Pressure Canning (How I freaked out and tried not to die while canning leftover chowder)

I love canning, I love eating my garden grown goodies in the dead of winter, but there is one type of canning that has always intimidated me: pressure canning. Pressure canning allows for the canning of low acid foods such as green beans or broths, or in this case a lovely dairy free cauliflower chowder. The way that pressure canning works is that heat and pressure are allowed to build in a sealed pot and only a certain amount of steam is allowed to escape (5psi, 10psi, or 15psi) thus bringing foods up to a temperature that can kill harmful bacterium. In acidic foods such as cherries, pickles, peaches etc, the natural acid of the fruit or pickling medium does it for you.

Last week I cooked a huge pot of gluten free chowder and left it in the fridge for two days. After two days my husband and I had managed to get through maybe 4 pints, leaving nearly a full pot remaining. The trouble was, I really enjoyed the chowder and could only think of all the hungry people of the world (yes, I have an overactive imagination) who would be symbolically looking over my shoulder in shame if I poured it out. I knew then, it was finally time to bust out the pressure canner.

Per the usual, I started with boiling my empty jars and bringing my soup up to a boil which you can see here.

These are four pint jars making them perfect for a large single serving, and since this soup is completely gluten and dairy free, you definitely want a hardy helping.

The pressure canner/cooker in question is a 16qt sized canner from Canadian tire that I purchased last August. Pro tip, it comes on sale every year in August/September. In hindsight I should have purchased the 22qt so I could stack cans but this gets the job done and can hold 7 quart jars upright.

I have a lovely friend named Meagan Ann who is a pro at pressure canning and swears by it for saving money and ensuring fast and nutritious lunches for busy people. Mind you, you need to take the time to can your meals in the first place, but if you can manage a few hours in the afternoon or evening once a month you can certainly make a sizable dent in your grocery bill. Unfortunately for me, unlike my darling Meagan Ann, I am NOT a pressure canning pro, as seen in this expertly filmed miniature documentary.

      

Once my cans were sterile and my chowder up to a boil I filled my jars and capped them and placed them into the bottom of my pressure canner. The bottom must be covered with water, it is the steam that helps the pressure and heat rise. I chose 10psi as this is the most common and once they reached boiling let it cook at pressure for 12 minutes.

Also, when pressure canning, remember to cook on high. This is not an apologetic sort of cooking and you've got to crank that sucker up!

At this point in the game I was worried if I had sealed the pressure canner correctly and patiently waited for steam to start spewing from the top or for the entire thing to blow up. Thankfully nothing blew up, and steam indeed began to rise from the eenie weenie hole at the top. Also, the red button of death on the side popped up - think of it like the turkey button, when it pops out its hot in the middle!

Here are a couple videos (I'm starting to like this video thing) of the steam building and applying the little weight thingy. Looking back I should have waited for the steam to really start hissing out of the top before applying the weight, but I also think that I would likely have been way to freaked out. After-all, these cookers hiss like a baptized cat!

And here is the final video. After about 5 minutes the pressure built up and it really started cooking. As you can see, I was a bit excited.

Once the canner got up to pressure I let it go nuts for 10 to 12 minutes then turned off the stove. Note to the sane, ***DO NOT OPEN THE PRESSURE CANNER UNTIL THE RED BUTTON ON THE SIDE HAS LOWERED COMPLETELY***. That little red turkey button is what keeps your head firmly attached to your neck! The sudden release of the pressure will result in a massive explosion and a trip to the ER and Burn Unit. 

After all was said and done I was left with four lovely cans of chowder which are now sitting in the pantry waiting for a rainy day. 

Happy Canning, try if you dare.

- Nicey