"Brian Mailman" > wrote in message
...
> Green Newb wrote:
>> I'm having a load of fun with my Canner and my spaghettie bolognaise
>> sauce turned out fabulous. I got 5, 1 litre jars and 9, 500 ml jars
>> out of the batch. I'm onto Chinese food next. Love the idea of
>> take-away in the cupboard.
>
> You might want to purchase something like the Chun King canned Chinese
> food products to see how something like that turns out and see if you are
> still enthusiastic about such a project.
>
> B/

The Chun King/La Choy stuff always comes with the "meat" and sauce in a
separate can from the vegetables. I use the term meat loosely here because
it seems to be some chopped, formed and pressed concoction masquerading as
meat. But the separation keeps the vegetables reasonably crisp for canned
vegetables and you heat the meat stuff first and then add the vegetables
near the end of the cooking time when you're reheating them so they don't
get overcooked. So I'm thinking that probably if you mixed them together
for processing and had to process for the ingredient that takes the longest
time, which would be the meat, it would take 75 minutes for pints and 90 for
quarts. And since when you're canning a vegetable like green beans it only
takes 20 minutes for pints and 25 for quarts, I really think the vegetables
might be cooked to mush. So perhaps canning the meat and vegetables
separately would be the best answer.

The sauce, though, I'm still thinking that it would best to concoct your own
and use ClearJel to thicken it. I was looking at the Ball Complete Book of
Home Preserving, specifically the chili recipe, and it says not to use
commercial chili seasoning mixes because they may contain thickeners not
recommended for home canning.


--
-Marilyn