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[VAN DELL JORDAN <vdjor AT yahoo.com>]

-- On Mon, 12/15/08, Lisa K.V. Perry <lisakvperry AT gmail.com> wrote:

> It is almost a comforting sound to me, perhaps because when
> I was young my
> Mom used to make green beans, potatoes and a ham hock for
> dinner in a small
> pressure cooker.
> 

The sound comment brought back a memory.  The sound I associate with canning 
is not a pressure cooker but a gentle "pop".  My mother used lids with 
replaceable flats?, snap lids?  One way to tell if they were sealed was to 
hear a "pop".  She would count the pops until they were all sealed. 
We had no pressure cooker so everything she canned was water bath.  The only 
meat I remember was cold packed pork loin.  Other than that the majority of 
her canning was tomatoes and green beans.  I haven't heard any mention of 
"cold packing" in these discussions?
It seems that very few jars went bad.  Don't ever remember loosing any meat.  
That may be in part because Ma was very precise in anything she did.  Took 
her a long time but the result was usually good.
Van Dell