Canning

How To Can Corn

August 27, 2022 by Leigh Leave a Comment

Whether you got a great deal at the grocery or your garden has exploded, learning what you can do with surplus corn is great. There are so many uses for corn; feed for livestock, food for people, dry it for popcorn or dry it for corn meal. The options when it comes to corn are endless. But today, I want to show you how to can corn.

What do you need?

Corn- We had approximately 120 ears of corn and it didn’t take us long to get it all processed. It also yielded us 32 quart jars

A Pressure Canner– we have two of these that run pretty much non stop since they only hold 7qts each

Canning Tools

Jars– Pints or quarts will work

Either a corn de-cobber like this or a knife and a bunt pan

Salt is optional. We don’t use it but if you want to, make sure you have enough salt for the amount of corn you have

Don’t forget to add these items to your Walmart cart and have them do the shopping for you! It saves time and a ton of money.

Shucking Your Corn

120 ears of corn is a lot and I absolutely despise shucking corn. I will snap green beans until my fingers fall off, but shucking corn? No thank you. This is usually Jared’s job because he really enjoys it. It’s his version of green beans. If I had two bushels of green beans to go through, and he had two five dozen bags of corn? We would be in heaven. We both turn our brains off and let the beauty of our homestead take over.

After he shucked all the corn, he put it into our huge cooler filled with water. The husks and silks go to the chickens and compost for the garden. I guess we could have given it to the goats but they weren’t interested in the husks.

De-Cobbing Your Corn

There’s a million ways to skin a cat, and getting kernels off a corn cob is no different. We have tried a ton of different gadgets over the years. To be honest, the best one we have found is a knife. Those gadgets may work for a specific size of cob, or only once. The knife is going to work 100% of the time. So if you want to “waste” your money, any of those linked will work…. maybe.

We use a knife and bunt pan or just a knife and a cookie sheet. Nothing fancy. The downside of using this method is that it can dull your blades because you are constantly smacking the knife into the metal. But I like sharpening my knives so that’s not a deal breaker.

As you are getting all those delicious kernels off your cobs, keep in mind that the corn milk will spray EVERYWHERE. Don’t keep open drinks, electronics or anything that shouldn’t get wet anywhere near where you are working. Oh, and it’s extremely sticky.

As we de-cob the corn, we put all the kernels in a smaller clean cooler filled with clean water. This starts the soaking process.

After the corn has soaked for thirty minutes to one hour we will either change the water and let it soak again or we will go ahead and get it into jars. The reason we would resoak is if the water was completely white. If you don’t want to soak, don’t mind the milk, etc. Don’t soak or resoak. It won’t hurt anything.

Prepping For Canning

Once your kernels have soaked, it’s time to get them into jars. The first step to this is to make sure your jars are clean with no chips, cracks, dings, or dents. Usually, I just give them a quick wash and let them dry while I’m getting my canner ready.

I have two Presto 16qt canners and they hold seven quart jars. So when I can corn, it’s a multi day process. I also have a three burner camp stove that I can on to help keep the heat down in the house. I’m hoping to get one of these bad boys soon, but at $500 it’s a little steep right now. The trade off is the ability to stack quart jars in it.

Getting my canner ready simply means making sure that the canner is safe to operate per my manuals instructions. Mine uses 3qts of water and once that’s in, I put it on the camp stove to get it boiling.

Back to the kernels, I start draining/straining out the kernels from the water and adding them to my jars. Once filled to a 1″ headspace, I add fresh water, wipe the rim with a damp vinegar rag and place the lid and ring. Remember only fingertip tight. That means you should only use your finger tips to tighten the ring, not your bicep.

They go into the canner as they are ready. Once my canner is filled and the water is ALMOST boiling, I will put the lid on and lock it. I usually let me canner vent for 5-10 minutes depending on how full it is. Meaning, if it’s filled with pints, I usually go 10 and quarts 5. But follow your canners instructions. Place your weight and wait for your weight to jiggle or rock. Then slowly start to lower the stove temp until the weight is barely moving. We don’t want the weight to blast off into space.

Corn is processed at 55 minutes for pints and 85 minutes for quarts at 10# but if your elevation is over 1000 feet, go with 15#.

I also have a quick reference guide that you can download get in my members only section. Sign up below and you will be emailed the password.

It’s Done Processing, Now What?

Depending on your set up, you can just turn the burner off and let the canner depressurize naturally. Or if you have a camp stove and the other side is in use, you can CAREFULLY move the canner somewhere it can cool down. When I say careful, I mean be friggin careful! Seriously, no one needs to have their face melted off because the weight moved. If you’re using your stove at home, do not slide it. Pick it up. If you can’t pick it up. Just don’t even touch it. Seriously, it’s not worth the risk.

After the canner has cooled and the pressure valve has dropped, you can crack the lid and allow some heat to escape. I usually weight 10-20 minutes and then remove the lid completely. Once the contents have stopped boiling, I will unload the canner and place all the jars on a toweled surface.

That’s it!

It’s not hard to can corn at home. And it definitely beats store bought every day. But I’m sure you have some questions. So…..

How many ears fit into a quart or pint jar? It takes approximately 4 ears of corn per quart or two per pint.

Do you use salt? We don’t, but that’s only because we choose to season our food when we cook it.

Is there a zero waste method? Sure, you can boil down the cobs and make corn cob jelly. You can also drink the milk. Our zero waste method is to give it all to the animals. They love it.

What if I don’t like canned corn? You can absolutely freeze it instead. Just layer a cookie sheet with parchment paper and do a single layer of corn. Once frozen, put into a freezer bag.

What if I have extra jars but not a full canner? You can put them in the fridge for immediate eating or you can freeze them. Another option is to can water. This will give you sterile water in case of emergencies.

What if I don’t have coolers? Or a big cooler? Work in batches. If we know that each jar takes approximately 2-4 depending on the jar, then only do a full canner full at a time, and store the rest in the fridge. You can also use a clean sink.

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Canning Corn on the Cob

This is the fastest and easiest way to can corn on the cob

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Equipment

1 Pressure Canner
1 Canning Tools
1 Jars Look in the post above for the rough conversions on how many jars you will need

Ingredients

1 Corn on the cob
1 Tbsp Per Quart jar Optional

Instructions

Start by shucking your corn and getting as many of the little hairs off.
Grab either your de-cobber or knife and start cutting the corn off the cob. This can be tricky so watch your fingers.
Place corn in clean water to help get the milk out. You may have to rinse and repeat if your corn was really milky
Using funnel, scoop corn into jars leaving 1" headspace
Fill with water again, leaving 1" headspace.
Remove any bubbles with chopsticks, straw, or other debubbling tool
Wipe rim with damp vinegar towel.
Add lid and ring and put into canner
Fill canner with water to manufacture recommendation. Ours is 3 quarts
Set it on the stove and get the water heating, we usually put ours on high as we are loading it
Once the canner is loaded, place your lid per manufacture instructions.
We let our canner vent for 5-10 minutes then place the weight on the vent pipe.
Once the weight starts rocking, slowly decrease the stove temp until the weight is just barely rocking.
Let this process for 85min for quarts and 55 for pints
Once the time is done, remove from heat and let the canner cool and depressurize naturally. This usually takes about 30-45min depending on processing time
Once the canner is safe to open, remove lid and, if the contents of your jar are not obviously boiling, pull the jars out with the jar grabby thing and place on a towel to cool completely
Remove rings and wash threads. Corn is extremely sticky so the rings may be hard to remove. Not doing so can lead to mold, rust and rotten food.
Wash the threads of your jar (where the rings were) with warm soapy water. Write the date and store

How To Start Canning

July 21, 2022 by Leigh 1 Comment

Y’all! It’s canning season! I am beyond excited! Over the next few months I will be sharing with you ALL (okay, most) of the canning recipes that I have accumulated over the years. From things like salsa and broths to more complex stews and soups. I’ll also show you how we can basics like corn, green beans, and beans. But today? Today I want to talk to you about how to start canning.

How We Started Canning

I have always been fascinated by the idea that I didn’t have to go to the grocery store to buy food. You mean I could have a garden and animals that provided food for me? And I could put in a little work and have healthy food throughout the year. I also didn’t need a million freezers to store food and have to worry about a power failure? So I started researching, because that’s what I do when I don’t understand something.

I found out that canning is actually pretty simple. Put the food in a jar, tighten, and put it into a waterbath canner or pressure canner, and set the timer. The hard part comes in knowing which way to process the foods and for how long. If you don’t allow the “pearl clutchers” to get in the way, you can have shelves and shelves full of healthy food that will last for a couple years.

With this knowledge in hand, I went to work. I started with canning apple sauce and over the years, I have canned hundreds, if not thousands of jars of food.

Take the fear out of canning

What do I mean by pearl clutchers? Well, these are the people that whole heartedly agree that what the USDA, FDA and Ball say, you must do. There is a ton of fear about canning that is perpetuated by these organizations. They make it feel like the only thing you can can are jelly, jams, and a couple of soups. To give you an example: The Ball Book Of Canning says you cannot can chili with beans but on the next page, you can can ham and bean soup. That doesn’t make any sense.

So my take on it is this: if the store can put it in a can, or Grandma didn’t kill her entire family, then it’s probably okay to eat. If I follow basic kitchen cleanliness while I cook, follow proper canning times? It’s probably okay. When I take the jar off the shelf to make it, and it looks good, smells good and I boil it for 10 minutes? It’s probably okay to eat.

Random tangent

The latest update from the CDC says that in 2018 there were 242 cases of botulism in the US. Of that, only 18 were foodborne. Only 3 of those cases were linked to home canned food. You can read the full article here. Does it happen? Absolutely. But there are 329.5 million people in the US as of 2020. That means that your chance of consuming botulism is pretty close to zero.

Do your research, find solid recipes, and get to canning. It will be okay.

Let’s Get Started

So you have decided to take the plunge and start canning. But what do you need to get started? My friends over at Southern Dream Homestead has a great blog post on canning and I highly suggest it. But the short version is this:

Water Bath Canner, the first ad, similar to the one below. I like it simply because I can use the pot for various other things. When I am pressure canning, I use huge pots for soups and stews making 36 Quarts at a time. This can also be used as an old fashion stock pot and as a water bath canner. The utility is great!

The second picture is my pressure canner. At $165 it’s a little steep BUT try finding one at Walmart, Target or other stores. They may have it cheaper. Edit to add: Here is a link for a pressure canner from Walmart.

The third picture is arguably the most important when it comes to canning. Great recipes. I have made several of soups/ stews in this cook book and they are absolutely divine. The chicken chowder and enchilada soup are family favorites.

The fourth is a great cook book with easy to follow instructions. It’s got processing times, instructions and a couple quick cheat sheets for you. The fifth is a pretty cool canning book that has some more off the wall can-able things but also shows you how to use them in part two.

I also have a quick reference guide that you can download get in my members only section. Sign up below and you will be emailed the password.

Lastly, you need tools. This one is a bit more expensive, but the tools feel a little more quality than some of the others. Regardless, you should probably get a couple sets of jar grabbers, funnels, ladles, etc.

You may have noticed that I left out jars. Get Ball Mason Jars, period. Yes, you may have some success with other jars. You may even find some obscure brand that holds up amazing. However, Ball is tried and true for a reason, their jars will literally stand the test of time. But PLEASE don’t buy them from amazon. You are going to pay through the nose for them.

The best place I have found for mason jars is Wal-Mart. Depending on where you live, your prices will vary, but I can get a case of quart mason jars for around $16 and a case of pint for $12. Half gallons come in a 6pk for $12. Amazon wants to double or triple that price. So shop around. Oh, and stock up on lids whenever you can find them.

Finally, get yourself some good sturdy shelves. You do not want to spend an entire summer canning your heart out, getting burns, and sore muscles to have your plastic shelves fail. I’ve got a great tutorial on how we built our canning shelves and after several years, we still love them.

So get your supplies and get started in the kitchen. I promise you, when you don’t want to sweat your butt off making dinner, that can of chili or chicken noodle soup is going to taste amazing. You can find my make ahead pickle brine and green bean recipes by clicking the links. Those are two very easy ways to get started on your canning journey.

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Make Ahead Pickling Brine

July 16, 2022 by Leigh 8 Comments

Jump to Recipe

If your garden is anything like mine, we’ve got a couple of pickling cucumbers every day, but never enough to can a big batch of dill pickles. Or you’ve got a couple of peppers but can’t do much with them because there’s only five today, 3 tomorrow and 17 on Wednesday. Welcome to the world of gardening, right? If you think there’s nothing you can do about it, think again! I’ve got a solution to your pickle…. see what I did there? Read on for my pickling brine and famous dill pickle recipe.

What Is Pickling Brine?

Simply put, pickling brine is just the solution that is going help preserve your fruits or veggies. The brine is vinegar, salt, and water. That’s it. Some people add sugar to cut the vinegar and salt down but I don’t. When I want a pickle, I want it to be salty, vinegar-y, and delicious.

What can you use Pickling Brine for?

Anything. Literally. Obviously pickles is the first choice but I have used left over brine for brisket, pulled pork, marinades, and Jared’s Bloody Mary’s. The options are endless. We will also pickle peppers, onions, carrots and okra. You can even use it in some fruits if you want. The best part is that you can make a batch, throw it in the fridge or on the shelf and always have it on hand.

How to make the Brine

The brine is so easy to make, you can’t screw it up. The recipe is 10c of water, 3/4c salt, and 2c vinegar. Don’t worry, I have a recipe card at the bottom for my favorite dill pickles. You can add sugar and the ratio for the recipe above is 1-1.5c sugar.

Also, you do not need fancy pickling/ canning vinegar or salt. Skip the upcharge on those items, they are pretty much the same as regular salt or vinegar. I do use pink Himalayan salt but that’s just because that’s what I always have on hand.

I add all of the ingredients above to a big stock pot of water. Also, I use stainless steel pots because it’s not reactive…. and it’s the only thing I have on hand that will handle the quantity I make. Next, use hot water to start dissolving the salt and bring everything to a boil.

Once it’s boiling I will can it into whatever size mason jars I have, wipe the rim, add a ring and lid, then wait for the glorious pings. I do not process them in a canner.

If I don’t get a ping, I just throw that one in the fridge to use first. Why don’t I water bath it? Because the pH of the pickling solution (without sugar) is 3.2. Not many organisms are going to grow in that. And the heat from the boiling brine will create a vacuum seal from the jar. But if you want to water bath can this to make sure that it is shelf stable, you just need to process for 15 minutes for quarts and 25 for half gallon.

All of that being said, I cannot guarantee the safety of your food. If you follow this recipe, you do it at your own risk. I don’t know if you, your kitchen, or cooking utensils are clean/ sterile or how knowledgeable you are on canning. I have to say all of this because… lawyers.

Now, do you want the recipe for crunchy home canned dill pickles? Remember, you do this at your own risk because not only will you eat every single jar in one day, but you will also be *gasp* open kettle canning all of this.

What is open kettling?

Before we get started too far into the recipe, I’ve had a lot of people ask what is open kettle canning. Simply put, it is using HOT food in HOT jars with HOT liquid. For this example, we are using hot jars that have been sterilized and kept hot with hot water. We are using a boiling brine and clean/ fresh cukes. Since the jar is hot and sterile combined with the boiling brine which is highly acidic, you don’t have to process.

The problem with home canned pickles and salsa specifically is that the veggies get turned to mush when they are heated for cooking and then heated again during the water bath. Even the most stout veggies are going to be mushy when you heat them too long. A cuke and tomato? Forget it. They will not stand up and you will end up with mushy pickles and soup for salsa.

The term open kettle was first found in 1914 as a form of home preservation, but stopped in the 1980’s. Many canners still use open kettle to preserve tons of foods. Some of us, myself included, only open kettle HIGHLY acidic foods. So the choice is yours, I choose to do research and figure things out on my own.

I also have a quick reference guide that you can download get in my members only section. Sign up below and you will be emailed the password.