{"id":3474,"date":"2013-08-30T03:00:12","date_gmt":"2013-08-30T07:00:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/JackieClay\/?p=3474"},"modified":"2013-08-30T03:00:12","modified_gmt":"2013-08-30T07:00:12","slug":"q-and-a-pressure-canner-gauge-and-peeling-winter-squash","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/JackieClay\/2013\/08\/30\/q-and-a-pressure-canner-gauge-and-peeling-winter-squash\/","title":{"rendered":"Q and A: Pressure canner gauge and peeling winter squash"},"content":{"rendered":"

Pressure canner gauge<\/strong><\/p>\n

I took the gauge from my older All American Canner to be tested. It read 7, 12.5 and 18. I had been canning with it (chicken, cubed beef both raw pack and ground beef, cooked). I canned somewhere around 10 to 12.5 pressure because the canner seemed ‘happier’ there. But now I’m concerned. I canned A LOT of food! Do I have to throw it all out since I’m not positive I maintained 12.5 as they suggested? If not, what do I look for or what do I do when I use the food? I bought new gauges there that tested spot-on. But only the Presto Gauges did, The All American gauges were all off, some worse than the one I took off my canner. She said it’s in the shipping, All American ships them all in a big box and Presto Packages each gauge in its own box and Styrofoam and she finds that they are always off. Wish I had taken my gauge from the new canner I bought this year, so I bought a new presto gauge for it too, which tested spot-on. Anyway, did I spend weeks canning for nothing and wasting money on all that meat?<\/em><\/p>\n

Deb Peters<\/em>
\nOlmsted Falls, Ohio<\/em><\/p>\n

I’m a bit confused. Did you take the weight or gauge, as the gauge has indicator markings from zero to twenty pounds where the weight only has the 5, 10, and 15 pound settings. Canning at 10 pounds pressure is the recommended pressure for canning unless you live at an altitude above 1,000 feet. Then you must increase your pressure a bit to suit your altitude as recommended in your canning book. My All American gauge is always right on and it’s 11 years old. Where did you get the gauge tested? You can buy new gauges right at your local hardware that stocks canning supplies and those are shipped in individual boxes if you must replace a damaged one. I’ve only had to do this once as I stored my lid upside down and water got in it and ruined the gauge. You don’t have to throw away your food as you canned it at 10-12.5 pounds as your altitude is 774 which is under 1,000 feet so your recommended pressure is 10 pounds pressure.<\/p>\n

As always check your seals, the appearance of the canned food, its smell on opening, then bring to boiling temperature for 10 minutes before eating. — Jackie<\/p>\n

Peeling winter squash<\/strong><\/p>\n

We hope we have several weeks left for winter squash to continue to grow but are planning to save some and to cube and can some as well. Do you have any tips on peeling and cutting up the squash? My hands always get slimy, making it potentially dangerous to be working with a large, sharp knife cutting through the tough squash.<\/em><\/p>\n

DK Phillips<\/em>
\nColumbus, Ohio<\/em><\/p>\n

What I do is cut into the squash with the point of a large, sturdy knife then rock it back and forth, forcing it down as I rock it, cutting the squash in two at its “waist.” I then lay aside my knife and scoop out the insides and seeds, saving the seeds on a cookie sheet if I’m going to save seeds, then discard the “guts.” I scrape out the inside of the squash with a large spoon to remove any strings. Then I wash my hands and dry them. I take up my knife again and cut each half in two crosswise, leaving me four pieces. I set each piece down on a cutting board and cut 1-inch rings from the whole piece. Then I take a smaller knife and peel each ring. From then on it’s easy to cut 1-inch pieces from each ring. Done deal! — Jackie<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Pressure canner gauge I took the gauge from my older All American Canner to be tested. It read 7, 12.5 and 18. I had been canning with it (chicken, cubed beef both raw pack and ground beef, cooked). I canned somewhere around 10 to 12.5 pressure because the canner seemed ‘happier’ there. But now I’m […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,8,13],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/JackieClay\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3474"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/JackieClay\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/JackieClay\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/JackieClay\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/JackieClay\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3474"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/JackieClay\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3474\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/JackieClay\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3474"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/JackieClay\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3474"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/JackieClay\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3474"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}