What do you can?

[dillpickle]

Or a better question might be what CANT you can.

Im trying to save energy by not using the freezer.

Do you can meats?

 

[yourbadd]

Yes, you can can meat! That sentence seems very weird Here is a good site with instructions on how to can meat and pretty much everything else.

www.simplycanning.com

 

[Wannabefree]

I mainly can tomatoes, peppers, jams, relishes, and pickles. ONLY because I don't have a whole lot of jars though...working on that I haven't tried meats yet.

 

[hqueen13]

Ohhhh more reading to do....
I wish I had somebody that knew what the heck they were doing that was local that could work with me this summer.
I guess I'll just have to see what I can do...

 

[dillpickle]

what temp does the room have to be for the canned goods? Also do you keep them in the dark? Is there a lot of work involved in canning and keeping inventory etc?

thank guys!!

 

[k15n1]

what temp does the room have to be for the canned goods? Also do you keep them in the dark? Is there a lot of work involved in canning and keeping inventory etc?

thank guys!!

Dark and cool is better. Spoilage is chemistry, and chemical reactions are mostly inhibited by temperature. And light shining on a jar is a problem because the photons streaming in are adding energy to the food particles---either it adds heat or contributes to more complicated photochemical processes. I got a case of civilian MREs a while back and it had storage chart like this:

http://www.goldenseason.com.sg/mre_shelf_life.html

The only inventory issue is rotating the stock. That won't be a problem until you have huge amounts of food put up. I wouldn't worry about that for now. But you should take care to have some shelving set up. I recommend shelves that are not too deep or tall. Unfortunately, I have my jars in the original boxes, stacked here and there, which is irritating when I am looking for something in particular.

 

[dillpickle]

It gets 100 degrees here in MS during the summer. I hope I am not going to have to run my air conditioner when I leave the house just to make sure my canned foods are ok. This would defeat the purpose of saving money

 

[LPOHHomestead]

I mainly can tomatoes, peppers, jams, relishes, and pickles. ONLY because I don't have a whole lot of jars though...working on that I haven't tried meats yet.

I also can soups - tomato and vegetable, green beans, dried beans, lots of tomato based foods - salsa, chili sauce, pasta sauce, also apple pie filling.

Would love to start canning meats. I'll have to check out that link too! I'd also like to try sauerkraut, potatoes and sloppy joe sauce this year.

It's never too early to start thinking about the garden!

 

[kimnkell]

I can meats a lot. We just love the taste much better than as if it were freshly cooked. Canning meat is so simple too. I usually do the raw pack unless its ground beef of course. I've canned sausage but I brown it up before putting jars as well. I've made barbecue turkey with leftovers from Thanksgiving, sloppy joe meat, deer (this is yummy stuff), and love just having it on hand.. I guess my favorite is beef roast and I always take the beef broth and make gravy with it for Roast Beef Manhattans... Makes me wanna go can something just talking about it...lol..

 

[sufficientforme]

Canning is a lot of work but it is very rewarding also! Try to store what you can in the coolest room on your house but in a pinch I will use tubs under the bed (darker, no light on them)
I can for many reasons, first and foremost it is a skill you can use for lifetime of good food and survival. Having prepared meals for when the power goes out or when you just don't feel like cooking.
Chili/soups
Spaghetti sauce
Chicken
Beef stew
tomatoes in various forms
jams/jellies
beans (although I still have store canned beans in case of emergency) I like to have home canned knowing they don't have chemicals in them for everyday eating)
peaches/peach pie filling
applesauce/apple pie filling
etc
etc
etc