jdonnelly14

Okay I'm about to sound stupid again, but what are retorted foods?

Okay I'm about to sound stupid here since I'm clueless, but I thought you said in the other forum that you aren' t supposed to can butter. How is apple butter different so that it can be canned?

Okay finished reading through this and have a few more questions. I'm planning to buy a few books on canning when we get our taxes back so I can have a better idea and debating about buying a canner this year to try canning with the couple of things I'm planting or just waiting until next year when I've had the space cleared out and can plant a full garden. Right now I'm just trying to learn what I can about it. I'm not one to do something without knowing all that I can before trying it as I'm a very nervous type personality. (I won't even take something out of the oven when cooking it until someone else confirms that I was right it is in fact done.) Anyway my questions. I was reading someplace in here I'm not sure if it was this exact thread or not, but it mentioned that the only safe thing to can on a pumpkin was pumpkin cubes without the skin on. What I was wondering was you were to can those could they later be used to make pumpkin pie after they were open? How long would those keep? If they were able to be used how many jars of pumpkin cubes would it take to make a pumpkin pie? Secondly, I've seen recipies where you can can cherry, apple, blueberry and raspberry pie filling, but can you can sweet potato pie filling? If so which canning book would I buy to have a recipies for canning sweet potato pie filling? Lastly if the idea was to save money by growing things in Zone 5 that can be preserved long enough to last until the following years harvest of foods, what would be the best food to be grown? Thank you very much for any help you could give me on this.

Sorry I'm just reading through and trying to learn what I can about canning before ever actually attempting it. But I'm a little confused. I thought early you mentioned that ClearJel was corn starch that the government approves for use in canning and now you're saying not to use corn starch. Could you please clarify that for me?