In the past i have taken the labels off tins marked them with contents and use by date with a permanent marker and varnished them to prevent them rusting. Newbies please note never buy any dented or damaged tins.
My stocks go back 7 years. So far no tins spoiled. On the whole contents are meats and vegetables. Maybe we've been lucky? Storage is in simple plastic boxes with clip on lids. These are stored off-ground in unheated but frost free areas of the property. These areas are fairly temperature stable both summer and winter, so MB's expand / contract theory is probably right.
Interestingly we have not lost any preserved fruit either. Our whole stock is of the bottled variety, so maybe that's the solution for high acid content produce?
Losses we've suffered are energy bars, which dry out horribly, but remain edible ( kind of), and some of the pasta who's plastic packages have degraded and split. The pasta's still OK, but spilled within storage box.
The problem with storing tins is the acidity value of the contents. Tomatoes and any fruits with a higher acidity do tend to "eat through" metal. Bottling is a much better solution. Glass is also inert so no problems with contamination as long as the seals are o.k.
Ordered some dry egg and dried milk....when it arrives i will bag it up in mylar bags with oxygen obsorber....as i have stated in the past (when tins go wrong ) i have switched to this dry method , as for glass jars ....i like this method ...for the reasons Mary points out and indeed took delivery of some Mason Jars few weeks back....this method is very popular in the US and for good reason, watched a few vids on Ytube .....hot canning .....and probably the best way for us preppers , Mason Jars (and spare lids) are not cheap.......but in my case....a lot cheaper than throwing stuff out.....Mason Jars win hands down ! so the lesson here is (newbies) and oldies start off how you mean to carry on....do Not do what i did.....buy lots of stuff as quick as possible, mass supplies thinking you have enough for you or your group....the bigger the group the bigger the problems you WILL hit....you are not covered at ALL....You will end up a tit like yours truly.....just because i am here on SUK does Not mean i become a expert overnight ...having said that they are some great threads by members that give great advice....back to canning....MB ..CH...and JP may well have some points to share ....i would imagine they use this method ...with great success.......or anyone else come to that .....let us know .
No SS we are not experts, we all make mistakes some of the time, but there is a wealth of knowledge on this forum and knowledge is the best resource we have.
I do some canning, or bottling as you would call it, but not to the point of being an expert.
Right now I have about 20 bottles of assorted tomatoes still on the shelf from last years work. Living alone now I only bottle the pint size so there will be less waste.
I inherited the skill from my Mom and the process she used would scare the pants off most modern bottlers that must follow the government standards to the letter and deal with a pressure cooker.
My Mom would not have a pressure cooker in the house. She considered their danger level above that of TNT. She could point to numerous scars on her relatives arms as the result of pressure cooker use and she knew at least one person that had died when their cooker turned lose.
All of what we canned at home, and it was extensive, was done with the simple hot water bath method. We had a family of 6, with three growing teen aged boys and Dad was very active for a university professor. He did lots of gardening and outdoor work and ate to match it.
We did tomatoes, 250-300 quarts per year.
runner beans, 200-250 quarts per year
Baby Lima beans, 100+- quarts per year
also assorted jams, jellies and preserves and assorted other vegetables.
We also had two large freezers we stocked with meats and a mixture of fruits and vegges Mom preferred to freeze. She especially liked to freeze maize both on the cob and cut off the cob. Strawberries and peaches were also frozen favorites.
Note that Mom never canned meats due to the need for the pressure cooker in that process. Meat was always frozen for storage. If there was a power outage in our area it was never for long and the deep freeze would maintain preservation temp for some time. We never lost meat due to power outage.
I have dealt with power outage while using a deep freezer several times after moving up here with the Yankees, and found that running a gen-set for an hour a day will maintain the freezer temp even during warm weather as long as you stay out of the freezer and tape the seals. My small gen-set will run 6 hours on a liter of fuel so that would hold me for nearly a week.
Mom could get away with the water bath method since she cooked the crap out of anything that she opened. Some say that you can not cook some of the toxins away but we never had any problems.
She was a "stay at home Mom" and could boil runner beans for the entire afternoon and kill anything that might be hiding in the bottle. None of the quick warm up and eat the stuff half raw like is done today. Long cooking, plenty of cured meat for seasoning and a good dose of salt. I will note that Dad lived to be 80 and Mom is still running the show at my sister's home at age 93.
None of us ever died from her bottled foods and very few jars ever spoiled on the shelf.
Another thing about the Mason jars is that their expense is spread over many seasons of use. They last indefinitely if used with care. Breaking a Mason jar was nearly a sin at our place. You felt guilty for weeks after you smashed a Mason jar!
I understand that your access to bottling lids is unreliable. You can probably get what you need from American sources on Amazon.
Interesting post, MB. You have confirmed my opinion that the Millennial snowflakes are a load of wussies!
Just ordered another 2 dozen Mason Jars, sunny here today ,so i hit the polytunnel.....i remove the soil out of the 2 raised beds into the beast.....i dismantle the timber box in one hit .....i use one pallet as a base and refit both boxes ...height 18" i fill with some straw ...6"... the box size is 4ft square....i shovel in some compost to cover ....this will be a potato box....with the rest of the soil i fill and top off those raised beds 30 ft run.....baked beans on toast and one cup of tea later....i knock up some cement and hump some 20 concrete blocks into easy reach ....that run of blocks i laid a bit back 60 odd feet is tiered in seven sections around 8ft 3" each level... i run in the blocks to separate off .....seven raised beds by cutting into to bank...all in all a very satisfying day.....sat on my table and chair and looked over yonder a bit ...sipping a coffee...don't get better !
Many years ago were staying up on the scottish borders, the butcher delivered every two weeks. The lady of the house used to boil every joint of meat before they went in the freezer in case of power cuts.
We never had meat delivery to the house. That has not been common here except in large cities.
We killed our own farm raised stock and put whole hogs and half beef in the freezer. Too much to cook up.
We split the beef with Mom's sister and her brood.
Did that a couple of times each year.
Part of the hogs, sides, hams and shoulders and all the sausage, was salted and or smoke cured by G-dad in the big smoke-house. It was usually the chops and loins and such that were frozen.
All of the beef was frozen. It was always a real treat when the beef arrived from the processor all frozen and wrapped. Hundreds of pounds of steaks, roasts and ground meat all stacked where it could be easily grabbed without having the freezer door open longer than necessary.
That and hundreds of quart bottles of vegges on the shelf on the opposite wall. That was security to people that had grown up during the depression. If it was not on that wall or in that freezer it did not exist and you did not count on it.
How could I grow up to be anything except a prepper?