Pressure Canning Broth Question

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Culinary Otter

Smoking Fanatic
Original poster
SMF Premier Member
Jan 1, 2024
363
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Alberta, Canada
I picked up a pressure canner and am completely new to it (barely even do water bath canning. I'm looking to keep things food safe and USDA approved (or close).

I see the large caveat in pressure canning is don't alter the USDA approved recipes.

Would this still apply to a stock/broth?
I have a ton of homemade stock in the freezer and would like to thaw it and pressure can it to save some space. I don't possibly see an issue since it's just liquid, but I am a complete novice in this field.

TIA.
 
I'm an avid home canner, but no food safety expert. Take it for what is worth.
We can 5-10 gallons of bone stock every year. Broth/stock is all the same. I can't think of what you could do that would change the safety of it. Can it up!
I will say though, canned broth is slightly degraded. It will be a little bit thinner in body after canning. I think canning degrades the gelatin. Flavor is unaffected, just make sure there isn't much fat. The fat can get bitter for some reason.

With respect to altering recipes:
If pressure canning, the important thing is texture and thickness, so if you make your sauce 3 times thicker than the recipe, it may not heat as evenly and the pressure time may be inadequate. Or similarly if recipe says cut meat into 1/2" cubes and you cut 2" cubes, that may not be safe.
If water bath canning the above applies, but now you have to worry about pH. For water bath, follow recipes or get real serious. I have a pH meter and verify pH with a calibrated meter before canning. For example, we verify pH of tomatoes sauce and do not acidify unless necessary.

Someday (maybe when I retire) I will turn one of our old canners into an instrumented canner so we can determine our own safe processing times. But as a card carrying millennial with out a pension, that'll probably never happen 🤣.
 
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