Getting Ready to Preserve
Author: Lisa Treiber, Laurie Messing
Laurie Messing, MSU Extension Food Safety Educator talks with Lisa Treiber, fellow MSU Extension Food Safety educator, about how to prepare for your food preservation season. It is important to have adequate equipment, ingredients and safe recipes before beginning to preserve food, so let's hear from the experts on what you need to know before the harvesting season.
June 21, 2022
In this episode of Think Food Safety, Laurie Messing, MSU Extension Food Safety Educator, talks with fellow Food Safety Educator, Lisa Treiber on important considerations for preparing to preserve food in your home. Whether you are an experienced preserver or new to the practice, join us to find out more about what to do before you preserve food.
Transcript
Speaker 1:
Welcome to Think Food Safety, a podcast on topics related to food safety. Michigan State University Extension educators talk with food industry professionals to provide information and share resources on hot topics and best practices to keep people safe from foodborne illness. Thank you for tuning in. Let's get started and answer those questions that you didn't even know you had.
Laurie Messing:
Welcome to MSU Extension's Think Food Safety podcast. I’m Laurie Messing, Food Safety Extension educator and on today's episode, we'll be talking about our Preserving My Harvest Home Food Preservation program and preparing for preserving this summer. Joining me is Lisa Treiber, Food Safety Extension educator and a home food preserver herself. Hi, Lisa.
Lisa Treiber:
Hi, Laurie.
Laurie Messing:
Well, Lisa, how about if we start today with you sharing why you preserve food at home?
Lisa Treiber:
Well, it's really a hobby for me, Laurie, and kind of a sentimental thing. I started preserving as a little girl with my mom and my aunt and my grandma. And then when I became a homeowner myself, my mom would come to my house and we would do a couple of bushels of tomatoes and then split the treasure. And now my mom has given up canning, she doesn't want to do it anymore, but she always asks what I've done and I share some of the things that I've preserved each summer with her as a treat for her and her husband.
Laurie Messing:
And we hear that a lot, don't we, Lisa, when we have our classes and our sessions on Home Food Preservation that a lot of times people either learn with their family, grandparents, parents, aunts and uncles or like you shared with your experience there, working together with family and sharing the wealth like you said, I think that's still a pretty valid thing that happens now.
Lisa Treiber:
Yeah, that's one of the things I see in my classes, too. Many hands make that work so much easier. It's makes it fun. It's something to share and laugh, and tell stories with. And the work definitely gets done faster when you've got extra hands in the kitchen, too.
Laurie Messing:
Well, and don't you think too, it's a way to get kids in the kitchen? I know we preserve here, kids help and granted the kids can't do everything, there's some jobs that are not safe for them to do, but there's a lot of things they can do as far as helping with the picking or the prepping or the washing or the stirring of some things. And so, it is a nice way to unplug and have some family time.
Lisa Treiber:
I agree. And I think some of our fellow food safety teammates would say the same thing. They have a lot of special memories with doing different things that are special to their family and having the kids and extended family members helping them preserve those foods as well.
Laurie Messing:
Yeah, hopefully this will be a great introduction for those of you listening who might be interested in either starting some family traditions or in just exploring what might be upcoming opportunities to begin preserving food, whether it's for yourself or yourself and your family and friends. But what do you think we should do to start off? Obviously we don't have, here in Michigan, probably produce in our gardens yet, so what would you suggest that people who might be interested in exploring food preservation do right now to get started?
Lisa Treiber:
Well, one thing to do is take stack of what you have left from last year. If your family size has changed, the dynamics have changed, think about how much are you really going to need. If you still have a dozen or more jars of tomatoes, maybe you're not going to need to preserve quite as much. Think about that, start looking through your recipes and decide if there's something new that you want to try. And then take stock in your equipment and your jars and start organizing things and getting your cupboards ready for putting the new stuff up in your cupboards.
And one of the things we talk about in some of our other food safety classes is the term FIFO, first in, first out. Even though you haven't preserved anything yet, you definitely want to rearrange what's in your cupboards or your canning shelves and make sure that you are rotating what you have left and moving it to the front or putting it where it's going to get pulled before you put anything downstairs or in a cupboard, wherever you store your canned goods. So the old stuff that was preserved last year is going to get used before you put any new stuff that you do this season. It gets put behind it is what I'm trying to say. So you use the last year's product before you start consuming this year's product.
Laurie Messing:
Right, exactly. And along with that, hopefully you dated everything so you can determine what's from what year. Because if you've been preserving for a few years, you might have a variety of jars and available down there to check out or in your pantry. So those are great tips for someone who preserved last year. But what would you suggest, Lisa, for someone who might be brand new, what would you think that they might want to start thinking about right now if they are like, "This is the year I'm going to start preserving"? One thing I think of off the top of my head is what to plant and how much to plant in your garden.
Lisa Treiber:
That's a really good point. I think especially with the cost of food right now, if you have access to putting in even a small garden, start thinking about are you going to canned tomatoes or salsa or anything like that or pickles, what kind of vegetables or fruits are you looking at preserving? Is it feasible for you to grow them yourself? How much space are you going to need? And these are things that you can go and talk with to someone through our extension or you can talk with people at a nursery or a garden center and start to get the lay of the land, if you will. One thing you don't want to put too much in, so you can't possibly preserve it all, but you want to determine what is doable for the size family that you have.
Laurie Messing:
Right. And now is a good time too. Again, it's early, but if you have any CSAs in your area, those community-supported agriculture where you can buy into a portion if you don't have the ability to garden at your home or start keeping your eyes open as we get more into spring, into summer when farm markets are opening, roadside stands and be aware of what's in your area, so that way, if you are not going to garden yourself, you can figure out how you can access some of that great Michigan fresh produce that we all look forward through. So those are great tips to start thinking about what will you preserve and we'll talk more about how you should preserve it in a little bit. But good, great tips. I think you're right, Lisa. And along with thinking about what you want to preserve, you mentioned equipment, Lisa. Let's talk a little bit about equipment now and specifically we'll talk about canners today. Do you have the right one? So, Lisa, you want to share and start us off with one type of canner and what it's used for.
Lisa Treiber:
Sure. And it's very important depending on what you're going to can, or another word we'll use today interchangeably as process is, are you doing a high acid food or a low acid food? If you're doing a high acid food, again, like a pickle or fruit or a tomato, you can process them in a water bath canner or a new type of canner is called an atmospheric steam canner. Now either one of these are designed to do these high acid foods and they work in a little bit different ways. The water bath canner is your traditional enamel. Sometimes you see them in stainless steel, they hold several quarts of water, the jars are put into a rack that's lowered down and the jars are totally covered with water. So there's like an inch or two inches of water covering the jars. And then the water boils and processes the food for a specific amount of time based on the research-based recipe that you're using.
An atmospheric steam canner processes the food using steam and both of the water bath canner and the atmospheric steam canner are processing food at 212 degrees. The difference with the atmospheric steam canner is it's not using as much water as a water bath canner and the jars are not totally submerged, so it has a dome lid that goes over it and the steam will circulate around the jars and process them. And we go into more detail in some of the specific classes that we teach, either in-person or on our Preserving My Harvest classes that we do every week, which we'll talk again a little bit more about. And then there's the pressure canner.
There's two types of pressure cannes that are approved for preserving food. There's a dial gauge canner and a weighted gauge canner, and these are large vessels that hold at least four quart jars. The jars have to be standing up. You only put about two to three inches of water in the bottoms of the canners. And these canners are designed for canning what's called low acid foods. And this would be our vegetables, it would be meats, it could be mixed foods like a spaghetti sauce with meat, soups, seafood. So a lot of different foods that are listed, again, in our research tested recipes. If you have these pressure canners, it is important that you follow the directions very specifically for how to use them. And you can process some fruits and tomatoes in them as well. They all have very specific directions and processing times that are listed in the recipes.
Laurie Messing:
So listening to you, Lisa, hopefully this gets everyone really thinking about, again, what they want to preserve because what you want to preserve has might have to be done in a certain way, depending on if it's high acid or low acid. And as you said, those research tested recipes are critical to the safety. So you can really have to plan ahead and have almost like a preservation plan for what you're going to plant, what you're going to preserve, how you're going to preserve it, what those recipes are. And really especially if you're starting out, this might sound very overwhelming, but again, you can start small. And that's the thing I think we often recommend to people is maybe don't jump in necessarily with two feet and ready to do all three types of processing, all three types of canners and preserved 30 different things your first year.
And granted, you could, certainly if you wanted to and had the help and the knowledge, but often we recommend maybe just start small and pick one piece of equipment, one type of preservation method and preserve the foods that are appropriate to that. So I know in my case, right now I just have a water bath canner. I'm just starting to get back into canning as my kids get bigger. And when you have kids running around the house, it can be tricky to focus on canning and all that goes on to that. So we started just with doing pickles and tomato juice and jams and jellies, and so, you might want to take a route like that or again, like Lisa shared, you could get a group of people together in your family and you could work in a lot of these different capacities. But the message really is, why don't you say, Lisa, that we really need to use the right piece of equipment for the right food product and follow the right recommendations.
Lisa Treiber:
Yes, I agree totally with that, Laurie. And I think you used a phrase earlier about having a canning plan and I think that totally sums up what we've been discussing.
Laurie Messing:
Yeah. So along with those different types of canners, again, if you're starting out or maybe you've been canning and preserving for quite a while, that might just have only a water bath canner, only a pressure canner. Lisa, do you have any tips if people need to purchase a canner, what to look for, what not to do when purchasing. We're heading into garage sales season and yard sales, what would you suggest for those looking to get some new equipment?
Lisa Treiber:
Well, I would also check with family members. My water bath canner was my grandma's and when she was done, I was just setting up housekeeping and she gave me all of her equipment. So it doesn't hurt to see if there's someone in the family that has reached that point where they're passing their equipment on. And what a great gift to get from somebody that has canned for many years and is now ready to pass it on to the next generation.
And as you mentioned, Laurie, yard sales, thrift shops, it's a great place to look. If you're looking at a water bath canner and it's enamel canner, you want to check and make sure there's no dents, the enamel isn't chipped or rusted. With a pressure canner, you just want to make sure that things are intact. There are parts on a pressure canner that can be replaced very easily, but just make sure there's no dents, that the canner looks like it's in good condition. If there's an onerous manual, that's a bonus. It will help you familiarize yourself with the different parts and pieces that are on it. The other thing that all canners should have is a rack. There needs to be something so the jars are not sitting on the bottom of the device. The jars, whether you're pressure canning, water bath canning or atmospheric steam canning, need to be up off the bottom so that they are not having direct contact with the heat source.
Laurie Messing:
Definitely. Definitely. And if someone's looking to purchase a new one, often the water bath is the cheapest one to go, route to go, the way to start. Again, I guess I haven't looked at prices yet this year, but the past few years, less than $30 can get you water bath canner that would hold set on courts and they can be found online. But obviously some of your local hardware stores, grocery department type stores, pressure canners might be a little more on the higher end of price depending on if you're getting a dial gauge or a weighted gauge. And keep in mind, we're still coming out of some of the effects of the pandemic, and I know the last couple years, it's been hard to find some of these items, so you might need to search a little harder, but hopefully you'll find success if you are looking to purchase.
Lisa Treiber:
Yeah. We do want to caution you as you're shopping, if you are looking specifically for a pressure canner, the only pressure canners that are acceptable for preserving food are the types that are designed to use on a stove top. If you find an electric pressure canner, at this time, they are not acceptable for preserving food. So you want to stick with a canner that is big enough, like I said earlier, to hold at least four quarts and can be used on a stove top. So, that's a whole nother talk with electric, so we're not going to go down that path today, but I just wanted to toss that out there.
Laurie Messing:
Lisa, you mentioned having people pass on their used equipment that they might not use if they're done canning, but in the past I've had some calls too where someone may purchase a canner with the intent that, "Yep, I'm going to start canning and preserving," and it may never leave the box. So you could even find family or friends who have this equipment and it's never been used. I had a call recently actually where that was the case and it was missing the booklet, the manual, but it was brand, brand new, never used out of the box. And so you could even get lucky and run across something like that with family or friends. So it's something to think about. Again, if you have to invest to start out this summer with preservation, you could certainly take a one foot step in and just start with one type of canner or you can do what makes most sense for you. But there'll be some financial...
Lisa Treiber:
Startup costs.
Laurie Messing:
Yeah, exactly. Financial startup costs that will pay off in the long run over the years. So while we're talking about canners, Lisa, what about those pressure canners, your dial gauge pressure canners. You may or may not have heard that those should actually be tested on a regular basis.
Lisa Treiber:
To make sure that they're accurate, they do need to be tested. In your local extension office, in most cases, should be able to test those for you depending on where you are located. Do call ahead. The extension offices are not all staffed with someone to do those. Our food safety team is spread throughout the state, but we do sometimes have to travel to get to an office where we can test them. So do plan ahead and make some calls before you need that gauge tested. That's why it's important to do it before we're into full blown canning season. And sometimes, depending on the brand that you have, you can actually just take the gauge off and send the gauge to the manufacturer. And that's something that you can either call the extension office and talk to one of the food safety educators about, or you can call the manufacturer and see if that's feasible to do.
Laurie Messing:
Now, Lisa, when we're talking about testing these gauges, it's only the dial gauge, it's not the weighted gauge, right?
Lisa Treiber:
Yep. The weighted gauge, there is no testing that has to be done on them. There might be some yearly follow-up as far as making sure that your sealed, that's inside the lid is still in good condition, that your little vent ports aren't clogged, things like that. But overall, a weighted gauge canner is going to have no formal follow-up like a dial gauge canner has.
Laurie Messing:
And so you just mentioned that gasket that helps to form that seal when you put the lid on. So the gaskets found underneath the lid all the way around. And often, sometimes your local hardware store might have gaskets if you need to replace yours, if it becomes really hard and brittle, if it's not soft and pliable, you might need to look into getting a new gasket, because that can definitely impact your canner holding pressure, which can impact the processing time of your food product. So that's another thing to take a look at as you pull out your canners from last season or if you are given one or gifted one. Now, Lisa, if someone does buy a new pressure canner though, they don't have to have the dog gauge tested, right?
Lisa Treiber:
That is correct, yes.
Laurie Messing:
Okay. So keep that in mind. If you're getting a new one this year, you're good for this year. Next year, think about testing that dial gauge. Otherwise, if you have one from past year's or one that you found or was given to you, you should really check out having that tested. All right. Well, this is great information. And so we've touched a bit about research-based or research tested recipes. So we do have recommended resources that we strongly encourage and they're based on the United States Department of Agriculture, the USDA. They're complete guide to home canning. And along with the USDA Complete Guide to Home Canning, we have developed our Michigan Fresh website, which is based off of their resources, all research-based, and our Michigan Fresh website is just a wealth of information. When you say, Lisa, I'm preserving fruits and vegetables, really anything that grows in the state of Michigan.
Lisa Treiber:
Yep. You'll find all our berries and our produce that we have throughout the year. There should be a fact sheet that will help you determine how you can preserve it.
Laurie Messing:
What I like about those sheets too, which they focus on not just preserving but using and storing and preserving. Because we know everyone is not interested in preserving, but gives tips on just day-to-day use and storage, there's gardening tips on that website. Like I said, anything that goes in Michigan from produce to eggs, to venison, to Christmas trees, to list just goes on and on and on. So if you Google or if you do an internet search for MSU Extension Michigan Fresh, you'll be able to come across the website with just, again, great information.
And we do have food preservation fact sheets, so one on water bath canning and one on pressure canning and freezing and so forth. So those are also very great resources. We also recommend the National Center for Home Food Preservation. They have a website and it's a cooperative effort with all extension across the United States. They produce a book called So Easy to Preserve, and that's a great resource that you can actually order from their website. Great gift. It's a great book if anyone is preserving or interested in it. And then what's our last resource, Lisa, we'd recommend?
Lisa Treiber:
So the Ball Blue Book is another great resource, but we definitely encourage you to make sure that you have the most recent edition. Laurie, I know so many people might be carrying their moms or their grandma's Ball Blue Book around with them, which is a great memories, especially if people made notes in the margins, things like that. But the newer the addition, the safer you're going to be when you preserve. A lot of times the organizations that are doing these research tested recipes, they may find something that's changed and so they will change a process in time or a recipe may change. So we want to make sure that you are using the most current safest recipe. So treasure those notes in the margins, but make sure you're using an up-to-date recipe to be safe.
Laurie Messing:
Well, and along those lines too, Lisa, some of our listeners might be thinking, "Well, I've seen recipes everywhere all over the place and I'm making canning salsa or canning pickles. Unfortunately, everything we can find available for information at our fingertips these days might not be safe." And so these are tested, they're research-based, like we said, through USDA, and we know that these processes will provide a safe end product if you follow those recipe steps as they suggest. We often say, don't we, Lisa, that when it comes to preservation, it's a science. It's not like we're cooking in the kitchen and we can be creative, but food preservation is a science. And so, following these recipes, these research-based recipes really gets us the end product that we want and can feel safe in serving to our family and friends and even ourselves.
Lisa Treiber:
Yeah, that's very true, Laurie. You just don't want to take a chance with some blog or some post that somebody has tried something and they swear it's going to be the best thing since sliced bread because the heat penetration could be off or the water activity might be wrong. And if it sits on your shelves for a little while, things could be growing in there that you cannot see, smell or taste.
Laurie Messing:
Yeah, we can't see bacteria, can we? No?
Lisa Treiber:
No, unfortunately.
Laurie Messing:
So one last thing on the recipe is we would also encourage you before you get ready to start the preservation process, make sure you found that research-based recipe like we just talked about, that you've read through it, you make sure you have all the ingredients because sometimes there will be like when we're preserving tomato juice, we need to have an acidifier like lemon juice or citric acid. But make sure you have all the ingredients, you have all the equipment, visually walk through that recipe. I really think that's a great way to think about it, in your mind or in your head, see how it's going to play out and make sure you are ready before you jump in and realize part way through that you don't have X, Y, or Z.
We talked about canners and optional pieces, but we do need jars and lids, critical pieces of equipment, thinking about purchasing jars. If you purchase those brand new, that would be great. You can also purchase those, again, sometime at secondhand types shops and sales. But you do want to inspect them and make sure they're in good condition with no nicks or chips or cracks that will impact the ceiling of your jar and could lead to a must inside your canner if they break and you have crushed tomatoes all over inside your water bath canner. So what else about jars, Lisa?
Lisa Treiber:
Once you have some nice canning jars, the nice thing about the jars is they can be reused over and over and over. You heard me say canning jars because canning jars are tempered to withstand the processing in that moist environment. We do not recommend using jars that had spaghetti sauce in them, pickles in them or jelly in them because they are not designed for multi-use. Yes, they came from the food industry and they had food in them, but they are not designed for home canning. They were a commercial jar. They have a different kind of rim. It's sometimes beveled and it's not going to possibly hold the seal of a ring or a lid that you use. The compound is not going to possibly adhere as well. And the glass is not tempered the same way as a canning jar is. So take heart, your canning jars are going to be good for many years as long as you are washing them when they're empty and you're storing them in a nice even tempered environment, you're not putting them out in a shed where they're freezing in the winter.
The rings that you use to hold the live in place while the jars are processing, if you take good care of those, meaning you wash them and you let them dry and you keep them in a nice dry environment, they're going to last for many years. When they start to rust and get kind of yucky, they need to be thrown away because it could be a potential contaminant as you're working around the food.
Now, unfortunately, the lids, those are only good for one time. And the reason behind that is that terracotta colored compound that you see on the inside of the lid, that forms an imprint. And because it's formed that imprint, it's not going to adhere as well the next time you try to use it on another jar. So you're going to have failures, you're going to have jars that don't seal if you try to use it over and over again. So the jars and the rings, we can use over and over, but the lids are a one time use only. And the exciting news that I'm seeing is the manufacturers of jars, lids, and rings are finally starting to catch up. So knock on wood, we should have better supplies this summer as we get into canning again. Fingers crossed.
Laurie Messing:
Well, and that's really good to hear because it was kind of hit and miss and kind of tricky the past couple of years with the renewed interest in gardening and home food preservation we saw in 2020 and 2021, even like you said, it carried over and they were playing catch up I think. So it is great to hopefully start seeing those in-store so they are more available for those who need them or want to get started, so that is great news. So we did talk about other equipment, and again, remember that there may be other required equipment ingredient type things needed depending on what you're preserving. So if you are pickling, then you might need 5% vinegar, or if you are preserving crushed tomatoes or like a tomato juice, you will need citric acid or lemon juice as an acidifier. Or let's say you wanted to get into jams and jellies, you'll need some kind of packed in or sugar, things like that.
So again, you'll want to check that recipe to make sure you have those specific ingredients for the different products you might try to preserve this summer. So we've given you a lot of information and we realize that. So we want to end this podcast today with a few resources that you can hopefully utilize moving forward. And some of these will give you opportunities for attending free classes, which we highly encourage because they are available and they're great resources, especially if you're starting out or new to preserving food at home. But Lisa mentioned earlier, our Preserving My Harvest weekly classes. We do have a weekly class every Thursday at both 1:00 PM and 6:00 PM Eastern Daylight Time. And if you just do an internet search for MSU Extension Food Preservation, you can find our website and go to the events tab and you will be able to see every topic is coming up for the next three months, and you can register to attend those free classes on a wide, wide variety of topics related to preservation.
We also have our food safety hotline, and you can always call Monday through Fridays from 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM and speak with one of our food safety team members who can answer any type of food safety or food preservation question you might have. Simply call 877-643-9882. We did touch on Michigan Fresh a bit, but again, you can just simply search MSU Extension Michigan Fresh and you'll pull up the Michigan Fresh website, which has fact sheets for vegetables and fruits and there's a food preservation section, there's a Spanish and Arabic section of fact sheets that is being continually added to food safety fact sheets, recipe cards, just lots and lots of great information that can help you as a consumer and as a food preserver. And then lastly, we have our Think Food Safety Facebook page and pretty much all the resources we've shared today could be found on our Facebook page as we do different postings, with tips and resources as well as recordings of some of our preservation classes on there, specifically for water bath canning, pressure canning, atmospheric steam canning.
And so again, another nice way to stay up-to-date on what's happening with food safety or check out our website and again, search MSU Extension Food Preservation. So, Lisa, as we wrap up, what are you thinking you're going to be preserving this summer? I know you do a lot every summer, but anything that's definitely on your list for this year or anything new that could maybe inspire?
Lisa Treiber:
I always do my crush tomatoes. That's a staple in our house. And if you looked at my canning book, my Ball Blue Book and my So Easy to Preserve, the pages are well marked. It's my wishlist with my sticky notes. I do try and do one or two new things each year because I do give some of my stuff away as Christmas gifts to my kids and to my mom. So I try to surprise them with something different. So tomatoes and strawberry jam are staples. I did the chocolate raspberry sauce, which was something new. So I do try and do something different just to, one, challenge myself, but I don't go so far off the grid that people are going to be like, "Yeah, this is nice, but we're not going to try it." So I always try to keep in mind of something that people will use, whether it's a syrup or a sauce or something that will be used because we don't want to waste food.
Laurie Messing:
Right. Right. And you're right, it's hard to meet everyone's needs, but it is, like you said, fun to try new things. And I think if those of you listening have a chance to join our Thursday sessions, that's one thing that I think you'll enjoy is we do try and highlight some new ways to use certain products we might be focusing on. Anything else you want to share, Lisa? I think we gave our listeners lots of great information and hopefully they can either seek out some more information on their own or reach out to us on Facebook or the food safety hotline, or by joining one of our classes and further expanding your knowledge on this wide topic. There's lots to learn and Lisa's been doing this for years and been doing it for a little while. We're still learning all the time too, so we're all learning too.
Lisa Treiber:
We are. I would say if you're new to food preservation, look at the recipes. A jam and jelly is fairly easy to do and will give you success. Definitely, Laurie mentioned freezing corn, that's fun to do. And you have delicious corn to eat through the winter months. It tastes just like corn on the cob. But try something, don't be afraid, don't let something intimidate you, find a buddy that's been canning and do something with them.
Laurie Messing:
Like Lisa said, find your research-based recipe and get your product and feel confident to give it a try. Call the hotline if you have questions. Got to just take that step forward, I think, sometimes and give it a go. Well, I want to thank, Lisa, for joining us today and thank you everyone for listening, and we wish you good luck and lots of fun preserving.
Speaker 1:
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