Canning has become popular today. Food preservation through canning provides an excellent way to produce flavourful high-quality foods that not only allows one to save money but also have access to a fresh supply of food all year round. Canning is an invaluable skill to possess that enables one to become self-reliant especially at a time when food costs are at an all-time high, not to mention that it is also a nice hobby to have that can create lifelong memories for participants.
What Foods Get Pressure Canned Or Water Bathed Canned?
How does food canning work?
If you are going to become a master at preserving food, one of the very first things that you will have to do before getting started is to understand the basics of food preservation and food science. For food canning to be done safely at home, only two techniques can be used; a boiling water bath or a pressure canner.
Boiling water bath canning is a simple and straightforward method that does not require the use of specialized equipment. Pressure bath canning, on the other hand, requires a highly specialized tool known as a pressure canner.
If you mismatch the food item and the canning method, you can put your health and the health of those to consume your canned food items at risk. As such, you must always find out which foods are to pressure or water bath canner before you can preserve anything.
Which foods are to be water canned?
The types of fruits that are preserved using the water canning method include jellies, jams, pickles and preserves, fruits and any fruit extracts. These types of foods are considered to have a high acidic content 0f 4.0 and lower that creates the perfect environment to prevent food spoiling bacteria to grow.
As such, the heat produced from a boiling water bath is generally sufficient enough to ensure that the harmful agents have been destroyed completely, which keeps food safely preserved for long.
A boiling water bath might sound complicated at first, but it is actually the simplest method of food preservation. A boiling water bath is created simply by filling a large pot containing a rack at the bottom with water. Jars that are filled with food are then immersed in the boiling water for a period of time specified by the canning recipe being used before they are removed to cool down. As they cool, the jars create a vacuum seal that then keeps the food preserved for long.
Which foods are preserved using a Pressure canner?
The pressure canning method, alternatively, is primarily reserved for low acid foods. These types of foods create the perfect environment for food spoiling microorganisms to grow, which means that the temperature of boiling water is not sufficient enough to eradicate them.
As such, the only thing capable of producing the high temperatures needed to completely kill these organisms is a pressure canner. All low acid foods can therefore only be preserved using a pressure canner. Examples of low acid foods include poultry, veggies, meat, seafood, as well as food combination recipes.