How To Pressure Can Safely
When youre working with a pressure canner, you have two different ways to test your pressure. Youll either have a dial gauge or a weighted jiggler.
If you have a dial gauge, youll want to be sure to take it into the county extension office every single year, and before the first time you use it to be sure its reading the pressure correctly.
If you have a weighted gauge, they work with simple physics principles, so these are always correct.
The problem with the pressure cooker is there is no way to test the accuracy of the pressure your food is cooking at.
Please dont take your familys safety or health lightly when it comes to the safety of preserving your food.
Bottom line, dont can in an electric pressure cooker!
The Benefits Of Canning
Food canning is a great way to preserve some foods for up to 5 years. You can save money canning your food by buying in bulk and storing it for later consumption.
If you dont have time to cook a meal for your family, just walk over to your pantry, grab a jar, and voilà, and you have instant dinner.
When you buy canned goods at the supermarket, expect more salt and sugar than you might want to consume.
Since youre doing the canning yourself, you have control over all additional additives.
There is a large growing population that enjoys the taste of foods they canned themselves. Sometimes I like to dress up my canned food with seasonings like thyme, rosemary, oregano, black pepper, and other herbs.
Can I Pressure Can In The Instant Pot
by Carolyn Thomas | Apr 3, 2021 | Canning, Preserve, Pressure Canning
Many people wonder if you can pressure can food in the Instant Pot. Knowing the common pressure canning mistakes to avoid will ensure youre practicing healthy canning methods so you and your family stay safe.
We all love our electric pressure cookers. Theyre convenient, fast, and were pretty comfortable using them. But are they safe for pressure-canning foods?
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What If My Jars Dont Seal
If any of your jars dont seal, you can reprocess your food. The first step is to remove the jars lid to check if there are any knicks on the rim of the jar. If yes, transfer the contents to a new jar and reprocess them. If it still doesnt work, store the jar in the refrigerator and consume it within a few weeks.
How To Tell If The Canned Produce Has Gone Bad
Ideally, if you have stored the cans correctly your canned produce wont go bad. However, if you notice that the appearance seems off, or there seems to be an off odor, its best to discard the produce. Always make sure you are labeling your jars with their canning date so that you can rotate the jars accordingly and consume them in time.
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Before You Jump In Do A Hot Water Test
This recommendation comes straight from the Instant Pot manufacturers themselves and is as simple and filling the pot with water and running a cycle under pressure. Not only will this suss out any defects before you need dinner done in 30 and the pot wont seal, but it also gives the pot a gentle clean too.
Can An Instant Pot Be Used For Canning
An Instant Pot is a fantastic appliance, providing a wide range of cooking options for you to take advantage of. There is almost no limit to the new and exciting dishes you can cook up using an Instant Pot.
I think we all can agree we want our food to last longer in our household, and the Instant Pot is one of the most versatile appliances for the job.
After researching more into canning and testing it out for myself, I found out you can ONLY do water bath canning in an Instant Pot, but it may be one of the best options you have if you dont have a large pot or pressure canner.
Do not pressure can in an electric pressure cooking! Although the Instant Pot has not approved pressure canning, youre able to can high acid foods in an Instant Pot by water bath canning. This method uses boiling water to create pressure inside your jars.
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If youre interested in learning about water bath canning in an Instant pot please read below
Today well explore what canning is, what it can offer you, and most importantly: How you can begin canning with your Instant Pot in no time at all!
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Water Bath Canning Doesnt Rely On Pressure
Water bath canning is another method of preparing canned food. It kills organisms in a jar using heat and drives the air out so no microorganisms can grow within. It doesnt reach high temperatures like pressure canning, but its enough for high-acid foods already inhospitable to illness-causing bacteria and spores.
With water bath canning, your foods safety doesnt hinge on pressureinstead, it relies on heat. Unlike pressure canning, your Instant Pot can meet these requirements easily.
Tips For Safe Steam Canning
If you don’t steam your food safely, there will be a food poisoning risk because the jars might not be adequately sealed or contain bacteria.
Here are some helpful tips for keeping your canning safe and food poisoning-free to ensure that this doesn’t happen.
- Only use high acid foods: Foods like fruits, jams, tomatoes, and pickles are fab for this kind of steam canning. You can’t steam can low acid foods like meat or poultry safely.
- Use a tested recipe: Make sure that you are using recipes for canning from a tried and tested source so that you know what to expect.
- Use heated jar and heated food: This is the most effective way to ensure that you don’t harbor any bacteria in the jars or the food. Also, using a cold jar would increase the chances of the jar cracking.
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Steam Canning In An Instant Pot
As the name implies, an instant pot is supposed to make the process of canning your food easier and faster. And I have found that the process has never been simpler.
Here are the steps to using your instant pot to steam your food.
- Add about 3 cups of water to the pot and then place the trivet inside. You can also add 2 tablespoons of white vinegar to guarantee sterilization, but this step is optional.
- Fill your jars while they are hot, leaving about ½ an inch of headspace. Then you can either shake the jar to get bubbles out or use a fancy debubbler to do the same job.
- Use a clean, damp paper towel and wipe off the rim of the jar to ensure that you have a good seal.
- Once you’ve filled all of your jars and carefully used a jar lifter to place all of them within the instant pot, the next step is to close the lid and set the cycle to steam, and make sure the pressure valve is venting.
- Once the steam is venting, you set the timer according to your recipe.
- Once it’s finished, wait for the float valve to drop before opening the lid and using your jar lifter again. Place your jars on a cooling rack and leave them at room temperature for at least 12 hours. Then you’ll be good to go!
Instant Pot Canning Recipes
Are you looking for Instant Pot canning recipes? Take your food preservation to the next level and use the Instant Pot! These seven recipes are all delicious recipes that are easy to make!
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In a Hurry? Get Started With Preserving Your Own Food NOW! Food Preservation Planner
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Brew Homemade Cough Syrup
You can turn your sage and thyme harvest into a homemade cough syrup with the Instant Pot with this recipe from the Traditional Cooking School. This recipe relies on the Pots saute feature, which allows you to bring water to a consistent boil with minimal monitoring.
All the better if you have local raw honey to add as well.
You Should Consider Getting A Second Stainless Steel Insert
Your Instant Pot comes with one stainless steel insert, but a few of our readers have suggested getting a second one for a couple reasons. First, if you use your Instant Pot a bunch, its nice to have one available to use while the other one is in the dishwasher. The second reason is that you can quickly change settings on the Instant Pot and make a couple different dishes.
Buy: Genuine Instant Pot Stainless Steel Inner Cooking Pot, $30 for a six- or eight-quart pot
Are there any other words of wisdom youd give to someone who just purchased the Instant Pot? Please share in the comments!
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Can You Do Canning In An Instant Pot
DISCLOSURE: This post may contain affiliate links, meaning when you click the links and make a purchase, I receive a commission. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
If youre already a fan of canning and the proud owner of an Instant Pot MAX, then its time to explore the wonderful world of pressure canning and bath canning.
Each type of canning is better suited to a particular food group, fruiting fantastic results either way. Acidity largely determines which method you use, but more on this soon.
Lets take a close look at canning in an Instant Pot and how you can start preserving all your favorite foods.
WARNING: Only Instant Pot MAX has the Pressure Canning Feature to ensure safety. Other Instant Pot models might not guarantee to reach the temperature long enough to achieve the destruction of botulism spores.
How Pressure Cookers Help With Canning
There are two different ways that a pressure cooker can help with canning a particular food item. The first deals with the temperature. Some items must be cooked at a high temperature to ward off bacteria. This is necessary because the food being canned does not contain enough acid to kill off harmful bacteria.
The second reason that an instant pot pressure cooker is helpful is because it helps cook the food product faster as the pressure can be controlled. This helps preserve the natural flavor of some food items.
But what can you actually preserve in an Instant Pot?
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The 7 Rules Of Water Bath Canning
I will now look at how we can achieve both water bath and pressure canning using an Instant Pot.
What Is An Instant Pot
An Instant Pot is the brand name of an electric pressure cooker. Theres a lot of information about this clever little appliance here.
There are other brands available, but all operate in a similar fashion. Check out this Instant Pot study for everything youd want to know about this clever little appliance.
These electric appliances are meant for making meals in a hurry. There is a nice collection of Instant Pot recipes here.
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Whip Up Hot Pepper Jelly
Youre missing out if youve never tried a spicy jam. Homemade hot pepper jelly is the perfect complement to meat dishes and tastes great on toast with cream cheese as well. Make your own in the Instant Pot to eat fresh or to can soon after for enjoyment all year round.
Heres some inspiration for a red-hued spicy jam from Zesty South Indian Kitchen.
Make Your Garden Harvest Less Overwhelming With A Pressure Cooker
Theres no reason to be fearful of every garden tomato ripening at once this year. By putting your Instant Pot to work, you can ensure that you always have a way to turn your fresh produce into a meal for today or preserved product for enjoying in the future.
Its a stellar resource for helping you enjoy your garden when the changing seasons have made its bounty nothing but a distant memory.
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Why Shouldnt You Use An Instant Pot For Pressure Canning
New instant pots have a canning settingthats there for a reason, right? So, why shouldnt you use an instant pot for pressure canning? If the button is there, doesnt that mean its safe?
You shouldnt use an instant pot for pressure canning because heat up and cool down times are impacted by altitude and the use of an instant pot. In addition, low-acid foods are vulnerable to botulism, and an instant pot doesnt reach adequate pressure levels to destroy spores.
Use An Instant Pot For Cooking Tomatoes Fast
Summer is synonymous with home-grown tomatoes and you might want to preserve the harvest as tomato puree for winter meals. However, few people want to keep their stove on for hours during hot afternoons.
The Instant Pot solves this problem, as you can cook down your tomatoes either with the slow cook or pressure cook mode. This gives you the same results without steaming up your kitchen, and you can freeze or can the sauce at the end.
You can follow this same idea to make Graceful Little Honeybees recipe for Instant Pot tomato soup, or try this recipe from Detoxinista for Instant Pot spaghetti sauce. Another option is to try out a homemade ketchup recipe from Hip Cooking with the Pots pressure cooker feature.
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Why Use An Instant Pot
The Instant Potand by extension, most other electric pressure cookerswork as multi-cookers that combine the features of a traditional slow cooker, rice cooker, steamer, sauté pan, warming pot, and pressure cooker all in one.
This makes them a versatile piece of kitchen equipment that can be used to tackle just about any recipe. The one requirement is that you always include some liquid in the Pot to allow it to build up steam.
Check out these articles for some Instant Pot inspiration:
Turn Fresh Grapes Into Juice
I have a bumper crop of concord grapes on my homestead this year, so its been a fun challenge to use them. One success has been making grape juice with an Instant Pot. This provides a faster result than using a steam juicer and lets you make smaller batches whenever desired.
Make sure you have a steamer basket for Instant Pot on hand and follow the instructions from the Homestead Lady for a gorgeous drink.
Ready to level up your grape juice? Better Homes & Gardens shares a recipe for transforming your homemade drink into wine.
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You Can Only Pressure
A frequently asked question around the internet is whether or not you can pressure-can in the Instant Pot and the answer is simply no. Unless you have the Instant Pot Max. If you have a different model of the Instant Pot, you can, however, do boiling-water canning, which is great for pickles and jams. If youre interested in reading more, theres a great post on the Instant Pot Community Facebook page.
But Theres A Canning Setting On My Pot
Right. Thats probably because the manufacturer assumes that 15psi is sufficient for safe canning. But the important factor in this process is the temperature.
Clostridium botulinum bacteria can make a person gravely ill. Low acid foods must reach and maintain a temperature of 240ºF for an extended period of time in order to kill the bacteria. Its a simple matter of safety.
The National Center for Home Food Preservation does not recommend canning low acid foods in an electric pressure cooker, nor do I. As technology improves and testing is done, this may change of course. But for now, for the safety of your loved ones, please do not use this canning method.
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