Canned Nerd

I sent this on to my friends, changing it to a first person report since I fit the bill. Will see if I get any responses.

I guess I've enjoyed that compatibility convenience for the past 40 years. Both my Oster (inherited from my mother) and HB blender bases fit the canning jar. I also have plastic jars of various sizes sold by Oster, but I prefer the glass jars. Great for making homemade creamy salad dressing right in the same jar. Try it for grinding nuts and even coffee beans.

I have one of the original ones, before they came up with the adapter to use the jar sealer, but it should handle the jars just fine as long as it is just 1-2 of them. The battery runs down rather quickly. I use mine exclusively for the ziplock-style bags, which are also provided by Glad® and Ziploc®.

Here is a simple recipe you might try and adjust the sugar to your taste. Of course you could add any other spices that might interest your taste buds. Liss' Ketchup TNT 1 cup tomato sauce 2 Tbsp sugar 3 Tbsp vinegar 1/2 tsp salt 1/8 tsp ground cloves 1. Combine everything in a small bowl, stirring well, let set at least 30 minutes for flavors to mingle. 2. The cloves really adds the zip. I also added a touch of black pepper. Web Page: http://www.budget101.com/scratch-recipes-storebought-items/liss-ketchup-tnt-1520.html

I've had fairly good success with vacuum sealing my brown rice, some of which are several years old now. I also dehydrate cooked rice, especially brown rice, since its cheaper than the commercial stuff and very handy for many recipes. I store this in jars since it is hard and sharp and capable of puncturing bags. I would never consider dehydrating rice cooked in stock/broth since it would not seem safe. Much easier to add flavoring when its being re-hydrated.

Just use common sense and caution with doing this.....low-acid food in a vacuum.

I too recommend freezing for an opened can leftovers, if it cannot be consumed in a reasonable amount of time. Canning would requiring boiling the product before it went into the jar, plus the canning process itself, and I'm not sure what that would do to the texture and taste. Commercial products also contain additional ingredients which may also not reprocess very well. A can in my pantry has at minimum High Fructose Corn Syrup and regular corn syrup in it.

If the gasket is soft and pliable, without any nicks or cracks in it, it should be good. You can test your canner by just putting 2"-3" of water in it and run it through its paces. After venting and pressure is allowed to build up, you should not see any water or steam existing from the area of the gasket/lid. If you do then the gasket should be replaced.

Do you mean a "Teflon" coated pressure cooker? Unfortunately pressure "cookers" cannot/should not be used for canning purposes and it is doubtful that your "rocker" is set for 10 psi or 15 psi which is the pressure needed for canning.

Or just nibble on them like nuts.

They should be quite good, probably with years of storage left in them. Single food items tend to be quite stable and don't lose taste or texture for a long time. I'm still working on mine from 2007 and the chicken was great.

Here's a link I found of these Dremel attachment for sharpening. http://www.homedepot.com/buy/dremel-sharpening-kit-a679-02.html#.UMUiFXfNnTo

I use my Dremel with a special attachment for sharpening, otherwise a good flat file should do the trick.

I used acquired some Burpee seeds for growing Corn in containers, rather than having to have a large spread out location. Unfortunately their initial seed packets had the wrong growing instructions on them, but they gave me the correct one when I inquired. This is a brand new product, but unknown at this time whether they are GMO.

The shredded chicken would be great for burritos. I make up batches and freeze for future meals.

If not back in the dehydrator, try using your hair dryer to heat up the dried food a little so it loosens its grip on the wax paper. Its paraffin wax so you might have success.

If you have dried peppers, you could hydrate them before chopping them up, making sure seeds are removed first.

Raw pack is the only way I do meats, with or without added liquid/broth. Yes, the chicken is fully cooked during the processing time. Sometimes I will briefly brown the meat (without added oil) for a little more flavor but its not necessary.

The recommended temperatures I go by are: Herbs 90° - 105°F Veggies 130°F Fruits 135°F or lower Meats 145°F (*) (*) Max setting on my old dehydrator but should be higher if possible. I did my beans at 130°F.

I just finished dehydrating 5 trays of pinto beans and very pleased with the results. They are great to snack on too, just like nuts. I was a little surprised to see about half of them opened out like popcorn. I don't know if that is normal or due to the age of my original dried beans (at least 7 years old I figure). I plan on more experimenting since I have lots of old dried beans. For this batch I soaked overnight, pressure cooked for 3 minutes, off the heat for 10 minutes, and then rapid de-pressure. Beans were then put in the dehydrator at 130°F overnight.

Our ancestors didn't have freezers and still managed to have butter around, so all is not lost in that respect. Prepping is not 100% on anything, which is why one is encouraging to have more than one method of storage for various foods and even more than one location. I also anticipate dying at some point, which means that 100% of my stored supplies will be useless to me, but I store them anyway since they 'may' be useful.

Nice to know since mine has been there since 2007

Congratulations on finely trying to test out your pressure canner. It's a lesson on patience since the whole process of warming up, etc., takes lots of time and you can't take shortcuts to make it quicker. I use the HIGH setting on the stove through the venting and build up of pressure. The amount of steam/air you see will depend on how hot the water has gotten. Mine sputters with a combination of air and steam for awhile and then settles into a more solid stream of steam. The more you practice/do it the more comfortable you will become in using your canners. I love canning chicken and beef since it is so simple. I go both ways regarding the broth/water, but if my jars are packed solid I generally don't bother adding extra liquid. It's a personal preference. A lot of people will brown their meat before going into the jars also, which will add more flavor. Experiment and taste later to see what you and your family like the best.

I always thought Velveeta Cheese had the same shelf life as Twinkies.

Go by Violet's recommendations and not the manufacturer (who doesn't do canning anyway) and I also wouldn't expose jars to immediate boiling water, if that's what you are doing. I start with cold water with the jars, warm them up using medium heat until they are ready to be filled. After filled and back in the canner, then the heat is ramped up to boiling.