Hi again, you good folks! I so much enjoy spending my lunch hours with you all. How refreshing it is to read and write about the fundamental things! Thank you all!

I have a question for you, though. A very nice woman I met a couple of weeks ago has quite a homestead! She does a great deal of canning (I saw NO commercially processed food in her whole pantry) from her organic garden and organically raised beef. She also buys yellowfin tuna frozen on the boat and cans that. She kindly gave me a jar to try, but I forgot to ask whether I have to boil it before eating it. The seal seems quite secure because the lid has not "popped up" at all. I poked it with my finger to be sure there was no movement. I'm not into botulism and death, so if that's a possibility, I'd really like to know it. What do you think?

Thanks very much for any response. Laura

-- Laura Jensen (lauraj@seedlaw.com), August 07, 2000

Answers

Personally, I think Yellowfin Tuna should be eaten raw as sushi. However, if she cans that extensively and doesn't make either herself or her family sick, I'd say it is safe to give it a try. To my thinking, if you boiled it that long you would be left with a soggy, tasteless mess. If in doubt, I suspect your dog or cat would volunteer as a guinea pig. Fish has been canned probably about as long as vegetables.

-- Ken S. (scharabo@aol.com), August 07, 2000.

Depends upon how it was processed. I have canned hundreds of cans of salmon, trout, and crab (when in Alaska). They were processed at 10 lbs pressure for 45 minutes, and were fine years later. Even slime like Clinton can't take that much heat. GL!

-- Brad (Homefixer@SacoRiver.net), August 10, 2000.