Ahhhh! Now I knew I had seen pictures of such productivity somewhere before! & Of course it was you!
So a large tub of water does the job. How long do you boil for? Do you seal the jars after being in the bath.... etc. etc.
Away to read your site again.
Wonderful! You've just saved me a fortune I think! Can you recommend any good books with instructions/ recipes etc.
PS Would you mind if I copied a link to your site onto the forum at www.growveg.info ? I posted the same question there too & some folk may find it interesting.
You can just use your normal recipes, whenever you make a stew or whatever you can do a few jars at the same time and have a "ready meal" in your stash.
The most important thing is the timing of sterilising to make sure the food is safe to eat after a long period.
Sorry I don't know of any books but I'm sure there are millions !
Well - I eventually spotted a canner like the picture above second hand on ebay with loads of extras... so I've bought it. I've also ordered some more Le Parfait jars from Lakeland - I've done a count round the house and discovered I now own 45 jars... not that many but enough to get going!. I hope to experiment with some of our own pork from the freezer once the canner arrives.
I did think about the straight waterbath method - but in work we always use an autoclave for sterilisation so when I spotted this canner second hand & at a good price I decided I would be more confident of the products using the higher temperatures attainable with pressure.
biffvernon wrote:One should can things in metal containers and bottle them in glass.
Those with the bottle can defend the language.
I did ask once. Apparently pressure "canning" was originally done in real cans even at home. Then the cans became less available so folk started to use glass jars - but the canning name stuck.
In Europe metal cans were used less often and the term bottling was/is used more often......
Glad I corrected myself before you got there.......
You won't find any information in UK publications about bottling vegetables or meat because they basically all rehash the old MAFF publication from years ago which stated that there was a risk of botulism because domestic water bath methods did not reach a high enough temperature. I don't think it considered bottling with a pressure cooker but my old Prestige pressure cooker manual which is based on the same source has no information on bottling meat or vegetables so I assume not.
Americans, on the other hand, use pressure cookers to can/bottle everything (they even recommend pressure cooking jars of homemade jam!!) but their cookers have precise gauges and may specify a higher temperature than UK pressure cookers are capable of. Also modern UK pressure cookers are now like European ones and only operate at two pressures whereas the old Prestige cookers had three weights.
The answer is it is probably safe but no official UK source is going to tell you so.
these links may be of interest also gives some sources for pressure canners
Pressure canning is considered safer since the higher temperature more effectivly kills bacteria that cause the food to spoil.
The risks of water bath canning are not that great, many people have done it for decades and survived, but there is considered to be some risk especialy with meat and with non-acid foods.
Whilst only a fool would consume food that smelt/looked/tasted spoiled, it should be noted that some types of bacteria, including botulism can make food unsafe, although it appears to be wholesome.
"Installers and owners of emergency diesels must assume that they will have to run for a week or more"
I experience pleasure and pains, and pursue goals in service of them, so I cannot reasonably deny the right of other sentient agents to do the same - Steven Pinker
Yup. Same make as the one I put in the OP. 21quart size - it will hold 7x 1 litre jars.
Apparently there is also duty to pay on it coming into the country! Just heard this today.... and I thought it would be okay as it is second hand.. Just shows how much I know!
So hopefully I should have it here in a day or two.
- and apparently they "can" while we Europeans "bottle"! 
