If You Want To Preserve Food Against Hard Times

Don't be afraid to try Water Bath canning.

I know that in America, your USDA (?) has made you so afraid of WB canning most people never do it. This convinces you to purchase expensive pressure canners.

Well, here in Europe we have water bath canned food…including meat…for generations. Centuries. We don’t have pressure canners here and to import them from America would be prohibitive.

For those folks thinking “OMG! Botulism!!” bear this in mind..botulism cannot form or thrive in an acidic environment. When we WB can, we always add vinegar to ensure botulism is never an issue. And even if you are afraid still of it, remember that botulism is destroyed by boiling for ten minutes. I WB can and have never had any issues whatsoever. Over winter, WB canned (jars. We don’t use cans of course) food kept us going during some very hard times financially. And it’s always reassuring when you know what went into the meal you are eating.

For anyone wanting to try this, here is a good link. This woman teaches WB canning easily and quickly. She is one of the best I’ve seen on YT and well worth following. (turn on the subtitles)

And another girl worth watching re WB canning is this one…

So please bear in mind, your government has made you afraid of preserving food the way your own ancestors did. The way the bulk of Europeans still do. If you can overcome that bit of brainwashing, please consider giving Water Bath canning a go. It isn’t just tomatoes you can bottle! You can, literally, Water Bath can almost any food.

Note: Here in Europe we buy a product called “Attika” which is a super concentrated vinegar, specially for this. It comes in varying strengths from 9%, 12% up to 24%. It can be diluted to use normally, but with WB canning we tend to put one tablespoon of 9% in just about everything we put up. If you can’t get vinegar of those strengths, you can double the 5% vinegar you may have. But whatever you do, never skip adding it. It’s the vinegar that makes it safe from botulism.

They took the ability to produce and store our own food from us. Yet with the rising costs of food now (here, Sweden has the highest food prices in the Nordics) and with increasing concerns over food production safety, if you can get the best food you can and set some by in this way for harder times (which, believe me, are coming) then you reclaim a little bit of the power they stole from you.

Sorry if that sounds nonsensical. I know what I’m trying to say though.

Hope this is helpful. No special equipment is needed for WB canning, btw. If you have jars with properly sealing lids (you can, absolutely, reuse those empty pasta sauce jars) and a large pot and a dish drying towel, you’re good to go.