So I go out Tuesday morning and clean the local farmer's market out of tomatoes unfit for naught but sale in bulk. That is 10 pounds and there a couple with spots, since we will be making sauce, we can simply cut them out.

By the way I actually bought 25 pounds, but 10 is all my scale holds.

This is Thursday and this morning I went out and did it again but all they had was 10 pounds. My wife went there for some basil for the meat loaf tonight, and the juice we are turning the 10 pounds into and bought a lot more bulk tomatoes. $4.98 a half bushel, about 30 pounds.



Above is 48 clean wide mouthed pint Ball jars, suitable for canning.


 Four dozen tops for the two piece lids, these can not be reused, reuse may kill you it did during a shortage in the 70s. These will be held in warm water, not to hot for my hands, over a pilot light.



Pressure canner and white vinegar, a little vinegar goes in prior to each batch to keep the jars clean, about 3 table spoons.


 16 jars lined up with funnel and ladle. The 20 quart stock pot goes on the trivet.



That is my fourth cup of high test, it is about 10 AM.


 I start filling the row further from the pot, spill likely will end up in the empty jars.



Stacking the jars in the canner, it takes two levels of pints, 16 of them. Then boiling water, see canner instructions, gets poured in.



The stock pot less 16 pints.



The second stock pot. I used an ice bath to chill those, to about  60 before going in fridge. If I put them in at 180 or so they would still be over 60 in the morning.



That little thing sticking up is the safety interlock, with it up the lid can not be removed. Once it pops up the instructions will tell you how long to let the canner vent before putting the black weight on.



And done. After 30 minutes at 12 psi. I only need 11, but if it drops below 11 I have to start my 30 minutes again.



16 pints and what do you get,
another day older and deeper in debt.

Except I will do 41 and I don't think Tennessee Ernie Ford ever sang about 41.

The Rant:

The goal of boiling water bath canning is to reach a specific internal temperature. The goal of pressure canning is to reach a much higher but again specific internal temperature. At all points in the food. If the altitude you are working at is taken into account, air pressure variations due to weather fall in the safety margins.

I keep hearing from people that I don't follow the proper ritual. That there must be a lid on the boiling water bath, that I must use a 'canner' not a stock pot, that I must have a rack in the 'canner'. Why I ask? Because, I get told. The last time I accepted 'Because' as a reason was from a person whose first name was Drill and last name was Sargent.

Now I am an engineer, a top level one, engineers are at the least quasi-scientists. We go looking for why.

Why a lid? Because a pot will boil faster if the top isn't open. But a high end semi-pro range has so much more power than the 6000 BTU burners most canners are expecting, they will boil the water faster without a lid than the canner will over that little burner with one. You use the 35,000 BTU/burner beomoth I cook on and the lid is just one more hot object in the way.

Why a canner? There is no good reason, except 'Mom' did that. Most canners are too shallow to can quarts, to can quarts you have to use a stock pot.

Why a rack, well it probably isn't a bad idea, but extra jar bands on the bottom of the stock pot work just as well or a dish towel. The rack is to keep the jars from bouncing on the bottom as steam forms under them. But guess what, a proper canning jar in good shape, won't break if it bounces. I own near a 1000 jars, I've been canning for close to a decade. I have yet to have a single jar fail in the bath, although the garbage disposal did eat one. Dropping them on ceramic tile flooring isn't a good idea either. The rack is really to keep mayonnaise and other thin jars salvaged from groceries from breaking when used for canning. The lids used to match in size, may still do, but the jars are plastic now. Checked after first posting, a standard Ball two piece fits the mayonnaise jar in the recyling bin. DON'T DO IT.

I do use a rack in a pressure canner.

Rant to be continued in next post when we talk about vegetable cocktail, safety and recipes.