I’ve spent half of my day in the kitchen already – why? I wanted to test out my new pressure canner, and I wanted to make Beef Stew. Before today I had only doing water bath canning, pressure canning seemed a bit intimidating. But you can only can certain things with the water bath canning process, pressure canning opens up a whole new world of food preservation for us.
The first recipe I wanted to try with a pressure cooker was Beef Stew. I make it in the cooler months in the crock pot, however it takes hours. By canning it now, I can simply open a jar later heat it up and we can enjoy it for dinner! You can’tcan it using the water bath method since the food has too low of a PH level. So this is a recipe that requires a pressure canner – so the stew will get up to 240 degrees and prevent the chance of botulism forming. (Read more tips for canning here).
As part of our food challenge we were sent a Pressure Canning kit from Fagor America. The kit comes with everything you need to do water bath canning, pressure canning or even pressure cooking. It came with a large 10 qt Pressure canner, a rack, a funnel, a ladle, lid tool jar tightener and an air bubble tool. The only thing it doesn’t come with is the cans and food to get started.
The kit also comes with several guides and recipes. It helps get you started, and gives you great recipes ideas!
Pressure canning can seem scary – there are websites with lists of things that can go wrong. But the Fagor book breaks it down easily, step by step so you can easily pressure can the first time without issues. I read the instructions a few times and thought maybe I had missed a part – it seemed too easy!
I prepared my favorite stew recipe, and followed the canning instructions! Afterwards we heard the four fabulous “pops”. I will warn you – the stew must be pressure canned for 90 MINUTES! I’ve never canned something that took that long,but once it was going it was just a waiting game. Now we have four quarts of stew for this summer or later this year that is ready to go and we’ll just have to pop the top and enjoy!
Ingredients:
- 2 tbs vegetable oil
- 2 lbs Stew beef, cubed
- 1 1/2 tsp Salt
- 1/2 tsp Black Pepper
- 8 cups Beef Broth/stock
- 1 Onion diced
- 2 tsp Gluten Free Worcestershire Sauce
- 1 Bay Leaf
- 1 tsp Paprika
- 8 Carrots sliced
- 6 Potatoes, cubed
- 3 Stalk of Celery, sliced
Directions:
- In a large pan heat up your oil. Add in your beef and cook until all sides are brown.
- Add in your spices, vegetable and hot stock. (Your burners may be full, this is a great time to use an electric kettle if you have one).
- Cook together on medium heat for about 20 minutes.
- Remove the bay leaf before canning!
Canning Instructions:
- Place 4 clean Quart mason jars on a rack in your stock pot. Fill the jars and a stock pot with cool water until it completely covers the top of the jars. Cover and put on medium heat. Simmer but do not boil.
- Prepare 4 lid sets, put the bands aside and put the flat lids in a small sauce pan and put on medium heat. Do not boil, but keep warm through the whole process.
- Prepare your stew according to the directions above.
- Now, remove the jars from the warm bath. Tip them as you pull them out and pour the water back into the pan. Place them on a towel on the counter with the opening up. Do not dry them! Just put them down and put the funnel in. Ladle the stew into each jar until there is about 1/4 inch of space in the top. Once all jars are full, take a plastic or wooden utensil and move it around to get extra air bubbles out.
- Take the small magnet tool and remove flat lids from their hot bath. Place over top of each jar. By hand screw on the collars, but not too tight! Remember some air still needs to get out of each jar.
- Place your wrack inside your pressure canner, and set your filled jars on top. Pour in 2-3 inches of hot water. Close your lid.
- On Medium-High Heat wait until your canner begins to let steam out of the vent. Allow the steam to vent for 10 minutes, then switch to the 2 position. Wait until steam starts coming out again.
- Process for 90 minutes. After 90 minutes are done, turn off the heat and wait for the canner to depressurize.
- Once the canner is safe to open, open away from you so any extra steam will not hit your face. Remove your cans and put them on a clean towel to set. Wait for those lovely “pop”s to know your cans have properly sealed!
It’s that simple! You get to enjoy homemade soup year round with your fresh veggies, and it’s a lot cheaper than store brand.
The recipe made 4 Quart jars of stew. It did have a little extra, which you can enjoy after cooking a bit more. Remember your vegetables are raw and need to be cooked to make it taste good. The canning process will do this for you while it processes your food, but your stew is not ready to eat yet! So if you choose to enjoy the extra, cook it for a little bit and even add in a of cornstarch to thicken it up (your canned stew will thicken on its own!).
Enjoy!
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I love canning!! I have 2 very old presser cookers that both work great! I know that I will at some point have to replace them and was wondering if the presser cooker you received only hold 4 qt jars are if that is just what your recipe made? Both of mine hold 7 qt jars. Also was wondering if this had a dial or a metal piece that bobs up and down showing what presser your at?
This has a pressure gauge button! It only holds 4 quarts, so that’s what I made. When there is pressure inside it pushes the button up! 🙂
this looks absolutely yummy – I would for sure want to try this in my new pan!!!
Would it be okay to process this stew with the bay leaf included or is there a risk of contamination if that is done?…I love the flavor of bay.
Now that you’ve opened your stew, do you like it canned? Were the veggies mushy? Was there enough liquid? Did you need to thicken? I haven’t had much luck with stews in canning…just want your thoughts about how it turned out.
Am I reading your post correctly that you only left 1/4 inch headspace? I thought it had to be an inch. Clarify please!
Does olive oil work in place of vegetable oil?
It should work 🙂
Hello, I have just bought a fagor pressure canner/cooker and have been scouring the net and found your recipe. Although your date is many years ago, there’s me and others who are only now finding out about the wonderful journey of canning! So thank you!
I noticed that you put down that the jar loosening tool is a tightening tool.
It’s important though to remember that the rings must only be “finger” tightened and not tightened up with this tool because the air in the jars must escape while being pressure canned.
The tool is only for loosening the bands after processing but they can be left on till you open the jar.