 Producing high quality home canned fish is a source of pride for many Alaskans. Canning is an excellent way to preserve food, allowing fish to be stored for up to one year for best quality. While fish may be canned in glass jars, many people prefer using cans as they provide a portable product that is both lightweight and durable. I'm Julie Cascio with the University of Alaska Fairbanks Cooperative Extension Service. Today we're going to go through the process of canning fish in cans. Because fish is naturally low in acid, pressure canning is required to kill dangerous microorganisms. Refer to the Cooperative Extension Service learning module on pressure canning for more information. Research on food preservation is an ongoing process. The United States Department of Agriculture and the Cooperative Extension Service continuously apply new research findings to their recommendations for home preserved foods. Guidelines in this module may be revised as additional knowledge is gained that may increase the margin of safety or improve the quality of home preserved foods. Consult your local Cooperative Extension office annually for updated information. The equipment needed for canning fish includes cancealer, cans and lids, pressure canner with a weighted or dial gauge, stove or heat source that provides reliable, steady heat, sharp knife, cutting board or cardboard or newspapers if you don't have a cutting board available, dry pot holders, towels or paper towels, meat thermometer, permanent marker, clock or timer, paper, pens or pencils for writing down your start and ending times of the processing. Before you begin, review the manufacturer's instructions for using your pressure canner. If you don't have an instruction manual, contact the manufacturer and get a copy. Your pressure canner must be in good condition. Inspect the gasket for any rips or tears that might allow air to escape. The canner must be airtight when it is sealed. Check the safety plug to ensure that it is correctly seated. Hold the canner lid up to the light to be certain that the vent port is free of debris. And if you're using a dial gauge, have it checked annually for accuracy. Dial pressure gauges may be checked by your local Extension agent. You may use either one pound or half pound cans for preserving fish. Cans come in two varieties, tapered with no side or bottom seams, just the top seam where the lid attaches. These are called two-piece cans or three-piece cans, which have your top seam, side seam and a bottom seam. How many cans will I need for canning fish? As a general rule, figure two pounds of fish for one pound can. Before canning, make sure your can sealer is working properly. Run a few empty cans through the sealer and inspect the seals. If you aren't sure about the seal, refer to the Cooperative Extension publications titled, Assembling a Cansealer or Visual Inspection of Can Seams in Home Food Preservation. When you catch fish, handle them with care to avoid bruising. Be aware that exposure to sun or heat may cause the quality of the meat to deteriorate. Bleed your fish immediately after catching to increase the storage life, and remove the internal organs and rinse inside and out. Keep the fish iced, refrigerated or frozen until you're ready to can. The meat should be stored at temperatures colder than 40 degrees Fahrenheit. You can use either fresh fish or frozen fish for pressure canning. Many Alaskans freeze their catch immediately for use throughout the year. When fishing season arrives again, fish remaining in the freezer are canned. This gives fish an effective shelf life of two years. When using frozen fish, thaw it in the refrigerator or under cold water, running water before canning. Trim away any freezer burn. Then rinse your fish in cold water. Vinegar may be added to the water up to two tablespoons per quart to help remove the slime. Then trim away the head, the tail, the fins, and scale it. Skin may remain on the salmon or the halibut when you're canning it. You can also leave the bones in when canning salmon. The bones will soften during the canning process and actually increase the calcium level in the canned product. For halibut, however, you need to remove the bones. Keep your fish refrigerated until you're ready to pack it into the cans. In preparation for canning, you may rinse the cans, but don't wash the lids. The sealing compound in the lids is very delicate and washing it could interfere with the actual seal. You need to cut the fish into chunks or canned size links. Using the can as a guide helps us get the right size. Then you need to pack the fish solidly into the cans, leaving a quarter inch space between the top of the fish and the top of the can. Salt, seasoning, salt, or other seasonings can be added to the top of the packed fish. The publication, Adding Variety to Home Canned Fish, has additional suggestions. Some of these suggestions are ones that you may want to try, and it also gives ideas on things that people have tried and have found not to be successful. It is important to note that the seal is formed differently in cans than it is in jars. So the first step in the canning process of cans is to exhaust air from the can before sealing, and this is done by exchanging the air with steam. This process prepares the cans so that a vacuum will be able to form during the pressure canning step. So we need to place an open pan, an open pressure can or pot, or a roaster pan with water on the stove and get the water up to simmer. Once the cans have been packed with the fish, place the open cans in the simmering water, and the water should come about halfway up the cans on the outside. As the open cans heat, use a meat thermometer to monitor the temperature. The fish must reach a temperature of 170 degrees Fahrenheit. Check each can as they may not all heat at the same time. Placing a lid over the entire pot helps to bring the temperature of the fish up to 170 degrees Fahrenheit faster. But it also encourages condensation to form, which can fall back into the cans. So to prevent this excess moisture from getting into the cans, replace individual pieces of tinfoil over each can. When the cans of fish reach a temperature of 170 degrees Fahrenheit, use a jar lifter to remove them from the boiling water. Place your thermometer into another can. Remember when using the thermometer to place it into the center of the fish, not touching the bottom or the sides of the can, as that can skew the reading. Take a towel or a paper towel and wipe off the edges of the can to get rid of any fishy residue that's on it, as that will make the seal not form properly. Then take the hot can, move it to the center of your can sealer, adding a lid and bring the can sealer down on top of the can until it's completely engaged. You're going to start with the zero in the middle of the window. This is an Ive's Way manual can sealer that I'm using today. If you're not sure about setting up your can sealer or using it, refer to the instructions that come with the can sealer. Or use the Cooperative Extension Service publication assembling a can sealer. With the zero in the window, turn the crank until the first roller comes into position. This is the first roller. We're watching for the number one to appear in the window, which will tell us that seam roller has been engaged. And we're going to continue. We'll see a C. That means it's transitioning from one side to the other. And the second seam roller is engaging. We're looking for the two and then back to the zero where we stop. After sealing, we inspect the can seam to make sure that it's properly formed. If we see any V's or droops or feel sharp edges on the can, then we know that it is an improperly formed seal. And we need to take the meat, in this instance the fish, the meat of the fish, out of the can, put it into a new can, put it back into the boiling water, bring it back up to 170 degrees Fahrenheit, and reseal it. After the cans have been exhausted, sealed, and inspected, it's time to begin the canning process. Your canner needs to be centered on your heat source with two to three inches of water added to it. A rack goes in the bottom of the canner. And as you take your cans from the can sealer and inspect them, you place them into the hot water. A jar lifter is a handy tool for getting them into the hot water without burning your fingers. If you have more cans than you have for one layer, you may add a second layer of cans to your canner. You may either offset them, one, staggered over, two on the bottom, or put in a rack and then add the second layer of cans. When your canner is filled, fasten the lid securely, matching the arrow on the top of the canner, to the arrow that's on the canner, or on the handle of the canner. The lid goes on only in one direction, and this helps you put it on correctly. And then securely lock your lid in place. Leave the weight off the vent port, or open the peckock. As air inside the canner heats, it expands. This pushes the excess air out of the canner through the vent. Heat at the highest setting until a steady stream of steam flows through the vent. When you see a steady stream of steam coming through your vent port, then you need to allow that steam to escape for 10 minutes. We've timed this for 10 minutes, so now it's time to stop up the vent port using either a peckock or the dead weight on top of the vent port. This is if you're using a dial gauge canner. If you're using a weighted gauge canner, then you use your weighted gauge at the pressure that you are going to maintain on top of the vent port. Pressurize during the next 3 to 5 minutes. When the pressure reaches 11 pounds on the dial gauge canner, or starts jiggling rapidly, indicating that you've reached 10 pounds on your weighted gauge canner, then it's time to begin timing the process. You may use a timer or watch the clock, but for added security it's a good idea to write down your beginning time, add the amount of minutes that it's going to take for the process to be completed, and write down the ending time on a piece of paper. Stay in the area where the product is being canned until that any changes in pressure can be noticed immediately. If the pressure drops below the recommendation, the canner must be brought back to the recommended level and the timing started over. Process half pound cans at 95 minutes and one pound cans for 115 minutes. For altitudes greater than 1000 feet above sea level, ask your local extension agent for recommended times for pressures. Open the vent when the pressure reaches zero. Test to ensure that there is no more pressure by gently nudging the weight. No steam should escape and no resistance should be felt. Then it's time to remove the weight. Open the peckock or remove the weight from your weighted gauge canner. You need to wait 10 minutes. After 10 minutes, unfasten the lid, opening the lid away from you so that escaping steam does not burn your face. Remove cans using a can lifter and place them on something that will protect your counter or other surface, such as folded newspapers, folded towels, a cutting board, or a cooling rack. You're going to leave the cans in this place for 12 hours until they are completely cooled before you move them again. After that 12 hours when your cans are completely cooled, then you need to examine the seams of each can. Make sure that the seams are flat and smooth with no pointed or rough edges. If you see any leakage coming from the edges of the can, it means the cans were not sealed properly. And when cans do not seal, you have three options. You may freeze the contents of the unsealed cans. You may place the contents or the cans in the refrigerator for three to four days and eat them within that time period. Or you may reprocess the fish using a new can. Remember that you have to re-exhaust the cans. That means bringing them up to the 170 degrees Fahrenheit before sealing them with a new lid. Reprocessing does not affect the quality of the fish. When they're cool, wipe the cans clean and then label them using a permanent marker. You need to label with the contents of the can, the date, the processing time, and the pounds pressure that you used. Store canned goods in a cool, dry, dark place. Do not allow cans to freeze as this may compromise the seal. For best quality, use your canned fish within one year. Enjoy your Alaska canned salmon.