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digdirt2

Some people will try to 'can' anything!!

digdirt2
13 years ago

As if canning bread and canning butter isn't bad enough now there are discussions on another forum on how to can raw bacon (apparently Mother Earth News has an article on how to do it this month). Plus discussions on canning gravy, avocados, cottage cheese, cheese whiz, and peanut butter.

Instructions and blogs are posted on the web on how to can cheese, milk, eggs, lard, and oatmeal just to name a few.

Is there really no end to what some folks will stick in a jar, process (in some cases) in one form or another for some made-up amount of time and consider it safe to eat much less encourage others to do it too?

Dave

Comments (25)

  • readinglady
    13 years ago

    Of all the foods you mention, the one that strikes me most is the Cheez Whiz. That stuff is so artificial you could probably stick it in a landfill for some archeologist to dig up in 3000 years and it would still be fine. Canning it seems utterly unnecessary.

    As far as the other things are concerned, I suppose it's a tribute to the hardiness of the human constitution that more people don't succumb to such practices.

    How many people in this world would ever want to can avocados? Sounds utterly repulsive on many levels.

    Carol

  • sharonann1
    13 years ago

    And some of those things make so little sense to can. It probably takes MORE energy (both human and carbon-producing) to can oatmeal when dry oatmeal will last so very long in sealed containers.

    Lard and peanut butter are already shelf stable, as is Cheez Whiz (is CW even really a food, though?)

    And eggs? If you have chickens (the presumable reason for having an excess of eggs), you will have new eggs tomorrow, and the next day and the next day and the next. That's kinda how chickens work.

    In related gross news, my grocery store has just added whole bone-in, skin-on fried chicken in a can. An entire chicken deep fried, then canned. Now, doesn't that sound good?

    Sharon

  • flora_uk
    13 years ago

    Most of these ideas sound ridiculous - but pickled eggs are actually rather good. The link has some recipes. Warning! Since these are Brit. recipes they are not 'canned' as such, just pickled. You might want to find a US approved version if you are risk averse.

    Potted cheese is also pretty tasty.
    http://www.greatbritishkitchen.co.uk/recipebook/index.php?option=com_rapidrecipe&page=viewrecipe&recipe_id=240
    Again this comes with a disclaimer for US readers.

    But oatmeal?? That is beyond comprehension. Porridge is already instant food.

    By the sound of I should be grateful that I don't think I've ever seen cheeze whizz. http://www.bbc.co.uk/h2g2/beta/approved_entry/A152821

    Here is a link that might be useful: Pickled eggs

  • jonas302
    13 years ago

    I thought of Dave every second I read the article on canning bacon (: The bacon although not approved and I don't want to start a big discussion is already treated with nitrates and smoked the nitrates preventing botulism
    definitely not a task for everybody and I was surprised to see it

  • morz8 - Washington Coast
    13 years ago

    I had to look up the bacon, just to see how wrong it could be :) It couldn't be any kind of time saver even if it was safe, and not tasty either. Don't people have freezers or are we supposed to be afraid to depend on those now.

    I cannot imagine a canned fried chicken. I don't even quite trust the holding temperatures of the roasted birds you see in the grocery store, especially in view of how easy it is to roast a whole chicken and what they charge for already cooked. You don't even get the added benefit of having your house smell inviting.

    Flora, you've missed nothing by not being familiar with Cheez Whiz. Nor would anyone over about age 8. I know this because, we did have it at our house when I was a child, my mother was a pushover for anything easy. Earlier this very year, I noticed it on a store shelf and was just nostalgic enough that day to buy it and bring it home - I didn't know it was still in existence. One taste with a spoon was all I needed - and I won't do that again :)

  • dgkritch
    13 years ago

    Ya gotta wonder why?

    I can't even get past that on most of these. Cheese whiz already comes in jar "preserved" (probably forever). Why?

    Bacon is so easily frozen, why can?
    OK, so maybe someone doesn't have freezer space.
    Uh, wait to buy until you need it?

    So, maybe they bought half a hog AND don't have space for the 5-6 packages of bacon...WHY buy it?

    Butter? Same thing.

    Eggs? I understand this one.....slightly.....
    If you have the "right" number to provide your family with eggs during the summer (peak) laying season, there isn't enough during winter. If the number is right for winter, there's an excess in summer. My solution? Plan for winter, sell the extras. Offsets your feed cost and you don't need to 'can' them or preserve them any other way.

    Avocados? Just...........eeewwwww..........
    Peanut butter? See cheese whiz.

    I just don't understand. Somebody has a lot more time, energy, money and canning jars than I've got to even consider this stuff.

    Deanna

  • david52 Zone 6
    13 years ago

    There is some controversy out there on the web, about whether or not Cheese Whiz ever came in a spray can, or not.

    I remember seeing it, but these kinds of memories fade as time marches on.

    The confusion, I believe, stems from the public giving a knick-name to any overly processed pseudo-cheese.

    Here is a link that might be useful: link to Nabisco Easy Cheese

  • oregonwoodsmoke
    13 years ago

    Are those articles for survivalists or people who live off the grid? No close by stores or freezers for them.

    Yes, cheese whiz and several other brands of processed cheese used to come in cans (if they don't still do). We used to use spray cheese to teach the obedience dogs the "go out".

    Spray a dab of cheese on a wall, where it would stick really nicely. Send the dog out and he'd rush to the wall to get his cheese. Except my dogs, who are always spoiled, turned their noses up at it. Real aged cheddar or real meat for them, or they weren't interested.

    Seriously? You can't buy processed cheese in a spray can any more?

  • oregonwoodsmoke
    13 years ago

    PS: the cheese in a spray can wasn't actually a sprayer. It was one of those cans with the little tube on top like whipped cream comes in. You press the tube sideways and the cheese comes out under pressure.

  • laceyvail 6A, WV
    13 years ago

    Cheese Whiz is for putting on pills so dogs will take them.

    As for the canning of odd items, I don't understand why anyone would can potatoes. Yecchh!!

  • david52 Zone 6
    13 years ago

    I may have been dreaming, but I vaguely recall a Red Green show where they made a decent cheese sprayer with an old blender, an air compressor, some aquarium tubing, and duct tape.

  • digdirt2
    Original Author
    13 years ago

    The "why" anyone would want any of these foods aside, no way is it even reasonably safe to home can them. They are potential botulism nests.

    So whatever the reason for doing it - off-the grid, survivalists, bulk purchases, convenience, etc. - how is the risk justified?

    That is IF they are even aware of the risks despite all the info available on it. Ignorance may be bliss but it is still foolish.

    Dave

  • calliope
    13 years ago

    I got such a kick out of this thread. I am guilty of canning potatoes when I have a huge harvest of them. I don't have a root cellar here anymore and canned spuds in stores are expensive........more so than other veggies and I don't understand why. It's a great convenience food for when you want to fry a few with eggs or for times when you run out and it's between trips to the store. We live in the country and I DO NOT run to a store every time I need one or two items. I keep enough in my pantry to avoid that. It costs me at least five dollars in gas each trip I take into town. I wondered why anyone would can dry beans, too until I did it this year. It's great to have one quart of soup beans already cooked for meals where you need a few and don't want to spend a couple hours doing it. It's cost and energy effective too.

  • tracydr
    13 years ago

    Why not dehydrate the bacon if freezer space is an issue?
    I agree with recommended use of spray-cheese, I only buy it for dog training and my spoiled dogs would rather have real cheese or meat. I tried using peanut butter but the new papillon puppy won't even eat that, probably because I bought the cheapest? See what happens when you cook for the dogs, they become gourmet dogs on health food diets!
    I saw recipes for fudge and beef stroganoff with cream and sour cream. I also saw someone say you can take any of your meals and just throw them in cans to preserve.
    I thought survivalists usually wanted to eat more natural, too?

  • neohippie
    13 years ago

    If I were living off the grid and/or didn't have a freezer I would dry a lot of things rather than canning them.

    I guess technically lard and peanut butter aren't shelf stable if they're the homemade or natural kind. If you render your own lard, you need to keep it in the fridge, since commerical lard has preservatives in it. Otherwise it will go rancid. (Yeah, I've done this before, homemade lard is WAY better, but you have to refrigerate it.)

    Peanut butter that's just ground up peanuts - ditto. Commercial peanut butter is full of preservatives that make it shelf stable. Otherwise it also goes rancid if you leave it out too long.

    If I were living off the grid I'd have to do a lot of research on how people stored food back in the pioneer days. I have a feeling they just went without a lot of things we take for granted today, and made a lot of things differently than we do today (like cured meats that are ACTUALLY cured rather than ones that just taste as if they were cured).

    Probably with eggs, milk, etc., you just had to use them when you had them and go without when you didn't.

    And people who lived in cold climates had it easier since during the winter food could be stored outside in a shed and it would stay frozen or at least "refrigerated" for months that way.

    Canning cheese and yogurt is just silly since those were originally ways to preserve milk anyway. Again, modern cheese and yogurt is probably of a different kind, and you'd have to make old-school cheese and yogurt instead.

  • readinglady
    13 years ago

    Well, you could go back to preserving eggs in isinglass, but I'm not eager to try it myself.

    Part of the "old way" of doing things was getting very hungry in springtime. People accepted seasonality and by spring any potatoes left had rotted or sprouted, the apples were shrivelled, the salted meat had run out and there you were - darned eager for the first dandelion greens or whatever to appear, not to mention hoping a deer would turn up on the end of a bullet.

    Carol

  • katykelly_gw
    13 years ago

    Cheese in a spray can is still available . We buy it to feed the fish when snorkling . Parrot fish and many others will take it right out of your fingers .

  • andreaz6wv
    13 years ago

    I had no idea people could/would can some of this crazy stuff!
    Interesting reads though.

    Andrea

  • riley17
    13 years ago

    My new Countryside magazine had an article on canning cake. I couldn't believe it. Doesn't seem safe to me, plus how hard is it to throw a quick cake together? Blech, I don't know how they'd get it out of the jar either, without it crumbling and looking gross.

    Holly

  • digdirt2
    Original Author
    13 years ago

    Doesn't seem safe to me

    You are absolutely right Riley. Good instincts! None of these things are considered safe to can (except potatoes of course).

    Dave

  • riley17
    13 years ago

    Eww, I don't understand. None of those sound even remotely appetizing. Why do they bother printing them if they are unsafe? Wouldn't that make them liable if someone got sick or died?

  • raiquee
    13 years ago

    You know, I can understand why people would want to can certain things (Ie: Gravy, peanut butter (they made themselves), ...really thats it off that list.)
    But somethings (espessially cheese whiz!) I don't get. I thought canning was to perserve our harvest? Ok, when did we start growing cheese whiz?!?

    I can acid foods right now (all i've done is jams, a chutney, and pickles) and I would LOVE to can broth. I see a lot of people pressure canning chunks of meat (ground beef, stew meat, etc) in broth and I think...why? Soup, ok...maybe. But when was the last time you couldn't throw frozen meat into a soup? I mean really!?! I'd also like to can green beans but thats about it on the not-acid front.

    In retrospect, I have 3 freezers (one chest, 2 regulars) and they are packed full after getting that deer...

  • alabamanicole
    13 years ago

    My Mom cans meat, especially chicken, and uses it in soups and stews. It's pretty good -- add some noodles and vegetables and you have instant chicken noodle soup. I probably wouldn't go to the trouble, myself, but I have a big freezer and live somewhere with a stable electric grid. I used to live somewhere without a very stable electric grid, making a freezer much less attractive for preserving foods.

    A lot of stuff on that list I can understand the why (Cheese Whiz being the major exception). When your friend has an avocado tree, asks if you want some, and then and shows up with 2 paper grocery bags full, you gotta wonder what it looks like at their house. :)

    I think what most people don't grasp is that foods like bacon and cheese are already preserved. Just because they aren't shelf stable for 3 years at room temperature doesn't mean their lifespan hasn't already been considerably elongated.

  • nettie3
    10 years ago

    I'm new to canning - sorry to bring up an old thread. As I said in another thread, I've made some newbie mistakes by getting canning advice off youtube. I bought my canner primarily to can meat. So I can buy large amounts when it's on sale. Saving money, but also makes for easy meal prep to open up a can of pre-cooked chicken, ground beef, or pork and add it to a recipe.

    I've seen youtube videos on canning bacon (it's the preppers who do it) and I would not do it because it looked like a real pain in the butt. I can live without bacon, I don't want to go through all that effort.

    But my question is - WHY would it be unsafe to can bacon? Why couldn't you process it like any other meat?

  • digdirt2
    Original Author
    10 years ago

    Why couldn't you process it like any other meat?

    There are a couple of secondary concerns but the primary concern is all the fat it contains, far more than most other meats. Fats in canning coat and insulate any bacteria preventing the heat from killing it.

    When canning all others meats they are first skinned, trimmed, peeled, and then cooled/skimmed/defatted before canning. Try to do that with bacon and you'd have little of anything left to can.

    Secondary concerns are about the weak seals fats can cause, the rancidity that can develop, the paper included in the bacon jars and the effects it has on processing.

    With few exceptions YouTube is not considered a reliable source of safe canning information. So if you plan to be actively canning please consider using only the approved sources such as the Ball canning books and NCHFP.

    Dave

    Here is a link that might be useful: NCHFP

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