Hello there,

I started pressure canning and storing food supplies about 2 years ago. I've read that food is still good past the expiration date just the color might change a little and the nutrients will start to diminish after a year.

I've tried to use up all of my supply by the expiration dates, but wasn't able to. I also had a couple of epic failures when canning beef and hamburger. So, now I have 50-100 canned (store bought and home pressure canned) food items to get rid of.

I've been eating my home canned spaghetti sauce etc which tasted delicious from day 1 until about a year after canning, but now at 1.5 years, they don't taste nearly as good and the meat seems "dryer and harder" than when I first canned (I've never been sick from home canning meals, they just don't taste good anymore). Also, the expired store bought soup/ravioli type things have a metallic taste.

What do I do with these food items? I can't donate them (and that wouldn't be very nice, I mean, if I wouldn't eat it I shouldn't think someone else would like it).

Do I open them one by one and throw them out in a garbage bag? Throw the whole can into a garbage bag? Go to the dump?

I know, it's such a SHAME to throw out food when so many people in the world are hungry. I feel terrible about that!

*** Going forward, how do I store several months worth of canned emergency food, yet not let it expire? It seems that I would have to pretty much live on the canned foods and not buy fresh groceries. I don't want to live like I'm in a disaster scenario unless absolutely necessary.

Now I don't want to have too much food storage because I feel bad about throwing it out, but then I'll starve in an emergency situation.

What to do?

I am not an expert but I do can.

Hello there,

I started pressure canning and storing food supplies about 2 years ago. I've read that food is still good past the expiration date just the color might change a little and the nutrients will start to diminish after a year.

I've tried to use up all of my supply by the expiration dates, but wasn't able to. I also had a couple of epic failures when canning beef and hamburger. So, now I have 50-100 canned (store bought and home pressure canned) food items to get rid of.

If you don't mind my asking, what happened that you consider your beef and hamburger to be epic failures?

I've been eating my home canned spaghetti sauce etc which tasted delicious from day 1 until about a year after canning, but now at 1.5 years, they don't taste nearly as good and the meat seems "dryer and harder" than when I first canned (I've never been sick from home canning meals, they just don't taste good anymore). Also, the expired store bought soup/ravioli type things have a metallic taste.

Without knowing what methods you used to can your meat, it is hard to comment on why it may be dryer and harder over time.

I don't buy a lot of store canned food because I personally don't like the "recipes/quality". I used to buy a fair amount of tomatoes but don't anymore, because like you say, they taste like tin can. I don't find it has much to do with expiry dates though. Even the fresh ones taste like can to me. They must be adding something which is either leaching the cans or just doing a good job imulating the flavor of one. Its to the point where I have to get serious about growing some basic storage veggies and tomatoes.

What do I do with these food items? I can't donate them (and that wouldn't be very nice, I mean, if I wouldn't eat it I shouldn't think someone else would like it).

Do I open them one by one and throw them out in a garbage bag? Throw the whole can into a garbage bag? Go to the dump?

My pigs would get these. Other option is to compost them or do the dump thing. The tinned goods I would just leave out in a box near a dumpster for someone to find. They can make their own decisions.

I know, it's such a SHAME to throw out food when so many people in the world are hungry. I feel terrible about that!

*** Going forward, how do I store several months worth of canned emergency food, yet not let it expire? It seems that I would have to pretty much live on the canned foods and not buy fresh groceries. I don't want to live like I'm in a disaster scenario unless absolutely necessary.

Now I don't want to have too much food storage because I feel bad about throwing it out, but then I'll starve in an emergency situation.

If its an emergency you will eat whatever you have however it tastes. If you don't or won't its not an emergency. Just my narrow minded perspective on food storage.

What to do?

Hi OddDuck,

Thanks for the reply. My epic failure when canning cubed beef and plain hamburger was that it smelled and tasted like dogfood. NOT that I've tasted canned dogfood, but it smelled the exact same.....yuck!! Since, I've read that a lot of other people don't pressure can plain beef because they too find it smells like dogfood, so I'm glad I'm not alone. Do you know of a trick to make it taste better? I used broth and spices....no luck.

Yes, in an emergency I would eat any canned food, which is why I kept the "dogfood" meat for 2 years, BUT, I've read many times that the food begins to lose nutritional value after one year and I figure if the pressure canned meat is more than 2 years old, I may as well just eat ramen noodles as far as nutrition goes. Also, if the power is only out for a week or two, I'd like the food to be at least tolerable, not "eww this food is so gross". If power out for extended period of time (or forever, who knows) then yes, I'd just plug my nose and eat it. I wan't good nutrients though, we'll need that for sure in time of crisis.

As for spaghetti meals and such that I canned, they don't taste "bad" just not "yummy" like when I first canned them. I think I'll start only canning what I know we can eat within a year and just can a few extra times to keep the supply up and fresh.

I bought canned from store because it was on sale, easy, and can be eaten cold if necessary. Like you, I don't like the store bought canned stuff but it was for emergency.

I've read so many places (and on YouTube) that "food lasts past expiration date, don't through it out", but I have found that my food went yucky.

I think I'll have to go to the dump. Such a shame. 🙁

Hi Ottawa gal,

I have to second Odd-duck on if I don't know how things are canned, I can't help much on that end of things but as I am one of those folks that tends to can things for use in a min of three years, and its not uncommon for me to be using my home canning upwards of five years and I have done tests on keeping things and using it upwards of ten years, and other then color changes, I have no issues making meals that everyone in the house loves.

I can meat that will normally gets used up within three years but I have to say, that idea that home canned food will not keep past a year is a huh? for me.

So here is my questions back.. what do you have in terms of cold storage/pantry that your canned goods stay in? Are you wanting to use the canned meats like a fresh meat, or are you using them in dishes that work well with the textures that canned meats get? and on the other pressure canned foods, are you canning "light" by that I mean light on the salt, light on the sugar etc.

This is one thing I have noticed, if I can food the way my grandmother and mother taught me, it will last years but if I try recipes where things are "lightened up in terms of sugar, salt or acids" things last about a year or so.

Farmgal

Sigh, I wish my mom or grandmother had canned. I learned from the preppers on YouTube. I mean, these people are hard core so I figured they sure know what they're doing more than I do. Plain beef (very little broth or spices, if any) was yucky but the plain cubed chicken turned out great (still eating it). Beef mixed with other ingredients such as tomato, green pepper, onion, etc, turned out wonderful. I don't think I'll can "plain" beef again, only in a "meal" like spaghetti, chili, stew, etc. I may have done something wrong but I watched TONS of videos and read a lot and followed directions exactly.
As far as nutrient content, do you feel they keep their nutrients over the years? If so, that would be great! Would make things so much easier. But I've read so many places that the nutrients start to diminish after one year. I'm not a health nut but in a crisis I want to keep my health and energy up as much as possible (weak and malnourished in such a situation wouldn't be a good thing).

I pressure canned according to directions from the blue book and from online preppers. I stored them in the basement (very little light and cool).
I'm still learning so maybe I'll get better. I'm still terrified of the canner though (it's HUGE and scary) and I only can when DH is here to help.haha.

I do feel they keep a good amount of percent of their value, something's go down a bit per year but other things don't.. I look at it this way, the calories in the meat don't go down in that jar, ideally if its weeks of downtime, I will do some sprouts for fresh vit/minerals, which combined with the protein, fat and calories from the canned meat will meet the overall needs.

I never look at a single jar and think or ask it to be balanced, my job is to grow, forage, store and harvest things that work together to find balance.

March is coming and this will be the third year that we will eat off the farm/pantry for the month, I do it to find holes, good practise and because its a hard lean month, no garden, limited food left from harvest, you need to use your storage.

The problem with smell is something that you will have to overcome. The smell comes from the meat being pressure canned and the air being removed from the jar. Its the lack of air in the jar that creates the "smell". The only way to combat this is to open the jar, dump the contents and let them air out for a bit somewhere where the smell doesn't bother you before using it in your recipe. The same thing occurs with vacuum packed meat. Many people open a package and the smell makes them think that the meat is rotten. It isn't, but it does need to be aired for a bit to make it civilized again.

Canned meat is meant to be used in complimentary recipes for best results as Farmgal has indicated. You have determined this already by saying you will only can with things like meat sauces, chilli ect..as that is what you find most edible. There are no laws that say you must can plain hamburger if it isn't working for you. It is a fact, that when one starts canning, there is a process of re-inventing the wheel to make food suitable for your personal pantry. I like to make things taste as good as possible in the jar too. However, that means chucking a few failures or as is the case the last two weeks, eating a lot of funky beans. I have been experimenting with bean recipes to find something I like and maybe have some variety as well all ready to go. I cannot handle eating any more beans just now so all the different flavoring trials are sitting on a shelf waiting for some more guinea pigs to show up and help out. Farmgal also commented about "canning light". Also a very valid point. Part of my experimentation is to find the minimum amount of salt and sugar that can be used without hurting the long term storage. I find that keeping to the basics of acid, salt, sugar and spices in their seed forms to be the most viable options. Fresh flavourings like onions, garlic, ginger also work well. Leafy spices like thyme, oregano, sage should not be canned and should be added at point of reheating if wanted.

Any one who is limited to using big ag veggies is also at a disadvantage as they have been bred for transportation and storage and don't have the flavor and quality of a homegrown heritage veggie.

Like Farmgal, I come from a long line of homesteaders who never had modern day limitations placed on them, so I know that home canned food lasts far longer than a year. Yes, some vitamins will be lost, others will be diminished, and many will still remain. Find a way to use the canning liquid as well. A homestead pantry will have fermentation and storage of basic root veggies as part of the equation as well. Farmgal also does sprouting to get fresh greens. These days we also have dehydrating as an option. In two days I can dehydrate enough celery to last one year of heavy use. I aim to keep 3 yrs worth of dehydrated celery. When it comes to gardening, there is just no way to tell when you will get a swift kick in the pants by mother nature.

One of the biggest challenges for people who have not been raised "wild" is mentaly redefining what food is and retraining the palate to get back to the basics.

I have a question, but not about canning. Is Gatorade still good to use, even if it has been frozen. I recently found 4 dozen bottles that got hidden in a storage area, it had about 10 days of minus 20 degree weather. Some of the bottles split, some just leaked. I dumped those, and recycled the bottles. The rest, I am unsure about using. The bottled water is ok, but I run it through a coffee filter to remove the fine particulates that are in the bottom of the bottle. Thanks in advance.

I hate to see good food wasted. This week I did give away some tinned foods with expiry dates.
The food is still good , but I am no longer eating these items. I asked her first if she followed the dates
and she said no, she checked the can , years ago we checked for bulging tins or looked inside when we opened.

Another idea is to put the canned goods of fruits and vegies, if you are dumping them, into the composter

And it is a good idea to get some rotation method going where the food stock such canned goods is your huge
pantry and you are continually rotating and continually restocking. That way everything will not expire at the same
time, and there is a variety of dated items. We've already mentioned elsewhere in forum that mylar is expensive and
intended for longer storage so normally you leaving that there longer , such as rice in mylar. But at some point
in future years, you need to be watching that stuff also as the years will get there.

I'm sure the Gatorade is fine. I used to dilute it (3 parts water to 1 part gatorade) then refill the bottle 7/8 full and freeze solid. Hell, some were frozen a couple of times over before use.
The particles in the water are just calcium, no problem drinking them.

Thanks Perfesser, I will start using the Gatorade. Really did not want to dump that much!

Question about transitioning dehydrated food from freezer storage, to mylar bags & 5-gallon buckets.

I've done some dehydrating of veggies, fruit, eggs and fish jerky.

Up to this point, I've been storing them in freezer ziplocs, in my freezer. Now that I've finally gotten around to getting mylar bags, oxygen absorbers, buckets and a space to store them, I was wondering if the freezer-stored items can safely be moved to the (non-frozen) mylar/bucket setup, and if so, is there anything else I should do?

My plan is to let the ziplocs come to room temperature, see whether there is condensation or moisture inside the bags, and re-dehydrate the items if necessary, then pack them into the mylar bags.

Has anyone tried this? Is it safe? I don't want to risk spoilage. Does it impact the overall shelf life?

Also, I have heard that jerky doesn't have a really long shelf life (2-3 months max), no matter what you do, so is it worth it to put that into the mylar, or should I just stick with freezer or jars for the jerky? I like it enough to rotate it more often 😀 , however it would be nice to have a compact protein source for my emergency food supply.

Thanks in advance for any advice 🙂

I'm looking for some parts for my Presto canner...22 QT model 1781004.
Is there a Canadian place to order from, and if not, does anyone know about customs and duty from US suppliers?
Thanks

Hi Denob

Try Home Hardware for Presto parts in Canada, I've bought a new sealing ring from them and I know they have the gauges online but maybe in the stores as well. I took the lid in when I went to buy to make sure I got the right seal & air vent plug. I think I paid about $13-14 for it but that was about three years ago.

Foxglove

Hun...Home Hardware! Who'da thunk it!
Thanks Foxglove