Canning ?

sidevalve

sidevalve

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Just a simple question really - does anybody still can surplus produce ? It was a big thing during the war when everything had to be eaten or preserved and canning machines were available to all sorts of groups. I just wonder if, like many things the abundance of food has rendered such things irrelevant now
 
sidevalve said:
Just a simple question really - does anybody still can surplus produce ? It was a big thing during the war when everything had to be eaten or preserved and canning machines were available to all sorts of groups. I just wonder if, like many things the abundance of food has rendered such things irrelevant now
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My aunt Lorene did in the 60's. My aunt Maurine made fig preserves as long as they had the fig tree.
 
sidevalve said:
Just a simple question really - does anybody still can surplus produce ? It was a big thing during the war when everything had to be eaten or preserved and canning machines were available to all sorts of groups. I just wonder if, like many things the abundance of food has rendered such things irrelevant now
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I think the word 'canning' can refer to preserving things in jars in the US. Can you clarify @Cinisajoy? I think @sidevalve is referring to preserving things in tins. But maybe not?
 
morning glory said:
I think the word 'canning' can refer to preserving things in jars in the US. Can you clarify @Cinisajoy? I think @sidevalve is referring to preserving things in tins. But maybe not?
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Well since we don't have access to metal tins for preserving, yes we can in jars and have since way before the war. I have canning guides dating back to 1935. Or that was the oldest dated one.

Now this leads to the question: is the method the same, just the vessels are different.
Even though we use glass jars it is still called canning not jarring.

And to answer sidevalve, unless one has a garden, it is not cost effective to buy and preserve fruits and vegetables on the home level.

Now, as to the grocery stores here, there are more canned (tinned) fruits and vegetables than raw unprocessed foods. And they are rather cheap. Ok actually they vary in prices by the manufacturer and stores.
 
I'll await @sidevalve's response to clarify what he meant.

But I think we have the usual UK/US confusion. :ohmy: Here in the UK we talk about preserving food as in making chutneys, pickles, jams etc.
That would not be called 'canning'. Canning would mean putting in sealed tins (like the tins of beans buy in the supermarket) - which is not something we do at home here. Or at least, not for a long time.
 
morning glory said:
I'll await @sidevalve's response to clarify what he meant.

But I think we have the usual UK/US confusion. :ohmy: Here in the UK we talk about preserving food as in making chutneys, pickles, jams etc.
That would not be called 'canning'. Canning would mean putting in sealed tins (like the tins of beans buy in the supermarket) - which is not something we do at home here. Or at least, not for a long time.
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Canning here can mean putting up beans, corn, pretty much any fruits, vegetables, meats and poultry. Though it is in the glass jars not the tins. It can also mean putting up preserves and jams and jellies, then sealing them for long term storage.
I have sealing instructions for all manners of meat and vegetables and some legumes.
Canning: putting food in a vessel and pressure sealing it for long term storage.
Also: not economical unless you have a garden.
My husband when he was growing up in the 50's helped his grandmother can all kinds of vegetables.
Does this help clear it up.

Now my aunt Lorene put up so much in the 60's that there were closets full of food.
She died sometime around 1970. In the late 1990's, my grandmother went and helped Lorene's husband get rid of all the food. He dug a hole to put all the food in. Amazing was none of it had spoiled. They emptied and washed every jar.
 
Sorry for the confusion - as I said back in the war years things were 'canned' as in put in cans not jars or bottles and there were many machines about that were designed to seal tins/cans [ often I believe supplied by the US to groups like the WRVS etc]. The process is/was much the same as bottling or using jars I suppose. I would think there might be many people with a surplus of food items and quite often shops will sell off large amounts of 'ripe' items at silly prices so it's not just for those with big gardens. However I admit it seems to be a forgotten way of preserving now which is why I asked really - does anyone still do it now ? Or as I suspect do we have so much available that a glut can be simply left to rot ?
 
Thanks for the clarification - I suspected that is what you meant. I suppose that in some ways (in the UK at least) canned (tinned) food has fallen out of favour and is seen as a poor substitute for fresh. In particular, the fact that almost everyone has a freezer means that if they want to preserve fresh vegetables for example, then it is much easier to put them in the freezer which will preserve the taste better than canning.

This is not the case with pickled foods or foods preserved in other ways because that process isn't attempting to preserve the 'fresh' taste. The produce is transformed into a condiment (the original use of the word condiment was pickled or preserved food). Many people still make pickles and jams, pickled eggs etc.

So, in short, I'd say the freezer might be the reason for the decline in canning.
 
morning glory said:
Thanks for the clarification - I suspected that is what you meant. I suppose that in some ways (in the UK at least) canned (tinned) food has fallen out of favour and is seen as a poor substitute for fresh. In particular, the fact that almost everyone has a freezer means that if they want to preserve fresh vegetables for example, then it is much easier to put them in the freezer which will preserve the taste better than canning.

This is not the case with pickled foods or foods preserved in other ways because that process isn't attempting to preserve the 'fresh' taste. The produce is transformed into a condiment (the original use of the word condiment was pickled or preserved food). Many people still make pickles and jams, pickled eggs etc.

So, in short, I'd say the freezer might be the reason for the decline in canning.
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Good point
 
sidevalve said:
Good point
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Plus snobbery about tinned food. In the US, going by what @Cinisajoy says, canned foods are still a big staple in many people diets. Here, canned vegetables in particular are thought of as poor person's food and rather old-fashioned. I mean, how many people buy tinned potatoes? I actually rather like them, but thats another story! Canned fish is probably another matter as there is still a good market for this (especially since people jumped on the Omega 3 bandwagon).

I think I may start a new thread...
 
In the US, there were never home tinners. It has always been canned in jars at home.
I have two or three war time canning booklets. (assuming you mean World War 2.)
As to the grocery stores here, off produce and beyond sell by dates meat all go to the food bank to be distributed that day.

Now here is a picture. 20170116_111151.jpg
 
That is my canned good pantry. Now it is bigger than the average pantry as far as quantity but as far as how people cook, it is fairly typical except I don't have any canned beans.
 
In the UK I have seen people preserve excess produce in the freezer or in sterile jars or turned into something else first then into the freezer or a jar.
 
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