Pressure Canning - Hopeless?

[Baggerking]

About a month ago a friend gave me an awesome pressure cooker/rice cooker/crock pot all in one wonder machine that changed my life. I've been cooking stews and roasts and those golden curry packets like crazy. It's helped with the culture shock of not finding my favorite foods from America in my relatively rural part of China, and helped me feel not so dependent on the will and whims of the restaurants near by my home. And then I thought... I could can with it! I could cook a huge batch of tomato sauce and then can it, and just take a out a jar whenever I need it! It doesn't have a pressure gauge but I'm sure the pressure is standard. All I need is the jars! Ah, I can use those old mandarin orange jars! Okay, all I need is the lids!

And thats where hell started. Talking to my chinese friends only raised blank faces. None of them have heard of DIY canning. Online translation servies, keyword searching on google, taobao, baidu, and so on and so on all come up fruitless. The thought that no one in China ever cans anything by themselves is a bit unsettling to me, and now my chinese friends are all a little pissed off at me for being so insistant that this stuff exists, when they think it's so clear that only large companies could ever can anything. They are also a little angry at, I guess, the English language for having Can as a verb that describes ability as well as can as a verb describing putting things in can (a noun). I have to admit that's not really nice of the English language.

Does anyone know how to describe DIY canning in Chinese? Or pressure canning? Or anyplace that would sell the right (non-plastic) jars and equipment? Or shall I just give up?

[ccaraway]

Sorry I can't be much help on your canning situation... But can you share where one can buy a "pressure cooker/rice cooker/crock pot all in one wonder machine" in China? :o

[anonymoose]

You mean there are actually people who do home canning?

[creamyhorror]

Home canning? How do you remove the air when you seal the cans? Seems like that would require specialized machinery.

Sounds like a hobbyist thing more than anything, and it would be pretty hard to get the equipment if it's not done at all in China. Why don't you just cook big batches, put them in jars, and freeze them for later use?

[889]

Just like there's no ham in a hamburger, there're no cans in home canning; you use special jars and special lids, most commonly made by the Ball Company.

I'm too lazy today to do much more, but here's a start:

http://www.google.com/dictionary?hl=en&sl=en&tl=zh-CN&q=Mason+jar

[Baggerking]

Home canning is not too uncommon, especially in the states. It's just more popular in the country side. A lot of people who have any kind of home garden and any kind of pressure cooker do this during harvest time to preserve the food's flavor while it's at it's peak. In California, every Safeway (a large supermarket chain) carries the mason jars and the tops with the binding just for pressure canning.

Yeah, I'm sure the freezer option is what I will do. My freezer is packed with meat though... I live in one of those new fangled University Villages where there are only Universities and the dorms for the students. Since students cannot cook food, there is no fresh meat anywhere nearby. I have to go 10 kms to buy pork, and if I want beef, I have to go 30 kms to the nearest city center. There is a street market that the local village puts together every 5 days. When I'm really lucky, it falls on a weekend and I can go to it, but that only happens every month or so. Sucks major private parts.

[gato]

You can buy sealed jars on Taobao. Probably a bit of a hassle, but the length you'll have to go for canning.

http://s.taobao.com/search?q=%C3%DC%B7%E2%C6%BF&commend=all&ssid=s5-e&search_type=item&atype=&filterFineness=

密封瓶

[Shelley]

Hi ya, as was said in one post there are no cans in canning.In the UK its called preserving. You use glass jars and lids that seal with a ring. these are usually called Kilner Jars. Maybe the term canning is confusing. Having lived in the US i understood but maybe not everyone does. I would try using a different word. Good luck. Shelley

[hackinger]

Hi,

is not preserving/canning a dying art? My grandmother and even my mother "canned" some food. They used jars

with lids similar as mentioned (you can see some pictures on wikipedia), but for marmalade they used a glass jar which was covered with a thin cellophane foil and sealed using a rubber ring. When the marmalade cooled, the cellophane got sucked in and tightly sealed the jar. The marmelade was great, especially the blackberry marmalade. I have not eaten much marmalade since, because what you can buy simply does not compare.

Edit: Reading wikipedia, I just realised that due to British influence, in the EU marmalade can be sold as "marmalade" only if it is based on citrus fruits. Since about 2003, Germany, Austria and some other countries are "allowed" to use the term marmalade also for e.g. blackberry marmalade, but apparently (?) not for exports. No wonder I never liked British marmalade in the hotels. ;-)

Cheers

hackinger

[889]

Then there were the paraffin bars which were melted -- using a double boiler -- to seal jars of jam and jelly. It was always a lot of fun later to pry the wax lid off a new jar of jam without breaking it.

There certainly was a time when mothers were expected to undertake canning chores as a matter of course.

[jbradfor]

How do you remove the air when you seal the cans? Seems like that would require specialized machinery.

You don't need to remove the air, as long as you pasteurize it fully and ensure you have a good seal.

[Baggerking]

Yeah, I think preserving/canning in America is becoming less and less popular. But, I dunno, I guess it always had that old school appeal to me.

Searching for "Preserving" is also no good, and I need the special lids to really do it proper. I've become convinced that it's just not available in China. I'm just going to put what I can in the freezer.

Living in China is actually forcing me to go back to the roots of home cooking in many ways. Since I can't buy crisco vegetable shortening, for thanksgiving pie crusts I rendered pig lard yesterday.

Mmmm... cracklins! It tastes like morid obesity and morbid obesity tastes delicious!

(Actually, I just found out that homemade lard is healthier than partially hydrogenated shortening because of the trans fats. So... that means it's healthy, right?)

Oh yeah, as for the wonder machine, it looks like a standard electronic pressure cooker, but it has a valve on the top that you adjust pressure with, and lots of different buttons for the different cooking modes. It's got a button for fish, meat, beans, soup, sauce, rice, and a couple more I haven't explored yet. I was walking around outside of a In-zone the other day and I looked (drooled) over some more expensive models with more manual controls and features.

[imron]

It is possible. I have a friend whose Aunt makes preserved peaches all the time. I'll ask what the specific name of this activity is in Chinese.

[skylee]

I'll ask what the specific name of this activity is in Chinese.

I think it is simply 自製罐頭, no?

[imron]

Yes, it would appear so.

My friend also said they call the jars 罐头瓶 and the lids 罐头瓶盖.