Posted: 11/9/2007 4:37:54 PM EDT
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I just pressure canned 24 quarts of beef stew. I left 1 inch of head space as the ball blue book said. Every load had some stew (broth) in the water. I removed the air bubles from the jars as it said. I have 1/3 that are down 2 inches and look like alot of the broth is gone. There will be 3-4 that will not seal, one is already in the frig, as I am out of time tonight. 1.5 hours correct 10 psi correct 1 inch head space correct WTF did I do wrong? Thanks, Bob |
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Did you preheat the lids and tighten the bands finger tight before putting them in the canner? Were the lids and jars brand new? Jarden(Ball) told me that I should use fresh lids every year when I asked them how long they would store. Were they kept constantly cool and away from sunlight? |
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How did you decompress the pressure canner? If you get impatient and decide to vent the canner a little, the contents of the jars can boil over. What the canning water looks like is a good clue here. If you do get boil over, food particles on the rim can prevent a good seal. |
Let cool on its own. |
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From experience useing the Mirro canner with jiggle weight. If you let the pressure build to high (the weight jiggles more than 2 to 4 times a minute) then this will happen. I have done it while canning green beans, weight jiggles 6 or so times a minute, contents (liquid) boils out. Bring the canner up to pressure, adjust the heat so that the weight jiggles 2 or 3 times a minute, you have to play with it several times but you get to know what setting the range needs to be on to obtain the proper heat. My 02 worth. |
I've had that happen as well with my All American.....and also with green beans. I suspect that's what happened. Just curious on one thing though........odontia, did you let the canner cool completely with the weight on? If so, you can set up a pretty good vacuum in the canner and that can fubar seals, though it doesn't usually blow contents out of the jars. |
I goofed up my first batch of garden tomatos- I pulled the jiggler with just 2 pounds of pressure indicated on the dial gage on my all american. So much for figuring close is good enough. Every jar boiled over at the drop in pressure. I had to reprocess. I waited 5 min after the needle dropped to the peg the second time!!! (and all was right with the world) |
Shit, guilty as charged. I had it out sidde on a burner and the wind was kicking up. I had it too hot. Thanks guys Bob |
you're a good sport.
Question. Why are you pressure cooking tomatos? I was always under the impression that bioling canning was sufficient for tomatos, due to high acidity. |
He may have added pepper, onions or other low acid foods to his recipe. Doing so would make pressure canning a necessity. Alternatively, he may simply have wanted an extra safety margin..... |
For "Tomatoes Packed in Water", the Ball Book says process pints and quarts 10 minutes at 10 lb pressure. With the heat-up and cool-down periods of a pressure canner, there's probably no time savings here compared to water bath canning. However, the Ball Book makes an interesting observation:
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My mom always water bathed them and I'm still alive. No more reason than I wanted to try it that way.  I'm still new and stick to the manual for the most part. I did add lemon juice to my tomatos too. I have good insurance too. I'm hoping the lemon juice isn't that noticeable when it's time to use them. I'm sure chili would mask the lemon but I'm not so sure about spagettie sauce. I didn't make marinara because I wanted to leave my options open for use.I don't have a large water canner, I can do pints in my stock pot or even use by pressure canner as a water bath but with quarts I don't have much water over the top of the jar lids. I looked at the k mart water bath canners but they were so thin and half of that was enamel I didn't want one (my sister has had two bath canners spring leaks). It's on the list though, I want durable quality. Hmmm, I'm thinking maybe I should just buy a second bigger AA canner that can water bath quarts. Muh ha hahaaa! Would cut down on the batches too! |
Seriously? You would buy another AA for hundreds but wouldn't spend $20 on a Kmart H2obather? 
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Aw come on Mallory, It's shiny, finely machined, hi grade alloy and I'm a man. Makes sense to me! How many enamel mag rims do you see on cars?  I can't come up with a better reason than that though. ETA- OK, after I moment I can say I can be a sucker for quality built stuff but the jumbo pressure canner can do two layers of quarts under pressure or one as a water bath. If I got more than 2 deer, I'd can a bunch of it under pressure as stew meat. And I could do a spag. sauce with meat in large batches too. I'm rational(izing)
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You could have two inches of headspace and it will not spoil. You have created a vacuum; there's nothing in there to cause spoilage. Canning food that contains grease can cause the jars not to seal. The only thing you can do is use new lids/rings, wipe the jar's rim and let the canner bleed-down on its own. Take those jars out of the fridge tomorrow and try it again! Good luck B_S |
Marry me. |
LOL, too bad you're half a nation away! |
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The small pressure cooker/canner is awesome for hawiian short ribs or to cook a corned beef in a relatively quick and TENDER manner. I envision the big one for serious canning. I'll not buy the big one for a while yet. I hardly have room to store my stuff now!! I have cases of quarts jammed under the sink now. I have a small garden now and envision going big with a summer kitchen one day when I'm settled in. |
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Get the AA AND the water bath canner. If SHTF you can use one to generate hot water on a woodstove to clean the jars, utensils, etc that are in process in the other unit. The enameled water bath canners always rust, though. When raising and processing foods (especuially meats), you can never go wrong with a generous hot water supply. |