Viola working.
Poor Viola! To be honest she has been working hard about once a week as I find new things for her to try and can. As I try them and do them again I will post the sort of recipes and pics. "Sort of recipes?" you ask. Well yes, sort of. I will sort of tell you what I did and I may even sort of measure for you. Lol.
Today Viola and I canned some pork roast I had gotten at the butcher shop on sale and some black beans as I had given my last few jars away over the weekend. I processed everything at once because I only had three quarts of roast and ten pints of beans to do. I am lazy, sue me.
First let's go through the pork roast. It is beyond simple and I did kind of like my pot roast that you will see in later posts, I am sure. I like my pork with apples. I think the sweetness adds something so used applesauce, chipotle powder, chopped dried onions, garlic powder and salt.
Why the yes, that applesauce is my own creation. Now as I said before I am not a fan of measurements and a lot of this is to taste. But what I did was in the bottom of the jar I plopped a large serving spoon sized blob of applesauce on top of that I added 1/4 tsp ish of salt ( I don't use much salt as you can salt when you eat) , 1TBS dried onion,, 1/2 tsp garlic and 1/2 tsp chipotle powder. I like my food kicky so dial it down if you don't
want so much heat.
Now I just added the pork roast. Chop it to fit but don't do bite sized or it isn't going to be a roast is it??
Smush it in to the jars making sure to leave an inch of head space. If you are like me and hate the feel of raw meet you can get gloves at walmart that are disposable and make this whole process way more enjoyable.
Now all that is left is to fill it with water to head space mark. The only tricky part is making sure you aren't trapping air. I just use a chopstick to move the meat around and let the water into the pockets.
Wipe the rims, add the lids and process in the pressure canner for 90 mins under 15lbs of pressure. And voila! We have canned pork roast.
Now I will tell you it takes the patience of Job to wait them out but the lids do eventually pop. I usually just leave the room for a couple of hours. They will still be hot. Don't move them. Let them sit there overnight and cool. The next day I just wipe the jars down with vinegar and label them and stick them in the pantry. These make awesome new mom presents. Add some frozen mashed potatoes and veg to a basket and the new mom has a nukeable dinner in a pinch.
Now for the beans. I don't know about elsewhere in the country but in Northern MN everything costs way too freaking much. For a can of black beans that just one of my kids down for a snack is $1.87. And that is the crap load of chemicals added to it variety not the natural ones. When one child can eat one can per snack once or twice a day and you have more than one kid that is gonna add up quick. So I got to thinking. I could get a bag of beans for less than the cost of can, hmmmm but I really didn't want to have to make them every single day. Wait scratch that I don't really want to make them either. A quick search through the internet and lo and behold you can cook them in the jar in pressure canner. Oh yeah I am all over that one. The person was doing pinto and they were making them super plain. I have since done pintos doctored up my way but we love black beans around here so that is what I am showing you today.
First you just take clean pint jars and add a scant 2/3 cup of dried beans ( I suggest looking right quick for the errant stone that will go in if you don't look). Now for the part that you get to play with to make these your own. Today's batch (and yes I did pull a measuring spoon out for you) got 1/4 tsp salt, 1/4 garlic powder, 1 tsp dried onion bits, 1/2 tsp chipotle powder and 1/3 to 1/2 tsp of cumin powder.
In the past I have added herbs, fresh jalepeno, fresh onion and whatever hit me that day. The point is make them the way you family is going to eat them. There is no point making something they hate.
Now for the even easier part especially as I am not going to do any more measuring for you guys today. All you have to do fill the jar to the neck with plain old water, dry up their rims and add lids and seals.
Pressure cook them for 70 mins at 15# pressure. There you have it. You just canned beans. If you don't tell any one how easy it was maybe you can convince them to take you out to dinner after you do it. :D
Today Viola and I canned some pork roast I had gotten at the butcher shop on sale and some black beans as I had given my last few jars away over the weekend. I processed everything at once because I only had three quarts of roast and ten pints of beans to do. I am lazy, sue me.
First let's go through the pork roast. It is beyond simple and I did kind of like my pot roast that you will see in later posts, I am sure. I like my pork with apples. I think the sweetness adds something so used applesauce, chipotle powder, chopped dried onions, garlic powder and salt.
Now I just added the pork roast. Chop it to fit but don't do bite sized or it isn't going to be a roast is it??
Now all that is left is to fill it with water to head space mark. The only tricky part is making sure you aren't trapping air. I just use a chopstick to move the meat around and let the water into the pockets.
Wipe the rims, add the lids and process in the pressure canner for 90 mins under 15lbs of pressure. And voila! We have canned pork roast.
Now I will tell you it takes the patience of Job to wait them out but the lids do eventually pop. I usually just leave the room for a couple of hours. They will still be hot. Don't move them. Let them sit there overnight and cool. The next day I just wipe the jars down with vinegar and label them and stick them in the pantry. These make awesome new mom presents. Add some frozen mashed potatoes and veg to a basket and the new mom has a nukeable dinner in a pinch.
Now for the beans. I don't know about elsewhere in the country but in Northern MN everything costs way too freaking much. For a can of black beans that just one of my kids down for a snack is $1.87. And that is the crap load of chemicals added to it variety not the natural ones. When one child can eat one can per snack once or twice a day and you have more than one kid that is gonna add up quick. So I got to thinking. I could get a bag of beans for less than the cost of can, hmmmm but I really didn't want to have to make them every single day. Wait scratch that I don't really want to make them either. A quick search through the internet and lo and behold you can cook them in the jar in pressure canner. Oh yeah I am all over that one. The person was doing pinto and they were making them super plain. I have since done pintos doctored up my way but we love black beans around here so that is what I am showing you today.
First you just take clean pint jars and add a scant 2/3 cup of dried beans ( I suggest looking right quick for the errant stone that will go in if you don't look). Now for the part that you get to play with to make these your own. Today's batch (and yes I did pull a measuring spoon out for you) got 1/4 tsp salt, 1/4 garlic powder, 1 tsp dried onion bits, 1/2 tsp chipotle powder and 1/3 to 1/2 tsp of cumin powder.
In the past I have added herbs, fresh jalepeno, fresh onion and whatever hit me that day. The point is make them the way you family is going to eat them. There is no point making something they hate.
Now for the even easier part especially as I am not going to do any more measuring for you guys today. All you have to do fill the jar to the neck with plain old water, dry up their rims and add lids and seals.
Pressure cook them for 70 mins at 15# pressure. There you have it. You just canned beans. If you don't tell any one how easy it was maybe you can convince them to take you out to dinner after you do it. :D
Let me know what you end up adding to your beans I am always looking for new ideas!
I tried the blackbeans, but I soaked them first. I had a great Brazilian recipe, and they turned out great. I tried black-peas. They were okay, but I would say do not soak those kind first. Still turned out the right flavor, they were really mushy. I did find,, however, that 2/3s a cup when doubled for a quart jar was too much. So I used a little less. Great idea though, I love it!
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