I recently took a canning/food preservation class through the WSU Extension Service, the instructor was a Master Canner. She talked about steam canners and said that they don't kill off all the anaerobic bacteria that can grow once a product is canned and stressed not using them at all for canning. She also impressed on the class the importance of using the right type of canner -water or pressure- depending on the pH of the food you are canning. If using a pressure canner, get one that has weights as opposed to a dial gauge because the gauge can be inaccurate in it's readings and will need to be constantly monitored for the entire pressure canning process. Some pressure canners will come with both a gauge and weights which I was informed is fine because it does have both.
As far as recipes, the instructor recommended the Ball Blue Book of recipes and a canning recipe book that is published through the University of Georgia. The reason she recommended these recipes is because they have been tested time and time again to make sure the food will stay preserved and not spoil. She was adament about staying away from recipes that haven't been tested.
Also, don't can food that is over-ripe, bruised, or headed for the compost bin. It's best to use food in it's prime.
For more information on canning, check out
www.homecanning.com and if you're interested in the canning cookbook put out by the Universtiy of Georgia, you can find it here
http://www.uga.edu/setp/ and then there's The National Center for Home Food Preservation
http://www.uga.edu/nchfp/, which also has a link to the "So Easy to Preserve" cookbook.
I'm going to be canning for the first time this year also. Once I'm done buying all the supplies for my coop, I hope to have enough money to get a nice pressure canner from Lehman's.
Hope this helps!
Lydia
