Pressure canning question

[Delphinus]

Hi everyone,

Perhaps this isn't the place, but I don't know who else to ask: I have a pressure canner. I've got lots of veggies and dishes I'd like to can. Say, green beans, potatoes, onions, and a bit of bacon is my dish. Is it OK to can "cooked" dishes? Same way with my zucchini - should I bake the dish (tomatoes and onions are the only other ingredients) first or just assemble it, put it in the jars, and pressure can them? I can't find the answers in the instruction book. Thanks!

[Mind_your_head]

1. You need to get yourself the Ball Blue Book of Canning and Preserving

It's the canning "bible" and has LOTS of recipes and fully illustrated instructions and advice. It's available at Amazon.com for $8.75 new. Your local library would probably have it as well, although it might already be checked out this time of year. A good local bookstore would likely have it as well.

Here's the link to Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/Ball-Blue-Book-of-Preserving/dp/0972753702/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1248215057&sr=1-1

There are TONS of recipes online if you just enter "Ball Canning Recipes" into google.

Hope that helped a little. Good luck! :hi:

[Warpy]

2. Follow the guidlines in the book that came with your canner

for canning times for various things. The only caveat I'd give is for the zucchini: it doesn't can or freeze all that well but survives freezing after cooking a lot better than it survives canning. It tends to turn to mush. A better bet might be to bake it in bread or other baked goods and freeze those.

The instruction book can usually be found online at the manufacturer's site.

It's fine to can cooked dishes, but if you just throw everything in there raw, pressurizing that canner for the right number of minutes will cook them well done.

I've pressure canned green beans, mushrooms, chicken soup, spaghetti sauce, and chili. Tomatoes just required a hot water bath, they were easier.

[kestrel91316]

3. Soups and stews can beautifully. And no, don't EVER can zucchini, lol.