CARROTS!!!!
We had a ton of carrots, we would pick and eat, grab to throw in stews and roasts and we just knew it was time to get them out of the ground and start canning them, with carrots you have to pressure can them, no water bath canning carrots unless you are doing something like a pickled mix with them.
So today I will walk you through the process of pressure canning your carrots :)
You will need to gather these things to get started:
Pressure Canner
jar grabber
jar funnel
lid lifter
plastic knife
spoons and ladles
large pots for boiling water
quart jars, seals and bands/rings
hand towels
cloth for wiping down rims before you add seal
pickling and canning salt (optional)
and CARROTS!! (chopped to your preference)
(funnel, lid lifter, plastic knife, jar lifter, ladle)
REMEMBER the importance of using a pressure canner for certain items such as any meats & certain vegetables, is so you can get the high temperatures you need to kill any bacteria, simply something a water bath canning method cannot do (or reach those high temperatures).
It's time to get your jars sterilized, so get your water heated up and your jars in there, usually I will bring to a nice steady boil and boil for 15 minutes, then reduce the heat down to a nice simmer, when it's at the simmer stage I add the seals, remember you do not want to boil the seals, just a simmer is all they need. (or you can use a separate sauce pan and just simmer the seals as I have done here today)
Get your pressure canner onto your stove top, my pressure canner shows a line to where I add water, usually about 2 inches in the canner is all you need, BUT always follow your canners manufacture directions, place the little rack into the bottom, it keeps the jars from sitting directly on the bottom on the canner, thus helping them from bouncing around and breaking them. Turn on burner to start heating water, just a simmer will do for now. Leave the lid off!
Now that you have that setup, it's time to get to work, I usually have my carrots ready BEFORE I do the above steps.
To begin with you need to scrub your carrots, lop off the tops and bottom ends, next you will scrape down the carrots, getting rid of that outer layer of skin. I find a vegetable peeler works great however a small paring knife works just as well I just use the back side of it and scrape. Today I am cutting my carrots into small bite sized pieces.
Once you have that all done it's time to wash them really well again, you have to keep in mind everything needs to be really really clean when canning.
If you aren't yet ready to begin or have many many more to do, put the chopped carrots into some cold water while you finish your carrots or get your things ready for canning.
I will be doing the raw pack method today, meaning I do not boil, blanch or cook them at all before putting into the jars, simply clean them well, chop to desired size and put into your hot sterilized jar. I like my carrots not too over cooked and find that the hot pack method cooks them so much and then to add another 25 minutes of pressure canning, well let's just say that does not appeal to me
Here you can see I just sliced mine up into little pieces, as I will be using these mainly for soups, stews, roasts, etc.
Ok at this point you should have your carrots cut to your preference, the pot of boiling water on, another pot of boiling water with jars and seals, and your pressure canner heating up.
Get your carrots and a sterilized jar, this is where those jar lifters sure do come in handy, because these jars are smokin' hot! Be careful, I lay out a hand towel, sit the jar on the hand towel, add the funnel to your jar (add 1 teaspoon per quart jar of canning/pickling salt if you like, not mandatory, completely optional) and start filling the jar with your cleaned and prepared carrots.
do not use regular table salt, it will turn your water cloudy
jars sterilized and ready to go
this is when you would add the 1 teaspoon of salt if desired
Next just start spooning your carrots down into the jar, use that plastic knife and shove them in there really tight, I usually stuff them really well and then add more after I add the boiling hot water because once you use the plastic knife to "de bubble" and shift and pack them down, you will find you have more space
fill your jar to within 1 inch to the top, this space you leave is called "headspace" this little plastic "knife" I have also has inches marked on the opposite end, to make it super easy to know the amount of space left in your jar, when you have your carrots packed in the jar, ladle or pour the hot water into the jars, leaving 1 inch of headspace
after you get the boiling hot water poured into the jars, remember to use the plastic knife and go around the edges of the carrots releasing any bubbles, this also helps to settle the carrots
Now that you have your jars filled, its time to wipe the lip of the jar off from any salt particles or bits and pieces of carrots that could have gotten onto the lip of the jar, grab your lid lifter and get into the pot and get you a hot seal, place the seal on the jar, grab a ring and finger tighten it only, I do this by just using my fingers and turning the band/ring, once the jar starts to turn also I quit turning and leave it alone.
As you fill each jar and get the seal and rings onto the jars, gently place them into the pressure canner that you have had water in there simmering this whole time, be sure to double check your water level at this point to be sure it hasn't evaporated, fill canner with your jars as you get them sealed and banded up, mine holds 7 quart jars when filled.
DO NOT ADD THE LID YET
once you have all your jars into the pressure canner, you are ready for the fun part to begin.
Put the lid on and twist it into place, follow your canners instructions, mine just sits down onto the slots and turns and locks into place, do NOT add the weight yet (or do not close the valve if you have that type of pressure canner)
The next important step is to turn up your burner to start that pressure canner to boiling, you need to leave the weight off so that during this time your canner can vent steam, once it's boiling the steam will start escaping out the valve, it's important to allow a steady stream to escape for 10 MINUTES, this gets the air out of the pressure canner, once you have seen a nice steady stream of steam escaping for 10 minutes it's time to add the weight to the valve, use an oven mit or pot holder when you put it on, you don't want to get burned from the steam, it simply just sits right onto the valve.
It's time now to start watching that pressure gauge, your burner should be heating the canner up and the pressure will start building, get the pressure up to 11 pounds, you may have to adjust your burner to keep it at the 11 pounds of pressure, do not allow it to drop below 11 pounds or you will have to start the timing process all over again!!
As soon as your pressure gauge reads 11 pounds, start your timer for 25 minutes, you have to keep watching the pressure gauge during this time, I started out reducing my burner temperature by one notch every few minutes until I had about 10 minutes left, by that point I was clear down to the lowest setting on my burner!! Very important to keep an eye on it during these 25 minutes!!
I am down to 5 minutes, so it's time to get a space ready for these carrots when they come out of the canner, I like to simply lay out a hand towel out of the way, usually on my dining room table out of the kitchen way
when your 25 minutes are done, it's time to turn off the burner, gently move the canner off the hot burner and don't touch it, let it cool down, as it cools the gauge will start dropping, do not touch anything until the gauge reaches 0 and the little safety release will drop back down into the lid, it's very important not to take off the weight or open the lid until it's ready, this could take some time, usually 25-45 minutes until mine is ready, the reason you don't do anything until it's completely back to zero and the safety drops is because you could lose liquid in your jars. Too quickly cooling jars causes the loss of liquid in your jars and you do not want that to happen.
I tend to walk away and forget about it, getting my next batch of jars and seals into the hot water to sterilize, tidy up the kitchen, do something just don't mess with the canner! There is nothing left for you to do until it's back to 0
So now, your gauge has dropped to 0 and your safety release has dropped, it's time to remove the weight, then finally open that lid, using pot holders unlatch it and when lifting the lid be sure to open it carefully and away from you so the steam still in there that comes out is not coming up into your face!
Set the lid aside, grab your jar lifters.
Carefully remove one jar at a time and place onto the hand towel without touching, they need a little air space between jars to cool down.
Leave them alone, you will start hearing the popping sound of the seals actually sealing, you will know when they are sealed by the way the seal has been sucked down onto the jar, using your finger you can push on the lid and it doesn't give any, (or pop up and down) if it does move up and down it means it did not seal properly for whatever reason and you need to put it in the fridge and use within 2 weeks. Some people I know have removed and replaced the seal and processed them all over again, I have never done that, I feel it's way over cooked product and prefer just to use them up within the 2 week time frame.
Aren't they just beautiful!!! I could sit and stare all day at my shelf full of goodies!
Don't forget to label them with the date!
Freshly canned carrots, ready on your pantry shelf for when the occasion calls for them. ~ Happy Canning Everyone!!
