Page 25 - The Lost Book Preserving Food Naturally

The Lost Book of Preserving Food Naturally

The Canning Process
The freshest and best quality food should always be used for canning. If you use food that

is nearing the end of its “fresh” shelf-life, it will affect the quality of the canned food you

produce. While it will still be edible, the flavor and consistency of the food will be affected.

Any wet food can be canned; so vegetables, fruits and meats all qualify. It needs to be wet

foods, because the excess space in the can or jar will be filled with water. This is to
prevent oxidation of the food. Perhaps you’ve seen home-canned fruit, where some of the

pieces were poking above the water and were discolored. This is the oxidation I’m

referring to.

The food needs to be cleaned, cut and prepared before canning. In some cases, especially
with meat, this would include cooking the meat, before canning. Fruits and vegetables

are usually blanched, rather than being cooked. In other cases, foods will be mixed

together or have spices added to them, before canning. There are thousands of canning

recipes available online, which provide you with an abundant variety of ideas of what

you can do.

Many of these recipes are old, having been passed down for generations. The US
Department of Agriculture (USDA) undertook a major project long ago to determine

minimum canning times and temperatures, as well as the need for adding salt or sugar

to canned items. This data, which is available on the USDA website, is the basis used for
all of these recipes. Food canned according to these guidelines cannot go bad, while in

the can.

The canning jars themselves, with their lids, as well as the pot they are hated in must be

sterilized before canning. This is done by filling the jars with water and putting them in

a water bath in the pot. Then the temperature of the water is raise to at least 158°F (70°C)

to kill any bacteria.

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