Canning broth
When canning with chicken or beef stock would I consider this meat and use the higher canning time required?
Judith Almand
Lithia, Florida
No. If you are canning just broth with no meat, you would only process pints for 20 minutes and quarts for 25 minutes for both chicken and beef broths. Of course, if you add pieces of meat, you’d then process for the higher “meat” required time of 75 minutes for pints and 90 minutes for quarts, all at 10 pounds pressure unless you live at an altitude above 1,000 feet. — Jackie
Cloudy broth
I’ve also been doing some catch up canning. Mostly broth. My beef broth and ham broth both turned out cloudy. I’ve never had that happen before. They smell and taste great, and canned up fine. I’ll do the sniff test, but am wondering what may have caused this. I used the same pot, and added carrots, onions, and celery. Cooked on the woodstove overnight. 3 batches of each, and 2 of the beef and 2 of the ham look more like gravy, though not thick like gravy. The other batches turned out nice and clear. Do you have any ideas?
Liz Wheeler
Miles City, Montana
It may just be that because you cooked the broths on the wood stove overnight, there may have been more tiny pieces of meat/veggies broken down by long cooking. If the broths were processed correctly and are sealed, along with smelling fine on opening, I wouldn’t worry a bit. — Jackie
Canning potatoes
I’m new to canning and canned some Yukon Potatoes a few months ago. I used a small amount of ascorbic acid with some of the batches but not all. Now I notice that some of the jars have a grayish color to the water. It looks like it might be a sediment, maybe starch? I used Tattler lids and had good results. The seals are intact. Any thoughts on this?
Walter Brown
Crescent City, California
I’d guess that your off color is, as you suspected, just potato starch which has settled out after canning. As always, if you followed correct canning directions and the jars are sealed, I wouldn’t worry at all. As with everything we can, on opening, check the appearance of the food in the jar, open it, noting that it is indeed sealed well, then sniff the contents. If everything is well, as it usually is, go ahead and heat and eat! Glad to hear you’ve started canning. You’ll quickly find how much fun it is! — Jackie
Canning nopales
There was a post where people wanted to know how to can nopales (cactus). I would love to know how to. Do you have a recipe? Preferably not pickled; I love the plain wonderful taste. Please direct me where I can find a recipe.
Amelia Dials
San Diego, California
Unfortunately, there is no approved method for home canning nopales. Some folks can them as you would green beans but this is, again, NOT an approved method. Instead, you might like them frozen. It is easy and the taste is great when thawed. Simply clean the fresh, young cactus pads of their spines, rinse, then cut into strips. Boil for one minute to blanch, then drain and pack into freezer containers.
Pickling nopales is pretty easy. Here’s one recipe:
12 oz. cactus pad
4 oz. onion
1 jalapeño
1 cup water
1 cup apple cider vinegar
2 Tbsp. salt
1 tsp. peppercorn
Remove the spines from young, tender nopales (cactus leaves), then rinse well. Slice onion into thin strips. Trim the stem end off the jalapeño, halve, and cut into thin strips. Remove the seeds and membranes to reduce the heat if desired.
In a stainless steel pot, combine the vinegar, salt, and peppercorn. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for 10 minutes. Pack the cactus strips, onion, and jalapeño into clean jars. Pour the vinegar brine into the jars, leaving ½ inch headspace. Apply lids and rings, and process in the water bath canner for 10 minutes.
I hope you enjoy your nopales. Not only are they good, but they’re good for you too! — Jackie
The longer you simmer your meat , the cloudier the broth gets, you will also notice that when it is cooled down it looks like broth gelatine. I cook the chicken in the slowcooker for a few days after 12 hours I take most of the meat of the bones and drain the broth, which you can can up or put in the freezer. I refill the pot with the meat bones and water and let it go for another day, this broth is browner, sometimes I add a tablespoon of apple cider vinegar, which you won’t taste in the broth, than it leeches even more gelatine out of the bones. I do this till the bones are soft and break easy, by that time the broth is dark brown. For beeft I do it the same way, but I cook it way longer. You get very healthy thick jelled broth.
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