I made chicken stock and didnt kill anyone!

I decided yesterday it was time to empty my freezer of all the bones and veggies and stuff I saved to make chicken stock. Been reading a lot of blogs that talk about canning it. I bought a pressure canner awhile back and decided ok this is it.

So I cooked the stock and let it cool over nite. Today I strained all the stuff out of it and then put it thru a finer strainer to get the smutch out of it so it was clearer. I started to read the canning booklet instructions and got confused. It didn't make sense. It kept saying about taking a part off and washing it and then when you put it back on, make sure it says TOP and its at the top when you screw it back on. Sigh............only my pieces.......NOWHERE did it say top.

So I reread it again thinking Im just stressed cuz of all this family stuff going on.........but no.......no word on it even with a magnifying glass. So I put it back the way it was. Honestly there wasn't any other way to put it back on there. So I just prayed that I didn't miss anything and that it would work. I cleaned up the rest of the pot, then filled it with 3 qts of water like it said and heated it to boiling. In the meantime I washed the jars and filled them with hot water to keep the jars warm.  Once the soup was hot, I filled the jars and put them in the canner.

Stupid book says 10pts will fit in there.....um no it wont. It says do not let them touch so I didn't but only 8 fit. I read you can stack smaller jars so I tried that and put the last two on top. They fit and it did work. But I watched the canner like a hawk. I was afraid of the steam and the pressure going too high. Thank God I have a gas stove cuz that makes it ez to control. I was nervous but hey they didn't break, nothing blew up and Im not hurt!!!

I figured since I was the only one at work that could work the big Simac pasta extrusion machine (and I never saw one in my whole life) , then I could figure this out and I did. lol.  And so I took the jars out and let them cool and it was so nice hearing the pop , pop, pop of the jars sealing.  So that pic up top is what i did today.....plus about a qt. extra I froze.

I thought a pressure canner would be scary.........but it wasn't.