Like most people today, students in Dixon High School’s advanced foods class usually purchase their canned meats and vegetables at a grocery store.
While they enjoy cooking, most of the students have never canned their own meat – until now.
Through a grant from the Solano Community Foundation, Debbie Helgeson purchased three steam pressure canners specifically for her advanced foods class, and on Thursday, the 20 juniors and seniors canned their own meat that will be used in a chili competition later this week.
“This is something that was done in the past and kids today are not exposed to it,” Helgeson said. “This is exposing my students to the whole canning industry. This is also exposing them to the whole food process of farm to market. To get those cans off the shelves at the stores, they have to be canned at the factories.”
Steam pressure canning is very different from water bath canning, a process many people are familiar with. Water bath canning, Helgeson explained, is for jams, tomatoes or other high acid foods. Low-acid or combination foods, such as meats, soups and many vegetables, can only be prepared through steam pressure canning, where temperatures can reach as high as 250 degrees.
It’s a nine-step process to just prepare the meat. It includes sterilizing the meat, cleaning the jars, packing the containers and adding the proper marinade. The meat must cook in the hot water for an hour and a half before it can be removed and stored.
Junior MJ Troupe admits he was a little apprehensive about the project.
“It was a little complicated,” he said. “Normally, when I cook, I go straight to the can or the microwave. This is the first time I’ve used a pressure canner. I never even knew what it was until a couple of days ago.”
Troupe was one of several students in the class who said he gained a new understanding of how meat is prepared and will remember this lesson the next time he is at a grocery store.
“You just buy them at the store and you don’t realize how it’s done,” said junior Natalie Cunningham. “It’s interesting how you have to can them compared to low acid or high acid foods. I thought people just did it on different preferences, but it’s really depending on the pH level.”
Helgeson said she was thrilled to receive the grant – which also paid for a classroom set of books on the process – because she has always wanted to use a steam pressure canner. She experimented with it over winter break and she introduced it to her students this month.
Helgeson’s excitement quickly spread to her students, said senior Bryanna Gray.
“It’s great that we got a grant to do this, and it’s great that Mrs. H put all her efforts into this for her students,” she said. “We got excited about it too because she was so excited. This is a new thing for Dixon High.”