Canning Chili Today for a Chilly Tomorrow

Kelli Peet taught us how to use a pressure canner today as we "put-by" several pints of scrumptious chili using venison harvested by Kelli's husband and fresh veggies from Ridgway Family Farm. Using a pressure canner is absolutely necessary for canning low acid foods including meat, beans, and most vegetables. We tripled the recipe from http://www.pickyourown.org/canning_chili_with_meat.htm using the following:

*only 6 cups dried pinto beans - soaked over night then boiled 30 minutes in 11 cups of water.

PLUS *3# red onions plus *2# green and red peppers chopped and browned in a skillet with 3 Tbsp olive oil. After they were browned we added *10 pounds of Ron's ground venison and continued to brown it with the peppers and onions.

Using rubber gloves for handling the chili powder, we added *1 Tbsp black pepper, *1/2 cup chili powder, *4 Tbsp paprika, *1/3 cup ground cumin, and 2 Tbsp chopped fresh oregano.

Instead of using canned tomatoes, we used *10# fresh tomatoes that we chopped after peeling by dunking in boiling water to loosen the skins. And we added*1/3 cup apple cider vinegar instead of lemon or lime juice.

 We set our clean, chip-free jars on a towel to fill.

 Kelli's 1-cup measure ladle with pour spout made filling the jars easy.

 She also had a canners' measuring stick so we could leave exactly 1 inch of head space in each jar.

 Then we stacked the jars in the preheated canners...

secured the lids, brought them up to temperature, and let them steam for 70 minutes while we ate lunch.

Once they cooled enough to open safely, we used jar grabbers to unload the canners and set our jars to cool and seal. Summertime stored in a jar! Thank-you Kelli!

we CAN do!

For descriptions of canning procedures see our past blog reports HERE

If you go to www.papercrave.com, you will find all sorts of printable canning stuff including little invitations if you want to have a canning party! These are all free to be downloaded.
Miss Marie tells her "secrets" for raw chocolate cake:

8 raw organic dates (soaked but not necessary)
1/3 cup of organic raw cocoa powder
1 tsp vanilla extract
dash of sea salt
1 cup walnuts
add water to desired consistency (no more than 1/4 cup usually - but I do this by eye)

blend all ingredients in a food processor. make sure it mixes well. take small scoops of mix and create "cake balls" rolled in additional ingredients (I like to use coconut and/or chopped walnuts). refrigerate until cooled and enjoy.

if too much liquid is added, this also makes a yummy raw chocolate "mousse" - equally decidant. feel free to experiment!





Tal went home to MORE canning! She writes: " I finished 18 pints of salsa from the tomatoes I so generously got from my friends Nick and Linda. And look how many more tomatoes I have! More salsa to come tomorrow night and then some peach jam and chutney next week (to share with N&L)"

Here's the link for the USDA's Complete Guide to Home Canning from Kelli

http://nchfp.uga.edu/publications/publications_usda.html. Wyatt says its the most comprehensive resource for canning.

UnCANny!

Once again, Can-Do Wyatt Whiteman has demystified home canning, while orchestrating an opportunity to enjoy the pleasure of working as a group to put food by. New this year, was making salsa. We learned not to touch our lips or eyes while cutting peppers and that one person's cool may be an other's hot. Click Can Can and scroll down to see more detailed canning reports of the past.

We CAN Do!!!

On August 14, Master Canner, Wyatt Whiteman of 1760's Farmhouse in Fairfield, CT met in Cornwall at Local Farm to impart his wisdom to 15 canning wanna-be's. As one happy participant noted, "The 'Yes, We CAN Can' workshop was just that; a demystification of the canning process and an affirmation of our ability to go home and can whatever. Even though there was little formal instruction and we were all so busy doing various parts of the process that no one had time to step back and observe all the steps, the group accomplished SO much working in such a primitive set-up, I now feel confident that I could find and follow a recipe to can almost anything." Wyatt recommends the Ball Blue Book Guide to Home Canning and Freezing for recipes and instructions. Other informational/experiential tidbits we gained were...








Even after carefully washing and examining jars for chips and cracks, sometime you lose one.




















We learned that pre-boiling beets and scalding tomatoes and peaches made them much easier to peel with next to no loss of produce. The skins just slipped off with minimal effort. However over-scalding fruit cooked it and made a sloppy mess.













Wyatt emphasized packing the jars very tightly so that they would still be full of fruit even after it had cooked, softened, and settled into place. We used knife handles and plastic spoons to release as many air pockets as possible so that the jars would not have a large empty space at the top after processing.
To ensure a good seal, one must leave the specified space between the produce in the jar and the CLEAN top rim. Carefully wipe off any spillage before putting on the lids and rings.


One can can acidic fruits (like tomatoes or peaches) and anything pickled with vinegar (like our dilly beans and pickled beets) with the hot water bath method. Everything else must be canned with a pressure canner. Wyatt recommends heating the loaded canner until steam has been pouring out of the top for ten minutes, then put on the pressure valve and start timing according to your recipe. A big fan of pressure canning method, Wyatt says "It uses half the time, half the energy, and a great deal less worry."

We discovered the truth in the adage, "Many hands make light work."













Working with others makes the job so much more fun AND productive!





Wyatt's DVD, A Visual Guide to Canning, is available for $12 from Debra@Motherhouse.us. For other Motherhouse workshops and events, visit Motherhouse.us.