Canning Sweet Potatoes

I have been waiting since I got the canner in June for sweet potatoes to go on sale for a price to make it worth canning.  Thanksgiving week, one store had them for $1.20 per pound in a five pound bag.  Everyone else was still advertising $2 per pound, and that was for the giant ones that you can't really use for canning.  This happens with every grocery item that gets trendy.  Celery used to be cheap until people started juicing it.  Now it's everything with a low glycemic index that has shot up faster than inflation can justify.

In a way, I'm glad it took this long to get to canning a root vegetable.  I've learned more about the science behind pressure canning.  Things that are dug up need special care to prevent botulism.  And before you freak out that all potatoes and carrots probably have botulism spores on them, remember that the toxins can only grow in an anaerobic environment.  Such as a canning jar.  This is why low acid foods must be pressure canned, and even some items that you can buy in the market cannot be safely canned at home.

As usual, I'm linking the NCHFP procedure for pressure canning.  Unlike most YouTube videos I've watched on the topic, I'm following the instructions.  The rebel canners have followed procedures close enough to be safe, but only Rose Red Homestead has done a video demonstration that follows it word for word - that I've found.  The only issue I have with the NCHFP is their guideline that it takes 11 pounds to make 9 pint jars.  I bought ten, expecting to get eight jars out of it plus a few slices for snacks.  Yeah, it only took six pounds to fill the jars.  I could have gotten out the rack and more jars, but I don't actually want any more jars of it than what I had planned.  So the rest of the par-cooked potatoes went in the freezer.  Spoiler alert, we're having sweet potatoes at Chrismukah.

It did take a long time to peel the potatoes after steaming.  I had put on the soundtrack to "Wicked" while they were steaming and I was cleaning the jars and setting up the canner.  By the time the second batch was steamed and I still wasn't done peeling the first five pounds, we were on to "Spamalot".  I did get better at it, but I was seriously starting to think that paying extra to buy commercially canned sweet potatoes wasn't such a bad deal.

Despite some siphoning, all of the jars sealed before I opened the canner.  I was having a terrible success rate with the wide mouth jars and thought I was doing something wrong, but all my regular mouth were sealing.  I opened a different box of lids for this project and that seems to be the issue.  I'll use the last few in the other box for something I don't mind freezing if they fail.  I'm almost out of the Kerr and Ball lids anyway, after which I'm switching to ForJars.  I bought a couple hundred of each on a gift card and BOGO sale.  I'm good for a while.

It is important to understand what the final product will be like when pressure canning.  It isn't like water bath, where you get a slightly more cooked version of whatever you put in.  This is like the Princella potatoes, only I made them with water instead to cut back on sugar.  That was the whole point of doing them myself instead of buying them.  These are the sweet potatoes you mash for casserole or pies.  They will not hold their shape unless you fry them gently in a dry pan.  They will be so soft that you may have to eat them with a spoon.  But they're excellent for turning into purée for soup.  If this is the texture you want, then canned sweet potatoes could be your choice.

Difficulty rating  :-0