It would have been fine to post this as a continuation of your previous thread. It's less redundant and confusing.

Dry spices, dried peppers, etc. are not an issue in canning. Fresh herbs can be an issue, depending upon quantities and the recipe.

As I said in your other post (link was provided) the tomatoes, red peppers and squash can be processed. None of those veggies are high-acid. Tomatoes are marginal; peppers and squash are low-acid. There's no "problem" as such with canning high-acid and low-acid veggies together; you just need access to a tested recipe for the appropriate guidelines. Processing times are determined not just by pH but also by density, oil content, etc.

You could PROBABLY get away with oven-roasting veggies with a very (emphasis on the "very") light brushing of oil, but beyond that I wouldn't venture unless you're using a tested recipe that accounts for the oil. Even then it's iffy.

I recommend that you go to the link I provided. The University of Georgia National Center for Home Food Preservation is the gold-star online site; you just can't do better. It offers a wealth of information, including info on using a pressure canner and also offers a free self-paced online course on home food preservation.

Have you considered freezing your sauce? It would be simpler and require fewer accomodations.

What canning book are you referring to? Some are great; others are out-of-date or unreliable.

Carol

Here is a link that might be useful: National Center for Home Food Preservation

There are cooking recipes and canning recipes. They are not the same. Stick with reliable canning recipes from reliable sources and you will be fine. The USDA websites and the Ball Blue Book are good places to start. I will send the link below to the USDA recipes. Lots of good information there. There is no list per se.
Some spices do get strong or bitter when canned. Not many recipes have oil that are safe. A little in some recipes to saute vegetables and a few that are HIGHLY acidified for marinated vegetables. Not all veggies can be marinated in oil, just the safe recipes that have been tested.

Here is a link that might be useful: National Center for Home Food Preservation.

There is a problem canning mixed veggies if the squash is a winter squash. You cannot add winter squash in the mix.
Optional mix  You may change the suggested proportions or substitute other favorite vegetables except leafy greens, dried beans, cream-style corn, winter squash and sweet potatoes.

The book I'm referring to is the "Better Homes and Gardens: Home Canning Cook Book." Published by Meredith. Surprisingly, there is no other publication information in the book. I would guess it was published in the 70s or 80s. I can't imagine imagine what has changed in home canning methods and/or technology in the past two decades.

Additional Question: are any kind of beans generally good to go so long as they have been soaked overnight?

Good Lord. You're referring to a canning book 34 years old (1973). Of course nothing has changed with canning in 34 years, just like nothing's changed with cars, TV's, home appliances, recipes. Heck, even Pluto's been demoted from a planet.

Food science is like any other science and many canning standards have changed as more studies and testing have been done. I might also add that bacteria evolve and we face, in some instances, challenges somewhat different than those of 34 years ago.

Please do not use that book. Use the NCFHP site, get a new edition of the Ball Blue Book or the Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving. I'd recommend the second, which is not only more complete in terms of number of recipes, but which also has more information for beginning canners.

Carol

I've got a great canning recipe book with lots of vegetable...

Are these recipes you posted from that book? If so, then I'd question its use too. ;) Can you tell us the name of the book please? Do the recipes include the processing instructions for these recipes? Otherwise, as Linda Lou said, they are just cooking recipes, not canning recipes.

The chili, if you skip sauteing the onions (it isn't needed any way) and if the beans are fully re-hydrated first and added only when ready to serve, and if you use dried parsley, will be ok if it is pressure canned.

This recipe is from the Ball Blue Book:
5 lbs. ground beef
2 c chopped onions
1 clove garlic, minced
6 c chopped tomatoes and juice
1/2 c chili powder
1 1/2 T canning salt
1 hot red pepper, finely chopped
1 tsp. cumin seed

Brown meat in large saucepot and drain off all the fat. Add onions and garlic; cook slowly till onions are tender. Add remianing ingredients and simmer 20 mins. Skim off all excess fat before canning. Ladle hot chili into hot jars leaving 1 inch headspace. Remove air bubbles, adjust caps. Process pints 1 hour 15 minutes or quarts 1 hour and 30 mins. at 10 (11 on gauge) pounds in a pressure canner. Add cooked or canned pinto or kidney beans when ready to serve and heat thoroughly.

Now, you can easily leave out the meat if you wish and just use the rest of the recipe with no problems. Or you can substitute your parsley and hot sauce and still be ok.

On the Squash recipe - leave out the milk, the olive oil, the yeast, and use only summer squash (or Linda's suggest veges). When ready to serve you can then add the left out ingredients.

Hope this helps.

Dave

Carol hit the nail on the head while I was posting. Do NOT use that book!!

Dave

Apologies for being so abrupt before, had to run quickly to help DW.

That book has been off the shelf for years - pulled by the publisher - and has come under discussion in the past for some highly questionable info.

As Carol recommended, the Ball Blue Book, considered kind of the bible of home canning and cheap and available wherever canning supplies are sold, or the Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving are excellent resources with step by step directions for hundreds of tested, safe recipes. And the link provided earlier to National Center for Home Food Preservation is the best source of online, up-to-date, canning rules and recipes. For safety sake, please explore those sources before attempting any home preservation.

Good health! ;)

Dave

Firstly, the two recipes are not from the Better Homes and Garden Book.

Can you cite any kind of experience with a recipe gone awry from the book?

I'm looking particularly for mixed vegetable dishes (especially with legumes included), to be used as prepared meals. This book has several recipes of this kind.

However, I'll try and find the Ball Blue Book.

Can I cite an experience with it? No, like most who do lots of canning each year, I keep my canning books current since the safety rules, recipes, processing times, and pressure cooking requirements change almost annually due to continued testing. Most reputable canning books come out with edited and updated version every 2 years, 3 at the most. The Ball Blue Book is updated every year.

We make a concerted effort when posting here to provide only safe, tested info but at the same time each person has to assess and decide on their own level of risk. According to the ISBN, 1996 is the last version the BH&G published of this book and it is only available used. Your local library may have a copy and you could compare the recipes in your book with it to see the changes made. But it would still be 10 years out of date.

There are many pickled mixed vegetable recipes available as pickling is safer but freezing containers of mixed vegetables is the most commonly recommended approach. Blanched, mix, and frozen in plastic, microwave safe containers would be a great way to have ready-to-heat-and-eat meals.

Walmart carries the Ball Blue Book as do many grocery stores, farm & fleet stores, and hardware stores that carry canning supplies. You can also order it online from several suppliers.

Good luck. ;)

Dave

Here is a link that might be useful: Mixed Vegetables Recipe

You asked for recommendations and we gave them. You are free to follow or ignore them.

It would be irresponsible of us to support questionable canning practices or recipes of doubtful or out-of-date provenance. Often-times newer sources provide revised processing times, added acid (common with canned tomatoes since about 1978), newly-developed recipes or recipes which have been re-written for greater accuracy and consistency (i.e. "1 1/2 pounds of onions" rather than "3 medium onions).

Generally canning sources which pre-date 1994, the last revision of USDA guidelines (A new revision is currently in the works.), are not reliable sources to go by. They may have individual recipes which are still acceptable (jams, chutneys and relishes often fall into this category) but it takes an experienced canner to sort the wheat from the chaff.

As an example, it used to be common practice to can pumpkin butter. But when the NCHFP and various Extension agencies re-visited the issue with more accurate testing instruments, they realized the water content and pH of home-canned pumpkin varied so greatly they could not come up with a consistently safe recipe and processing time. Consequently, the recipes were pulled. Another example is certain refrigerated pickles. Recent research has revealed potential problems with the growth of listeria if these pickles are cured at room temperature before refrigeration. These recipes are now under re-consideration.

However, go back a few years in any of the commonly-used canning publications, and you will see these kinds of recipes. It's important for home-canners to keep up-to-date with new developments in food-science, just as with any other science. Things do change.

Carol

In the 7th post on this string, 'Dave' aka digdirt, suggests a chili recipe from the Ball Blue Book. He also stated that the meat can be removed. Could I reduce the canning time from 1.5 hours to 0.5-1 hour if I do it vegetarian?

yes, you can reduce canning time significantly, and there's a recipe for that! Many of us add meat when cooking instead of when canning just for that reason.

Another very important reason to keep updating your food preservation methods, etc., is that the veggies themselves are changing. Genetic engineering is the thing of the future, and these veggies are definitely not the same ones your grandmother used and didn't die from her processing. Every time a trait is bred into a tomato, for instance, some are lost. The most obvious is the acidity in tomatoes has dropped drastically in the last 10 years. Hence, we MUST add acid to every jar before processing.

> The most obvious is the acidity in tomatoes has dropped drastically in the last 10 years.

Gran2, I agree that it's a good idea to use only tested, recent recipes, but all the most reliable information I've seen suggest that tomato acidity has remained pretty much the same over time. The exception is a few varieties specifically bread to be low acid, several decades ago, which are very rare today. (Jet Star being the most common one.)

Can you cite where you heard about the acidity dropping drastically? I love tomatoes and read all the good info I can find about them and would like to check out whatever source that is, if it's one you feel is trustworthy.

Zabby