I was a little late in harvesting my potatoes this year… I got busy trying to get into a new routine that included beginning homeschool for my preschooler! I didn’t make it out to the garden for over a week, and in that time the potato vines went from “dying” to “dead”. It wasn’t a big deal, the potatoes were fine for the most part, although they were beginning to get molested by some sort of bug or fungus.
Potatoes are fun to grow. Have you ever tried growing them? I didn’t grow nearly as many as I intended to this year. I completely forgot to even plant sweet potatoes, and I wish I would have at least doubled the white and red potatoes that I planted. They are so easy to grow, and require absolutely no attention while they grow besides weeding. As an added bonus, come harvest, you get to dig in the dirt and search for them! It’s fun for all ages!
This is the first time I’ve ever “preserved” potatoes. I know I could have stored them in the basement long term just in a brown paper bag, but for one, I didn’t have that many, and secondly I was a little concerned about some of the potatoes that looked like a bug got to them. I wasn’t sure if they would store well or rot quickly. Lastly, I actually purchase sliced canned potatoes (*gasp!*) because my husband makes the most delicious fried potatoes with them. The canned kind cook up so much tastier than a fresh potato sliced does, too. So anyway, it made sense to me to slice and can my potatoes instead of storing them in the basement and hoping they last, while still purchasing canned potatoes. Right? 🙂
This was pretty easy to do…once you get all the potatoes peeled, that is. But after you get through that, the rest is simple!
Sliced Canned Potatoes
What you will need:
- Food Processor
- Colander
- Stainless Steel Stock Pot
- Peeled white potatoes (I forgot to weigh mine! The Ball Book says you’ll need 2-3 lbs per pint if CUBING them. Eyeballing my pile, it looks like around 6-7lbs, and I got 3 quarts of slices out of that. Don’t quote me on it though.)
- Boiling Water
Directions:
- After you peel each potato, put it into a stainless steel pot filled with cold water to prevent browning. Once all the potatoes are peeled, drain them into a colander, rinse them, and fill the pot back up with fresh cold water and put the potatoes back in the water.
- Using your food processor with the slicing attachment (or a sharp chef knife and careful fingers!), slice each of the potatoes, putting the slices immediately back into the water to keep them from browning.
Once you have sliced all the potatoes, put the full pot on the stove and begin to heat the water. - Begin heating clean jars in your pressure canner on the stove, and lids in a separate pan. Fill another pot with water and bring to a boil. (I actually just used my teapot for easier pouring!)
- Heat the sliced potatoes until they are hot through. You don’t need to boil them. Just pull one slice out with a tongs and check if it’s hot. Once they are hot, you are ready to fill the jars. Drain the potatoes back into a colander, then fill the hot jars.
- Fill jars with boiling water to a 1-inch headspace. Using a plastic tool, slide it between the potato slices and the jar, releasing air bubbles. Adjust headspace if needed.
- Wipe rims and place lids on jars. Tighten rings, and place back in the canner.
- Vent 10 minutes, set gauge to 10lbs psi, and let pressure build. Once 10 or 11 lbs psi is achieved, process pints for 35 minutes and quarts for 40 minutes.
- Turn off heat and allow pressure to return to zero naturally. Once it reaches zero, wait 2 more minutes, then remove gauge and canner lid. Wait 10 minutes for jars to acclimate to your kitchen temperature, then remove jars to a towel on the counter.
- Let jars cool completely, clean lids, label and store up to 1 year!
Don’t they look kind of neat stacked up in there?
Ty’s Delicious Fried Sliced Potatoes
There’s no specific recipe for these. You basically just heat some oil and butter in a fry pan, add the potatoes, a little red wine vinegar, lots of salt and pepper, and some more butter. Fry them, stirring minimally, until they are brown and the outsides are crispy. Serve them with a perfectly grilled medium-rare steak. That is an order! (I had a picture of these, but for some reason I can’t get it to upload. Computers are weird when they’re selective.)
The Canny Preserver 