Guest Post: Pressure Canning Green Beans

by Betty Williams

Betty is a professional canner that started with her grandmother at 5 years old. She is the owner of Homespun By Betty, and makes jams with personality in Statesville, NC. 

Visit www.homespunbybetty.com to order jams, jellies, butters, and to check out new recipes.

Green beans are one of my favorite things to put up in the summer. They are delicious, and are a staple side dish in my house at least once a week.

Green beans are also a low-acid food and therefore have a higher risk of botulism, a toxin that is produced by a bacterium called Clostridium botulinum which is naturally occurring in soils and can be found on all vegetables. This bacteria doesn’t usually produce toxins, but when sealed in an anaerobic environment (one without oxygen), the bacteria grows and makes the botulism toxin.¹ Unfortunately, the canning process removes all the air from the jars and creates this anaerobic environment where Clostridium botulinum can flourish. 

To destroy the botulism toxin, you can process the vegetables in an acidic environment, such as pickling, or pressure can them to a temperature of 240° F for an extended period of time.² Always use a trusted recipe, and make sure you do your research to verify all information. State universities with a strong agricultural department provide excellent resources for home canning, and another great resource is the National Center For Home Food Preservation website.

https://stock.adobe.com/images/bushel-of-green-beans-at-the-farmers-market/226135512

Pressure Canning Your Beans

Equipment Needed:

• Pressure Canner with weighted gauge or jigglier
• Mason Jars
• Jar Lifter

Once you have your green beans, wash them multiple times to remove any dirt, insects, or pesticides, then snip off the ends. You can either leave the beans whole or snap them into about 1-inch pieces. 

Next add the beans, any seasonings you want to use, into the jar. When choosing your seasoning, you’ll want to avoid using sage because it becomes very bitter when canned. I like to add fresh garlic, onion, and Rusty’s Original Southern Rub. 

Fill the jars with water or broth, leaving 1 inch of head space, and de-bubble the jars. To de-bubble, take a wooden or plastic stick and move it around inside the jars. This will bust any air bubbles and allow the jar to heat evenly. Wipe the rims with white vinegar and then put the lids and rings on, screwing the lids fingertip tight.

Fill your canner with the recommended amount of water (see the instruction manual for your canner), and place a rack in the bottom of the canner. Place the jars onto the rack and then close the canner according to the instruction manual.

Heat the canner on the stove over high heat and allow it to come to temperature. When the canner starts consistently pushing steam out of the vent pipe, allow the canner to vent for 10 minutes. Then place the weight or jigglier onto the vent pipe and allow it to come to the correct pressure based on your elevation:

• For elevations of 0 to 1,000 feet, use a 10 pound weight.
• For elevations above 1000 feet, use a 15-pound weight.
• Process pint jars for 20 minutes and quart jars for 25 minutes.³

After the processing time is complete, turn off the heat and allow the pressure to drop to 0 psi. Do not manually vent the canner. Remove the weight or jigglier and allow the canner to rest for 10 minutes before opening; this allows the temperature of the jars to come down slowly and prevents losing any ingredients caused by rapid temperature change.

Remove the jars from the canner and set them on a towel to rest for 24 hours, then check the safety button in the lid to confirm the jar is sealed. Wash and label the jars, and store them in a cool dark place with the rings off.

Footnotes

1. About Botulism, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
2. Questions and Answers about Using a Pressure Canner, North Dakota State University
3. Selecting, Preparing and Canning Vegetables, National Center for Home Preservation

Home Hot Water Canning: How To Do It

Hello again. In this post, I’m going to talk about prepping your canning jars and lids, as well as walk you through the actual canning process.

For this example I’m going to be processing tomatoes, a high acid food perfect for hot water canning. However, to be on the safe side, an additional acid such as lemon juice (1 tablespoon per pint, 2 tablespoons per quart) or citric acid (¼ teaspoon per pint, ½ teaspoon per quart) should be added prior to canning. This increases the acidity (lowers the Ph) and helps prevent the growth of botulism or other unpleasant organisms.

Examine Your Produce

Before getting started, examine all the tomatoes for blemishes, bruises, or other damage and cut out bad spots if necessary. Any tomatoes that are over-ripe or have even the slightest amount of mold should be excluded from canning. They may still be perfectly fine to use in regular cooking, but the requirements for proper canning are pretty stringent.

Blanching the tomatoes (dipping them in boiling water and removing the skins) can often result in a better product, but is also a lot more work. I’ve canned whole, blanched, diced, and crushed tomatoes; the easiest by far was running them through the food processor and canning the result. However, consider what any recipes call for and choose accordingly. 

You also need to decide between hot pack and raw pack, also called cold pack canning. The difference is simply whether the contents are raw but room temperature (such as fresh or blanched tomatoes) or cooked and still hot (such as stewed tomatoes). Again, personal preference and ultimate use will be deciding factors.

Once the contents and method have been decided, it’s time to move on to the next stage.

Examine Your Equipment

The first equipment check to be made when getting ready to can is to examine the jars, making sure they don’t have any cracks or chips. 

Then, wash the jars in hot water and dish soap. If you have a dishwasher, it may have a sterilize setting.

Next, open a fresh package of lids and wash them as well. It’s important the lids not be boiled, as this can soften and weaken the ring of sealant around the edge, preventing a good, airtight, seal. This is why lids generally cannot be reused for another cycle of canning.

Start Your Engines (Process)

Place the canning pot on the stove top, fill it part way with water, and turn on the heat. Remember, the pot needs to hold enough water to be at least a couple of inches above the top of the jars when boiling. 

If you have a glass-top stove, be cautious; the size and weight of a large canning pot full of water and jars may damage or break the cooktop. Consider using a smaller setup if this is a concern.

Preheat the jars by soaking them inside and out with hot water. Not doing so increases the chance of jars cracking or shattering when plunged into hot water.

Fill the jars using a food funnel, but make sure to leave proper headspace, which is the air gap between the top of the food and the inside of the lid.

For tomatoes, the jars should be filled to no less than half an inch of the top; I prefer leaving closer to an inch of headspace.

If using whole, quartered or diced tomatoes, add water or tomato juice to fill the excess space in the jars. Crushed tomatoes should be fine as is.

Use a plastic or silicone rod to work out any air bubbles in the contents. Wipe the top rim and threads to make sure there’s nothing that would interfere with a good seal.

Place the lids on the jars and screw the rings on, but not too firmly! If the rings are screwed on too tight, air can’t escape during boiling.

Now We’re in Hot Water

Place the jars into a canning rack and lower the rack into the hot (but not yet boiling) water. If necessary, add more hot water until there’s at least an inch or two of water above the level of the lids. Don’t pour the water directly onto the jar tops; try and pour it between the jars instead. 

Put the lid on the pot and turn up the heat. Once the water reaches boiling, start a timer; for sea level to around three thousand feet elevation, pints should be boiled for 40 minutes and quart for 45 minutes. As elevation increases, so does the time, since water boils at a lower temperature at higher elevation. For example, the recommended times for 3,000 to 6,000 feet of elevation is 50 minutes for pints and 55 minutes for quarts.

You can find more information regarding times, elevation, and much more here.

Out of the Water and Onto the Towel

Once the time is up, lift the jar rack out of the pot and, using a jar lifter, move the jars to a towel so they can cool. You should hear a pop from the lids as the jars cool. This is the sound of a good seal.

However, you should check each jar to make sure. Remove the rings and gently push down on the center of the lid. It shouldn’t have much give. If it pops in and out, the jar didn’t seal. Don’t worry, if that happens; it can either be run through again with a new lid, or you can put in the refrigerator and use it in meals. 

Repeat these steps until all the tomatoes are processed.

Storage

Once everything is done and the jars are cool, store them in a cool dark place until needed. Never stack anything on top of a sealed jar! This can cause problems with the seal.

Check on them occasionally to make sure none of the jars have leaks. When opening the jars, examine them carefully before use. If anything seems off, discard them! Botulism can kill in very small amounts.

Thanks for reading. Till next time. 

Home Hot Water Canning: the Necessary Parts

Hello! I'm David from the Assorted Calibers Podcast. Erin asked me to join this blog so that I could share my knowledge of prepping. Of course, back when I first got into this world, we were called survivalists and the media and Hollywood made fun of us. 

Some things don’t change.  

The Basics of Canning

Canning has been around for a long time. Just after the dawn of the 19th century, a French brewer by the name of Nicolas Appert developed the basic principles we still use in hot water canning today.

When canning, food is put in glass jars with sealable lids and submerged in boiling water for a specific amount of time. This both heats the food above the survival temperature of most bacteria (also called Pasteurization) as well as driving most of the air out of the container. Foods properly preserved using the hot water method are shelf stable for years, in some cases even decades.

The most important details are about following the proper canning procedure, which is the subject for my next post. Right now I’d like to cover the basic equipment needed for hot water canning so you can have the materials on hand. 

What You Need

Most if not all of these items can be found at your local big box or hardware store, especially this time of year. There are also additional items that can make the process easier, but I’ll stick with these for now. 

Obviously, clean water and a reliable source of heat are a must for this process as well. 

Canning Jars
Not just any glass jars can be used for canning. They need to be made of the proper heat resistant glass or they’ll break during the canning process, so don’t use that old mayonnaise jar that’s been in the cupboard forever!

I prefer wide mouth jars for a few reasons. They’re easier to fill, easier to clean, and if I want to freeze something in them, I’m less concerned about the expanding content pressing against the shoulder, causing the jar to break.

Pre-COVID, I got most of my jars from yard sales. Online swap and sale groups are still a good resource.

Keep in mind that it’s not uncommon to lose one or more jars in a session of canning due to undetectable flaws in the jar. Proper jar preparation can reduce this occurrence.

Jar Lids and Rings
While the rings can be reused multiple times, the lids (or domes as they’re still sometimes called) are single use items. After the rubberized sealant is heated and cooled once, it’s unlikely to create a proper seal if used in canning again.

However, once-used lids can be kept for non-canning use. For example, I keep some spices and baking supplies in canning jars of various sizes.

When filling the jars, it’s important to keep food off the rim and threads. A wide mouth food funnel makes this much easier. Most available today will fit both standard and wide mouth jars.

Jar Lifter

This is a special type of tongs which allow you to add and remove jars from hot or boiling water without getting scalded hands, as well as reducing the likelihood of dropping a jar.

https://amzn.to/3oflWqW

Jar Rack

The jar rack goes into the canning pot and will hold four or more jars, depending on the size of the jars and the size of the rack. Part of the purpose of the rack is to keep jars off the bottom of the pot, which reduces the chance of breakage due to uneven heating of the glass jars.

A Large Lidded Pot  

While dedicated canning bath pots are available, most any pot of the right size with a lid will do. It just needs to be wide enough to fit the jar rack and deep enough that there will be at least an inch or two of water above the top of the jars when submerged. Don’t forget to take the height of the jar rack into account when choosing a pot!

Boiling Times Reference Chart

This is a must for safety, as you need to boil different foods for different times. 

• Cornell Cooperative Extension: Canning at Home
• USDA Complete Guide to Home Canning
• Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving
• The All New Ball Book Of Canning and Preserving

This should give you a general idea of what supplies are needed if you plan on giving hot water canning a try. In my next installment, I’ll go over the actual process of home hot water canning. 

Thanks for reading. Till next time!