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We pressure can a lot of stuff from the garden, and a common practice among old timers was to also can surplus meats. I did that with some beef roast last year and it was a big hit with older relatives on my mother's side. Rekindled memories of their youth. I still have jars of canned beef and chicken on the shelf. Having said that, I had never heard of oven canning dried goods. Interesting concept.
What I have heard of is a similar process used by the Mormons for long term food storage. Instead of the heat of the oven, they use oxygen absorbers.....which are little packets with a very fine iron powder in them. When the jar is sealed, the oxygen gas component left in it reacts with the iron to make iron oxide......rust, which converts the gas to a solid, and in doing so, eliminates the gas from inside the jar.....creating a vacuum. And since the O2 is gone.......about the only gas left is nitrogen, and the bugs and their eggs are killed. The material used to make the oxygen absorber packet lets oxygen in, but the powder can't get out.
And for those who don't know, one of the practices of the Mormon faith is to store food for occasions just like this. Goal is to be able to ride out a year with what you have on hand at any moment in time. That takes some planning.....and they have it down to a science.
I am not Mormon, but liked the idea enough to adopt it small scale. We always have at least a month of food on hand at any given time........and it has been that way for at least 40 years. Evening meals are planned for a month in advance. Cheaper to do it that way and we always know what we are having for dinner. Lady I'm married to may have some faults, but skills as the food service manager is not one of them.
I'm going to get some of the oxygen absorbers and try them on a few things. I think I'll heat first though. I want to make sure all critters are graveyard dead lol.
I wonder if tap dancers walk into a room, look at the floor, and think, I'd tap that. I wonder about things.....
Re: Dry canning in the oven tutorial
[Re: Catch22]
#6831026 04/05/2012:01 PM04/05/2012:01 PM
Again, I advise everyone to do their own research and see if you think it's right for you. There are some good things written out there about it, and some negative, so be your own judge. Here's a positive article. I tweaked it a bit.
I finished up a few jars of quick rolled oats and they had a small amount of moisture in the jars. A few of the websites and Youtube video's said this is normal and will dissipate. I don't like it and feeling as though I lost my confidence in dry canning. If moisture is in sealed jars I think mold or bacteria can grow. So, I wanted to give you all an update and let you know that I don't think I'll be dry canning in the oven anymore. I was hoping to help people find different ways to store food but I don't think this is reliable. Sorry!
Last edited by Catch22; 04/05/2010:02 PM. Reason: Wanted to put in a disclaimer
I wonder if tap dancers walk into a room, look at the floor, and think, I'd tap that. I wonder about things.....
I don’t think you will ever get all the moisture out unless you freeze dry it Catch. I wouldn’t give up if I were you. If you kill the bacteria then the lid seals there should be a vacuum, I don’t think most bacteria can grow in a vacuum. Anyway, I havnt lost the faith yet. I’m still gonna try it!!!
About the jar sealing. I was going to fix spaghetti a couple of weeks ago. Tipped the box up and there was dust from the box on the counter. looking closer there were black specs there too. Threw the spaghetti away and bought some more. Several days later it was spaghetti day again. I tipped the box up and just a tiny bit of dust. I turned the box other side down and something in the dust moved. That's when I ordered the jar sealer. Bugs do need air to live. Hope this works.
Hey catch 22 The oats probably had moisture in them. They probably sucked up moisture from the air. Maybe just not a good item to dry can .or maybe just need dehydrating before don't give up. I too had never heard of preserving dry like you tried.. . just
Just, I think your right about the oats. They all said oats were great for dry canning but I'm not in that camp now lol. The lentils I did turned out good. I think I'll get some oxygen absorbers and a vacuum sealer!
I wonder if tap dancers walk into a room, look at the floor, and think, I'd tap that. I wonder about things.....
Beans,macaroni,rice,powdered milk,potatoe Flakes.I put a 300 cc oxygen absorber in the jars then seal with my vac sealer.Salt and sugar I just vac seal.
I've done some dry canning and have had great results with it. It's easy and effective. I have a little pantry in the basement with some store bought canned goods and some items that we dry canned at home. It's nice to know that when we run out of many things, instead of needing to run to the grocery story, we just go down the basement steps the "grocery store" in the basement.
I'm very concerned about botulism. From what I've read, the botulism bacteria thrives in the absence of oxygen. That's the environment it needs to grow. But the botulism bacteria itself isn't toxic - it's the waste products of the bacteria that creates the botulotoxin. So, low oxygen canned goods are the perfect place for the bacteria to grow. They bacteria eventually die off but the toxic byproducts remain. However, the botulotoxin itself is destroyed by heat. So, by cooking whatever came out of the can, you are safe from the toxin even if there was botulism bacteria in the can. I don't plan on eating raw flour so I'm not too worried about it.
We've dry canned flour, oats, sugar, salt, beans, powdered milk, and an oatmeal mix I use when camping. For the oatmeal mix, I prepare a mix of oats, salt, cinnamon, powdered milk, and brown sugar. When I go camping I can just mix in boiling water, or if I want to dress it up, throw in some butter and raisins or dried apples.
I do leave my jars in the oven a little longer - usually about 1 hour. At this temperature it drives off nearly all the moisture and leaves the contents bone dry and free of humidity from the air. I'm sure the dry canned goods will last for decades although we usually cycle through them every 3-4 years.
Things we can keep in our basement pantry for years - in addition to the dry canned goods: ketchup, mayonnaise, barbecue sauce Vienna sausages tuna soup canned fruits and vegetables pickles and olives sardines Spam baked beans
What from Christ that soul can sever, Bound by everlasting bands? None shall take thee From the Strength of Israel's hands.
Great post Kart. I did do the oats different. They were in for just over and hour. This video has over a million hits and she addresses moisture and says if it goes away within a few hours your good. I just don't trust it. I'm thinking the oats are getting dumped.
I wonder if tap dancers walk into a room, look at the floor, and think, I'd tap that. I wonder about things.....
On botulism, I make smoked sausage now and then, and one of the key ingredients for adding to meats you plan to smoke is sodium nitrate....aka, "cure". The purpose of the cure is to prevent the botulism producing bacteria from going active during the smoking process. Botulism bacteria are actually quite common and are on all kinds of foods we eat each day. They only present a danger under the right conditions.....when they go active and start producing their deadly toxins. To go active, they require heat (within a certain range), moisture and an anaerobic environment. All are present in a meat smoker at the normal smoking temps of around 160 or so. I refer to "cure" added to smoked meats as being similar to the passover instruction of putting goat's blood on top of your door. It is what signals death to pass you by.
Dry canning under heat would seem to produce similar conditions. Heat over 200 degrees may be above the level where botulism can survive. Can't say. But we don't add cure when smoking pork butts, brisket, ribs, etc, and those are generally up in the range of 225+.....also high moisture and also anaerobic. So maybe dry canning is a risk, maybe not.
I got out my Ball Blue Book, the bible for home canning, and it makes no mention of dry canning in ovens. Closest reference was to use glass jars with canning lids to store dehydrated foods. None of that was for long term storage.
Boning up on the use of oxygen absorbers reveals some interesting facts. They start out by saying for dry foods to remain stable, they must start out at 10% moisture or less.......not sure how the average person would know what that is. They probably sell moisture meters for such......but I've never seen one. I have one for measuring moisture in baled hay.....but don't think that would work in the kitchen. But they also explain that once the absorber packet goes in the jar, the dry food goes in with it and then gets sealed up at room temp. The iron in the packet then combines with the oxygen in the jar....which they say is roughly 20%.......the O2 gas then combines with the iron to form rust.......converting gas to solid.....and creating a vacuum in the process. And it gets nearly 99.99% of the O2 out, so all bugs and eggs of bugs die. About as stable as you can get. They say the vacuum is actually greater than what most vacuum packers can do, the latter of which still leaves some O2 gas in the package. And the rust process also requires some moisture, so even works on lowering that too. Overall, the oxygen absorbers would seem to be the way to go.
Beyond that, the Mormon literature also claims you can use PETE bottles to do this......basically the same plastic bottles we get juice, gatorade and other liquid products in. All things considered, the O2 absorbers seem to be the simple, cheap and effective way to go.
The germophobe in me wants to point out that your barely wet paper towel wasn't in the oven, that you are touching every jar with it before you seal it, and that it is most likely a source of contamination.
Good luck. If you read about even wet canning food there are the same negative nancys saying it'll kill you too. I wouldn't worry about it. Theres some in every crowd.
I'm a novice on this. But here is what I have found. There are 2 types of jars wide mouth and regular. It seems that there are two mfgrs of jar fixtures. I have the foodsaver machine. I bought the fixture on line. It did not come with the hose needed to use it. I had to order that separate. Make sure the one you order is for your vacuum machine. Speaking of vacuum machines I have read that you can vacuum jars with a auto brake bleeder vacuum. Available st harbor freight. So I bought one. To my wifes dismay. lol I cannot squeeze the pump long enough to make it work. Results may vary. It took a little practice to make the foodsaver work as it should and I had a little trouble because of a tiny crack in a jar but it does work. I did not find any instructions to seal jars so it was just trial and error. I found that they will unseal if you don't screw the rings on.
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