Home canning has always been a very mysterious process to me. I have at various times been intimidated by the over-sized pressure cookers and other seemingly necessary equipment utilized in home canning. And just think, here I live in the town that once was a major producer of glass canning jars.
In the early 1880′s, the five Ball brothers began making wood jacketed tin kerosene cans in Buffalo, New York. Due to the corrosive nature of kerosene, they found glass to be a better container. They added a glass furnace to their Buffalo operations, and made fruit jars primarily because of the extra capacity of this furnace.
East Central Indiana and Western Ohio experienced a “gas boom” in the 1880′s. Natural gas was a resource whose value was just beginning to be appreciated, and the Balls soon realized that natural gas could be an inexpensive way to fuel their glass furnace. Muncie’s city fathers took advantage of the gas boom and in 1888 offered the Balls free gas and land to build a new factory. The Balls also took advantage of automation to mass-produce these glass jars and had an adequate transportation and distribution network to make them available across the country.
Ball glass jars were manufactured in Muncie, Indiana
In case you wonder why it’s called canning instead of jarring, here is a little historical trivia. The quest to preserve food was fueled by the French government in the early 1800′s in an attempt to feed the troops during the Napoleonic Wars, and the solution was to cook food in sealed glass jars. Within a few years tin containers replaced glass due to the durability of metal over glass especially since the food had to follow the troops. “Can” was short for cannister, so tin cans replaced glass jars in most commercial applications. Processing food at home continued to be referred to as canning. Interestingly enough, 50 years passed from the time of the invention of the tin can until the invention of the can opener!
On a rainy morning last week I had my first lesson in home canning. Although many foods can only be preserved by using heat under pressure, the high acidity of vinegar is a good way to kill bacteria so pickled beets can be canned in a boiling water bath without the need for a pressure cooker.
My cousin Rebecca’s garden yielded bushels of beets, and she has room in her garage for assembly line cooking, peeling, slicing, pickling and canning.
Click to enlarge image
The beets were boiled in a large pot on the gas grill, then cooled off outside. They were then taken inside where many hands peeled and sliced. The sliced beets were transferred to glass jars. A mixture of equal parts vinegar and brown sugar plus a smidgeon of salt made the pickling solution which was poured over the beets.
The jars were then covered with two-part lids. 
The reusable ring secures the lid, which contains a rubber gasket responsible for the airtight seal with the jar. The lids were sterilized in boiling water, placed over the mouth of the jar and then loosely secured with the band. Jars were placed in a boiling water bath for at least 10 minutes. After the jars were removed from the boiling water we heard a “plink” from each jar as it cooled indicating a seal. At the end of the morning we had 53 jars of pickled beets.
Although home canning nearly became a lost art, putting up vegetables and fruits from the garden was common in rural Indiana through the 1950′s. There is a movement to grow more produce for local consumption, and statistics indicate a recent growth in the numbers of glass jars sold and home canning workshops attended. As I learned, canning can be lots of fun when done with friends.
April 11, 2011 at 1:22 pm |
[...] and became a cheap energy resource. The Ball family moved from Buffalo, New York to Muncie to manufacture glass mason jars. At the same time other neighboring towns also had glass factories. Dunkirk, Indiana, 15 miles [...]