Discussions

I have never canned anything before this year. Has been going ok, but I have some questions that I wondered if any of you experienced canners can help me out with.  
 
1. I have a pressure canner (was left at my house by the previous owner). I canned some green beans in it following the instructions (raw beans, 11 lbs pressure for 25 minutes). Do I have to leave them in the pressure canner for as long as it says in the instructions? I opened a jar of beans for supper tonight, as I figured we should test them out before I go canning a load more and they were ok, but I would prefer if they weren't cooked quite as much, I like my veg to have a little bit of crunch still. Or is the length of time in the canner more to do with killing bacteria etc than cooking the veg?  
 
2. Is there anything I can add to the water to keep the colour of the veg a little more? I have also canned cabbage and carrots and they lost their colour quite a bit, as did the beans.  
 
3. Some of the jars have lost some liquid. How do I prevent this? They have all sealed like they were supposed to.  
 
I know I can also freeze these things, but I like that they are already cooked and just need to be warmed up with canning, will be great for hockey practice nights!

1. The processing time is the time determined to get the jar up to temperature right to the middle in order to kill bacteria. In the case of pressure canning, it needs to exceed 100C, which is why you use it for low-acid foods like beans. According to my Bernardin book, you only need to cook beans for 20 min if using the 500 ml jars @ 10 lbs (adjust to 11 lbs for our altitutde), and 25 min for the 1 L jars. What size jars did you use? You may be able to reduce your processing time a bit. Also, are you hot packing or raw packing? Try both ways and see if that makes a difference.  
 
2. But as for colour, make sure you use soft water, avoid brass, copper, iron, aluminum, or zinc to avoid discolouration. Otherwise, that's just what happens when processed. I've heard a few people don't like the texture of the pressure-canned beans.  
 
3. For the liquid loss, according again to my book it could be  
 
a) food not heated before packing into jars (use hot pack method instead)  
b) food packed too tightly (pack loosely)  
c) air bubbles not removed (slid non metallic utensil between food and jar to release bubbles)  
d) pressure canner not operated correctly (pressure should not be allowed to fluctuate during processing time, wait 2 min before opening lid)  
e) jars not covered with sufficient water (cover with at least 1 to 2 inches of water  
f) screw bands applied too loosely (should be finger-tip tight)

I raw packed the beans and used 1 litre jars. So 11 lbs and 25 minutes is right then. I had a bit of trouble getting the canner to the right pressure and keeping it there when I did the carrots, due to doing a few other things at the same time. With the beans, I was a little scared of the pressure canner, so I watched it like a hawk. The beans didn't lose water but the carrots did, maybe that was why?

That would be my guess too. It's still fine, the tops of your carrots might discolour a bit from being out of the liquid, but they'll keep because you're still successfully created a vacuum if they sealed. I've had problems like that before, and the food is still safe.  
 
Pressure canning is very scary the first time, LOL. I made my husband stand near it while it was getting up to temp because I was too chicken to do it myself!

If you don't let the canner pressure normalize on its own (don't take the weight off the top), then liquid will escape from the jars.

You can cut your processing time in half if you add 1 tbsp lemon juice (as in realemon) per qt. And it keeps the veggies from getting too soft!  
 
Edited by 4G, 2016-08-22 14:26:19

Any food safety scientist will warn against cutting processing times for canned beans due to the risk of botulism. Adding acid (lemon juice, vinegar, citric acid) does not change the recommended processing time.

sesame said "Any food safety scientist will warn against cutting processing times for canned beans due to the risk of botulism. Adding acid (lemon juice, vinegar, citric acid) does not change the recommended processing time. "

Thank-you for saying it so I didn't have to!