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  • From: sjc <indexer AT fairpoint.net>
  • To: homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [Homestead] deer hunting
  • Date: Sun, 14 Dec 2008 17:59:53 -0500

bob ford wrote:
I'm curious too. I remmeber my granny and my paternal aunts canning lots of
stuff, but my memory is faulty and they are all dead. I thought some on this
list said thaty certaon things like meat had to be canned under
pressure?.......................
Meats and low-acid items get canned under pressure now, but you are all right that it certainly hasn't been so....when I was a kid my uncle raised broilers, and if they weren't at a good price when they reached broiler weight, the community canned them for church. So that's about 19,000 chickens (20,000 as delivered chicks) into glass jars and waterbathed on wood stoves, for 3 ½ hours each. Since I was the smallest female about, my hands packed every jar.
What I have no clue about is how many got pitched to the hogs because they didn't smell 'right' when they were opened...some I know for sure but the rest I don't know about. I know, in general, there were a can or two of goods a week, sometimes all of something in a year, that had to be tossed. All of that was waterbathed..

Now for the last 20/30 years or so, more folks use pressure canning, and indeed, the USDA is adamant about it. Personally, I got and began using a pressure canner when I was first married, and have never looked back. And I can't even remember the last time I had a sealing failure or had a jar of goods go bad......and the newspapers don't carry many stories about a whole family found dead the morning after they ate canned corn for supper the night before.

And, although it's different, it's really no harder than waterbathing. Rob hit the nail on the head, it's a little harder on a woodstove, but you just save out the wood you're going to need, then you have it and can keep your fire just right....not that bad to do. And beats waking up dead.

SJ




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