My new canning stove!!

[MaggieM1750]

Ladies and gentlemen.. I cannot say how excited I am

My dad just made this for me tonight!!


I got the idea from my friend Beth. She saw something on Pinterest and sent me the photo. I knew I had to have it. So I started looking for supplies on Craigslist. I found the table (plus 4 chairs) for $30. The paint is pretty beat up.. but its a great sturdy table. And the top is solid butcher block. I found the cooktop for $20.. already with the natural gas/ propane converter.
My dad cut a hole in the table, we dropped in the cooktop, hooked it to a propane grill tank.. and wollla.. outdoor canning stove! And all finished in time for strawberry jam season!!

With the 5 burners, I can do it all outside. Keep the heat out of my house.



Ugh.. I look soo tired! But this was last years outdoor setup. With a single propane burner, and a camp stove. Salsa or Spaghetti sauce anyone??

[rcperryls]

What a wonderful special table you now have. Everyone looks so happy and everything looks yummy! That is a skill I never developed. My few attempts in the past really met me admire those of you who so successfully can all kinds of things.

Carole

[karen4bells]

That's super!!! I know it's going to make it so much easier for you to get your canning done this season!!! Very inventive!! And economical too!!

[NeedleAndFork]

Oh, I am so jealous!!!!!

I am a fairly new canner, this will be year 3, and with the heat we're having (107 degrees this weekend!), I have no desire to can and heat up the house even more. I would SO love something like this! A lovely work surface combined with a real stove, not just a single burner that doesn't have enough oomph to set a canning pot boiling.

What all do you can? My must haves each year are 12 - 18 1 quart jars of crushed tomatoes, 8 - 12 half pint jars of tomato jam, 6 - 8 pint jars of corn relish, several jars each of strawberry vanilla key lime jam and red onion relish. After that it depends on what I can find cheap - right now I have 18 or so very ripe nectarines I got free today - just enough to make a batch of a spiced nectarine jam. When I can get cheap pears, I like caning pear slices in light syrup with star anise. I have made a sugar free carmalized apple butter in the past, but not since I started canning, so I'll have to do that sometime. Oh, and I also was given enough radishes today to try out pickling a few jars of them.. if I don't slice them up and use them on salads first!

I'd really like ideas for 'food' items I can can, rather than jams and condiments. While my onion relish and tomato jam as are used in savory applications, they are 'extras', not actual meal items. The only item I can that will be used as the basis of a meal is my crushed tomatoes, which I use in soups as well as a big pot of spaghetti sauce or bolognese. But I just can't think what else to can that is safe to water bath can that I'll enjoy. I hate green beans so those are out, and canning soups, stocks, etc would require a pressure canner, which I have but am terrified of, so I haven't tried it yet. If you have any suggestions, I'd love to hear them, I really want to find a way to save money by canning additional foodstuffs to use off season when buying them would cost much more.

[secondhandrose]

Your new canning stove looks great.

[MaggieM1750]

I am a fairly new canner myself- maybe 3-4 years now that I've been doing it myself. The first year, I just helped out my aunt. The only thing I do in a water bath are tomatoes and fruits. Everything else I do in the pressure canner (which was almost new from Craigslist for $25 a few years ago.. they moved into a house with a glass top stove and a pressure canner can crack the top)
It was scary at first.. but I played around so I would used to it. I "canned" jars of water using old lids just to try it out and get comfortable with regulating the pressure. (that tip came from my aunt)

I can sliced apples and apple sauce/ apple butters. Berry jams and fruit in syrups. I've done marmalade- but it was a ton of work and not sure I'll do that again. Salsa and spaghetti sauce. Carrots, corn and green beans. I mainly can in pint jars- as I am single and most of who I give items to are either singles or couples. I can get 2 layers of pint jars into my pressure canner. I wanted to try asparagus this year- but couldn't bring myself to pull everything out in time and now the season is over. I also want to try soup stocks.. but meat items make me nervous.

I didn't do much last year- it was just too hot! Which also threw off the ripening season. Things happened to ripen when I didn't have time to pick or can. I go to a lot of "you- pick" farms or buy from farm markets. I only did what was in the photos. So my shelves are empty.

Next on my list is to get involved with a canning group. My aunt is part of one, but she lives 2 hrs away. People swap recipes and knowledge.. and also swap items. So you can get a few jars of something you might not try.. while getting rid of items you are tired of eating.

[NeedleAndFork]

Hmm.. I didn't know about pressure canners cracking glass top stoves - that would really really suck! I use a pressure cannner right now for my water bath canning, just without the pressure valves - instead I use a large lid from a stock pot as a lid to place on top. I do have a stand alone burner that is fairly powerful - maybe I'll try out the idea of canning jars of water in the garage to see how that goes. Atleast it won't be in the house!

I would love to can a meaty spaghetti sauce, or a bean soup so that I can just open a jar and have a meal ready. Right now I have 8 cups of strawberries that I macerated with a little bit of sugar and a vanilla bean and then froze in vacuum sealed bags because I was given the strawberries a day before I was headed out of town and I didn't have the time to do anything more with them. I figure that at this point they can stay frozen like that until the weather cools down, and I'll make my strawberry vanilla lime jam then.

I am single too - the quantities I stated for each item I make are just for me. I make my jams in half pint jars so that I can have a couple open in the fridge at a time, and I use my tomato jam on absolutely everything - as a 'jam' on crackers, instead of ketchup on fries and burgers, adding a little bit to an omlet, etc, so I made enough to go through a jar a month. Crushed tomatoes I usually use for large batch cooking such as a large pot of spaghetti sauce or soup, which I then freeze half of to eat later, so I may use even 2 quarts at a time.

The other thing that I do is make my own 'sun dried' tomatoes, except I roast them in the oven first to caramalize them and then slowly dry them out. A single batch - 5 lbs of romas ends up fitting in a small ziplock baggie which I then freeze. I probably do 3 batches of them a year and in off season, rather than using fresh tomatoes in salads, I cut the dried ones into strips and toss in with salads, pastas, in sandwiches, etc. They are so tasty, and I don't have to buy overpriced but mediocre tomatoes. I go through about 50 lbs of tomatoes each summer just for myself between the jam, crushed and dried, but then almost never buy them the rest of the year. At the peak of season, I can get tomatoes on sale for 3lbs/$. The rest of my fruit, I usually get as part of my membership in a gleaners association that gives me plenty of fruit seconds from local packing houses, so I never know what I'll get from week to week. It gets interesting coming up with ways to use it all!