Food lovers are not food spoilers, the same analogy that they get disappointed of foods being wasted. However, preserving foods can be an advantage not just for food lovers; but of course, there’s also no exemption for those who love cooking. We are part of food chain right? And eating is our basic need. How about getting a glimpse of pressure canning? Along the way, you’ll get to know the basic information that you need about it; how it prevents spoilage and the benefits you’re going to get with it.

There are mainly four agents that cause spoilage of our foods. These are mainly enzymes, molds, yeast and bacteria. But it can be easily destroyed especially in 100 oC, that’s why boiling is enough to eradicate those. However, in addition to that, the latter exist in abundance on low acid, in absence of air. So, there are still microbiologic substances such as bacteria that produce spores which can be dangerous if ingested. Thus, higher exposure of temperature is needed. That’s when pressure canning comes in handy. This process hampers the spoil cycle of the food making it still edible for longer span of time.

Pressure canning literally uses pressure by maintaining the canner in specific temperature (240 Fahrenheit, or 115.5 oC) through an aid of heavy kettle which incorporates locking vacuum from air to guarantee the quality of food is not degraded and especially get rid of microorganisms that are persistent. There are two types of gauge which measure the pressure of the canner on its indicated temperature namely dial gauge and weighted gauge. The difference between these two is that in weighted gauge, there’s an automatic process of cooking unlike dial gauge which needs intricate monitoring of the gauge.

For safety purposes, check your dial gauges if it’s still accurate before using it, you’ll be able to check its accuracy if it doesn’t read higher than 1-2 pounds pressure. For replacement of the parts of your canner, check its model to complement the use of its parts.

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