jeffshoaf Posted July 1 Author Report Share Posted July 1 I obviously forgot to follow up on this thread! I did get the instant pot that i mentioned above. It does work - I successfully canned homemade beef stock and pinto beans in pint jars and retort canned onions and peaches in retort bags. All sealed well and was stored in my kitchen cabinets; all of the stuff that i canned in jars was consumed while i had limited mobility after foot surgery. I've tried one of the bags of onions; they were vidalia (or something similar) sweet onions and were caramelized more than what i usually am for when cooking but I guess that's to be expected. They were successfully preserved. I honestly forgot about the peaches and the remaining onions until @tekobo revived this thread... I need to try some of the peaches for ice cream in the Creami! If y'all recall, one of my goals for canning was growing and canning tomatoes since I used a lot of store-bought canned tomatoes for sauces, soups, pizza, etc. I stumbled on a raised garden bed on clearance last fall and intended to get at least tomatoes and peppers started in the spring but that all fell thru - my sister totaled her car and borrowed my pickup truck until she got the insurance settlement and replaced her car, and then my mother moved into an independent living residence and that ate up a lot of time. So no readily available produce to try. And i haven't tried to buy enough to try canning due to getting her house ready to sell. Anyway, the instant pot model that reaches canning pressures does work and it's easy to use, but the size is a big limitation - it'll comfortably fit 4 pint jars at a time or six 8 oz retort bags (maybe more retort bags if you arrange them carefully). Those are pretty small batches even with the faster pressurization this model instant pot features, so fine for occasional use with small batches but really not suitable for much volume. It is a really nice pressure cooker though, and has relegated my OG instant pot to backup and pot luck duty. I'll be checking on availability in the USA for the canner @tekobo linked and wait on her review! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tekobo Posted July 1 Report Share Posted July 1 So... the good news is that this piece of kit works. It has significant capacity and you can stack the bottles two high if you wish. I had just one layer for this experiment. The less good news is that it is not a pressure canner and will therefore only heat water to 100C, not hot enough to kill the bacteria that cause botulism. So, it is great for acidic foods but not for my test case of broad beans in oil. The other factor I have to consider is the impact on taste and texture. The jar on the left in the picture below was not processed in the canner while the one on the right was. Will try a taste test soon. The weird thing is that pressure canning does not appear to be a "thing" here in the UK or the rest of Europe and so the kit is not readily available. Maybe there is a different approach to reducing the risk of botulism. More research required. Like you @jeffshoaf, I was looking forward to making some tomato passata and processing the jars in this piece of kit. I am not so sure now that that will make them shelf stable. That said, they will be fine in the fridge for months once processed in this way. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tekobo Posted July 2 Report Share Posted July 2 I found the video below which includes a couple of UK homesteaders' helpful description of the traditional approach to canning which does not address concerns about botulism. They also have a recommendation for a canner to import from the US. They do say that items with significant amounts of oil will create problems in the pressure canner, including interfering with the seal. So it is back to the drawing board for my recipe for beans in oil but this exploration has led me to understand that shop bought shelf stable veggies in oil generally also include some vinegar to lower the PH and reduce/remove risk of botulism. If I never make or sell a thing I will have learned a lot from the process of trying! 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jeffshoaf Posted July 2 Author Report Share Posted July 2 1 hour ago, tekobo said: The less good news is that it is not a pressure canner and will therefore only heat water to 100C, not hot enough to kill the bacteria that cause botulism. So, it is great for acidic foods but not for my test case of broad beans in oil. The other factor I have to consider is the impact on taste and texture. The jar on the left in the picture below was not processed in the canner while the one on the right was. Will try a taste test soon. Yeah, i looked at the cooker on the Amazon UK site after replying and couldn't figure out how the lid locked for pressure cooking, plus the listed max temperature was lower than recommended for pressure canning. I searched for that brand on the Amazon USA site and couldn't find it. The beans I canned in the instant pot were just dried beans and water - i didn't add any seasoning or oil at all and waited until i unsealed and heated up to eat before seasoning. They were really clear right after canning but clouded up as they cooled. Seeing the pics, I remember that there were 3 jars of pinto beans and one jar of navy (white) beans. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tekobo Posted July 11 Report Share Posted July 11 Pressure canner arrived from the US today by the magic(?) of Amazon. Will read the instructions carefully before I dive in. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MacKenzie Posted July 13 Report Share Posted July 13 Now let's see what you can first. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tekobo Posted July 15 Report Share Posted July 15 On 7/13/2024 at 12:32 PM, MacKenzie said: Now let's see what you can first. I am taking it slow, reading the instructions for a change. They recommend a trial run without any jars, just to get used to how pressure canning works. Taking the canner up to pressure and then releasing it went fine but I was shocked to see that the inside of the pan, where it was in contact with water, was black after that first run. The instructions say that there will be discoloration but I was not expecting a ring of black in the bottom of the pan! Having looked online, it appears that aluminium pans do go black when heated and it's nothing to be worried about. Of course, if the internet is wrong and someone thinks this is an issue please tell me. Apart from that I am happy with progress and even happier that I selected a model that is compatible with my induction hob. It makes regulation of temperature and pressure so much easier. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
