I'm, I've, I mean, I've got like a can wreck and I've

[00:14:50] [SPEAKER_01]: made a point of like trying to reserve freezer space for things that have to stay frozen. Yeah.

[00:14:54] [SPEAKER_01]: So it's, it's tons and tons of like bacon and sausage and beef and chicken and butter.

[00:15:01] [SPEAKER_02]: You can can most of that too. Can't do butter at home, but if you want to, you can do like say your

[00:15:08] [SPEAKER_02]: stew meat, you can can that at home in a pressure can. It's not the easiest thing to do because

[00:15:20] [SPEAKER_02]: you got to cut it all up, season it all, pack it. Not a lot of people like dealing with large

[00:15:26] [SPEAKER_02]: quantities of raw meat and you do have to have a pressure canner. I mean, you know, that kind of

[00:15:35] [SPEAKER_02]: can up the danger factor a little bit, which is another thing I wanted to talk about.

[00:15:39] [SPEAKER_02]: Some of the stuff that can go wrong with home canning. Look, you're, you're dealing

[00:15:43] [SPEAKER_02]: with hot things. You're dealing with glass. You're dealing with a lot of cutlery because

[00:15:48] [SPEAKER_02]: you got to cut up all of this stuff. So, you know, obviously your normal safety precautions for boiling

[00:15:55] [SPEAKER_02]: water, um, normal safety precautions for having glassware around normal safety precautions for

[00:16:01] [SPEAKER_02]: having heavy duty cutlery around. Well, when my family does applesauce, this is one of the,

[00:16:05] [SPEAKER_02]: that jar there. We'll usually do a couple bushels of apples at a time. So it's a half

[00:16:15] [SPEAKER_02]: plain round with knives, slice of apples, cut up apples and a couple people boiling apple sauce.

[00:16:22] [SPEAKER_01]: Now you, you ever been scalded by boiling water, Phil? Yes. On, on several occasions. So

[00:16:30] [SPEAKER_02]: all right, unlike boiling water, boiling sauces and stews burn you much worse and longer.

[00:16:39] [SPEAKER_01]: Better or worse than boiling hydraulic fluid, do you think? Probably about the same.

[00:16:44] [SPEAKER_02]: Probably about on par, especially because like there, there's a lovely memory from my army days.

[00:16:50] [SPEAKER_02]: Thank you Nick. Yeah, yeah, you do not, you do not want that. So there are two different methods

[00:16:56] [SPEAKER_02]: of canning. One's a little bit safer than the other. Neither one of them is extraordinarily dangerous.

[00:17:01] [SPEAKER_02]: There's water bath canning, which you can do with any of your high acid foods. So thank tomatoes.

[00:17:07] [SPEAKER_02]: Think some types of preserves like jam, jellies, stuff like that that are really high sugar also

[00:17:14] [SPEAKER_02]: kind of count. Hot peppers absolutely count. Pickles absolutely count as high acid. But when

[00:17:23] [SPEAKER_02]: you start getting into things like meat, potatoes, soups and stews and stuff like that, especially

[00:17:28] [SPEAKER_02]: denser stuff like stews. High protein, high starch in other words. High protein, high

[00:17:32] [SPEAKER_02]: starch, low acid. The key is low acid. And if you're worried about is this high acid, is this low acid,

[00:17:43] [SPEAKER_02]: go to ballmasonjars.com. They will have a recipe there for anything you're looking to can.

[00:17:50] [SPEAKER_02]: And I do mean anything. There's also a like national food safety website that you can go to,

[00:17:59] [SPEAKER_02]: but the ball recipes are far more all-encompassing. When you get to the low acid foods, you move into

[00:18:07] [SPEAKER_02]: what's called a pressure canner. So it's like a pressure cooker basically just way, way bigger.

[00:18:14] [SPEAKER_02]: There's a couple different kinds. The American, they're all American or American clad I think makes

[00:18:21] [SPEAKER_02]: a 100% cast aluminum with a metal on metal seal. That's kind of like your gold standard

[00:18:26] [SPEAKER_02]: of a pressure canner. It's got a dial pressure gauge so you can read how much pressure you're building.

[00:18:32] [SPEAKER_02]: Then there's what you'll find at like your local farm and fleet, minards, home depot,

[00:18:37] [SPEAKER_02]: anything like that is a stainless steel vessel with a like little wobbler weight system

[00:18:43] [SPEAKER_02]: that you set the amount of pressure in there based on the amount of weight you put on that

[00:18:48] [SPEAKER_02]: little relief valve. If you follow the instructions on those and you keep them clean,

[00:18:54] [SPEAKER_02]: they're perfectly safe. Obviously the ones with the dial pressure indication are a little bit more

[00:19:00] [SPEAKER_02]: accurate, but I've never had a problem with mine. I bought one of the cheap stainless steel ones

[00:19:06] [SPEAKER_01]: with a little wobbler pressure valve system. So when you say keep them clean, I'm assuming

[00:19:10] [SPEAKER_01]: you're referring to that pressure relief valve clean because it sounds to me like if that gets

[00:19:15] [SPEAKER_02]: coked up things run away from you. It can, it can especially if you have a jar fail in the

[00:19:21] [SPEAKER_02]: canner, say like you've got a jar of beef stew in the canner and it cracks open and tries to force

[00:19:27] [SPEAKER_02]: some beef stew out of that vent. It's not going to work the way it should. Okay, so we've gone from

[00:19:34] [SPEAKER_01]: dealing with boiling water with a hot with a hot water bath to a high pressure vessel to

[00:19:42] [SPEAKER_01]: bait to basically to basically a pressure cooker bomb sitting on your range. If you do it wrong

[00:19:48] [SPEAKER_02]: enough, yes. Oh the age old, if you do it wrong enough. Right now, if you follow the instructions

[00:19:56] [SPEAKER_02]: that come with your canner, they are very simple. If you are at x elevation, you require

[00:20:04] [SPEAKER_02]: y weight to achieve z pressure and it's all spelled out in a table there every, I think it's

[00:20:10] [SPEAKER_02]: 5,000 feet of changes or 3,000 feet of changes. I don't remember how mine was in the book,

[00:20:15] [SPEAKER_02]: but they do, they do tell you if you're outside of one of these ranges, you will have to go to

[00:20:21] [SPEAKER_02]: their website find obviously the additional details. But it went up to I think 10,000 feet

[00:20:27] [SPEAKER_02]: or something absurdly high like that. So, you know, well above the elevations, you're probably

[00:20:32] [SPEAKER_02]: going to be encountering you me were within 1000 feet of sea level. We're just going to use

[00:20:39] [SPEAKER_01]: their generic system within 100 feet of sea level, but I get your point. Well, yeah, yeah,

[00:20:45] [SPEAKER_02]: but I but the point is air pressure doesn't change that much within 1000 feet. And there again,

[00:20:53] [SPEAKER_02]: as your elevation changes, your cooking temp times change. So you do need to know a little bit

[00:21:00] [SPEAKER_02]: of your local geography. Because the point at which water boils changes depending on your

[00:21:08] [SPEAKER_02]: elevation due to the difference in air pressure. So the temperature you're getting in a water bath

[00:21:14] [SPEAKER_02]: canning situation is going to change a little bit depending on your elevation same with pressure

[00:21:19] [SPEAKER_02]: can. Assuming that you followed all the instructions and assuming you don't fumble

[00:21:26] [SPEAKER_02]: a jar full of hot contents into something that causes it to shatter and throw itself all over you,

[00:21:32] [SPEAKER_02]: it should be relatively easy process. But there is one key thing you have to remember.

[00:21:40] [SPEAKER_02]: If you are going to go away from proven recipes, your cook times may vary drastically.

[00:21:51] [SPEAKER_02]: The density of what you're cooking is going to directly affect how long it takes to heat it

[00:21:57] [SPEAKER_02]: all to the point where you denature the bacteria that cause say like botulism. Botulism is a real

[00:22:06] [SPEAKER_02]: danger in home canning. That's why home canning and store canning, they've got these little buttons

[00:22:12] [SPEAKER_02]: on the top. As you notice this one, no matter how hard I push on it, it doesn't move.

[00:22:17] [SPEAKER_02]: That means this is safe and it will continue to be safe until this pops up.

[00:22:22] [SPEAKER_02]: Same as checking the jelly jar at the grocery store. Yeah, if you can push that

[00:22:26] [SPEAKER_02]: little button, that means that jar is not sealed and at some point was opened. Now,

[00:22:34] [SPEAKER_02]: I've never gotten sick from home canned food. I know people that have, I'm sure it happens.

[00:22:41] [SPEAKER_02]: But it's all about mitigating your risks through following the procedures. So for instance,

[00:22:49] [SPEAKER_02]: tomatoes. Tomatoes is a super easy one to do. All you have to do, blanch the tomatoes.

[00:22:55] [SPEAKER_00]: So you get yourself a pot of boiling water. Excuse me, sorry, I was just terrible this season.

[00:23:07] [SPEAKER_02]: You get yourself a pot of boiling water and you get yourself a bucket with a ton of ice in it.

[00:23:12] [SPEAKER_02]: You stick the tomatoes in the boiling water for 30 seconds to a minute that loosens up the skins

[00:23:17] [SPEAKER_02]: on them and it kind of starts the cooking process. You take them out, throw them in

[00:23:22] [SPEAKER_02]: the ice bath to shock that skin, get the rest of that skin off. Then you can take

[00:23:27] [SPEAKER_02]: it over to your cutting board, dice it up, throw that and all their juices into jars as you go.

[00:23:34] [SPEAKER_02]: Once you get the jar a jar full up to within, I think it's, you know, a half inch of the top of

[00:23:39] [SPEAKER_02]: the jar. You take your ring or you take your ring and your lid that the lid you've already,

[00:23:45] [SPEAKER_02]: well, okay, so you do have to warm the lids up a little bit to soften the rubber on them.

[00:23:50] [SPEAKER_02]: So usually in a pot like simmering water, just take the lid out, throw it on top,

[00:23:54] [SPEAKER_02]: throw a ring on it, tighten that down and then you put it in your water bath for I think it's

[00:23:58] [SPEAKER_02]: like 15 or 20 minutes. I don't remember the exact amount because I have the recipes sitting with all

[00:24:03] [SPEAKER_02]: my canning equipment and I try to keep those handy at all times. I'm sensing lots of parallels to

[00:24:11] [SPEAKER_01]: ammunition reloading which I think you're also into. Yes, absolutely. So the more you talk

[00:24:18] [SPEAKER_01]: about this, the more I'm sensing parallels developing. It scratches the same itch

[00:24:23] [SPEAKER_02]: and if you are diligent about your reloading, it's perfectly safe. If you are diligent about

[00:24:27] [SPEAKER_02]: how you do your home canning, it's perfectly safe. And if you do either wrong enough,

[00:24:32] [SPEAKER_02]: it can explode. Yeah. So you know, it's people have been doing it for a long time.

[00:24:42] [SPEAKER_02]: In fact, home canning in glass jars I think predates tinned food sold in supermarkets and

[00:24:49] [SPEAKER_02]: like but not 100% sure. The other big danger of home canning is the sheer weight of all the canned

[00:24:57] [SPEAKER_02]: goods. I think I figured, all right so a two by four foot shelf, one layer of quart jars is going

[00:25:07] [SPEAKER_01]: to weigh about 144 pounds. Okay. So I'm sensing more parallels to reloading where people don't

[00:25:17] [SPEAKER_01]: take into account the fact, you know, the structural integrity of a shelf when you have

[00:25:21] [SPEAKER_02]: boxes and boxes and boxes of lead sitting on. Exactly. One full quart jar weighs around two pounds.

[00:25:29] [SPEAKER_02]: You know, give or take depending on what you put in it. Yeah, the proportion of whatever's in it to

[00:25:35] [SPEAKER_01]: liquid I'm assuming but still that and the weight of the glass jar. All right, the glass jars

[00:25:40] [SPEAKER_02]: aren't that heavy but you know, eight pounds to the gallon, four quarts in a gallon quarts about

[00:25:46] [SPEAKER_02]: two pounds even if it's just full of water. So two pounds and up. So you know, make sure your shelves

[00:25:53] [SPEAKER_02]: are sturdy. Make sure your shelves are bolted to the wall because if you have, yeah, if you have

[00:26:01] [SPEAKER_02]: your shelf loaded front facing like a grocery store so all your oldest stuff is up toward the

[00:26:06] [SPEAKER_02]: front and as you eat through it you move more of that weight to the front. All it takes is

[00:26:11] [SPEAKER_02]: a little thought climbing up on that shelf and putting a little more weight on the front to

[00:26:14] [SPEAKER_02]: start pulling it over. We've all seen how that can go and then you've got hundreds of pounds of

[00:26:22] [SPEAKER_02]: glass and whatever miscellaneous food coming over along with the shelf on top of whoever was messing

[00:26:28] [SPEAKER_02]: around on it. So I mean, if you build your shelves like I build my shelves it won't be a problem

[00:26:35] [SPEAKER_02]: but I build my shelves mostly with four by fours two by fours and three quarter inch plywood

[00:26:39] [SPEAKER_02]: because they also double as my reloading lead storage. So they're overbuilt? Yes, yes.

[00:26:47] [SPEAKER_02]: But you know it if like anything else if you follow the established instructions

[00:26:56] [SPEAKER_02]: it should be fine and you can find any recipe you want on balmesanjars.com

[00:27:03] [SPEAKER_02]: you know it they've been in the business for probably over a hundred years and they don't

[00:27:10] [SPEAKER_02]: publish anything that they have not proven in the lab so you know you got that. The one time that

[00:27:17] [SPEAKER_01]: the liability lawyers are working on our behalf for sure. I mean a lot of these recipes some of

[00:27:25] [SPEAKER_02]: the recipes are 50, 70, 500 or plus years old. I mean we do a homemade barbecue sauce that my

[00:27:30] [SPEAKER_02]: grandmother made the recipe up herself on the farm and it's not a approved recipe by any liability

[00:27:37] [SPEAKER_02]: lawyer standards but it's been working well for our family for four generations three four generations

[00:27:43] [SPEAKER_02]: and nobody's gotten sick off barbecue sauce so I'm going to let that go for us. So what I'm

[00:27:48] [SPEAKER_01]: hearing is the first time somebody does get sick you'll extend the cook time by five more

[00:27:52] [SPEAKER_02]: five maybe yeah or we'll blame it on the meat that would work too so like what do you need other than

[00:28:02] [SPEAKER_01]: jars lids and rings and just just for the uninitiated because like I know this because my wife goofs

[00:28:09] [SPEAKER_01]: around with ball jars not for canning but for other things the lid is the thing that's

[00:28:14] [SPEAKER_01]: he sits on top of the jar the ring is the part that screws on so the lid is this flat part

[00:28:19] [SPEAKER_02]: right here that is separate you can you might be able to see if I turn this sideways this little seam

[00:28:25] [SPEAKER_02]: right here this outer portion is the ring that is reusable as many times until it gets rusty

[00:28:33] [SPEAKER_02]: so if it starts to degrade it no longer tightens down good or you smash it they are just made

[00:28:39] [SPEAKER_02]: it like a thin tin so you can crush them if you try really hard the glass is reusable until

[00:28:45] [SPEAKER_02]: you shatter it the lid again some people claim it's reusable I don't reuse them just because

[00:28:54] [SPEAKER_02]: they're extremely cheap I can buy them for I think 10 or 20 of them for a few bucks so I just have

[00:29:00] [SPEAKER_01]: a few thousand of them downstairs on the shelf it kind of sounds like it kind of sounds like

[00:29:07] [SPEAKER_01]: that the potential in lost food is not worth trying to save a couple of pennies currently

[00:29:13] [SPEAKER_02]: yes you know maybe in a situation where the supply chain was crippled beyond anything we've ever seen

[00:29:21] [SPEAKER_02]: it could be worthwhile but you know to me it's not worth it another really important thing you need

[00:29:28] [SPEAKER_02]: is a funnel like I'm talking like a big funnel they make canning funnels that are sized exactly

[00:29:35] [SPEAKER_02]: to the various jar sizes this is a widemouth jar so it's almost as wide as the entire jar

[00:29:41] [SPEAKER_02]: I prefer these it's easier to get food in and out of them especially if you got something like peppers

[00:29:45] [SPEAKER_02]: pickles asparagus if you're going to can that the longer stuff is there any justification to not

[00:29:54] [SPEAKER_01]: use a widemouth jar other than maybe caught huh cost cost so narrow off jars are ever

[00:30:00] [SPEAKER_02]: so slightly cheaper it's like a dollar or a pack cheaper or something like that at least last

[00:30:04] [SPEAKER_02]: time I bought them I have not bought jars since oh gosh it's probably been five years since I've

[00:30:11] [SPEAKER_02]: had to buy any jars when me and my wife first started planting a garden at our first house we

[00:30:15] [SPEAKER_02]: bought a bunch of jars the year before we started the garden we knew we were going to start the

[00:30:20] [SPEAKER_02]: garden I knew we were going to have access so in the middle of winter once all the harvests

[00:30:27] [SPEAKER_02]: are done your local hardware store will have a sale on their glass jars their lids their rings

[00:30:33] [SPEAKER_02]: their funnels you know their their water bath pots their pressure canner pots buy all that stuff

[00:30:41] [SPEAKER_02]: then because it's about half the price what time of year you said uh winter winter to early spring

[00:30:47] [SPEAKER_02]: I think I knew what I'm getting myself for Christmas watch for the clear the clearance

[00:30:53] [SPEAKER_02]: on that stuff it usually starts to happen you know after Thanksgiving after all of the major

[00:31:00] [SPEAKER_02]: harvests are done when the farmers markets are starting to shut down that kind of thing now down by

[00:31:06] [SPEAKER_02]: you it may be it may be a little bit later than up here by us just because you're longer growing

[00:31:11] [SPEAKER_02]: season maybe a month later maybe uh like November or December or something like that

[00:31:17] [SPEAKER_01]: and what I'm thinking is me living in suburbia hell I might have to make the trek up to the

[00:31:23] [SPEAKER_01]: farmers market on the edge of town you'd be surprised I mean every hardware store in my county

[00:31:30] [SPEAKER_02]: carries them even like the little local mom and pop hardware store carries them they might not have a

[00:31:36] [SPEAKER_02]: lot but if you've got like a like a home depot or a minards or something like that they absolutely do

[00:31:44] [SPEAKER_02]: even if you have to order them online they will probably have them online

[00:31:50] [SPEAKER_02]: so aside from the jars the rings the lids and a good size funnel you're going to need either a

[00:31:56] [SPEAKER_02]: water bath of some kind which is basically just a large stock pot like a really big stock pot with

[00:32:03] [SPEAKER_02]: a lid a lot of them are enamel they'll be in variety of colors they will have when you buy

[00:32:10] [SPEAKER_02]: them new they will have a wire rack that's that keeps the jars up off the bottom of the

[00:32:16] [SPEAKER_02]: pot so they're fully immersed in water all the time and not directly touching the metal

[00:32:19] [SPEAKER_02]: that is being heated that's important um a lot of times right by those water bath pots you will

[00:32:27] [SPEAKER_02]: find a hanging panel of these little jar grabbers it's basically just a wire pair of tongs that has

[00:32:35] [SPEAKER_02]: got kind of like two half moons on it that open and shut around the neck of the jar and that's

[00:32:42] [SPEAKER_02]: this handy little legend not sure for so you grab them right with that so you don't have to stick your

[00:32:48] [SPEAKER_02]: hand in the boiling water to pull the jars in and out of there um I recommend having one of those

[00:32:54] [SPEAKER_02]: little retractable magnets that you find at the auto store for getting your jar lids out of the

[00:33:01] [SPEAKER_02]: simmering water when you're warming them so you can just stick it in grab one or two lids

[00:33:05] [SPEAKER_02]: out separate them drop the ones you don't need back in take the one you need throw it on the

[00:33:09] [SPEAKER_01]: jar so in other words they need to stay they need to stay warm until you're ready to actually make

[00:33:14] [SPEAKER_02]: them warm but not hot yeah warm but not hot you know you you want it you know above body temperature

[00:33:23] [SPEAKER_02]: you know some probably not more than like a hundred and fifteen hundred and twenty degrees

[00:33:27] [SPEAKER_02]: definitely not boiling because you just need to soften the rubber so that it'll sit down over

[00:33:31] [SPEAKER_02]: the glass uh you're gonna need a ladle to to pull stuff up out of the pot dump it in the funnel

[00:33:40] [SPEAKER_02]: I recommend also having a bunch of garbage beach towels now the ratty ones that your wife won't

[00:33:47] [SPEAKER_02]: let you take to the beach anymore that you used to drive the car with those work perfect lay those

[00:33:53] [SPEAKER_02]: on top of say like a folding table your countertop whatever just to catch all the mess

[00:33:59] [SPEAKER_02]: because you're going to be taking so if you do say the quantity of tomatoes that I usually do when I

[00:34:05] [SPEAKER_02]: do it it's it's like four gallons of tomatoes at a time cut up and thrown in a pot and warming up

[00:34:14] [SPEAKER_02]: you're gonna make a mess you're you're gonna spill stuff on your counter

[00:34:18] [SPEAKER_02]: you're gonna spill stuff on the sides of the jars the jars are going to be hot

[00:34:21] [SPEAKER_02]: especially once they come out of the water bath or the pressure canner and that tautel just acts

[00:34:25] [SPEAKER_02]: as a nice insulating layer so that you don't shock the glass or shock your countertop I have

[00:34:33] [SPEAKER_02]: heard of people cracking stone countertops putting a bunch of jars that are hot out on them because

[00:34:38] [SPEAKER_02]: it creates so much heat that the that it gets like a thermal shock in the stone haven't heard

[00:34:43] [SPEAKER_02]: of it happening with fermica um the other thing I recommend is uh temperature probe so there

[00:34:51] [SPEAKER_02]: are canning thermometers that you can just stick over the side of the pot into whatever

[00:34:55] [SPEAKER_02]: liquid you're making up for the canning um in the case of like tomato sauce

[00:35:03] [SPEAKER_02]: you want to go ahead and make sure that is as hot as pop you know up to I think I can't remember

[00:35:08] [SPEAKER_02]: the temperature I should have brought that I should have brought my recipe book with me but

[00:35:11] [SPEAKER_01]: I didn't think about it do you think an iar thermometer with substitute because I know

[00:35:14] [SPEAKER_01]: for some things it doesn't behave itself very well I don't know I've never tried to use an

[00:35:19] [SPEAKER_01]: iar thermometer on liquid I don't know and see I have it either but I mean I have one for

[00:35:23] [SPEAKER_01]: like my coffee roasting because you can check you can check bean temperature really black

[00:35:28] [SPEAKER_02]: beans have probably worked pretty well I imagine it would depend on the color of the sauce

[00:35:34] [SPEAKER_01]: and see my thought is almost more of like sometimes with highly reflective things it

[00:35:39] [SPEAKER_01]: really pisses off that iar thermometer because outside of the pot might be a problem then

[00:35:44] [SPEAKER_02]: unless you have like a like a black stock pot or something yeah just just had that thought because

[00:35:51] [SPEAKER_02]: i'm trying to think around what we're saying you know you could some people use like uh like for

[00:35:59] [SPEAKER_02]: jellies and jams like a candy thermometer that's a really fine thermometer but canning

[00:36:04] [SPEAKER_02]: thermometers are four or five dollars and they'll be in that same mile there's a little metal

[00:36:07] [SPEAKER_02]: clip on the side of them they'll clip right over your pot makes it nice and easy buy once cry once

[00:36:13] [SPEAKER_02]: exactly and it really isn't even that expensive you know when when we got started on it I think

[00:36:21] [SPEAKER_02]: I put 75 or 100 dollars total into canning stuff we didn't start with pressure canning

[00:36:26] [SPEAKER_02]: we just did water bath canning garden vegetables so that was gonna be my next question was you've

[00:36:33] [SPEAKER_01]: been talking a lot about like what's necessary to start with hot water bath canning but

[00:36:39] [SPEAKER_01]: since we already since we already said that there were certain things you had to pressure can

[00:36:45] [SPEAKER_01]: is there a justification like if you know this is what you're gonna do is a justification not to

[00:36:50] [SPEAKER_01]: just go straight to pressure canning and pressure can everything or there's certain things you

[00:36:55] [SPEAKER_01]: really have to hot water bath can and other things you pressure can pressure canning takes

[00:37:00] [SPEAKER_02]: longer for things that you would that you can get away with water bath canning

[00:37:06] [SPEAKER_01]: okay so in other words if you reasons if you wanted to you could just pressure can everything

[00:37:12] [SPEAKER_02]: but you're gonna be I don't think that's I don't know of anything that you couldn't pressure can

[00:37:17] [SPEAKER_02]: but if you're gonna do like four or five bushels of applesauce it would take you many days

[00:37:25] [SPEAKER_02]: because you so the way pressure the difference between pressure canning and water bath canning

[00:37:29] [SPEAKER_02]: is that you just keep the pot of water boiling all the time on a water bath canning system

[00:37:35] [SPEAKER_02]: all right you put you load it up fill your jars you let it boil for whatever the time is that the

[00:37:43] [SPEAKER_02]: recipe requires then you pull the jars out well the water's still boiling so you just stick more

[00:37:48] [SPEAKER_02]: jars back in and it's almost a constant process that you can keep going with pressure canning

[00:37:53] [SPEAKER_02]: you have to have a certain amount of water in your pressure canner based on the amount of jars

[00:37:58] [SPEAKER_02]: you're gonna have in there it'll be in the instructions most of them have an engraving

[00:38:03] [SPEAKER_02]: on the inside of the the pot too so that you can't really screw it up there's a max and a min

[00:38:10] [SPEAKER_02]: as long as you're between those two marks you're okay if you're not pull a jar out

[00:38:15] [SPEAKER_02]: with pressure canning you gotta so you got your pressure pot you've got your adequate

[00:38:20] [SPEAKER_02]: amount of water in it you put all your jars in it you close it up now you have to build

[00:38:25] [SPEAKER_02]: pressure the time that it has to be in that is determined by when the pressure hits the

[00:38:34] [SPEAKER_02]: adequate psi rating or when the little wiggler starts to do its thing and dance around that's

[00:38:41] [SPEAKER_02]: when you start the timer so once so you've got to build your pressure which adds a few minutes

[00:38:47] [SPEAKER_02]: then you've got to hold at that pressure rating for a few minutes then you have to release all

[00:38:53] [SPEAKER_02]: of that pressure which takes a little bit of time then you gotta disassemble your pressure canner

[00:39:00] [SPEAKER_02]: either some of them are like screw tops some of them are twist lock either way i don't know what

[00:39:05] [SPEAKER_02]: you're gonna have but it'll be self-explanatory um you can take that off then you can take all

[00:39:12] [SPEAKER_02]: the jars out put new jars in close it up and you got to build pressure again start the clock

[00:39:17] [SPEAKER_02]: all over again so water bath canning you can do a higher volume in a shorter amount of time

[00:39:23] [SPEAKER_02]: you can also use larger vessels so i think my water bath canner is a 30 quart so i can fit

[00:39:32] [SPEAKER_02]: i think it's nine or ten quart jars in it my pressure canner i can fit four four quart jars

[00:39:39] [SPEAKER_02]: in so it's more of a matter of efficiency i suppose why you would largely choose one over

[00:39:46] [SPEAKER_01]: the other when safety's not a factor i mean it makes perfect sense i'm just i'm thinking around

[00:39:53] [SPEAKER_01]: the corners because inevitably someone is gonna ask well you can use a pressure canner without the lid

[00:40:00] [SPEAKER_02]: on it and use it as a water bath canner but it's just smaller and more expensive

[00:40:04] [SPEAKER_02]: i got a water bath you can you can use almost anything for a water bath canning that has a

[00:40:12] [SPEAKER_02]: rack to keep your stuff above the bottom so if you've got an old stock pot and you've got say a

[00:40:19] [SPEAKER_02]: cookie tray a cookie mesh cooling tray that you can stick down on the bottom of that and you can

[00:40:25] [SPEAKER_02]: set your cans on that you can use that you got a one gallon pot that you make your soups and

[00:40:31] [SPEAKER_02]: stews in and you've got some kind of rack you can stick down so that that's perfectly fine too

[00:40:35] [SPEAKER_02]: but a pressure canner you need to have a pressure rated vessel and those go up quite a bit in

[00:40:40] [SPEAKER_02]: price or you know i think the one i bought was 75 or 100 dollars when i bought it

[00:40:46] [SPEAKER_02]: the really nice ones are in the 500 dollar range four to 500 dollar range so you know

[00:40:53] [SPEAKER_02]: a lot of people will try to tell you in the prepping forums and the prepping groups that if

[00:40:59] [SPEAKER_02]: you don't buy one of the metal on metal seal pressure canners you're doing it wrong

[00:41:04] [SPEAKER_02]: i have had the same seal in my home pressure canner the entire time i've been doing canning

[00:41:10] [SPEAKER_02]: so for five years so i bought five of those seals i haven't had to use any of my spares

[00:41:18] [SPEAKER_02]: which means i'm good for theoretically 25 years of the type of pressure canning that i've

[00:41:23] [SPEAKER_02]: been doing and the scale of pressure canning i've been doing so

[00:41:27] [SPEAKER_02]: um

[00:41:30] [SPEAKER_02]: i'm not worried about the end of days mad max if that happens all right fine i'll deal with it

[00:41:37] [SPEAKER_02]: when it gets here i don't have the finances to prep like that i just flat don't

[00:41:43] [SPEAKER_02]: what i can do though is i can make my life as easy as possible with the inconveniences we see

[00:41:48] [SPEAKER_02]: all the time and one of those things is like i like to have a garden i like to have fresh

[00:41:53] [SPEAKER_02]: vegetables if you know anything about gardening you know when it does poorly you get nothing

[00:41:58] [SPEAKER_02]: but when it does good you get more than you could eat most of the time canning lets me enjoy that

[00:42:07] [SPEAKER_02]: throughout the year the entire without spoilage only food preservation is always going to be the

[00:42:14] [SPEAKER_01]: bane of a lot of people that are into preparedness mindset because like it's i find it's infinitely

[00:42:21] [SPEAKER_01]: easier to convince a person to go out and spend money than it is to get them to go out and spend

[00:42:26] [SPEAKER_01]: their time and effort so that the things they bought are useful you know i'm saying it's like

[00:42:32] [SPEAKER_01]: right take guns for example tell a guy new gun and he'll usually whoop out the credit

[00:42:38] [SPEAKER_01]: card before you finish the rest of the sentence but the minute you say go get training so you

[00:42:43] [SPEAKER_01]: can use no new gun and then the interest goes down he'll really quickly for most people

[00:42:47] [SPEAKER_02]: well that's because there's there is a um a chance that you will not perform like Steven Seagal

[00:42:56] [SPEAKER_02]: oh we had you know that example didn't wear oh yeah Steven Seagal is a fantastic law enforcement

[00:43:02] [SPEAKER_02]: officer if no one's ever seen his videos of him actually in the field that is a treat

[00:43:06] [SPEAKER_01]: fantastic our country gave him a badge and a gun actually no my state gave him a badge and a

[00:43:14] [SPEAKER_01]: yeah thank you for that reminder nick you're welcome maybe not our finest moment

[00:43:20] [SPEAKER_01]: and you can do worse uh we do frequently they just don't get tv shows that's fair

[00:43:28] [SPEAKER_02]: so as far as what else you need that's about it when you do it harvest time that's easy

[00:43:35] [SPEAKER_01]: but just circle back around you did say like if you're thinking about doing this for next year

[00:43:40] [SPEAKER_01]: the best time to buy this stuff is winter it's when kind of like buying bathing suits the perfect

[00:43:45] [SPEAKER_01]: time to buy bathing suits is at the end of the summer winter winter jackets spring yeah end of

[00:43:51] [SPEAKER_02]: the season is always your best time to buy i mean if you're look if you're really serious about

[00:43:56] [SPEAKER_02]: getting into it you know you're probably looking at 100 and a half 200 bucks to get into it that

[00:44:04] [SPEAKER_02]: would get you a serious supply of jars that'll get you water bath that'll get you one of the less

[00:44:11] [SPEAKER_02]: expensive smaller pressure canners and you could start i don't recommend you start with pressure

[00:44:15] [SPEAKER_02]: canning just because that's an extra investment that you don't need and most people are going to be

[00:44:20] [SPEAKER_02]: doing stuff like dill pickles really common when you start with everybody likes dill pickles

[00:44:25] [SPEAKER_02]: you're gonna eat those things anyway you're gonna put a lot of sandwich anyway you don't like

[00:44:30] [SPEAKER_01]: i'm not a pickle person i've never been a pickle person i've just there's something in the tape

[00:44:35] [SPEAKER_01]: now my wife is cringing as she's listening to this because i should send you some homemade pickles

[00:44:41] [SPEAKER_01]: you might like them better my wife will eat them happily but yeah i'm gonna do a bachelor's

[00:44:46] [SPEAKER_01]: sundown i've never been able to make peace with with pickles then applesauce applesauce right

[00:44:54] [SPEAKER_01]: you did like sample sauce all right not so much now i am married to a salient lady who will make

[00:45:01] [SPEAKER_01]: who makes some of the best frickin homemade spaghetti sauce you've ever had that you can

[00:45:05] [SPEAKER_02]: can for sure that's high acid anything with a tomato base works really well for water bath canning

[00:45:10] [SPEAKER_01]: oh i know it ask my cast aren't after she gets done with it uh i mean like an evening's worth

[00:45:18] [SPEAKER_01]: of sauce and a little bit of leftovers i don't know not not too long well less than 45 minutes

[00:45:23] [SPEAKER_02]: yeah half hour yeah about that you can make a year worth of sauce in about three or four hours

[00:45:34] [SPEAKER_02]: and then there's no 30 45 minutes of getting it ready beforehand you pop the jar open you warm it

[00:45:43] [SPEAKER_01]: up it's just like you got it out of the store okay now how does that work with the ground beef

[00:45:49] [SPEAKER_01]: that we usually brown and throw in there like it'd be it so because i know you have to brown the

[00:45:54] [SPEAKER_02]: ground beef separate and then throw it in afterwards okay because i know earlier unless you're going

[00:45:59] [SPEAKER_02]: to pressure can it i that i don't know you'd have to see if you can find a comparable recipe

[00:46:05] [SPEAKER_02]: and then what i would say is try it at a small scale first because worst case you know if you

[00:46:11] [SPEAKER_02]: make a jar of it all right you're wasted 15 20 bucks in time and you just dump it clean it out get rid

[00:46:21] [SPEAKER_02]: of it if like it doesn't it doesn't um if if it seems like it's creating gas or something like that

[00:46:30] [SPEAKER_02]: that would pop that top up um you know do you guys have a farmers market nearby you

[00:46:38] [SPEAKER_02]: quite a few actually um okay so when the farmers markets are in season that's a good time to start

[00:46:45] [SPEAKER_02]: with canning find out what's harvested in the spring around you guys if it's asparagus and you

[00:46:51] [SPEAKER_02]: guys like asparagus um pickle some of that uh pickle cucumbers as far as for pickles great

[00:47:00] [SPEAKER_02]: great thing to start with that's all water bath canned if you want to do say quicker pasta sauce

[00:47:07] [SPEAKER_02]: and you've got some tomato plants or maybe neighbors that always grow way too many tomatoes and you

[00:47:11] [SPEAKER_02]: can get them for free grab those crush them up sauce them ahead of time put the sauce in the

[00:47:18] [SPEAKER_02]: jars throw the throw that jar on the shelf then you don't have to worry about having fresh

[00:47:21] [SPEAKER_02]: tomatoes in the house i mean i do most of my canning when i do have a garden we don't this year

[00:47:30] [SPEAKER_02]: i do most of it from like june july when some of the early stuff starts coming in to like

[00:47:38] [SPEAKER_02]: thanksgiving by thanksgiving most of it's usually done you know it you can largely get away

[00:47:48] [SPEAKER_02]: with canning pretty much anything you're growing in a holding garden if you find a recipe for it

[00:47:53] [SPEAKER_02]: i don't know about pumpkin i did see something recently where they're saying you probably shouldn't

[00:47:59] [SPEAKER_02]: home can pumpkin because of the density of like pumpkin puree for like pumpkin pie

[00:48:04] [SPEAKER_01]: i could see that in the fact that i don't think pumpkins especially acidic

[00:48:09] [SPEAKER_02]: it's not you know i believe i believe you have to pressure can it and i don't know for sure

[00:48:15] [SPEAKER_02]: people are finding out that it's unsafe recently so i would look into that one but like apple

[00:48:21] [SPEAKER_02]: pie filling you can absolutely can that ahead of time you can do any of your fruits you know anything

[00:48:30] [SPEAKER_01]: like that so based on your recipe book like it is is there a lot of call for adding sugar or salt

[00:48:38] [SPEAKER_01]: or anything like just as an extra preservative sometimes so pickles heavily on the salt

[00:48:45] [SPEAKER_02]: um makes sense a lot of vegetables heavy on the vinegar so like these pickles or these

[00:48:52] [SPEAKER_02]: pickled peppers and garlic here this is i think 50 50 water vinegar and then i think there's a

[00:48:59] [SPEAKER_02]: i want to say per jar there's like a teaspoon or half teaspoon of salt

[00:49:03] [SPEAKER_02]: added to it but the vinegar the salt's there for flavor the vinegar is there to get the acid

[00:49:09] [SPEAKER_02]: up in the environment just like with cucumbers for pickles just like with asparagus for pickled

[00:49:15] [SPEAKER_02]: asparagus one big thing that you're going to want to make sure you do don't use table salt

[00:49:23] [SPEAKER_02]: the iodine in table salt will discolor your food and it will look weird and it will taste

[00:49:30] [SPEAKER_02]: different so kosher salt is your friend if you're eating canning recipe calls for salt

[00:49:38] [SPEAKER_02]: kosher salt it's the only thing i keep kosher

[00:49:44] [SPEAKER_01]: it never even occurred to me not to use iodized salt or just table salt

[00:49:48] [SPEAKER_02]: yeah it's it does it does make a difference now would it like would it ruin it no is it

[00:49:56] [SPEAKER_02]: going to look kind of funny absolutely it's going to have more of like an orange tint to it which

[00:50:02] [SPEAKER_02]: if you do say like well a classic recipe's um pickled onions and cucumbers or sandwiches

[00:50:12] [SPEAKER_02]: you put a lot of turmeric in that anyway they're going to have a slightly orange tint to them anyway

[00:50:16] [SPEAKER_02]: so would it matter so much probably not but you know i've never i've never tried it i've always

[00:50:23] [SPEAKER_02]: just used kosher salt and a lot of times you can get that kosher salt in the same exact aisle that

[00:50:28] [SPEAKER_02]: you buy your ball jars in also be on sale or on the same time that's not go bad so now my question is

[00:50:37] [SPEAKER_01]: is there anything you explicitly cannot either pressure or hot water bath can dairy okay dairy

[00:50:45] [SPEAKER_02]: butter cheese is not safe for home canning that as far as i am aware there may be recipes people

[00:50:53] [SPEAKER_02]: are doing that they claim are safe i don't know of any safe recipes to do so in fact most things i see

[00:51:02] [SPEAKER_02]: say explicitly not to add it so like if you're like doing chicken alfredo sauce at home

[00:51:08] [SPEAKER_02]: probably not a great idea that's mostly dairy yeah and a lot of butter you can do

[00:51:15] [SPEAKER_02]: shockingly french onion soup i have seen canning recipes for french onion soup but you

[00:51:20] [SPEAKER_02]: have to swap the butter that you saute the onions with for like a vegetable oil or an olive oil

[00:51:27] [SPEAKER_02]: oh it's i've tried it it's not as bad as you think it uses a lot less oil than you think

[00:51:35] [SPEAKER_01]: i could go for the olive oil i have an aversion to vegetable oil yeah me too i tried the olive

[00:51:40] [SPEAKER_02]: oil version it was good it was not good enough that i made a bunch so like if i had to sure but

[00:51:51] [SPEAKER_02]: one of my also gonna have that many onions that i need to make five gallons of french onion soup

[00:51:58] [SPEAKER_01]: okay so yeah so all dairy is off the menu pretty much sounds like vegetables meats are okay

[00:52:06] [SPEAKER_02]: fruits if you're making like jams or jellies and actually fruits even without jams or jellies

[00:52:12] [SPEAKER_02]: you i believe you can like peaches in their own juice and a little bit of water you can can at home

[00:52:18] [SPEAKER_02]: that would be a pressure can i think yeah that'd be a pressure canning situation

[00:52:23] [SPEAKER_02]: but with the amount of sugar and applesauce that's a water canning situation and that stuff i mean

[00:52:30] [SPEAKER_02]: basically you're you're trying to desiccate the bacteria or heat the bacteria to death

[00:52:35] [SPEAKER_02]: those are those are your two options that makes perfect sense

[00:52:40] [SPEAKER_01]: mm-hmm you've made this sound too easy it's not complicated it's it's really not it's it's

[00:52:47] [SPEAKER_02]: following a recipe if you can if you can bake cookies you can can stuff in the water bath at home

[00:52:53] [SPEAKER_01]: you had to go to can you bake cookies no one i'm a baker didn't you i did also i have to

[00:52:59] [SPEAKER_03]: make snicker doodles now so you're welcome for that i sent you the recipe didn't i

[00:53:04] [SPEAKER_01]: mm-hmm yeah like yeah i have all the things like like us like i said um

[00:53:11] [SPEAKER_01]: for that recipe specifically the amount of sugar cinnamon they tell you to make is probably over

[00:53:17] [SPEAKER_01]: kill in my experience you could half it and still have plenty to roll your snicker doodles in yeah

[00:53:24] [SPEAKER_01]: and i personally skip the cream of tartar and i just double the baking soda in the recipe

[00:53:29] [SPEAKER_01]: yeah because that's that's in baking soda isn't it yeah well but what happens is that the the

[00:53:34] [SPEAKER_01]: amount of cream of tartar that they're telling you to add doubling the baking soda does not

[00:53:39] [SPEAKER_01]: replace that much cream of tartar so it comes out a little bit less tangy which i prefer

[00:53:45] [SPEAKER_01]: and it makes them a little fluffier because you're basically you're basically putting in

[00:53:49] [SPEAKER_01]: more baking powder less double double rising them yeah yeah i mean i i love them that way

[00:53:54] [SPEAKER_01]: my daughter got a wild hair from behind one time and asked me to add chocolate chips to the snicker

[00:54:00] [SPEAKER_01]: doodles huh i don't recommend it because they weren't bad but the the that's not noodles well the

[00:54:09] [SPEAKER_01]: chocolate chips totally obliterated the taste of the snicker doodles so they just tasted like

[00:54:14] [SPEAKER_01]: chocolate chip cookies when they were done which she wasn't really bad about but they weren't

[00:54:19] [SPEAKER_01]: snicker doodles i love chocolate chip cookies so yeah but there are easier ways to make chocolate

[00:54:24] [SPEAKER_02]: chip cookies but anyway you know if if your wife wants to get into canning if you want to get

[00:54:30] [SPEAKER_02]: into canning your daughter wants to get into canning you can even can some of the stuff that

[00:54:34] [SPEAKER_02]: she harvests in her wild animals you know it see and this is why i need to get her on the show

[00:54:43] [SPEAKER_01]: to talk about this because like a lot of the stuff she does she's actually making like tinctures out of

[00:54:49] [SPEAKER_01]: so she's basically like basting the stuff in like very highly refined vodka for a week at a time or so

[00:54:57] [SPEAKER_01]: and then once she jars that up yeah yeah and once she's done with that it's it's basically shelf

[00:55:03] [SPEAKER_01]: forever because when does vodka expire when you drink her yeah but now i mean i it canning has

[00:55:14] [SPEAKER_01]: always been one of those things that like i just i've never dipped my toe into because i've always

[00:55:19] [SPEAKER_01]: been you know sometimes we get into a comfort zone and my comfort zone has always been can rack

[00:55:26] [SPEAKER_01]: and dry goods because it's just it's what i grew up it's what i've been doing for years

[00:55:31] [SPEAKER_02]: it's low effort it is and for hurricane prep for you for down south of you guys

[00:55:37] [SPEAKER_02]: it is the easiest way to go the only downside to the canning is it's glass jars

[00:55:47] [SPEAKER_02]: and if a hurricane knocks over your shelf your tin food might be a little bit banged up but it's

[00:55:52] [SPEAKER_02]: probably going to be okay for a week or two glass jars are not no

[00:55:59] [SPEAKER_01]: though quite frankly i mean given where all of our food storage is if that gets knocked over the whole

[00:56:05] [SPEAKER_01]: house is on its side and right we have new problems you're going to be having some serious problems

[00:56:09] [SPEAKER_01]: either way yeah so is there anything else to chuck in here you know at the end of this conversation

[00:56:18] [SPEAKER_01]: because like i feel like you've given us that canning 101 deep dive that i kind of wanted

[00:56:24] [SPEAKER_02]: you know if if you have questions about it if you want to see something more particular

[00:56:30] [SPEAKER_02]: there's a million youtube videos out there i mean youtube you're an adversity for the win

[00:56:35] [SPEAKER_02]: on everything you know um worst case call up one of your grandmothers i guarantee

[00:56:44] [SPEAKER_02]: somebody in your extended family has done it man it's well at least around where i live if

[00:56:51] [SPEAKER_02]: if you don't do it and your mom doesn't do it i guarantee your grandma does down south i can't

[00:56:57] [SPEAKER_02]: imagine it's much different i mean you guys aren't that far removed from the back by you having to

[00:57:03] [SPEAKER_02]: having to settle mostly for yourselves yeah and around here my grand well my great grandparents

[00:57:11] [SPEAKER_02]: didn't get indoor plumbing until like the 1950s or 60s there's people down here that still

[00:57:20] [SPEAKER_02]: don't have indoor i know what i'm saying man you know somebody that does it you just might not

[00:57:25] [SPEAKER_01]: know they do it yeah all right well i guess i guess from here like me specifically i just

[00:57:33] [SPEAKER_01]: need to keep an eye on the sales at uh home depot and lows and just surprise my wife my wife do

[00:57:39] [SPEAKER_01]: what she does to me all the time where she's like babe it was on sale and i just grabbed it

[00:57:44] [SPEAKER_01]: look at how much money i saved yeah i was trying to go money try to see if i can pull off some

[00:57:50] [SPEAKER_02]: some women math yeah well you can do that or you know just uh add it on to her stash for her

[00:57:58] [SPEAKER_02]: tinctures just bigger jars ooh that's how i sell this to her i mean once she tries home

[00:58:06] [SPEAKER_02]: canned applesauce she will refuse to buy it in the store if you need a recipe i'll send you

[00:58:12] [SPEAKER_01]: one not a lot of applesauce in this house but if i can convince her to

[00:58:18] [SPEAKER_01]: whip up a big old batch of homemade spaghetti sauce that's a perfect place for her to start

[00:58:24] [SPEAKER_02]: because you could you can do it i mean these jars are obviously on the bigger end they sell them

[00:58:29] [SPEAKER_02]: in a variety of sizes down to little teeny tiny jars up to full gallons so whatever size you want

[00:58:36] [SPEAKER_01]: they have them well i mean the best part is is that the end of the world has not gotten here

[00:58:41] [SPEAKER_01]: yet we still have fridges for leftovers you do that's true all right well i guess we'll go ahead

[00:58:49] [SPEAKER_01]: and punt this one out the door i don't know if you've heard over the mic but there is a thunderstorm

[00:58:53] [SPEAKER_01]: out there that is banging really loud no i have not there there's been once or twice i looked at

[00:58:59] [SPEAKER_01]: there's been once or twice i looked over my shoulder like all right mother nature chill chill

[00:59:03] [SPEAKER_01]: for just a second

[00:59:07] [SPEAKER_01]: but for the listeners i saw one or two people drift in and out of the live stream while we

[00:59:13] [SPEAKER_01]: were here doing this like we are we are going to do this show we're going to stream it out on

[00:59:17] [SPEAKER_01]: youtube and rumble and facebook from now on thursdays five p.m is kind of the time five

[00:59:23] [SPEAKER_01]: p.m central unless we get like tons of feedback that five p.m central is too early we could

[00:59:29] [SPEAKER_01]: back it up an hour but i think this is going to be the time slot for a while and as usual

[00:59:34] [SPEAKER_01]: matterfax podcast will go out on all the audio platforms uh friday tomorrow so i'm going to

[00:59:43] [SPEAKER_01]: be doing editing this evening oh no it is what it is it is what it is i'll pour myself thursday

[00:59:52] [SPEAKER_01]: i picked the time i mean i'll pour myself like a fourth a fourth 32 ounce coffee you know and i'll

[01:00:00] [SPEAKER_01]: get it done tonight there you go that's spirit but matterfax podcast going out the door if you

[01:00:07] [SPEAKER_01]: want to know more about canning you should look us up and i'll point you towards nick and

[01:00:12] [SPEAKER_01]: maybe we'll be having this conversation with my wife about all the stuff i can convince her to

[01:00:18] [SPEAKER_01]: once i embed the fault in her head all right we're out talk to you on the week bye everybody

[01:00:24] [SPEAKER_03]: live guys