It's about time to write something again so here I go. With the holidays coming, we are watching the food store ads for some good buys so that we can make use of the Stake pressure caner and add to our food storage. The first week of November, Bashas had bone in chicken breasts for 77 cents per pound. That also matched up with their first Wednesday of the month senior 10% discount. We went down to Bashas and LouAnn bought two packages and I bought two packages. Went back later that evening and we each bought two more packages each. That worked out to be 69 cents per pound. Through out the week, we went back and shopped and bought several more packages at the 77 cents a pound price and ended up with 14 packages. They were mostly frozen so we would separate the breasts, wrap them separately in plastic wrap and freeze them in freezer style zip lock bags. We went and got the Stake All American pressure caner and started canning chicken. We thawed them, removed the meat from the bones and then cubed the meat and boiled the bones. After packing the breast meat into the wide mouth quart Ball brand jars, we poured in the broth from the boiled bones and put the jars, seven quarts at a time into the pressure caner. You have to let the caner vent steam for 10 minutes before adding the weight to the steam port and then once it comes up to pressure (10 pounds) we set the timer for 95 minutes (adjusting the time +5 minutes for our altitude) and waited. When the timer went off, we turned off the gas to the cooker and waited for the pressure gauge to read zero. I took off the weight and then loosened the clamps on the pressure caner lifting the lid up away from me so the steam would go away from me and not at me. I then removed the jars from the caner and placed them on a cooling rack. All the lids were sealed so all was good. After taking them out, the next batch went in. With the steam venting time, cooking time and then cooling down to be able to open the caner, it takes about two and a half hours to do one batch.
The week before Thanksgiving, Frys and Bashas both had a sale on ten pound bags of Russet potatoes at 69 cents per bag. We bought four bags. The book says you can cut them length wise or cube them. We decided to cube cut them. After washing, peeling, rewashing them and cutting them up into about 1" square cubes, we boiled them for six minutes. The Ball jars had been put through the dish washer and were lined up ready. We loaded the potatoes into the jars to with in one inch of the top and then poured boiling water into the jar up to one inch below the top of the jar. Next we used a knife to remove any air bubbles in the jar and then put the lid and screw ring on finger tight. The jars were loaded into the pressure caner, fire turned up until the steam vented for 10 minutes and then put the 10 pound weight on. When it got up to pressure, we started the timer for 45 minutes. The rest was just like doing the chicken. Turn the fire off after 45 minutes, let the pressure go back to zero and then take the bottles out. Easy Peasy. I did the math and it came out to $1.35 per quart including the cost of the jars. That doesn't include the amount of personal satisfaction of knowing we did it ourselves.
So, look for good deals and do it your selves. If you need help, we have the best book titled Home Preserving that we can tell you all the recipes for anything you want to can.
The Lord will bless you in your efforts to follow the council of his Prophets.
Bob and LouAnn
