Jes bought a copy of the Ball Blue Book and got me some beets to put up.
Do I need a pressure cooker fer "pickled beets" or will white vinegar
(5% acidity)? I'm jes under 8,000 feet elevation.
I plan to "julienne" them and then pickle 'em. ;)
i cube them about 1-2cm, smaller will bleed all
the color out. which is ok if you keep the juice
you cook them in.
no pressure cooking needed for sufficiently acidic
foods as long as you observe proper food prep and
don't mess up the seals.
How do I know if the process is OK if the added vinegar is only "5%"
acidic. Ball Blue Book sez the food must be below "4.6%" acidic. to
qualify fer "high acid" food ....and thus requiring only a "hot water
bath". Do I need some "ph test strips"? ;)
Apparently, my 5 qt Kuhn-Rikon is not big enough, even for 1 pt jars
"hot water bath" (need at least 1 inch of water above lids). Half pint
jars, yes.
Looks like I'll hafta wait until my next SSN check to buy a big enough
canner (and some "canning salt", mag lid lifter, Ove Glove, etc).
How do I know if the process is OK if the added vinegar is only "5%"
acidic. Ball Blue Book sez the food must be below "4.6%" acidic. to
qualify fer "high acid" food ....and thus requiring only a "hot water
bath".
Not sure what the Ball Blue Book says about boiling water bath times at altitudes over 1000 feet. "So Easy to Preserve" says to process pickled beets in a boiling water bath for 30 minutes below 1000 feet. Above
6000 feet that processing time increases to 45 minutes and the amount of water over the jars should be at least 2 inches and you may need to add
more boiling water if the water gets lower than 1 inch over the jar tops during that 45 minutes.
I've discovered the BBB sez 1 inch, the USDA sez 2 inches. When the two agencies (Ball vs USDA) disagree, who should I believe? ;)
(budget ones - never had any problem with
the Ball lids).
I've read the "new" Ball lids are not as good as the "older" Ball lids,
so users are recommending using other off-brand lids. Care to
elaborate? ;)
notbob wrote:
...
How do I know if the process is OK if the added vinegar is only "5%"
acidic. Ball Blue Book sez the food must be below "4.6%" acidic. to
qualify fer "high acid" food ....and thus requiring only a "hot water
bath". Do I need some "ph test strips"? ;)
i've never bothered, i usually make the
mix somewhat stronger than 2 cups of water to
1 cup of vinegar. figure that the beets will
soak some of it up. i actually do it by taste.
noway have i ever used full strength vinegar
alone.
as for BWB, we've been oven canning (Mom has
done it this way her whole life - she won't
change). i'm careful and have only a few lids
come off (budget ones - never had any problem with
the Ball lids).
For food safety reasons, I'd prefer to rely on information found on
those two sites rather than "Mom has done it this way her whole life".
Ross@home.now wrote:
For food safety reasons, I'd prefer to rely on information found on
those two sites rather than "Mom has done it this way her whole life".
i've included caveats. and it's not just Mom, but
now also me. and that means probably 15,000 - 20,000
quarts of food with very few failures.
On 10/19/2018 1:39 AM, songbird wrote:
Ross@home.now wrote:
For food safety reasons, I'd prefer to rely on information found on
those two sites rather than "Mom has done it this way her whole life".
i've included caveats. and it's not just Mom, but
now also me. and that means probably 15,000 - 20,000
quarts of food with very few failures.
I once put my Fluke temp meter on my old renters-grade electric oven.
It would swing as high ....and as low.... as 30 degrees (F) above/below
set temp.
I did the same to my daughter's renters-grade GAS oven. It would swing
only 5 degrees (F) above/below set point. I've yet to do the same to
my current gas oven, so I cannot say, with any certainty, that gas
stoves are better than electric stoves. ;)
nb
On Fri, 19 Oct 2018 09:43:55 -0600
in Message-ID: <news:g2ucdrFd0s3U1@mid.individual.net>
notbob <notbob@nothome.com> wrote :
On 10/19/2018 1:39 AM, songbird wrote:
Ross@home.now wrote:
For food safety reasons, I'd prefer to rely on information
found on those two sites rather than "Mom has done it this way
her whole life".
i've included caveats. and it's not just Mom, but
now also me. and that means probably 15,000 - 20,000 quarts of
food with very few failures.
I once put my Fluke temp meter on my old renters-grade electric
oven. It would swing as high ....and as low.... as 30 degrees (F)
above/below set temp.
I did the same to my daughter's renters-grade GAS oven. It would
swing only 5 degrees (F) above/below set point. I've yet to do
the same to my current gas oven, so I cannot say, with any
certainty, that gas stoves are better than electric stoves. ;)
nb
Temperature fluctuation s aside, the real problem, as I see it, is
that air doesn't transfer heat (or cold) as effective;y as water.
That increases the processing times, which assume water is the
medium transferring the heat for sterilization.
At close to 8,000 feet, known/good processing times and
proceedures are already long. Who wants to increase them?
On Fri, 19 Oct 2018 09:43:55 -0600
in Message-ID: <news:g2ucdrFd0s3U1@mid.individual.net>
notbob <notbob@nothome.com> wrote :
On 10/19/2018 1:39 AM, songbird wrote:
Ross@home.now wrote:
For food safety reasons, I'd prefer to rely on information found on
those two sites rather than "Mom has done it this way her whole life".
i've included caveats. and it's not just Mom, but
now also me. and that means probably 15,000 - 20,000
quarts of food with very few failures.
I once put my Fluke temp meter on my old renters-grade electric oven.
It would swing as high ....and as low.... as 30 degrees (F) above/below
set temp.
I did the same to my daughter's renters-grade GAS oven. It would swing
only 5 degrees (F) above/below set point. I've yet to do the same to
my current gas oven, so I cannot say, with any certainty, that gas
stoves are better than electric stoves. ;)
nb
Temperature fluctuation s aside, the real problem, as I see it, is that
air doesn't transfer heat (or cold) as effective;y as water. That
increases the processing times, which assume water is the medium
transferring the heat for sterilization.
At close to 8,000 feet, known/good processing times and proceedures are already long. Who wants to increase them?
I process
using either a boiling water bath or canning grade pressure cooker.
I've never had a broken jar, but I have had a couple of jars over theI recently watched a U2B video that showed dozen of jars with no
years that failed to seal properly
I recently watched a U2B video that showed dozen of jars with no
"threaded bands" (as BBB calls 'em), on the jars. Only sealed lids.
What was that? ;)
I recently watched a U2B video that showed dozen of jars with no
"threaded bands" (as BBB calls 'em), on the jars. Only sealed lids.
What was that? ;)
Once the jars are thoroughly cold, you remove the bands (which we
called "rings" in the forties). This makes it easier to spot jars
that didn't seal -- sometimes a bit of food under the seal takes a few
days to manifest -- and it frees up the rings for another batch of
jars.
Once the jars are thoroughly cold, you remove the bands (which weAs I suspected.
called "rings" in the forties). This makes it easier to spot jars
that didn't seal -- sometimes a bit of food under the seal takes a few
days to manifes
I jes couldn't get 1 inch
of water above my pint jars (half pint, yes!) in my current 5 qt
Kuhn-Rikon pressure cooker.
At the very least you'll need a rack in the
bottom of the Kuhn-Rikon.
For pressure canning, adjusting for altitude
is done by adding weight (higher pressure), not increased processing
time, as in a boiling water bath.
I jes couldn't get 1 inch
of water above my pint jars (half pint, yes!) in my current 5 qt
Kuhn-Rikon pressure cooker.
The BBB sez, "Remove the band. Gently try to remove the lid with your >fingertips. If the lid is concave and cannot be removed with your >fingertips, the jar is vacuum sealed". It goes on to explain how to
store "ringless" jars. I'm still learning.
In addition, leaving the rings on can trap water and lead to rust
on the lid. If things all line up, that can make the seal fail.
(I think I got that from USDA.) The only problem is figuring out
where to put all those rings. They're almost as bad as piling up
as wire hangers.
Jes bought a copy of the Ball Blue Book and got me some beets to put up.
Do I need a pressure cooker fer "pickled beets" or will white vinegar
(5% acidity)? I'm jes under 8,000 feet elevation.
I plan to "julienne" them and then pickle 'em. ;)
nb
On 2018-10-15 02:27:55 +0000, notbob said:
Jes bought a copy of the Ball Blue Book and got me some beets to put up.
Do I need a pressure cooker fer "pickled beets" or will white vinegar
(5% acidity)? I'm jes under 8,000 feet elevation.
I plan to "julienne" them and then pickle 'em. ;)
Didja look at the recipe in the BBB? :-)
If they're pickled you can process for x minutes (consider your
altitude) in a boiling water bath. How were they? (Mine won the blue
ribbon again at the 2018 MN State Fair. Still have never tasted them. )
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