Thursday, August 23, 2012

Canning Carrots


This year we planted and harvested our very first crop of carrots... we didn't get very many and they were pretty small... but we are proud of them just the same!

I pulled the rest of them recently and decided to can them even though there weren't many...

Here's what I did...

I scrubbed and peeled all my little carrots, then sliced them up.


I prepared my pint canning jars by boiling them in water and kept my lids simmering and hot until I was ready for them.

I raw packed the carrots (packed them without cooking them!) into the hot pint canning jars.


I added a half teaspoon of canning salt to each jar.


Then filled each jar with boiling water, leaving a half inch headspace. I checked for air bubbles, removed them with a plastic chopstick and added more boiling water if needed to adjust the headspace.

I wiped the jar rims with a damp cloth, then tightened the hot lids on to fingertip tightness.

I processed the jars of carrots in my pressure canner at 10 pounds of pressure for 25 minutes.

When the jars completed processing, I allowed my pressure canner to cool down on its own and allowed the pressure to drop to zero before opening the canner and removing the jars with my jar lifter.

I set the jars of pretty orange carrots on a folded dish towel on the counter to cool... and to listen for the PING of each successfully sealed jar.

21 comments:

  1. My carrots are getting ready at different times. I never have enough at one time to can. I blanch and freeze mine. We are doing a bigger patch next year. Hopefully I get enough to can.

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  2. We didn't get too many this year, but just today I used what we did grow to make vegetable soup. I used the Ball Book recipe, and the canner is humming away right now! Last year I made orange glazed carrots, but we don't really like their taste very much.

    How many pints did you get?

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    1. We didn't get very many, only canned 3 pints... but that's 3 more than I had! ~~Granny

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    2. I was gifted over 100 lbs of them this year! Gave quite a bit away, have bunnies to feed some to, and canned 18 pints plain with a pat of butter, 18 more with onions, pepper and chicken broth, and 13 quarts of hot & spicy batons. Now I am contemplating roasting some up to the point of adding the broth, then loading the jars and adding the broth directly to the jars before canning. Not sure how that will work out. Anyone have any experience at this? Linda D.

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  3. HI Pamela- I have a question that maybe, just maybe you can help with. I used my pressure cooker for the first time today (yah!) I did a batch of corn, since we have so much around here. Anyway, I cooked it for 55 at 10 lbs pressure -- and heard the pops, so I know they are sealed. BUT there is less liquid in the jars than when I put them in. Also the house smells like boiled corn, so I know it leaked along the way. Do you know why this happened? Is my corn still good? Thanks so much for all your help on my Canning Journey! Ann

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    Replies
    1. First of all, Ann, as long as you didn't lose more than half the liquid, your corn is still good. Sometimes liquid loss (siphoning) is due to the canner pressure dropping too quickly, or being forced down. It's also a good idea to wait an additional few minutes after the pressure has dropped before you open the canner and remove the jars... sometimes this helps with the siphoning. Sometimes it just happens no matter what you do ;-) Seems to happen with corn more than some other veggies. ~~Granny

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    2. Thanks Granny. I appreciate your help so much! Thanks again for all the posting and sharing you do.

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  4. Looks wonderful! I can't wait until my wife and I can get starting canning. It's something that we've wanted to do for a couple of years now. One of these days we'll finally get going on it. I think your website is a wonderful resource!

    Is there a certain brand of canner than you find better? We've shopped around but have no experience so we are not quite sure what to look for...

    Thanks!

    Chris

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  5. Hi, Granny! I'm new to your blog and I love it! I'm wondering about your pressure canner settings. I just got a Fagor pressure cooker/canner and it ahs two settings for 8# and 15# of pressure. How should I adjust the times in your recipes for either setting? Any info is much appreciated! Thanks!

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    1. Vanessa, I'm not very familiar with the Fagor canner, but quickly did a little reading... it seems the US standard is based on 10 and 15 pounds rather than the 8 and 15... I would use the 15 setting to be on the safe side... and would hope your foods do not overcook. Here's the only website with much information that I could find... http://hostedweb.cfaes.ohio-state.edu/fcs/prof-resources/food-pres-faq.php ~~Granny

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    2. Granny, what type of pressure canner do you use? Brand name/Model #?

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    3. I have the All American 15.5 quart, model 915 pressure canner and I LOVE it! ~~Granny

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  6. Rihtaš mal? Rihtaš?

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  7. Granny, I did a bad thing.. I was impatient and I didn't wait for my canner to cool on its own and "hurried" it.. now I have carrots with significant siphoning (on 1/4 the water level). Are they any good?

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    Replies
    1. They lost 1/4 of the liquid or there's only 1/4 of the liquid left? If they lost less than half of the liquid there OK... if over half, you probably wanna go ahead and eat them soon. ~~Granny

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  8. Hi Granny! I just wanted to say thank you for these awesome instructions! My carrots turned out great, and I plan to do some more this year. :-D

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  9. my carrots were cold packed but fell over when canning.. are these safe? or should i just call it toxic at this point?

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  10. btw.. there's little fluid in the jars also. this is why I'm worried

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    Replies
    1. If there's less than half the jar filled with liquid, you'll need to either toss them or reprocess. ~~Granny

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  11. I have never used a pressure cooker before this weekend. I wanted to can carrotts and green beans so I bought one. My carrotts are softer than I would like them to be. Can I cut the cooking time down? Or maybe the pressure? Thank you

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    Replies
    1. They need to be processed for the time and pressure given in order for them to be shelf stable and safe... they'll be soft, not much you can do about that. Raw packing helps a little, but you'll end up with soft carrots. ~~Granny

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