OK, so it’s probably time that we discuss one of the “scariest” topics in food preservation. Pressure canning!
There certainly was a time where the idea of pressure canning was terrifying to us. We’d seen the pictures of the cratered ovens and heard absolutely horrifying stories of pressure canning gone wrong. Like we often do, we really looked into those stories. We found that we were needlessly terrified, especially if you have at least ten brain cells left up there.
What doesn’t get told in those “old wives’ tales” is the evolution of modern canning equipment. Modern pressure canners have a ridiculous number of safety mechanisms. Those “accidents” were from people using gear out of the early 1900’s, entirely absent of those safety features. Not just that, they were using the equipment improperly. They were overtly going so far out of their way to cause an accident that its at best negligent. If someone got hurt, criminal.
Today we often use pressure canning instead of water bath canning, whenever it’s an option. Such as with canning tomatoes! It’s much, much faster. For example, with tomatoes, we’re canning for 10 minutes at 11 psi for our elevation. Whereas with water bath canning, that same job would take 85 minutes of pure boiling time!
Plus it’s also much safer, technically and food-safety wise. Since temperatures rise to sterilization levels, there’s markedly less concern about anything that could cause concern in canning. Not to mention, you don’t have to bring 3-5 gallons of water to a boil for an hour and a half! That’s a lot of hot water sitting on a stovetop, at least compared to a gallon or so like you’d use in pressure canning.
Now, we won’t minimize the safety aspects of pressure canning. You do have to use the equipment properly. You do have to be present, making sure pressures stay within the desired levels and ready to turn the heat down. You definitely need to make sure seals on your equipment are in good operating condition. But, even if you didn’t do any of that, any canner made in the last 50 years simply cannot “explode” due their ingenious safety valves.
We find a lot of these terrifying (and misguided) “old wives’ tales” to be unfortunate. That stuff literally scares the bejeezus out of people, to the point where they never pick up canning at all. Much less pressure canning! It’s important to be aware of what can go wrong, but just as important to understand how safe this stuff actually is if you have good practices.
These days, you can get “digital” pressure canners that are quite literally, just like an Instapot. The only reason we’re still “old school” is because we know we’d ignore the digital type and just let it do its thing. We’re all for technology, but there’s something about an analog gauge that’s comforting to us!
So, if you’re scared of the pressure canner, we’d encourage you to face that fear. There’s really nothing that can go wrong, especially if you’re inclined to play it safe. You can always turn off the heat and that stops any additional pressure!
