Home Canning

Home Canning and Bottling Matthew Spong 15/12/2008 For the Inner-West Permaculture Group

A can of mango. Where does it come from? Thailand. Shipped over on a container vessel. A can of tomato paste? From China. Most likely grown in a greenhouse. Black and Gold generic brand tomato paste is cheaper to grow and process in China, and ship here 1/4 of the way around the world, than to produce locally. A jar of peaches. Where does it come from? My backyard. I canned it using a large saucepan and not much else.

What are the benefits? Why bother?     

I know where the fruit came from. I know it grew without pesticide. I saved all the crop of my tree, none went to waste. I saved a large amount of energy I increased my self sufficiency, and struck a blow against the dominant paradigm of consumer culture which bathes us in a soporific haze of weakness and ensures our dependance on the mechanised industrial society!

Why do we not can? Why don't people do it any more? Convenience - lack of confidence – don't know how. Convenience – Laziness. The belief that buying something is always better than making it.

Lack of confidence - the belief that our grand parents had super powers far beyond those of mortal men! Don't know how – it's easy, let me tell you! My personal observation is that lack of confidence is the main reason, backed up by laziness. For some reason, many people really seem to believe their ancestors had super powers and were capable of doing things we can't. How can this be? Our brains are the same size as our grand parents, perhaps a little larger. We are better informed, have access to more information. We can even better afford our mistakes as we learn how to do things, like canning. I have always found activities like home canning not only profitable, but fun!

History of Canning (via Wikipedia) Canning (which also means jarring, a "can" is any vessel) was invented in 1809 by Nicolas François Appert, who was trying to win a prize offered by Le Monde. 50 years before Pasteaur discovered micro organisms, he observed that food cooked inside a jar remained edible until the jar was opened. Because they didn't have good sealing methods, large hand-soldered iron cans were used. They were too expensive for every day use. Adventurers and soldiers carried them and had to open them with saws! Metal cans are not practical for home use, so resealableglass jar systems were developed. Different companies tended to dominate the market in different countries. In the states they used Ball brand Mason jars, which have a screw thread and a ring shaped screw-on holder presses a flat lid down. In Australia we mostly used Fowlers Vacola, which uses a spring to hold the cap down during the sealing process.

Basic Concepts    

Using clean fresh food further reduces the number of bacteria to start with. Boiling a sealed jar kills the bacteria and yeasts inside. While the jar remains sealed, the food is safe from infection. Adding sugar syrup or salt helps improve the texture of the food.

The idea is to fill the jar with the food to be preserved, seal it, and then sterilize it by boiling. The boiling kills the bacteria and yeasts and the food keeps until it is opened. You maximise your chance of success in various ways. Clean food in the jar is less likely to have resistant bacteria on it. Sugar syrup helps a little to preserve the texture of fruit. During the boiling, the pressure goes up in the jar and air leaks out. The Fowlers system uses a spring to hold the lid on during this process. Once the jar is taken out of the heat, the steam inside condenses, the gas pressure goes down, the lid is pressed down on the rubber seal by atmospheric pressure, and the jar seals itself. You can then remove the spring. The jar remains sealed due to atmospheric pressure until you remove the lid.

The Fowler System The Fowlers company still exists and still makes jars, lids and sealing rings and other gear. You can apparently buy the jars new at Mitre 10 stores. Best source for the jars is second hand on Ebay. The cost varies depending on size, postage, rarity of the jar and collectability. Examples: Ebay - 6 X size 27 (medium thin jar) = $18 plus postage, or pick them up yourself. Bake and Brew – New size 20 jar (600ml) = $8.70 plus postage Remember, you need a certain number of the same size jar to justify buying the lids and

rings Bake and Brew are a good source for the consumables involved in preserving. Bake and Brew Shop in Gawler, SA - http://www.bakeandbrew.com.au/ Products: Clips large x 12 $23.90 Clips small x 12 $14.90 Lids Large x 12 $23.10 Lids small x 12 $9.25 Stainless steel lids cost more, but can be reused Sealing rings $4 to $6 depending on size So, a mid size jar might cost about $4 to $6 including postage. The clips between $1 to $2 each, the disposable lids the same, rings under 50C each Initial cost of jar and clip around $6 Cost per fill $1.50 to $2.50 Pretty economical.

Preserving Peaches These instructions should work for any fruit. There are millions of old cook books and household manuals with recipes for home canning. 1. Peel your fruit. 2. Put the fruit in a jar 3. Pour in either water, juice or sugar syrup. Add lemon juice if the fruit is not acid enough. 4. Put the rubber ring around the groove of the jar 5. Put the metal cap on top 6. Put the spring over the top to hold the lid on 7. Fill a large saucepan, deep enough to cover the jars up to the neck, half full of water. 8. Put the jars in the water, and fill the pan to the top. 9. Cover the pan and boil on a low heat for 90 minutes. 10. Allow to cool. You can remove the jars now, but be careful. 11. Never put the jars in cold water to cool faster, because you will shatter the glass. 12. When the jars are cool, remove the spring. Atmospheric pressure will hold the lid on. 13. To open the jars, force a knife up under the edge of the lid and break the seal. You will hear the air whoosh in. 14. Never reuse ordinary lids or rubber rings. You can reuse stainless steel lids. 15. Never eat from a jar which has discoloured foods, or which wasn't sealed properly. If the lid isn't dipped slightly, it hasn't sealed.

The Teaches of Peaches When I first started preserving our peaches, I left it too late to spray them for fruit fly. I could see the fruit flies laying their eggs on the peaches, which were still green. On a hunch, I picked a bunch of green peaches and peeled and bottled them. The flesh was just starting to turn yellow but was still as hard as wood. They tasted like sour apples when I nibbled them. I used a sugar syrup to offset the sourness. The sugar, and the heat of preservation, cooked and softened the peaches and they turned out delectable! This is the secret of classic preserves, and the reason they taste so good. The acid in the fruit combines with the sugar and makes them piquant, and preserving them early means you do not need to use a spray to stop the fruit flies.

Bottle Preserving There is a cheaper option. Liquids like sauces, purees and juices can be preserved in bottles. The bottles I mean are “crown seal” bottles. These are bottles which do NOT have a thread around the rim. They were capped with a bottle cap, the kind with the spiky rim that needs a bottle opener to remove. This is a crown seal. Bottles are freely available. You can find these in many locations. If your suburb uses smaller recycling trays you can pick them up outside your neighbours houses. Often the smaller stubby beer bottles get left in the local park after a barbecue. Italian restaurants produce a lot of mineral water bottles. The big green 1 litre bottles are very good, but don't use them for beer as they are too weak and will explode. I prefer to use the smaller stubby beer bottles for tomato pulp, because I can open 2 or 3 for a spaghetti Bolognese, and not have any spoilage. Larger bottles are useful for tomato soup. I prefer to use mineral water bottles, as I use the actual long neck beer bottles for bottling beer! It would be a waste to use them for tomatoes. Never try to use bottles with threads around the rim, as they won't seal properly. Unfortunately proper bottles are harder to find every year, unless you live near a good Italian restaurant or a better bar.

Bottling Tomato Pulp First, buy a big box of tomatoes when they sell them cheaply, usually in late January, February. They go for $6 to $8 a box, which can be about 10 kilos. Now, decide what you want. If you want whole pulp with seeds, which is like tinned tomatoes, you will need to peel them. Dip each tomato in boiling water for about 30 seconds to loosen the skin. It cooks a millimetre of flesh under the skin and the skin just slips off. Stew the peeled tomatoes in a saucepan, and mash them down with a potato masher until they are soft. Then use a funnel and a satay stick to pour the pulp into the bottles If you want strained pulp, which is basically like tomato soup, just chop the tomatoes up skin and all, and cook until well stewed. Then, pass them through a sieve. I use a ladle to ladle the tomatoes into the sieve, and then stir them around until all the pulp has drained out, and then toss the seeds and skins. I usually simmer the resulting pulp in a shallow pan to thicken it further. You get less this way, but it is nicer. Good for making tomato sauce and soup. There are tools for this purpose. Bake and Brew sells $50 crank handle tomato press, or there are $500 electric models. They are like mincers, with a screen for the pulp to pass through.

Once your bottles are filled you need to seal them. Crown seals are available for a few bucks in the supermarket in the home brew section. To seal the bottle there are 2 devices, vastly different. The cheap option is the bangdown sealer (left), which has a wooden handle and a bell attached. You use it with a hammer. $6 from http://www.daveshomebrew.com.au Bench capper (right), which is much safer, is $63. Will give a lifetime of enjoyment, especially when you get into home brewing!

Once the bottles are sealed, time to sterilize. 1. You need a high saucepan, as tall as the bottles. These are very cheap now from $2 shops, as soup boilers. 2. Put a folded tea towel in the bottom of the pot and half fill with water. 3. Put the sealed bottles in and try to arrange to have enough to fill the pan so they don't fall over. I use open bottles filled with water if there aren't enough. 4. Top up with water, and then boil steadily for at least 90 minutes. 5. Allow to cool. You can lift the bottles out right away if you are brave but they are hard to handle when hot. Never put them in cold water or they will shatter. 6. Label them with the date on the cap. Just the year is good enough. This is not absolutely necessary but I like to use the oldest bottles first. Other things you can bottle include lemon juice and citrus syrups. Lime cordial is excellent.

Botulism C botulinum is a bacteria which can form spores. The spores can survive being boiled. They don't produce any florescence or crust, and no gas or smell. They do produce a toxin which produces nerve paralysis. Botulism is feared by home canners, but it has a weakness. It can't live in an acid environment. This is why we can preserve tomatoes, lemon juice, cordial and other acidic foods with boiling water - the boiling kills everything else, and the acid kills the botulism. If you are canning something not very acid like pears or apples, you can add lemon juice and prevent botulism. It improves the flavour too. The toxin breaks down with heat, so you are doubly safe with the tomatoes. Cooking them eliminates any slight risk from say low-acid tomatoes. Of course, to can anything which is low acid, like fish and beans, requires a temperature higher than boiling point, specifically above 121C for at least 5 minutes. This can be achieved at home using a pressure canner. I haven't used mine yet. It cost $300 through Ebay, new.