How To Preserve Produce Without Refrigeration
(Page 5 of 9)
July/August 1971
By Frank Garrett
A minor drawback of an outdoor canning operation (especially if you live away from heavily-populated areas in my neck of the woods) may be a visit from the friendly, neighborhood Federal Law Enforcement Agent from the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax Division of the Internal Revenue Service. He may come alone and emptyhanded . . . or armed with a warrant and a team of Federal Marshals. Regardless of how he arrives—unless you have a still hidden somewhere—show him around and be pleasant. He's just doing his job so don't hassle the poor guy. If you're nice he'll probably never come back, but if you give him a hard time he can make your life very unpleasant. Keep cool.
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If you can't can outdoors, you can still do quite a satisfactory job in your kitchen if you make optimum use of the available space. As for those higher fuel bills: in the long run, they'll be more than compensated for by the quality and quantity of your home-canned food.
The following list of tools is rather basic for anyone who plans to do much canning. Try not to make any major substitutions.
1 Small, sharp paring knife
1 Large, galvanized wash tub or garbage can
1 Large pot of any shape, cover optional
1 Large, flat-bottomed pot with cover
1 Large pressure cooker
1 Food mill
1 Large lot of containers (glass jars or tin cans) with tops
Now don't rush out and buy all this stuff in one place at one time or you'll spend a fortune. Hardware stores, discount houses, junk stores, surplus stores, household auctions, Goodwill stores and Salvation Army outlets are all excellent sources for these items and—with a little scouting—you can often get exactly what you need for almost nothing.
The items themselves are nearly self-explanatory.
A small, sharp paring knife saves literally hours of time when you're cleaning and cutting foods for canning. The large pot is for food preparation prior to canning and its shape is not important as long as the pot is large enough. I consider two gallons an absolute minimum size for this item. The cover is optional but worth having because it greatly speeds boiling and cooking.
The flat-bottomed pot is used for processing the canned food and—to accomodate the greatest number of jars or cans—should be as large as possible. A cover is essential for this container since canned food must be covered during processing.
The pressure cooker is not absolutely mandatory for home canning . . . but if you don't have one, you'll find that some produce requires a processing time of four hours (the cooker will cut that to about 20 minutes and give you a greater degree of safety to boot). Your pressure cooker should hold at least five one-quart containers of food and the larger the cooker's capacity, the faster your canning will go.
A food mill is essentially a pot with hundreds of holes punched in its bottom. A crank handle with a screw-type paddle attached rises vertically from the center of the pot.
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