Tips for good texture in pressure canned foods

Hey y’all! I’m excited to finally visit this topic. I’d really love to get into food preservation for most of our needs when fresh is not available. I feel pretty good about solar dehydration, but pressure canning definitely intimidates me, although I think I need it to bridge a gap and my grandma already has the entire setup. We tried to can pickled okra once following a recipe she had. It was awful! Slimy mush that no one would even pretend to eat. That experience left me with a bad taste and some guilt for wasting that food. Where did I go wrong? Does anyone have tips and troubleshooting for maintaining some texture and avoiding a mushy mess?

Okra has a reputation for turning slimy and mushy when cooked wrong, even without the canning. I'd suggest starting with something simpler. I think carrots were my first foray into pressure-canned food. They tend to be pretty forgiving texture-wise. And having them canned and ready to go saves a lot of cooking time.

I have no idea how best to can okra.

I have never canned pickled okra (to the best of my memory) nor have I pickled it.

I knew a guy who wanted to share his fermented okra with me as he was raving about how good it was.

Maybe you might try finding a good recipe for fermented okra.

Here is one I found on a website that I use:

https://www.culturesforhealth.com/learn/recipe/lacto-fermentation-recipes/okra-pickles/

Okra does tend to get slimy and it's important to use very small, immature okra to reduce the slime factor. I'm not a big pickled okra fan so I really can't help beyond that with the okra.

But for other pressure canned foods, the texture will always be a little different than fresh, and that's okay. In time you'll figure out what vegetables your family prefers canned, frozen, dehydrated, etc. I don't think that there's one right food preservation technique that is good for all foods - we should be practicing a variety of them based on what our family likes.

I agree with Ellendra about starting with something that's a little more forgiving - canned carrots, corn, green beans, dried beans and meats all have similar texture to what you are probably used to.  

For pickling try dilly beans, carrots, or regular cucumber pickles.

Like anything new that we start, it will take some testing to figure out what your family likes. So do small batches at first.