Advice on high pressure canning

Modest_Man said:
We picked up a Presto Electric pressure canner. It's a bit smaller but being electric it's just plug and play and you don't have to baby sit it at all.

I just cold smoked a couple tuna loins for 90 minutes and canned it alongside our other tuna varieties (garlic jalapeno and Siracha) last week. Have yet to try it though!

Canning tuna didn't smell up the house at all either.
Click to expand...
Those look pretty slick, but pricey compared to what I was thinking of spending to try this out and see if it is something I want to do again (a little under $300 for the 12 qt, which is pretty small, and up from there for larger sizes). If I borrow my friend's big pressure canner pot, and pick up a propane outdoor cooker (w/ accessories) that I do want to use for other things anyway, I'm into it for around 70 bucks, not counting the jars, lids and rings. Plus I will probably get one of those jiggler things. So somewhere around a hundred bucks all together. That seems like a reasonable threshold for something I'm trying.

I don't have cold smoke capability but I could put some unbrined tuna on a smokey offset barrel smoker for 5 minutes or so and I bet that'd be pretty good.
 
JohnB said:
For humpy madness in 2 years you can also brine fish, smoke them for an hour then can. This keeps the fish a little firmer and still has a good smokey taste. Somehow pressure canning intensifies flavors so fully smoking a fish then trying to can it may have more similarities to a peaty scotch than is desired.
Click to expand...
I used to do this smoke technique for all my chinook that I didn’t eat fresh and ended up vac packed in the freezer. Makes exceptional salmon salad sandwiches. Never did it with the coho I canned though.
 
Gary Knowels said:
Mother says:
8 oz jars (either wide mouth or narrow) she's also used 10 oz oyster jars in the past.
Add 1 tsp jarlic to the bottom
Pack the jar with tuna, the less individual pieces per jar the better (1 solid chunk is best), leave 1/2" head room
Add a heavy 1/4 teaspoon of canning salt to the top of the tuna
Dip a paper towel in white vinegar and wipe down the rims of each jar and allow to dry
Add lids and rings
Load canner
Bring up to temp and to 10 lbs of pressure
Cook 110 minutes
Remove heat and vent pressure
Once cooled remove from canner and allow to get to room temp
remove rings and check seals
Wipe down jars with vinegar
We typically wait a month before cracking any jars

If you have more questions I'll forward to the matriarch
Click to expand...

Well I put up 48 cans this way.
Better be friggin’ good!
🤣
 
Gary Knowels said:
Want to do a swapsies/comparison? A jar from Diane and a jar from you?
Click to expand...
Totes McGoats, that would be fun.
Only thing I did different is use a half clove fresh garlic in each jar instead of the pre prepared stuff.
 
Matt B said:
Well I put up 48 cans this way.
Better be friggin’ good!
🤣
Click to expand...
I sampled my first can this afternoon. Boy oh boy is that good tuna. Jar was sealed super tight. If it would still be safe to use a tad less salt, I might do that.

@Gary Knowels please tell Diane thank you for the recipe and that it appears it was easy enough even for me to pull it off.
 
Matt B said:
I sampled my first can this afternoon. Boy oh boy is that good tuna. Jar was sealed super tight. If it would still be safe to use a tad less salt, I might do that.

@Gary Knowels please tell Diane thank you for the recipe and that it appears it was easy enough even for me to pull it off.
Click to expand...
Don't need any salt for preservation actually.. it's the heat that does the kill..

I love my jarred tuna. Been canning 90-110 every year we have decentish fishing.
 
Tallguy said:
Don't need any salt for preservation actually.. it's the heat that does the kill..

I love my jarred tuna. Been canning 90-110 every year we have decentish fishing.
Click to expand...
That’s a lot of jars!

Are you able to get two pots going at a time?
 
Tallguy said:
Yeah, we roll the double canner operation.
Click to expand...
That would be the way. I was doing two stacks in the canner and the whole thing does take a while. I asked around for a canner to borrow and found a friend with one that had been used once; he gave it to me. Having easy access to another (but not having to store it) would be pretty nice.
 
Matt B said:
I sampled my first can this afternoon. Boy oh boy is that good tuna. Jar was sealed super tight. If it would still be safe to use a tad less salt, I might do that.

@Gary Knowels please tell Diane thank you for the recipe and that it appears it was easy enough even for me to pull it off.
Click to expand...
That's awesome, I'm glad it worked for you! That's what I thought all canned tuna was until my teens when I realized everyone else was eating bland trash and I was incredibly spoiled.
 
Matt B said:
That would be the way. I was doing two stacks in the canner and the whole thing does take a while. I asked around for a canner to borrow and found a friend with one that had been used once; he gave it to me. Having easy access to another (but not having to store it) would be pretty nice.
Click to expand...
At her peak, mom was running 3 with staggered start times on a double burned propane stove. Turning them over all day for 2 consecutive days. She would buy 300 lbs of whole fish, have them loined out, and can like crazy. We ate a lot of it but my mom would barter it for all kinds of stuff (Dungeness straight off a commercial boat, elk steaks, salmon, bear summer sausage).
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top