September 26th, 2005 - Apple juice and canning
I made apple juice/cider yesterday and attempted canning for the first time. I’ve avoided it because I was told my canner (the traditional black enamel pot) wouldn’t work on our glass top stove. I’ve heard from folks who have actually used it that it does work. So I decided to go ahead and try.
I HATE CANNING! Either that or following the directions is a lame way to do it. I need three stoves, I think, for it to work well. The problem is that the steam juicer, the pot to heat up the jars, and the canning kettle all need the largest burner. And they all have to be hot at the exact same time. It’s impossible to actually accomplish. Unfrotunately, my Mom wasn’t available to give me advice before I started, but I’ll try to talk to her tonight to see if I should have done anything differently. I don’t remember her having problems when I was a kid. However, I’m sure at least two large pots fit on our stove–it was on a penninsula, so there was room for two large pots at once. (There’s not quite enough room on mine, but I did it anyway.) And maybe she just processed the hot food and the hot jars, then got the canning kettle going. The directions say to pack the jars and put them in the water right away. I can’t imagine she could have done this because she’d process lots of jars at a time, and only 6 fit in the kettle at once. So something had to be not-hot at some point (since 3 large pots definitely didn’t fit on that stove.) [It was also a poor decision because the apples made only 2 quarts of juice, isntead of the 6 I got from the grapes. So I boiled a LOT of water to process just two jars.]
The steam juicer company sells rubber caps that vacuum seal bottles (pop bottles, half gallon jugs, and gallon jugs). I’m trying to find out if these is a not-recommended way of sealing, but haven’t found anything online yet. Will probably have to call the local Extension. If it’s okay, it’ll be some cost for bottles and the caps. But the other option is filling up the freezer. Which we can do, but could fill up fast if I make lots of juice!
Oh, and the jars did seal overnight, so I think it worked!