Projects that keep on coming

I love my projects. Truly, I do. But I will say they do sometimes have me in a rather overwhelmed, ‘what did I get myself into’ state at times. But, by the end of it, I’m generally feeling rather accomplished, and tired.

So I canned two different soups in the past few days, I haven’t tried any of this batch yet but I have made them in the past and LOVED them so much that there was not a doubt in my mind about doing a full 4 quart batch.

Now…I have the presto precise electric canner. And although I can recommend it all day long, I still have friends who refuse because they really like the 7 quart capacity of the original presto stove top canner. I can’t blame them. It takes alot of time to do a batch, why wouldn’t you want to put up more at one time if you had the supplies and ability to do so? But for me, it is not having to watch the pressure gauge. I can flit from one task to another around the house, getting much more done than if half my mind was stuck on worrying about whether the pressure on the canner is right. With the electric presto, it is all automated. I have promised my husband that I won’t leave the house while it is running though, which seems like a reasonable request…

I just can’t explain enough how the electric one helps my anxiety over canning. My four year old is very very rambunctious, and when he comes hurdling into the kitchen when I am canning, it still makes me nervous with the electric one. But when there is a meltdown that I have to address, or some sibling rivalry that gets out of hand, I can handle it, without losing my head that my pressure canner is going to either gain or lose too much pressure. Now…I did get to the point where I basically found the sweet spot on my heat dial of my stove, where the canner would stay consistently at 12.5 pounds without moving for an hour straight, or longer. But things don’t always work out that way, which is fine, it just makes me lean even harder towards the electric one.

https://www.gopresto.com/product/presto-precise-digital-pressure-canner-02144

One of my largest problems, and one of very few I might add, with this canner is due to human error. There have been two times now that during the heating and venting stage, I have forgotten to take off the regulator. And then when it starts beeping for me to “Put the regulator on” I’m standing there giving myself and the canner and the floor …choice words that aren’t appropriate to type. What I’ve done is cancel the batch, and start over from the beginning, hoping that the extra time lost will teach me a lesson to remember to take the thing off. It just seems weird to me, which is funny because my stovetop canner’s regulator did not live on the canner, it had a special place on the shelf, so maybe I need to start doing that instead so this doesn’t happen again.

Okay! So onto the soups! I’m going to include a link to an absolutely wonderful lady named Carter with Grow and Preserve. She creates fantastic videos on pressure canning and it is a true joy when I have the time to sit down and listen to her talk. All her recipes are listed in the description section, and are broken down into how much goes into each pint as well as how much you would need for the sampler batch.

Now, I haven’t actually done the sampler version, like the doing two pints of each soup. I do four quarts of one type, that I think I will really like. The Italian sausage and white bean is fantastic. I am excited to try more of her soups, the next one on the list is cottage stew, but the list is long, because all of her recipes look so delicious.

One important thing that I thought was worth mentioning, as Carter does describe in the video but I needed a reminder and so maybe you do too: The beans go in first, that way they have the least likelihood of running out of liquid during the canning process.

Now I am going to be honest, although I have never had a jar of soup not seal, (Actually I think the only time I’ve ever had something not seal, it was chicken broth and I found it hilarious and strange, and I do expect over the years I will have things not seal in the future because it just might happen) I have had my soups siphon in the canner to where the water is murky and oily when I take out the jars. I figure my jars still seal and hold their seal. So that’s good enough for me. I have done apple pie filling in the past and that has siphoned on me outside of the canner, and then still sealed but yuck what a mess! I don’t actually know if Carter is talking about inside or outside the canner with the siphoning comment, but either way, it hasn’t proven to be the end of the world in this neck of the woods.

The other soup that I have tried is actually from the Ball canning book, so I tried to find a website that already had everything broken down, more information isn’t a bad thing. And I sometimes find myself wanting more direction when it comes to the Ball recipes:

Canning Pot Roast in a Jar

Please keep in mind my photos are taken before I add broth and debubble, they just look pretty to me with all the veg and seasonings on top. These don’t look particularly..err..beautiful when they come out of the canner in the jar, but they look fine in the bowl and taste delicious, so to me that is what matters most!

Well, it looks like that’s all I’m going to get written down for today! I’m hoping to get alot more done with the garden today. Cross my fingers it’s not going to be too terribly hot outside!