Text 16073, 123 rader
Skriven 2011-09-27 22:57:31 av Ruth Haffly (1:396/45.28)
     Kommentar till en text av DAVE SACERDOTE (1:123/140)
Ärende: PRESSURE COOKERS 10909
==============================
Hi Dave,

On (27 Sep 11) DAVE SACERDOTE wrote to JIM WELLER...

-> Summer canning is hot workp; freezing to preserve food easier.

-> Roslind says she used one as a kid at her grandparents' place.

 DS> I have two pressure cookers (one 6-quart, one 8-quart) for cooking.

I've got an 8 quart one; used to have a 22 quart one as well but when
Steve joined the army, we found a new home for it. A PFC has next to
nothing in weight allowances for moves. (G)


 DS> They're great for making short work of long simmers - big cubes of
 DS> really tough beef chuck for stew take about 20 minutes to get fork-
 DS> tender, and then it's just a matter of cooking the veg and seasoning
 DS> the broth for stew.

Never really tried it for meat. My favorite use of it is for pumpkin; it
cooks and separates from the skin really easy. Suppose I ought to get a
hunk of beef and try it some time. (G)


 DS> I've got four pressure canners, which I use only for canning and not
 DS> at all for cooking.  One of them was Maryanne's mother's, it's at

Mine gets used for both, and a boiling water bath for shorter jars. I've
got a 22 quart stock pot I use (canner rack fits in it perfectly) for
taller ones.


 DS> least 70 years old and the pressure is regulated by viewing a gauge. I
 DS> don't
 DS> trust the old gauge to still be in calibration and don't know of

Sounds like the one my mom has--and I think she still uses. I'd be a bit
wary of the gauge tho.


 DS> anywhere around here that could calibrate it for me, so I won't use
 DS> that pot.

Don't blame you; have you checked the internet? Put out an appeal in
your local area.

 DS> But Maryanne won't let me get rid of it because it was her mom's, so
 DS> it lives in the cellar, forgotten until I try to toss it in the metal
 DS> recycling and then all hell breaks loose.

Sounds like the "fun" my younger brother is having in his trying to
clean out my folk's cellar. (G) Wish I could take more but that may
happen one of these days. They've got an old stoneware crock with lid;
it it's in good shape, I want it. I think Mom has a proper boiling water
bath pot down there as well.

 DS> Then I have two canners which use a weight ("jiggler") to regulate
 DS> the pressure. I got them at a church rummage sale, they were marked

That's the kind I have--much better than watching the old dial--on an
electric stove. Horrors!

 DS> $5 each, but it was the end of the day and the women running the sale
 DS> gave them to me for free when they saw me checking them out. Those

Good deal!


 DS> canners are what I use for pressure canning now, because the jigglers
 DS> don't go out of calibration. This year was phenomenally bad for the
 DS> garden, so I'm not canning any vegetables this season - those two
 DS> will sit the summer out this time around.

We bought stuff in bulk--half bushel each of PA tomatoes & peaches, some
NC tomatoes, strawberries & rhubarb (for jam), cucumbers for pickles....


 DS> (Having two identical canners is awesome because it doubles your
 DS> efficiency. A canner only holds 7 jars. I never bother canning
 DS> anything unless I can get at least a dozen jars out of the batch -
 DS> it's too much work for short runs. But pressure canning is also

Agreed, if you've the stove and storage space.

 DS> hugely time-consuming - the canner has to be evacuated before it's
 DS> sealed, and then there's the processing time, and then the
 DS> pressure has to be ramped down before you can take the jars out,
 DS> and so on, and it can take a LOT of time to get those 12 jars
 DS> since you have to do everything twice. But with two canners
 DS> running...)

Yes, it took us quite some time to put up the PA tomatoes & peaches. Did
it all in one day (the shirt I was wearing has a nice peachy
brown/tomato red stain on the front) as they were at their peak about
the time we got home. Saved out some of the peaches for eating, for pach
butter and peach fritters but ended up with 20 pints of tomatoes & 13 of
peaches. Did some of the hotter work out on our gas stove's side burner
so as not to heat up the kitchen.

 DS> Last but not least, Maryanne brought home one of these:
 DS> http://amzn.to/pS8Znm
 DS> Pretty much as shown, brand new, never used, given to her by a
 DS> coworker who said she got it, changed her mind about wanting to
 DS> can stuff after reading up on it (too much work!) and asked if we
 DS> could use it. Here again, though, the garden didn't grow this year
 DS> so I probably won't get a chance to try it out until next summer.

I'll have to check it out. Apparantly, it's quite the deal. Don't know
how much I'll do next summer if we anticipate moving in December/January
but this winter we'll have some good eats.


---
Catch you later,
Ruth
rchaffly{at}earthlink{dot}net  FIDO 1:396/45.28


... OH NO!  Not ANOTHER learning experience!

--- PPoint 3.01
 * Origin: Sew! That's My Point (1:396/45.28)