"Green Newb" > wrote in message
...
>
> "Marilyn" > wrote in message
> ...
>> "Green Newb" > wrote in message
>> ...
>>>
>>> "Kitty" > wrote in message
>>> ...
>>> On Sep 10, 9:36 pm, "Green Newb" > wrote:
>>>> Okay I'm getting the picture nicely, thank you. I thought the guy
>>>> writing
>>>> about Chun was being sarcastic,so its a real product? lol. Oops.
>>>>
>>>> I could do the meat as you say, that sounds a good way of doing things.
>>>> I
>>>> can make my own sauces. If its not presentable in the jar, well I just
>>>> won't
>>>> eat it and will waste it, so its really important to me about
>>>> presentation
>>>> and texture.
>>>> > --
>>>> > -Marilyn
>>>
>>>
>>> If presentation matters to you, then try this. make enough of your
>>> recipe up for one meal, only cook all your veggies as long as
>>> recommended for the longest one. Then see what they look like and
>>> feel like in your mouth. the texture will be pretty mushy on some of
>>> them, but might feel fine for others. but it will give you a little
>>> bit of an idea what everything will feel like when you eat it, and you
>>> might see the colors and textures are to bland. and when you can them
>>> they get knocked around a bit more and will not look as crisp
>>> either.
>>>
>>> Another thing I didn't think of before is this. recooking a sauce for
>>> as long as required for canning may change the flavor, weakening some
>>> spices, intensifying others.
>>>
>>> FWIW, Kitty
>>>
>>> Kitty, Barb, Marilyn, Serene, this has given me a lot to think about. I
>>> have reached the state of mind of separating the meat and veg, specially
>>> when I compared the cooking times of vegies compared to meat. Also my
>>> own
>>> sauce from scratch will be the way to go. No double double anything lol.
>>> Thanks for your patience in helping me.
>>>
>>> I thought Carrots raw packed would take the longest time, instead I was
>>> shocked to read that greens take 70 minutes. WOW. Thats not good.
>>> Thats
>>> really bad hmm...I haven't made this dish yet and am so glad I asked!.
>>> Serene, my freezer broke a month ago and I lost all my soup stocks,
>>> meats,
>>> etc. That happened after ordering my canner, Then our power went down
>>> not
>>> long after that!. Food might be safer in the cupboard for the time being
>>> .
>>>
>>> Thanks everyone. I really appreciate the positive input.
>>
>>
>> That's what we're here, to help you make the right decisions when it
>> comes
>> to canning. I can only speak for myself, but I've had my share of
>> "experiments" gone bad and I hate wasting food. Today, my husband and I
>> got
>> tough on the food storage shelves and went through looking for stuff that
>> was way past its prime. I couldn't believe that I had jam that had to be
>> at
>> least 12 years old. I also couldn't beleive that I had had actually put
>> stuff away without labeling it as to the contents and date it was
>> processed.
>> Not a good idea and anything that wasn't labeled properly went into the
>> compost (except for a few items that contained meat and those went down
>> the
>> garbage disposal). And sadly, I found out that three quart jars of
>> peaches
>> I canned last month had not reallysealed, even though they appeared to
>> have
>> at the time. The lids popped right off and you could see the top of the
>> fruit was spoiled so out to the compost it went. The upside of this is
>> that
>> I now have lots of empty jars so I don't need to go buy more for this
>> season
>> (my cloud has a silver lining after all).
>>
>> Yep, one of the reasons I like canning is that if the power does go out,
>> I'm
>> not going to have the food on the shelves spoiling.
>>
>> -Marilyn
>>
> Marilyn, that was so interesting, hearing of you going through your
> cubpoards like that and caught me before my next mistake. I labelled my
> first effort, but not my spaghettie sauce! Going to do that right after
> this post. How many years afterwards have you eaten one of your products?
> What is the longest time? What do you mean bout the lids popping off?

I think the oldest things we eaten have always been jams. The color gets
dark on them and they taste okay, but not great. Maybe five years is the
most for anything else. We really try to use things within two years and
make sure the oldest stuff gets rotated to the front. I threw away some
chili con carne, which actually smelled just fine, but it was more than five
years old. Same with the spaghetti sauce. I had some dried white beans
that I had soaked and canned, but there didn't appear to be any water in the
jars so that made me leery about them being safe to eat.

The lids literally just slid right off on the jars of peaches, even though
they had appeared sealed when they got put away. I mean the lids had sucked
in like they're supposed to do, not staying domed. When I examined the lids
after they had come off, I noticed that there was peach fragments stuck to
the sealing compound. I don't know if I had the lids on right when I
screwed the bands, but it looks like what happened is the liquid boiled up
and some of it came out of the jars, running the seals. If it had just been
water, it would probably have just sealed, but with the stickiness, it
didn't.

> I've been worrying about, how do you know if it hasn't sealed properly. I
> have pop tops but have never opened up a jar yet. Today is the big day.
> I hope we survive lol. Gonna put some pasta in that apricot chicken and
> sprinkle it with cheese.

If it hasn't sealed properly the lid with either still be domed where if you
touch it, it will click and go down, or it will slide right off without
being pried. Make sure that when you reheat that apricot chicken, you get
it good and hot. I know the instructions always say to boil your
pressure-canned food.

> As for failed eperiments I would love to hear about any of them! From
> everyone, if you care to share. Might save me some mistakes!

Failed experiments for me are usually trying to can stuff that is too
greasy. The grease always manages to get under the lids. I've been
thinking about making chili again, but I think I would go the extra step of
making the chili, allowing it to cool off and putting it into the
refrigerator overnight so that in the morning, I can skim the grease off of
it and then reheat to put in the jars to can.

> I ended up making chicken and sweet corn soup and canning it, but I'm not
> totally satisfied with it. Will eat it though . I only used corn
> kernels and not a mixture of creamed corn and kernels. I thought the corn
> would go to mush! It didn't. Large peices of chicken as well. Which also
> didn't break up like I thought loll. I'll give it a bit of a mush when
> reheating etc.
>
> Today I'm making a Beef stew, its pretty basic so I hope it goes good!



--
-Marilyn