Category: Food Storage & Cooking

My Tomato Process- Part 1, by Sarah Latimer

It is that time of year when the garden is bursting with its bounty, and I am regularly giving thanks to our Creator for His provision and kindness in giving us a diverse and pleasurable taste and texture smorgasbord for our palates as well as the necessities of nature, mind, and body to work the land and see its fruit come forth. He created the very earth from which they came and provides the balance of nature– the appropriate amount of sun so that the plants don’t freeze or burn, have enough oxygen, and have water and nourishment from the …


Letter Re: So Tell Me Again…

HJL, The writer stated that he doesn’t typically blanch so that he doesn’t destroy the enzymes. However, acid in the stomach will do the same thing as blanching. So it really doesn’t matter whether he does or not, at least as far as “destroying” the enzymes. If he eats the food, the enzymes will naturally break down as the second step of digestion. An enzyme is simply a type of protein, a molecule that is too big for our bodies to absorb intact. (An very simplistic example: Insulin is an enzyme. If eaten, it will break down and not be …


“So Tell Me Again…”- Part 4, by M.D.

Test Batches Whatever you decide to begin with or whenever you switch to a new item, do a small test batch first. This is a bigger deal than you might think, for a number of reasons. Let me give you a couple of personal examples where I did this step right and where I ran amuck. I have been dehydrating for years now and recently decided to add bananas to my repertoire, even though I don’t eat a lot of them; you know the think when the grid’s down and there is the need for potassium. Bananas should be pretty …


“So Tell Me Again…”- Part 3, by M.P.

What Dehydrated Foods Can Be Stored in a Single Half-Gallon Jar Below I’ve listed some of the quantities of dehydrated foods you can expect to store in a single half-gallon jar. Some may really surprise you, as it did me. Also, I don’t use Mylar for any dehydrated items, because I want to extract the most air possible for the longest shelf-life. With only a couple of exceptions, I use one-half gallon jars exclusively. So here we go: Mixed Veggies— Frozen from the store, 10 lbs. That’s ten packages of the old 16-ounce bags! Carrots— Frozen from the store or …


“So Tell Me Again…”- Part 2, by M.P.

After a year-and-a-half using the mason jars and oxygen absorbers I did another test. In every category it was like I had dehydrated yesterday. The food had good flavor, nice texture, and little to no recognizable difference between fresh, so the system was clearly working. Take-away #4. Another valuable lesson was in the rehydrating process. I found that none of the typical recommendations of two, three, or four hours soaking was sufficient to bring vegetables back up to full hydration. Twelve to twenty–four hours gave an almost undetectable difference to their original state. Broccoli oddly enough took the longest, coming …


“So Tell Me Again…”- Part 1, by M.P.

During the course of arising out of my slumber these past seven years to the fact that our country has taken a historic and possibly terminal change for the worse, I’ve noticed there seems to be stages of awaking from that long-winters-nap, for those of us fortunate enough to have had such an experience. Personally, as I look back I consider it to be a God thing– where I was, where I am now, and how the journey has transpired. And when I finally started moving on my new-found convictions, I, like most others, felt one of my first priorities …


Three Letters Re: Canning Jars

HJL, I just wanted to let the readers know that Uline has a wide selection of jars, from 1/2 pint up through 1/2 gallon, with lids and rings. – C.S. o o o Hugh, Here is an interesting way to store mason jars in your pantry: Bug-Out Pantry – R.T. o o o Hi Hugh, Thanks for the info on food preservation. In this latest round, you mentioned pressure canning only lean meats. Why is that? Fat is an essential nutrient. – J.J. HJL comments: The fat complicates the canning process and can cause less than desirable results. Because the …


Letter: Food Storage Question on Mason Jars

Hello, Hugh, I’ve been following Sarah’s articles on food storage with interest,and learning a great deal from them. My question is this: Has your family performed any food storage involving vacuum-sealing “wet” food in mason jars and freezing them? I’m wondering if putting hamburger and chicken in mason jars, vacuum-packing them, and freezing them is a reasonable long-term storage solution (assuming electricity exists to maintain storage temperatures at 0F or below). If such a procedure is feasible, are there any cautions I should be aware of? I would guess that, since water expands as it freezes, the jars should not …


Letter Re: Dry Canning

Hello Hugh and Sarah, Do you sterilize your jars before using when dry canning? Do you boil or use dry heat (oven)? Wonderful articles! I’m converting. I’ve had too many reservations about the mylar bags. Have done a lot with them but some don’t seem to pull a vacuum. It makes me question whether they are truly sealed. In fact, I wonder about whether I should repackage everything in jars. Yikes. We’re talking a 300-400 half gallon bags. – P.B. HJL Comments: We don’t use water bath canning as a general rule so we don’t worry too much about sterilization. …


Using Canning Jars For All Food Stores and More-Part 3, by Sarah Latimer

Managing Your Jarred Larder Moving a single jar at a time is cumbersome when managing so many. I have kept the original Ball cardboard boxes that the jars came in because they assist in moving multiple jars and placing them on shelves easily, but we are gentle with them to help them last. Occasionally they require some reinforcement with duct tape or replacement altogether; however, so far, most have held up well for a minimum of four years. Labels can easily be placed on the ends of the Ball boxes, identifying the contents and their dates, so that it is …


Letter Re: Vacuum Sealing Mason Type Jars

Dear HJL, I own my own freeze dryer and with this I seal a lot of food in glass jars. The best way I have found to seal in bulk is something I built. I took an old pressure cooker with a good seal on the lid. I removed all the pressure cooking fittings on top of the lid. I then installed a vacuum gauge with a tee fitting and a ball valve to relieve the vacuum later in the process. I also installed a fitting with a 1/4 flare end. I then attach the flare connection to a vacuum …


Letter Re: Canning Jars

Hugh, As I was reading a recent SurvivalBlog post on the many uses of canning jars, I remembered that in my childhood days the ladies doing the canning would sometimes use melted paraffin poured over the top of the food instead of using metal lids. (They also used metal lids.) So maybe the wax only on the sweet stuff like jellies, etc.? Maybe only on smaller size, smaller mouthed, recycled, jars? As I remember it they would keep the paraffin, wash it, and reuse it the next year. Has anybody used this style of sealing lately? – K.S. HJL’s Comment: …


Using Canning Jars For All Food Stores and More – Part 2, by Sarah Latimer

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What We Store In Jars Dry, bulk goods. This category of items includes grains, dried pasta, dried potato flakes, dry beans, and rice for long-term storage. We buy these in 40- and 50-pound bags from the Mormon storehouse, Costco, and online vendors and then repackage them into the half gallon jars, which are then vacuum sealed, using our FoodSaver Jar Sealer connected to an electric vacuum pump system that Hugh installed into my kitchen. It takes less than a minute to put the lid on, vacuum seal a jar, and put the ring on. All I have to do at …


Letter Re: Food Preservation

Good afternoon, Hugh, Recently SurvivalBlog has presented several articles on food preservation, including extremely informative ones from your wife, Sarah. I’ve become curious about a few things: Is there a minimum vacuum level necessary for food preservation? (This assumes other factors, such as the lack of heat-based canning procedures are not necessary for preservation.) Are there advantages to purging air from a food container with nitrogen? If so, is there a recommended procedure for that? Does vacuum sealing after nitrogen purging offer additional advantages? You have tested and reported on a commercially available home freeze dryer; how much preservation time …


Letter Re: Vacuum Sealing Jars and Feed Store Grain

Good morning, Hugh, I enjoyed and learned a little more from Sarah Latimer’s post. I’m interested in the method used to create a vacuum in the canning jars when dry canning. We have arrived at the same place you have– to use glass jars. We have canned many jars of dehydrated apples and other items by heating the jars in an oven to 300 degrees and sterilizing the lids, filling the jars with the contents, and tightening the lids quickly. This has worked well 95% of the time. We have heard of various devices to place a vacuum on jars, …