The head space is to give room for expansion of the liquid . Air will compress liquid will not . Pressure can build to the point of bursting the jar if there is no air at the top . If you are hot packing you will have hot liquid to use . If cold packing room temperature water or broth is ok . You are cooking raw meat in the jar so it makes broth while cooking in the water .Liquid needs to fill the air spaces between the meat . No air pockets . Air pockets or meat above the liquid will dry out . Canning salt is best . You can get too much iodine in your diet . You need some therefore they put it in table salt . Just a precaution in canning in case you eat a lot of canned food . You are probably ok in a pinch with table salt but why take a chance ? I hope this helps .Rank, green-horn, newbie canner here.
I'm a bit confused about a recipe for canning chicken. This is in the Ball Blue Book Guide to Preserving. It says to pack either raw or hot meat leaving a 1" headspace. It then says to ladle in hot water or broth leaving 1" headspace. If you leave a one inch space above the meat about the only liquid you could add would be what could fit between the pieces of meat....with raw meat there would be very little room as it would most likely sag down filling the jar pretty tightly. I can imagine that with with hot-packing that the meat would be a bit more stiff and would leave spaces between the pieces that could be filled with the water or broth.
In the case of raw-packing, would the idea be to fill the jar leaving an inch of head space and there would be no need in adding hot broth or water? And, with hot-packing the idea is to simply fill in between the meat pieces with water/broth. In both cases the meat would be an inch from the top...is this correct?
I'm not sure if I'm explaining my confusion adequately, though I'm probably showing it quiet well.
One more question... Should I use "canning" salt or will regular iodized salt be ok with chicken?
Thanks for any feedback on this!
Ed
Hmmm, I think I'm further confused. (Not hard for me to get that way.
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Well rookies sometimes over tighten .You did say rookie question . You can still get pressure after tightening if filled to the top but not usually enough to burst . yes a vacuum is made as it cools .Hmmm, I think I'm further confused. (Not hard for me to get that way.
I understand that the head space is to keep the boiling food from boiling out of the jar. But, isn't a vacuum actually being created as the heated air is expelled from the jars followed by the contents cooling and contracting (both food and air)? High pressure wouldn't happen unless the lids were over-tightened, would it?
I guess what I'm wondering is if the bottom line is that we need an inch of head space in the jar when we put the lids on with the area below that 1" mark air-free and filled with meat and liquid.
I do it all the time .
