In this episode, Kathy discusses how altitude affects canning and the changes you need to make when canning with a water bath canner and a pressure canner.
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Resources
Resources mentioned in this podcast:
In this episode you'll learn:
- Why altitude affects processing when canning
- Additional time is added when water bath canning
- Increased pressure is added when pressure canning
- How to find your altitude
- Temperature changes to boiling water at different elevations
Changes to water bath
| Altitude Feet | Increase Processing Time |
|---|---|
| 1,001- 3,000 3,001- 6,000 6,001- 8,000 8,001-10,000 | 5 minutes 10 minutes 15 minutes 20 minutes |
Changes to pressure canning
| Altitude Feet | Pounds of Pressure |
|---|---|
| 1,001- 2,000 2,001- 3,000 3,001- 6,000 6,001 - 8,000 8,001-10,000 | 11 pounds 12 pounds 13 pounds 14 pounds 15 pounds |
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Transcript
Hello everyone, and welcome back to Preserving the Pantry. We are talking about canning today, and today we are going to be talking about altitude and canning. Not attitude in canning, but altitude, the elevation, where you are at, and how that affects your canning and why it's important.
Hopefully, you have a good attitude when you're canning as well, because why bother canning unless you're going to enjoy it?
Anyway, that's a whole other subject. So we're talking about the altitude today. It's very important. So when you are looking at a recipe, a canning recipe, it should always include either a direct link to how you will adjust for your elevation or a chart that shows you how you adjust for that elevation.
You need to really pay attention to that. Don't just say that doesn't matter, and let it go by the wayside. It matters if you want safe canned food.
So let's take a look at how elevation matters, how it affects the canning water boils at 212 degrees Fahrenheit or a hundred degrees Celsius at sea level, but as you go higher up in elevation that the boiling point actually lowers it lowers by two degrees Fahrenheit for every thousand feet that you go up.
So if you are at 2000 feet in elevation, your boiling point of water is 208 degrees Fahrenheit. If you are at 5,000 feet in elevation, your boiling point is 203 degrees Fahrenheit, and if you are at 7,500 feet, you live way up there, your boiling point is 198 degrees Fahrenheit.
When we are processing foods, having the correct temperature for boiling the water and reaching a temperature for the right amount of time is really important so that food is safe and that you've killed the bacteria or anything that's in there.
If you are new to canning, there are two main methods for canning. There's water bath canning, and there's pressure canning. I have two very detailed posts that outline everything that you need to know about water, bath, canning, and pressure canning. I'll include direct links to those posts so that you can read through there and really understand the difference as well as the process for canning.
They're both great ways of canning, but it's really important that you know when to use the water bath can and when to use the pressure canner for water bath canning. Your jars go into a large pot full of boiling water that will have a lid on it, and you'll process those for a certain amount of time.
The amount of time will change depending on your elevation. So the higher you are, the more time that is added to the water bath.
The pressure canning works by raising the temperature within the pressure canner above 212 degrees Fahrenheit. And the time doesn't change when your pressure canning, but the amount of pressure added changes depending on your elevation.
If you don't know what your elevation is, there are some websites where you just type in your address and it tells you your exact elevation. Check those out if you don't know where you're at. For me, I am just below 2000 feet, so I always round up to 2000 feet and that's what I look at. I adjust for both my water bath canning by adding additional time.
And I adjust my pressure canning by adding additional pressure. Make sure you read those and really find out what you need to do, know where you live, and how you need to adjust. I'll see you next week in the pantry. Bye.
Thanks for listening, and be sure to tune in again next week for more episodes of Preserving the Pantry.
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