Originally Posted by
Dwight55
The total point I attempted to make (please note that I DO USE pressure canners for virtually everything myself) is that just because someone says "THIS IS SAFE" or "THAT is not safe", . . . does not mean it IS CORRECT.
And YES, . . . we can look back to what other folks did, . . . and we very well may have to do that in the future sometime, . . . that is what PREPPING is all about in many cases.
It is obvious that the "so called" experts have not been as perfectly correct in all their warnings in the past, . . . the admonition that everyone will die if they keep eating those eggs, that bacon, that butter, . . . "It'll clog up your ateries, . . . you'll be dead at 40" was the typical warning.
Now the fashion is that red meat is bad for you, . . . they want you to eat more tilapia, tofu, and turkey burgers.
If we totally ignore the practices of making jerky, . . . drying fruits and veggies, . . . and yes, water bath canning, . . . then we rob ourselves of options that may not be the best, but are still options that DID IN THE PAST provide safe food sources for our ancestors.
YES, . . . YES, . . . YES, many of those practices have an element of danger in them, but at the same time, . . . sitting and watching food spoil because "I was afraid to try to preserve it, . . . it might make me sick", . . . is a far worse practice, . . . for then they die of starvation, . . . sitting in a pile of rotting meat and veggies.
Walking across the Walmart parking lot has an element of danger in it, . . . but if we are careful it works out.
As an example, . . . my Grandmother, her sister in law, and another lady spent 2 days canning catfish back about 100 years ago, . . . Uncle Vince had caught the thing in the Ohio river, . . . they carried it back home on a horse drawn wagon (40 plus miles), . . . and they canned it using the old zinc lids and rubber washers.
Nobody got sick, . . . nobody died, . . . and they all had catfish in jars for later on.
No, . . . I would not attempt it, . . . but they knew how to do it, . . . how to do it successfully, . . . and if we are so inclined, . . . we can learn how they did it, . . . and it does not make any difference what the so called experts say, . . . it CAN BE DONE, . . . with or without Wikipedia's help.
May God bless,
Dwight