# Canning After TSHTF



## lazydaisy67

Ok, so before pressure canners, my mom (and every other woman) had to water bath can everything on her wood burning cook stove. Now-a-days we're told that because of better food safety awareness, pressure canning is generally thought of as the "safest" method for all but a few foods. Will we be able to use the pressure canner on a wood stove? What if we don't have a wood burning stove? Can you can on an open fire outside?


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## kappydell

You can use a pressure canner on a wood stove but it takes a lot of time/attention to keep the heat levels stable, which is a must for pressure canning. Waterbath canning is not so picky, so I have several fall-back plans.

1) Lots of pickles (you can pickle just about any vegetable) then water bath can those.
2) Salt down and dry those low acid foods, then you can safely water-bath can them once they are cured, to keep them longer.
3) Cure the meats (salt down or via brine) and keep in a cool place. Smoke some, too. Use the 'hard cure' not the quick one though. Meats keep much longer with the one than the other.
4) Dehydrate produce, then WB can them dry to seal, or use oxy absorbers to 'dry can' them.
5) Root cellar, pit or clamp fresh produce for winter use.
6) Cook up the meats, seal with fat and keep in cool place (aka potted meat).
6) Very Last resort: use the old water bath canning tables from the older canning books to water bath can EVERYTHING. It would have to get pretty desperate to make the risk of botulisim worth the effort to do that with low acid foods, though.


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## goatlady

Wood cook stove canning is possible, but as stated, takes a lot of attention and knowing your stove and wood. On an open fire also possible but,again even more attention needed and several small fire pits are real handy; 1 go get the pressure up to what is needed then moving the canner to a rack over hot coals to keep the pressure even for the necessary time. NOW is the time to practice these techniques so you know how to do it safely. You can "can" water so as not to damage or waste any food products. Water does not care if you go over pressure or over the times.


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## OldCootHillbilly

Yes an I agree with the above. 

The thin bout years ago before pressure canners was real popular, Thins weren't kept long term. Maybe from season ta season at the most, cause they canned it an ate it quickly.

Many meats were preserved by smokin er with salt. Some thins were canned because they kept better thata way, such as fish. Some meats were pickled cause they kept better that way.


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## biobacon

So i just picked up the stuff to lean how to can today, are you guys saying I shouldnt use the stock pot? I have to get a pressure canner? The BBB says its ok but Im willing to learn if you guys diagree. I know i cant do low acid food but I thought it was still ok to use the stock pot.


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## tsrwivey

We pressure can everything because that's the only way we've learned to can so far.  We chose to learn it first because you can process anything with that method.


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## OldCootHillbilly

If it be high acid stuff (tomatoes, salsa yall get the idear) water bath can it. Low acid stuffs, pressure can.

Fer a water bath canner it don't matter what ya use, the stock pot will work just bout as well as a enamel water bather. Just be sure ta put a jar rack er somethin in the bottom so the jars don't sit on the bottom a the pan. It'll tend ta break jars if ya just sit em on the bottom.

Balls book will give ya a good itdear on what ta pressure can an what ta water bath.


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## kejmack

This is why I have focused on dehydrating instead of canning.


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## *Andi

kejmack said:


> This is why I have focused on dehydrating instead of canning.


And I'm the other way around ... lol... I grew up in a house where we canned everything ... so the dehydrating world was new to me.

Live and learn.


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## OldCootHillbilly

Cannin seems scary, but it really ain't that big a deal. Do just a bit a research an take yalls time. It ain't rocket science, just a bit a food science!


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## DJgang

*Andi said:


> And I'm the other way around ... lol... I grew up in a house where we canned everything ... so the dehydrating world was new to me.
> 
> Live and learn.


Me too. We canned everything, so when I decided what I wanted to perfect and learn more about, it came to me naturally to can.

I thought that maybe I would put aside some propane tanks and use them ONLY for canning on the turkey fryer. I know you are not suppose to but when shtf....

I do need to work on learning water or hot bath. My mom does most of the jellies and tomatoes, I do other veggies and meats.


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## biobacon

Its kinda like magic to me. The whole gardening to can is amazing. We eat the last of out pees today but I understand i couldnt water bath them anyway. I gota get my carrots up this week. Like I said this is all awsome and amazing to me.


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## timmie

lazydaisy67 said:


> Ok, so before pressure canners, my mom (and every other woman) had to water bath can everything on her wood burning cook stove. Now-a-days we're told that because of better food safety awareness, pressure canning is generally thought of as the "safest" method for all but a few foods. Will we be able to use the pressure canner on a wood stove? What if we don't have a wood burning stove? Can you can on an open fire outside?


i guess i had better learn how to do this before TSHTF.i am pretty good at cooking on an open fire. will start practicing this weekend.thanks for the post because i have only got propane to cook with now.i do have a wood burning stove not hooked up yet.


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## kejmack

biobacon said:


> Its kinda like magic to me. The whole gardening to can is amazing. We eat the last of out pees today but I understand i couldnt water bath them anyway. I gota get my carrots up this week. Like I said this is all awsome and amazing to me.


The reason people can is so they have enough to get them through the winter. If you don't have surplus from your garden then you are not growing enough food. The idea is to have enough to carry you through until the next season.


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## goatlady

Meat, fish and poultry MUST be pressure canned to avoid any chance of contamination/food poisoning. Unless you know those maters are a high acid variety or have lemon juice handy, tomatos should be pressure canned also. Remember all those veggies Grandma used to water bath may not be the same varieties as we have available these days.


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## OldCootHillbilly

Tomatoes do not have to be pressure canned. The reason they suggest pressure cannin tomatoes be a "higher quality" (so sayeth the USDA) what I don't see when I've done it.

You simply add either lemon juice, citiric acid er vinegar ta raise the acidity a the tomatoes so yall can water bath can em. 

I water bath can all my maters, yall can pressure can em ifin ya feel like it. I don't like wastin time er resources on a extended cannin session ifin it ain't needed.


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## goshengirl

To pressure can outdoors, I've wondered about rigging a tripod that will raise and lower the canner over an open fire (to try to control the heat) and use osage orange wood (which puts out the most heat of the different wood types). Does anyone think something like that would work? Something I need to work on...


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## tsrwivey

Last year we replaced our electric stove with a gas one so we could still cook on it when the power was out because cooking outside when it's clod stinks. Since we live out in the country, there are no underground gas lines to deliver gas so we have a 500 gallon tank that is automatically refilled every week or two by a truck. We generally heat with gas but if TSHTF, we would save that for cooking & heat with wood. It's a common set up around here but I'm sensing it isn't elsewhere. does anyone else have this? 

What are the advantages of water bath canning over pressure canning?


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## DJgang

goshengirl said:


> To pressure can outdoors, I've wondered about rigging a tripod that will raise and lower the canner over an open fire (to try to control the heat) and use osage orange wood (which puts out the most heat of the different wood types). Does anyone think something like that would work? Something I need to work on...


Ahem, some of us don't have access to Osage orange wood. vract: lucky you!


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## OldCootHillbilly

Water bath cannin when ya can, saves fuel an time. Yer cannin times be much shorter.


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## OldCootHillbilly

DJgang said:


> Ahem, some of us don't have access to Osage orange wood. vract: lucky you!


Oak er ash.


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## NaeKid

biobacon said:


> So i just picked up the stuff to lean how to can today, are you guys saying I shouldnt use the stock pot? I have to get a pressure canner? The BBB says its ok but Im willing to learn if you guys diagree. I know i cant do low acid food but I thought it was still ok to use the stock pot.


I have only water-bath canned - perfect for making jams and jellies, great for many fruits and vegitables ... I even water-bath-can my Christmas "special" which is known as "SouthernOranges" (recipe is on here somewhere) ...

I do plan on learning to do pressure-canning, but, I just haven't had the opportunity yet ...


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## timmie

NaeKid said:


> I have only water-bath canned - perfect for making jams and jellies, great for many fruits and vegitables ... I even water-bath-can my Christmas "special" which is known as "SouthernOranges" (recipe is on here somewhere) ...
> 
> I do plan on learning to do pressure-canning, but, I just haven't had the opportunity yet ...


so what do you do with fresh veggies and meat besides dehydrate and freeze?


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## The_Blob

OldCootHillbilly said:


> Tomatoes do not have to be pressure canned. The reason they suggest pressure cannin tomatoes be a "higher quality" (so sayeth the USDA) what I don't see when I've done it.
> 
> You simply add either lemon juice, citiric acid er vinegar ta raise the acidity a the tomatoes so yall can water bath can em.
> 
> I water bath can all my maters, yall can pressure can em ifin ya feel like it. I don't like wastin time er resources on a extended cannin session ifin it ain't needed.


tomatoes are already a 'high acid food, except for the 'low acid' yellow ones :teehee:


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## The_Blob

timmie said:


> so what do you do with fresh veggies and meat besides dehydrate and freeze?


pickling, salting, using sugar, using lye, jellying, smoking, brining, vacuum desiccation, food additives vract: , 'hurdling' (combining methods to make it that much harder for microbial growth)


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## goshengirl

DJgang said:


> Ahem, some of us don't have access to Osage orange wood. vract: lucky you!


I'll be glad to ship you some for a "small" fee. 

Actually, I am starting to feel lucky. They were a nuisance before. Prickers poking holes in the mower tires, dropping limbs and ugly fruit all the time. But now I'll be using them to grow a prickly and very strong hedge, use them as fence posts, and use them for outdoor burning.


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## lazydaisy67

timmie said:


> so what do you do with fresh veggies and meat besides dehydrate and freeze?


I can pretty much every vegetable I grow in the garden and I also can meat when it goes on sale and I can buy a whole bunch of it at a time. I've canned deer too and it's wonderful. I don't dehydrate a whole lot, but this year did some onions and some left over apples that I couldn't get into pies. When bananas go on sale I dehydrate them into chips for the kids.

I liked the idea of a tri-pod to lift the canner off the fire when it's reaching it's correct pressure. Regulating that pressure is crutial if you don't want that canner to blow up in your face. Heard stories about that but never have talked to anybody that it's happened to. Possibly just scootching it over to a different place on the fire grate?


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## RUN1251

Why can't I use a propane burner outside to pressure can? If SHTF I was planning on using the single burner we use to fry turkeys at Thanksgiving. It is adjustable so I can control the heat.


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## NaeKid

timmie said:


> so what do you do with fresh veggies and meat besides dehydrate and freeze?


Beyond eating them?

I have a cool-room that I keep my food in - potatoes are stored in a potato -bucket filled with sand - so are the carrots and other root-based vegitables. I don't do anything with leaf-based vegitable (lettuce, spinach, etc), they get eaten as they are picked and when full winter arrives, well, it means going to the local grocery-store (for now). I do plan on expanding my growing season this winter by growing some vegies inside (basil, lettuce, spinach) - it will be my first go around of doing this ...

If I have time this winter, I might build a proper potatoe-bin ...


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## OldCootHillbilly

RUN1251 said:


> Why can't I use a propane burner outside to pressure can? If SHTF I was planning on using the single burner we use to fry turkeys at Thanksgiving. It is adjustable so I can control the heat.


You can if yall got the propane.


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## LilRedHen

goshengirl said:


> To pressure can outdoors, I've wondered about rigging a tripod that will raise and lower the canner over an open fire (to try to control the heat) and use osage orange wood (which puts out the most heat of the different wood types). Does anyone think something like that would work? Something I need to work on...


I would not use osage orange firewood for canning. IMO it puts out too much heat to control. Other hardwoods would be better. I used to burn wood and almost melted the stovepipe once with osage orange. If it came down to it, with no other way to can but open fire, I would try to build a small three sided wall from bricks, blocks or rocks, find a piece of sheet metal or an old oven rack to set the canner on over the fire. Just my thinking


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## lazydaisy67

LilRedHen said:


> I would not use osage orange firewood for canning. IMO it puts out too much heat to control. Other hardwoods would be better. I used to burn wood and almost melted the stovepipe once with osage orange. If it came down to it, with no other way to can but open fire, I would try to build a small three sided wall from bricks, blocks or rocks, find a piece of sheet metal or an old oven rack to set the canner on over the fire. Just my thinking


THIS! Was thinking the same thing. Something big enough so that you'd have room to slide it just slightly off off the hottest part of the fire. Once that canner gets filled with jars it's very heavy so moving it around a lot will be hard for me. Water bath certainly is easier, but I'm so afraid of bacteria that I hardly do anything that way. Neighbor lady doesn't do anything in a pressure canner. They always say "Oh we've NEVER had any trouble with spoiled food." But I have read stories in the newspaper of a lady who got super sick from her canned tomatoes. I want to do everything in my power to avoid my kids getting sick from what I can.


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## goshengirl

LilRedHen said:


> I would not use osage orange firewood for canning. IMO it puts out too much heat to control. Other hardwoods would be better. I used to burn wood and almost melted the stovepipe once with osage orange. If it came down to it, with no other way to can but open fire, I would try to build a small three sided wall from bricks, blocks or rocks, find a piece of sheet metal or an old oven rack to set the canner on over the fire. Just my thinking


I like it! Thanks, LilRedHen - that's got my mind to thinking..... Now to just git 'er done.


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## OldCootHillbilly

People get sick from store bought foods to.

Ya make sure everthin be clean an sterile, foller the directions an yer good ta go.

Thin bein, ya don't use sterile stuff an keep it clean, yall can get sick offin pressure canned stuff to.


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