Yellow summer squash in the canning jar.
Good morning, to everyone on this gently raining, North Florida day. It will be a nice day for the farmers and crops so That makes a good day for me as well. I hope that your’s is nice also.
Please forgive my grainy photo as somehow my phone camera is going out on me. I will have to try to get a new one. This picture does not do the squash the beautiful yellow color that it really is.
Onward to the recipe of how to can squash as a lady requested from me yesterday. I told her that I would post it today. So here we go!
It is really important to wash and scrub the squash with a vegetable brush so that you get all of the tiny bits of sand off of the squash! Nothing like a bite of sand grit between your teeth! So do this well.
Have your pressure canner pot on a very low setting as you are prepping the squash. You just want the water warm! Fill about 2 or 3 inches for depth. Your lowest marking inside the pot is the sweet spot for canning
Have all of your jars and lids washed and clean with hot soapy water before you even begin any part of this pressure canning adventure! Also, have napkins and a tiny dish of vinegar ready for cleaning the jar rims after you have filled the jars with squash and very hot water. A chopstick to de-bubble each filled jar before cleaning the rim and putting on the seal and then the ban. A large mouth funnel is needed, also.
Also, have a large pot of water and have it ready with boiling water so that you can slice up the squash into (THICK CHUNKS) and drop the squash into the water for about 2 minutes. Use a big slotted spoon to remove the squash to a big bowl. Have a large soup ladle, handy for you will need it!
So now that everything is ready to start, put a folded kitchen towel near the stove and on the counter. Have your jar lifter tool beside it, with a heavy-duty pot holder (just in case) you might need it to help you in removing the extremely hot jars from the canner.
Most of the work involved in canning is to get everything that you will need set up and ready to go.
To begin, I use quart jars and use the soup ladle to half-fill 2 of the jars with some of the boiling water. As I am ready to fill each jar with the two-minute blanched hot squash, I empty a hot water jar into an empty one. This keeps everything at a hot temperature!
So after using the funnel to fill the squash into the jars, use some of the blanching liquid from the boiled squash to finish filling up your jars. Leave a 1-inch head-space in the jar. Next, use the chopstick to de-bubble a jar and then use a vinegar napkin to wipe the rim of the jar and put the seal on now and next comes the band that is finger-tight so air can escape while in the canning process! Do not crank down extremely tight!
By now you have finished filling your jars and the pressure canner water is hot, so you can add the filled jars to your pressure canner. Usually, 6 quarts to a 23 quart-sized canner. Or (8-pints).
Put the lid on the pressure cooker and (leave the jiggle-thingie) the weight, OFF. Have the stover burner temp on number 7 (med-high) and wait until you have seen the steam coming out of the pressure gauge pipe hole for 5 to 10 minutes and then put the weight on the pot lid.
Let the pressure build up to 10 lbs of pressure ( for my area) check your area for canning altitude. When 10 lbs are reached, then you start the timer for 40 minutes for either quart or also pint jars. Also, turn the dial down to #4 to try to hold at the 10 lb setting. Now you just have to keep watch about every 15 minutes to see that the gauge stays at 10 or 11 but never lower than 10 lbs. I rotate between 3 and 4 with my stove dial setting to keep it near the 10 or 11 lbs of pressure.
This is the MOST IMPORTANT STEP in pressure canning! After the timer goes off. Turn off the stove and walk away, until the pressure gauge reads ZERO pressure. ONLY then can you open the pot!
There is still hot steam inside the pot so open the lid facing away from you, slowly and with potholders Use your jar lifter and a thick potholder to remove the hot jars to the towel on the counter. Go and sit down now and listen to the ping of the jars as each seal.
The next morning just take off the bands on the jars and use soapy water to gently clean up the canned jars and rinse. Dry and label with the name and date. These will keep for 5 years but they don’t last that long with me. I aim for 3 years for the date to be outdated on the canned foods that I prepare.
I am SORRY that this is so long of a post! But as I can not see you in person to help you learn all about how to safely enjoy learning to pressure can so that you will not have to be afraid of it. Then I like to tell you the why and when and how of this type of canning. It is supreme and lets you store food for a very long time as long as you follow the cleanliness and safety steps for you canning adventures of a life-time.
I do want to say that I am sorry for the well-known canners, for this long post. Happy canning for our newbies!!!
Thank you so very much for stopping by today. I post on Tue and Sat. But this was a special request today! Connie B.
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