Buying Canned Goods

[ReverendMike]

I would be very curious as to how the pressure canned fish turns out. I would think it would end up as "mush".

[SailorPam]

Originally Posted by ReverendMike

I would be very curious as to how the pressure canned fish turns out. I would think it would end up as "mush".

I know what you mean. We're going to stick to the large, firmer fish - tuna, maybe salmon. Stuff you tend to get in larger quanities than you would eat at a single meal. I'll let you know how it goes. Although tuna season won't come around again on our coast until July. However here salmon always seems to be doing something.

[ReverendMike]

Please do let me/us know how that turns out. Very curious, and a little skeptical to boot. Do you think raw pack, lower pressure, ~ 10 min? (Or instead of making wild-arsed guesses on the internet, i could look it up when I get home (or even at a cooking website?).... Nah, what fun is that?)

[SailorPam]

Rev. Mike,

My canner's instructions specified that tuna should be baked, cooled, refrigerated over night and then packed with boiling water or oil before processing, and I think the processing time was either 75 or 90 minutes. That seems odd to me, but I haven't looked farther yet. I went to a pressure canning class put on by the Oregon State Extension Service and picked up a guide also. I'll check their pointers as well. I've gotten home canned tuna from a friend a couple of times and I don't think they cooked it first. And it had great texture and flavor. And I'm still here to type about it.

The canner's instructions said other types of fish could be packed raw.

[RandyonR3]

The last time we packed up to leave, we had a shopping list thet would fill the back of my brothers truck.. When going to the local SAFEWAY store, we approched the manager with what we were planning to do.. He made arangements for us to come in before the store opened in the morning and shop for a couple hours..
When we checked out, savings using our safeway card and the additional 20% the manager gave us, saved us a few hundred dollars.. We spent just over $4000.00 that day and filled the truck to over-fill. we didnt buy any major food for over a year..........
Plan your shopping and then strike a deal with the manager.. they are always looking for a way to move product.......

[ReverendMike]

75 minutes!? I've never canned meat of any type, so I really am just shooting my mouth (keyboard?) off, but that just seems wrong. Tuna is rather firm flesh, so I suppose I could see cooking it beforehand OR processing for ~ an hour, but both?

edit: found a couple links: (both say "except Tuna", but don't give an alternate process for tuna! Arrgh!)
http://ohioline.osu.edu/hyg-fact/5000/5351.html
http://www.extension.umn.edu/distrib...on/DJ1087.html

[camaraderie]

Thread moved to Provisioning by request.

[SailorPam]

Rev. Mike, Here's an OSU (Oregon) link about tuna
http://extension.oregonstate.edu/cat...pnw/pnw194.pdf
I was wrong, it gets processed for 100 minutes. We process chicken, beef and pork for 75 minutes. Hence the aforementioned bottle of wine We generally sit down with the laptop and shop Yachtworld (boat porn) so we can keep an eye on the pressure to make sure it doesn't drop, put on some good tunes snack on some munchies. It helps if you find the basic life maintenance chores entertaining

Randy, I love the private Safeway shopping idea! Not to mention it makes sense for them as well. Wasn't I behind you in line once?

[CosmosMariner]

Rainy Day Foods at http://www.internet-grocer.net/product.html has great prices and the quality beats everything else especially Wal Mart and other store brands.

[wind_magic]

SailorPam,

That is great you are pressure canning. I want to do that too. I have helped my extended family put away vegetables from the garden before but that isn't really what I want to do. What I want is to be able to quickly can leftovers and to put away things that I have prepared so that I can eat them later.

For example, I want to be able to make a large pot of my favorites like soup and stew in the pressure cooker and then take that large amount of soup and can it into small half pint sized jars so that I can eat them later for individual meals. Most of the store bought soups these days are pretty good tasting in my opinion, chunky brand, all of that, and I am all for just buying them when they are available, but sometimes I just want my own soup because I prefer it, and sometimes I want my own soup because I think you can go places where canned soup won't be available. Also when it is just one person it is harder to make these things because you can't really make a good soup in small quantities.

I've heard of people just leaving leftovers in their pressure cooker and eating them the next day, kind of using the pressure cooker itself as a "can", because it has already killed most of the bacteria, enough to let the food sit at room temperature for a day or more. And I am sure I will do more of that kind of thing myself. But I also want to be able to just toss those leftovers into half pint jars and process them so that I can eat them much later like next week or next month so I don't have to eat the same thing all week just because I was in the mood to cook something.

I love homemade soup and especially thicker stews but I don't make it that often because it's just me eating it. It is easier when there is a freezer around to freeze the leftovers in individual meal sizes, but that's not going to work on a boat. I would really like to be able to reach out and grab a can of my own stew and warm it up and eat it. I make a really good root vegetable stew with chicken in it that I never get tired of.