Canning Potatoes - Any advice/ experience in same ?

I know; potatoes keep for quite a while, but they DO lose moisture, rot and sprout ! I thought canning would be an alternative idea, AND, while there is STILL LAST YEARS crop of NON radioactive ones to choose from.

Eagle

Sure, why not?

Please do not do this - low acid veggies need a pressure canner or you may grow some nasty bacteria.

Please get the Ball Blue Book of canning -

A canning error can be fatal.




[link to jordansfarm.wordpress.com]

To pressure can Potatoes:

(are a low acid food and must be pressured canned to destroy all bacteria and etc.)

Small ones: just wash well and pack loosely in jars.

Large ones: Peel and cut into a brine water ( 1 teaspoon salt to a quart of water) , then rinse and pack loosely in to jars.

Then add 1 teaspoon of salt per quart and fill with water.

Process 40 minutes for quarts at 15 lbs.

Happy Canning!

For those of you who do not have a pressure canned, the potatoes can be froze, put in the cool part of your refrigerator. But please do not use a hot water bath canner as it is not safe.

See comment #25 below on how to freeze potatoes.

( more answers can be found in the comments here)

Lady I met in Stop & Shop said her mother did it this way. Hate to waste the time and effort for poor results.

Eagle

this

Go ahead and do it your way. We need to thin out the stupid ones from the herd.

Besides, I hear Botulism is lots of fun. And you only have to wait between 8 and 36 hours to find out...

You need a pressure canner for this! It is well worth the money, believe me! I have canned potatoes, put a little salt in with them and be sure to cut out all the spots, they could breed bacteria in the long run.

Remember...PRESSURE CANNER! A MUST!

under proper conditions they can be stored a long time = root celler

Thanks, Watcher/others.

Eagle out !

I got A HUGE Presto canner from Walmart for 80.00 online. So don't think you have to pay 200 -300 for a good one. You'll rest better knowing you've canned them safely.

Come to think of it, OP, mind if I derail your thread a little for another canning question?

I canned a bunch of ground beef for shepherd's pie filling, processed it at 15 lbs for 90 mins. So far, okay.

But THEN I realized I had used gravy instead of broth for the liquid. A little research revealed that, since gravy contains flour, it would not be safe to eat the food now.

Anybody have any expertise on this? Do I really have to toss the 12 quarts?

OP, you can go ahead and delete this post if you don't want it here - it's all good.

They MUST be canned with a pressure canner, NOT a hot water bath. Potatoes are low acid....

Here's the best how-to page, with pictures and everything: [link to www.pickyourown.org]

It's quite simple.

Not sure about this one. They do can gravy and stews. Do you have the right head space after. I think the flour problem is because it soaks up the the liquid.

For what its worth

I have seen recipes that instruct you to hot pack your meat in hot gravy or broth. 90 minutes at 15 lbs seems to be the standard instruction.

But I like to follow a tested recipe very strictly.

Yes.

Wow. I never heard of anyone canning potatoes.

I thought that you keep potatoes stored in the dark. Root cellar. Isn't that a better idea?

Thanks...I left an inch of head space, but the very top of the meat did end up with a layer of white stuff? Could it be fat from the meat, or flour that separated from the gravy in the process?

I wonder if there is any way of checking the meat for safety before consuming it? Looks like I learned this one the hard way...

Well I've done stuff and then read I shouldn't have put noodles in. It looked pretty ugly but I ate it almost a year later. But I made sure I cooked the shit out of it first, boiled for at least 10 min. So I think you're ok as long as you reheat at boil for 10 minutes, I read that will kill everything.

Poor results, hell! One snippet of botulism toxin is highly fatal. Talk about poor results!

This is not safe. You must use a pressure canner.

Potatoes can be kept for quite a long time if packed in a box of sand in a cool place.

Yes, it's the flour.

You can can anything... just have to know what you are doing...

canning them takes a lot of work! I like to slice thin and dehydrate, then store in gallon glass jars I get from the deli in town. You can throw a few handfuls in a pot of soup, or rehydrate and add sauce, like those store mixes of 'scalloped' potatoes, or you can put them in the crock pot with a roast.


They last a long time as long as you keep them free of moisture and pests..also easier to take with you if you have to bug out!

Thanks for the response...for this dish I would normally pour it out into a pie dish and then put the mashed potatoes on top before baking it at 350 for 30 mins.

But, usually I've only cooked the shepherd's pie and then frozen it for later re-heating. This way is new. Maybe I'll try boiling it up stovetop first, then do the second phase with the potatoes as usual.

If you never see me on glp again, you'll know what happened...

Unfortunately, OP does not.

How do you keep them from turning grey/black ?
I've tried the dehydrator before, but I keep getting grey slices of taters.


To OP...I've canned potatoes quite a bit.
I always use the tiny babies that are left after you dig them. They are perfect 'jar size'.
I use a pressure canner,and a Ball Blue Book of Canning, for times, pressure ect.
I just wash and scrub the babies reallllly well, put in the jars, add salt, boiling water...process.

They are wonderful put in with greenbeans, when you don't have a lot of time, or it's the wrong time of year for 'new potatoes'.