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I re use lids. I don't do anything extra. I am very careful when removing them as it is damage and bending around the edge that makes them unusable. I never re use any that are discolored. I also re use store jars and lids from commercially canned products. They can withstand more pressure than a home use jar.
 
Canned tomato sauce last night/ this morning. Yesterday we made 3 gallons of chicken stock, I think the wife wants to can either chicken vegetable or chicken for use use in dishes like chicken noodle soup, she will tell me what I need to do when she is ready.
 
Update, when I got off work the wife had chosen chicken vegetable soup, it is now on the cooling racks. But we are almost out of stock, so we may be doing that tomorrow.... At this rate we will be done with our planned "canning marathon" before the start date....

Every day the wife gives me a new cooking recipe and says, how can we can this.... I am becoming a wiz a converting cups and tsp's into real units and figuring out how much per qt or pt.... I am finding it a challenge to balance what she wants to can with the jars (size and mouth type) that I have....
 
We have been canning some lately and using a lot of stock, making the stock takes a lot of time and requires cleanup after each batch... I was thinking about increasing the volume of stock that we make at one time to reduce my total labor... What I have come up with is to use a water bath canner and rack to make LARGE batch of chicken stock at one time. I have a water bath canner and 2 racks so I am thinking I will use the worst rack, tie a string to each of the handles, place all the whole chickens on the rack (arranged like canning jars), bring the stock up to the point where you would de-bone the chicken, lift the rack and hook it to the sides, de-bone all the chickens, remove the empty rack, place the chicken bones and skin back in the pot, add a gallon or 2 of water (to displace the removed chicken) and finish making the stock..... any thought? Does this sound reasonable? What would you do to make the process better?

FYI today we are making beef stock, so I will not be trying this before Sunday afternoon......
 
UrbanHunter said:
We have been canning some lately and using a lot of stock, making the stock takes a lot of time and requires cleanup after each batch... I was thinking about increasing the volume of stock that we make at one time to reduce my total labor... What I have come up with is to use a water bath canner and rack to make LARGE batch of chicken stock at one time. I have a water bath canner and 2 racks so I am thinking I will use the worst rack, tie a string to each of the handles, place all the whole chickens on the rack (arranged like canning jars), bring the stock up to the point where you would de-bone the chicken, lift the rack and hook it to the sides, de-bone all the chickens, remove the empty rack, place the chicken bones and skin back in the pot, add a gallon or 2 of water (to displace the removed chicken) and finish making the stock..... any thought? Does this sound reasonable? What would you do to make the process better?

FYI today we are making beef stock, so I will not be trying this before Sunday afternoon......
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Do both steps at the same time like an assembly line?

Ben
 
Taking a break, the beef stock is almost done, I removed 2 gallons of meat from the stock, and now it is just bones and veggies cooking for a few more minutes. We are getting ready to can potato leek soup, the leeks were container grown (Started them indoors and then move them outside last May) and we harvested more than enough for 2 canning runs... I would not have expected it, but it is nice. We are eating way more out of the garden this year than ever before.

Well Break is over so I need to get back so I can switch gears from making stock to canning stuff....
 
When it was all said and done we got about 3 1/2 gallons of clean Beef stock made and the potato leek soup canned. The Beef Stock looks like a cross between coffee and tea..... nice and dark.... once we removed the fat and gristle we ended up with about 3/4 of a gallon of cleaned pulled beef. We needed to cut up veggies and meat for tomorrow's canning, but my body just aches all over... took some Tylenol and I'm ready to call it a night.

I am currently using a 22 qt stainless steel water bath canner to make the stock in....
 
UrbanHunter said:
When it was all said and done we got about 3 1/2 gallons of clean Beef stock made and the potato leek soup canned. The Beef Stock looks like a cross between coffee and tea..... nice and dark.... once we removed the fat and gristle we ended up with about 3/4 of a gallon of cleaned pulled beef. We needed to cut up veggies and meat for tomorrow's canning, but my body just aches all over... took some Tylenol and I'm ready to call it a night.

I am currently using a 22 qt stainless steel water bath canner to make the stock in....
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1st question Urban, when do you sleep?
Second: I have a cauldron for stock/bone broth & am hoping to use it for cider in a few weeks. I can't find the pix after it was cleaned up but here's the before pix. It makes a lot.
1630290056192.png
 
Friday & Saturday:
12 pints diced tomatoes
3 1/2 pints tom. sauce
4 1/2 pints spiced choke cherry cider
5 pints porn-n-beans
Will have more tomatoes maybe Tuesday-ish. I like to do just small batches. When Hubby returns home, it will be more big batches of salsa.
 
So while jars are currently plentyful here I have been wondering. I case the lights were to go out for an extended time. How many jars to can a pig and what size? I was thinking quart size large mouth for most of it. I really have no idea how many jars we need. I do know my wife's idea of plenty is off. I had purchased probably 20 cases and we went through half of it just with gardening.
 
Cascadian said:
So while jars are currently plentyful here I have been wondering. I case the lights were to go out for an extended time. How many jars to can a pig and what size? I was thinking quart size large mouth for most of it. I really have no idea how many jars we need. I do know my wife's idea of plenty is off. I had purchased probably 20 cases and we went through half of it just with gardening.
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A whole pig? Urban might be able to say how many pounds per jar but my guess would be 2# or less per qt. That's when salting and drying start coming into play.
 
Cascadian said:
So while jars are currently plentyful here I have been wondering. I case the lights were to go out for an extended time. How many jars to can a pig and what size? I was thinking quart size large mouth for most of it. I really have no idea how many jars we need. I do know my wife's idea of plenty is off. I had purchased probably 20 cases and we went through half of it just with gardening.
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I would estimate about 2#s of clean meat per quart jar. The larger cuts may actually be a little less #s per jar because of the empty space...
20 cases of quarts should cover about 480#s of pork....

I don't know how much discard you have as you are processing your pig, when I do deer I find the bones, hide, and head can eat up 30#+ before I ever get to putting it into jars or the freezer.....
 
I've been burning the candle at both ends making recipes based on the wife's instructions as I went and Murphy showed up today. We were canning Chili and at the end of the session we still had lots of meat, apparently I doubled the meat but not the dipping... So tonight we sorted beans and will try to do it again tomorrow..... I am very tired and as soon as I can open the pressure canner I will be calling it a night. The wife is so worn she keeps forgetting what she is doing.. I think that we need to take off a couple of days... But I doubt that my wife will stand for that, after all there are still 3 things on her canning list.... ;)
 
UrbanHunter said:
I've been burning the candle at both ends making recipes based on the wife's instructions as I went and Murphy showed up today. We were canning Chili and at the end of the session we still had lots of meat, apparently I doubled the meat but not the dipping... So tonight we sorted beans and will try to do it again tomorrow..... I am very tired and as soon as I can open the pressure canner I will be calling it a night. The wife is so worn she keeps forgetting what she is doing.. I think that we need to take off a couple of days... But I doubt that my wife will stand for that, after all there are still 3 things on her canning list.... ;)
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Get some rest UH
 
UrbanHunter said:
I've been burning the candle at both ends making recipes based on the wife's instructions as I went and Murphy showed up today. We were canning Chili and at the end of the session we still had lots of meat, apparently I doubled the meat but not the dipping... So tonight we sorted beans and will try to do it again tomorrow..... I am very tired and as soon as I can open the pressure canner I will be calling it a night. The wife is so worn she keeps forgetting what she is doing.. I think that we need to take off a couple of days... But I doubt that my wife will stand for that, after all there are still 3 things on her canning list.... ;)
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Time for a break. Mistakes happen when you get so tired. BE SAFE
 
Yesterday I received additions to my canning supplies, a 16 qt stock pot to supplement the 22 qt one I had, their lids are interchangeable with the water bath unit I have.... I also got a 23 qt pressure canner that will work with my stove top, so now I have redundancy.... :)

At lunch we de-boned 2 chickens and their remains are simmering in the stock pot.... The wife will be sorting dry beans tonight and we will be hydrating them over night... Tomorrow afternoon we will kick-off the last days of canning quick meals, hope to be done by noon Saturday. ;)
 
UrbanHunter said:
Yesterday I received additions to my canning supplies, a 16 qt stock pot to supplement the 22 qt one I had, their lids are interchangeable with the water bath unit I have.... I also got a 23 qt pressure canner that will work with my stove top, so now I have redundancy.... :)

At lunch we de-boned 2 chickens and their remains are simmering in the stock pot.... The wife will be sorting dry beans tonight and we will be hydrating them over night... Tomorrow afternoon we will kick-off the last days of canning quick meals, hope to be done by noon Saturday. ;)
Click to expand...
UH this isn't really a "meal" but is certainly a time saver. Have you ever canned plain beans - so they are cooked when you need them and can just add them to whatever it is you are making? (so no soaking overnight) I will attach a link that is the same way I do it in case you're interested.
http://homejoys.blogspot.com/2013/02/canning-dried-beans.html
 
LadyLocust said:
UH this isn't really a "meal" but is certainly a time saver. Have you ever canned plain beans - so they are cooked when you need them and can just add them to whatever it is you are making? (so no soaking overnight) I will attach a link that is the same way I do it in case you're interested.
http://homejoys.blogspot.com/2013/02/canning-dried-beans.html
Click to expand...
We do can plan beans, but some of our beans are a little old (2008) so we hydrate them before we can them... mostly pinto and kidney...
Tomorrow we will be starting lentil soup and split pea soup and the wife's recipe was based on hydrated beans so I am canning them the same way... All this math of calculating how much of this or that per quart or pint when working from family cooking recipes is a PIA..... But I am writing them down as I go... This is the first time we have expanded our quick meals so much, we were limited to 4 dishes now we are above a dozen....

There are a couple recipes based on turkey but I usually buy the cheap birds in late November for that...
 
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