I'm going to show you how I pressure can sweet potato. When you're pressure canning
food there's a lot going on, so if you get everything set up and organized before you start
it will make the process of pressure canning your food way more enjoyable. Hi Guys I'm
Elissa at Moat Cottage Homesteading, the small space homesteading channel.
I'm not a qualified master canner but I have been canning for about four or five years now,
quite successfully, so I'm going to show you how I pressure can sweet potatoes using my 'Blue Book
Guide to Preserving' it's a Ball Mason book. Pressure Canning is a science so i stick to
the rules so i can keep it safe i don't want anybody getting sick so i follow the book
wash your sweet potatoes under cold running water drain
then boil or steam the potatoes until the peel can be easily removed
set up your pressure canner as per your manufacturer's specifications
adding the right amount of water, make sure you have your tray in the bottom, some vinegar,
your dial gauge set up into your lid, everything checked and your weighted gauge. The sweet
potatoes have been washed, boiled until the skins remove easily, i've strained them out of the hot
water and let them cool down - only enough that i can actually handle them and remove the skins.
Now while they were cooling down i've set up my jars which have been sterilized,
i've got all my tools out and you can't see it's out of camera shot but i have my rings, lids
and my bowl of vinegar ready, all i have to do is add water into those when the time comes
and i won't do that just yet. Next we're going to check our jars to make sure the rims have no
chips or nicks in them because if they do the lids won't seal properly because there will be a gap
and we're going to check the jars to make sure there's no cracks in them
i'm using my presto pressure canner today and it holds seven quart jars
i just gently cut the ends off just ever so slightly score the side
and the skin peels right off
in the book it says cut the sweet potatoes into quarters, now the problem with that is, in my
opinion, is that we get sweet potatoes that can be like like this or we can get sweet potatoes like
this. Now the difference with that is going to be considerable so i'm going to cut them in about
let's see one inch pieces making sure they're all the same size and start filling up my jars
it's not recommended by the national centre for home food preservation to mash or puree sweet
potatoes so you want to have it in the chunks for safe home canning. i'll leave the link in
the description below for the national center for home food preservation so if you want any
information that is the place to go. Try not to burn your hands if the potatoes are still hot
remove any blemishes that you find as well and
if there's any bad potatoes obviously don't put them in
we only want quality
because we've got to leave one inch headspace i'm just going to make sure
all the jars have filled up as much as they can without being
too compressed because we need to get all the air bubbles out and have water circulation around
the pieces i just want to make sure they've got as much potato in as they can fit
but so they'll still can properly. Add some more water to the lids at this stage i've
just turned the canner on to warm it up and this warm water for the lids will soften the seal
i'm going to put some in for the rings as well i'm topping the jars up with warm water it's
about 85 degrees Celsius which is 185 degrees Fahrenheit i'm going to leave one inch headspace
don't use the water you've cooked your sweet potatoes in because even though you've washed
them they'll still have dirt on them and you just don't want that, also you'll get a better
product because it will be clearer if you use fresh water it gets a bit cloudy if you use
the recycled water that you've boiled the potatoes and the same goes with regular potatoes as well
remove the air bubbles by sliding the de-bubbler tool down the side and squeezing in
without damaging the sweet potatoes
just work our way around the jar
to measure your one inch headspace you've got your measuring tool and the top tier there is one inch
so we're going to place that part on the jar and i've got a little bit too much water there
so i can get a clean spoon and remove that until i get exactly the right measurement that i want
usually it's the other way around and you're filling them up but i've gone a little bit
overboard today but that's okay try not to have it on an angle try and have it straight up and down
that looks pretty good i'll just push that down and do it again try and get a flat surface
perfect
I like that one
okay, i've got a clean tea towel and i'm dipping it into my vinegar
it's just white vinegar and i'm going to wipe the top of my jar rims
with that so that i can get any food off any of that residue i'm doing the thread at the same time
just because i like a clean thread and then i'm going to use the dry side and wipe that dry
it gives me the best chance to get a good seal and that's exactly what
i want do that to all of the jars using a different part of the cloth each time
try not to burn your hands with the hot jar though because it does get a bit hot
this is the exciting part we're on the home straight now the fun part is the pressure
canning we've done the hard work and then we just get to enjoy the pressure canning process
okay let's get set up for putting the lids on
using your magnet tool place your lid on, center it
get your ring
and put it on finger tight so i'm not screwing it on really tight but it is on
and the jar can sort of spin
put your lid out of the warm water place it on the jar center it
grab your ring
and finger tight
okay let's get them in the canner
my pressure can's already set up it's got three quarts of water and
some white vinegar
line the arrows up and give it a twist so that's on nice and securely now my air vents
nice and clear everything's been checked before i started and now we just need to turn up the heat
and get the can exactly in the center
of the hot plate
we've got consistent steam coming out of the
vent pipe so we're going to let that vent steam for 10 minutes
make sure you don't get your fingers in the way of the steam when you put your weighted gauge on
and now we just wait for the pressure to build up
depending on your altitude will depend on the pressure you want to be canning at
if you're below a thousand feet you're canning at 10 psi
the jiggler is going to start moving now and that means it is nearly there
so it will be 11 on my dial gauge and that's my jiggler moving it's my weighted gauge and it's
got 10 pounds on it, now i can start timing because i'm canning quart jars it's going to be an hour
and 30 minutes if i was canning sweet potatoes in pint jars it would be one hour and five minutes
so let's set the timer
and we'll keep it on it to make sure it stays at pressure the whole time,
if it goes below pressure at any time for any reason we have to start over again
My 90 minutes is up so i'm turning off the heat and letting the pressure canner cool down
while your canner is depressurizing from the time you turn your heat off don't touch the top of the
canner at all, don't be tempted to play with your jiggler or try and push anything down just
leave it alone because if you do play with things you'll be letting more pressure out too quickly
and there's a chance that your jars won't seal because it will reduce in pressure far too quickly
and you might even get cracks in your jars if you do that, so be patient just wait. Once you've
waited the five minutes after this has gone down we can remove the lid now, you've got to do
it carefully because it is still hot in there and it's going to drip steam and water off the bottom
so we're going to lift it up turn it to the side let the water drip off and then put it somewhere
put it somewhere where it's not going to melt anything and you're not going
to get the dial gauge wet and that little fingers may not burn themselves on it as well
so just be careful about that and have somewhere ready i usually use my sink
because i don't have any kids in here when i'm pressure canning
now we have to wait 10 minutes
protect your surface with a wooden board and put a tea towel or cloth
over the top of it so that the jars aren't going to get any shock from a cold surface
because the jars are obviously very hot let your jars cool down somewhere where they're
not going to be disturbed they're very hot and you don't want anyone to burn their fingers on them
it could be a nasty accident don't be tempted to tighten up your rings
if they've become loose in the canning process just leave them, in 12 hours time
we're going to remove the rings and then you can check your lids to make sure the seals have sealed
any that haven't sealed you can pop those jars in the fridge and you can eat those within a few
days but hopefully all of your lids have sealed and you can wash the jars in warm soapy water,
dry them and then write on the lids what's in them and the date that you canned it and then they're
right to go on your shelf. If you want to see some of my other pressure canning recipes or learn more
about pressure canning then check out my playlist and if you want to learn more about small space
homesteading then you can check out some of my other videos thanks for watching i'll see you
next time. It's 12 hours later i've removed all of the rings and all of my jars have sealed properly