Freezing isn't an option for you? That is the standard recommendation for OJ. It gives you the best quality and flavor.

Cooked OJ has a very different taste and is disliked by most who have tried it. Pressure cooking isn't required because it is very acidic - BWB is more than sufficient if canning and only 5-10 mins of that is needed depending on jar size and altitude - primarily just to seal the jars. Longer cooking would only make it worse tasting.

So may I ask why you would want to PC it? Time would just be a guess as there are no tested instructions given anywhere for pressure canning it.

Dave

I drink about half a quart of orange juice a day while they are in season. By the end of the season orange juice does not rate high enough to take precious space in my freezer with spring garden coming in. It takes much less time and energy to heat the water in a pressure canner than it does in a hot bath canner. I may not like the taste but I wanted to try it because if I don't I'll never know. I have 11 citrus trees which 9 are mature and bearing well. My family and friends cannot come close to using all they produce. I pick the excess and place it in front of my house for my neighbors to enjoy. Great bait for getting to meet them. Mitch

I wouldn't can the orange juice as Vitamin C is destroyed by heat. I can't imagine any nutritional value left after canning. I would donate the excess to a food bank or have someone do the picking. Then, someone is getting the goodness of the oranges. I had an acre of beautiful sweet corn that I didn't need and the food bank sent out a truck with several workers and they cleaned the field in no time.. They were grateful and it sure made me feel good.

I'm not sure how pressure canning can be quicker since it still takes a little time to heat the water to boiling before you can start the 10 minute process of venting the steam and then the process of bringing it up to pressure will take a few minutes then you need to let the canner cool before you can even open it back up. I believe with orange juice you probably only need to vent and then bring the canner up to the proper pressure for you altitude and then let the canner cool but I still don't see how that can be quicker than the BWB that already has warm water from sterilizing the jars.

And as everyone says, you loose vitamin C to heating. Granted, I don't have as much citrus as you but I have been concentrating my citrus juice using the freezer (I freeze a jug of juice, then pull it out and let it start defrosting and poor off the first half of the juice which will be more concentrated since water freezes harder than the sugar and flavor, then I can re-freeze the sweeter juice.) The concentrated juice takes less space in the freezer.

I'm also making some marmalades from the citrus. And then I have made some of my own citrus pectin from the seeds and membranes left after juicing. I haven't tried using the pectin yet as I only just started making it yesterday.

I've also dried some of the tangerine slices as they make a tasty healthy snack that will keep out of the freezer.

Good luck, here is an old Florida link that has some info. They talk about heating citrus to pasturization temperatures for bottling but I don't know if those will make juice safe to keep unrefrigerated long term or if they are even acceptable for modern canning safety but here is the link.

Here is a link that might be useful: Citrus Fruit Conservation

I guess I need to state I do most of my winter canning on a wood burning stove that also heats my house for the most part. I heat my house and do my canning with the wood burning stove because I like the idea I am able to do it. I start with clean jars but I never sterilize them before canning so I don't have a pot of hot water for the water canner already. I can heat the small amount of water in the pressure canner much quicker than the larger amount it takes in the water bath canner. I use both because some things are to delicate for the pressure canner. It takes much longer to boil water with wood.. Pressure canning some orange juice was just something I wanted to try for the heck of it and thought someone could give me the numbers. I freeze some of my lemon juice because I have a need for it year round so I know about freezing. As I stated earlier I give my neighbors my excess so none goes to waste. Thanks Mitch

If there was a way to remove water and condense the orange juice without it being cooked or boiled, it would freeze well then. Just like the frozen concentrates you see in stores. Some years ago, BJ's sold a 3 pack of frozen OJ in plastic quart containers. It was supposedly fresh and then frozen, and not made from concentrates. It was a nice juice once thawed, and you did need to shake the bottle to 'airate' it a little.

Mitch,

According to this link you would process pints and quarts of orange juice for 10 minutes in a BWB if using unsterilized jars. I would think it would be safe for you to process them for 10 minutes in a pressure canner. Anyone else want to talk science about that idea?

Variables for amount of heat transfer are time of processing, state of surrounding fluid, and temperature of surrounding fluid. In this case the time spent with the fluid at temperature is the same. The state, steam vs. liquid water, is different - liquid water is more efficient for convection (heat transfer) than steam. But the temperature of the steam is higher, which means better heat transfer.

On the other hand, the heat transfer rate for convection is q'' = h * (Ts - Tf), the heat transfer coefficient times the difference between surface and fluid temperatures. h is typically between 2 and 25 for gases and between 50 and 1000 for liquids, so that might have a bigger effect than the extra 15°C because the steam is hotter.

There's no way to be sure based on the heat transfer equations (also I learned nothing in heat transfer), but I bet it is about equal to use the BWB processing time for a PC, in a case like this where the time is short. Anyone else have an opinion?

There is no formula to convert BWB time to PC time, so I wouldn't feel sure about *reducing* the processing time when you switch to PC. But maybe you would feel safe PCing for the BWB time? You'd have to make your own decision on risk since there's no official answer for you.

Melissa

Here is a link that might be useful: Preserving oranges from UC Davis (pdf)

Melissa, What you suggest is exactly what I plan to do. About 5 years ago I was canning pears. I had such a surplus of pears I decided to make and can some pear butter. BTW first time making it. I could not find PC numbers, only BWB. I used the BWB numbers for the PC at 5 psi. My Redneck Rithmetic said everything I see with both numbers the BWB numbers were longer. I figured the worse thing would be over cooking. They turned out fine and I have been doing 48 pints of pear butter a year ever since. I plan to PC a couple of pints of the OJ this weekend. Thank you for the reassurance. Mitch

I juiced a couple of pints of Honeybell's and pressure canned them to see how they would turn out. I added one heaping teaspoon of Splenda per pint. After a couple of days I tried one. It definitely don't taste like fresh squeezed but not bad at all. Taste is kinda like the "Contains 10% Real Fruit Juice" orange drinks you can buy. I know the heat kills the vitamin C but it still must have something that is good for me. Heck soft drinks don't have anything good for me. I will now can 12 pints and see how they taste later on.

Mitch, thanks for sharing the results! I have a similar (a little less) citrus over abundance, tried canning pieces in light syrup but did not care for the results at all. I will use tclynx idea of concentrating the juice, this seems like the best solution for me to be able to both enjoy the product and save some freezer space.

It is also getting to be time to make marmalade, just as I am running low on it!

Excess citrus going out to the roadside to share with my neighbors.

I've been putting tangerine slices in the dehydrator to make healthy snacks! Apparently they turned into a real hit when the other half took a bag of them to work. I just wish my dehydrator had a temperature control as I have to be on hand to keep them from scorching.

Mitch - I, too, prefer to use the PC instead of the gallons of water it takes to BWB. Use PC for everything. My educator has helped my convert all my recipes and I haven't found a thing that the pressure ruins. I'd suggest 5 lbs for 5 minutes, the same as I do my jams.

Wish you were nearby. I'm in Fla for the winter and all the free oranges around here are gone already.

I use the PC for just about everything including fish and chicken. It is not uncommon to go two weeks without power after hurricanes. People who have never been through one do not understand you risk losing everything in your freezer. Generators are fine unless they breakdown or you don't run out of gas because you can't buy gas. I have 3 generators and 110 gallons of fuel stored. When the power goes out I don't trust anything until it comes back on.
You must be in South Florida? I am on the Northern Gulf Coast. My citrus ripen a little later than South Florida's. I plan to plant some Valencia oranges this year so I can extend my citrus harvest into the summer.

I can Orange Juice, Grapefruit Juice and Sectionized Grapefruit every year. I would strongly discourage you to use a pressure canner as the excessive heat would change the flavor considerably. Besides, the waterbath is really QUICK!

To do the juice, simply juice the fruit, put in jar and waterbath for 10 minutes for pints and 15 minutes for quarts. If you will add a tiny amount of sugar, maybe 1 cup sugar to 12-15 cups juice (or even less) it will help. The sugar helps to remove some of the canned effect.

The flavor DOES change, but it tastes very similar to the majority of the frozen/bottled citrus juices at the grocery store. The trick is to chill the juice, shaking a couple of times. Then it truly taste better if you add a little ice water right when you are going to drink it.

For the sections -- using a very sharp knife, cut the skin and membrane off the entire fruit. Make sure all the membrane is off as it will make it easier to sectionize and also it is bitter after heated. Then, using a plate knife (dinner knife) and starting at one end, choose an area where there are several larger sections together and start at the left side of the farthest left of the grouping. Slip the knife in with the cutting edge (even though it is the dull kind of knife) up. Push all the way through the fruit and lift up so the knife slides up besides the membrane upward to remove the knife. Then put the knife back in the same section on the right hand side of the section and repeat the process. The section of fruit will fall out. Then, using the knife, flip the membrane over to the left and continue around the entire fruit. After you are sick of sectionizing, go back and remove the seeds. Gently lay the sections in a wide mouth jar. Fill with a very light sugar/water syrup. We do not like sugar, so I use about 1 cup sugar to 12-15 cups water. Even that tiny amount really keeps the fruit from tasting so canned.
Jar, seal and waterbath for 10 minutes for pints and 15 minutes for quarts. I am known to push the sections in pints to 15 minutes, just being careful.

Has anyone tried the BWB with lemons? I have more lemons than freezer space and love my sweet lemon juice (some kind of orange hybrid, sweeter than a Meyer). I'd love to can the excess in pints to use for cooking and lemonade.

I also have a key lime tree and can the lime juice every year. Could obviously do the same with lemons.

This past year I also canned the lime juice with the sugar already in it. We are not big on sugar, so if memory serves, I probably put about 1 sugar to 4 lime juices. Brought to simmer to completely dissolve sugar (Turbinado takes a bit more than white).

When you can the Turbinado Sugar with the Lime Juice, it is a grown color. I call it Creekwater Limeade! Just add water when ready to enjoy.

Waterbath 10 minutes for pints, 15 minutes for quarts (up to about 3000 ft), more if higher elevation.

Like other citrus juices, it does have a slightly different flavor, but not too much. The tartness must help!

Thanks, brenieb! I'll give that a try!
Strangest thing happened to my favorite lemon tree this year. I went to pull the last few lemons off and they were oranges! Honest to god,nsweet, delicious juicing type oranges! I'm very excited as I've been wanting an orange tree and have had to buy juicing oranges at the roadside stand while having an overabundance of lemons.
I just learned that I can start a key lime from seed and get limes in a year or so. I think I'm going to give it a try because we use gobs of limes too!

Hey guys I am fairly new at canning am trying to figure out what kind of PC to buy for the rest of canning that you cant do w/ the Water Bath. Here's the thing, I had just been given an OLD wooden handled PC (w/ a PSI gauge). Would this be SAFE to use? I have a friend cleaning it up and checking to see if the PSI is maintained. (let him blow it up first lol) Anyhow any suggestions?

Thank you kindly,
Jaime

I have had a chance (here in Puerto Rico) to PC various types of OJ's and it depends on the variety of citrus. Valencias, Naval Oranges and other become bitter after being juiced, nothing to do with the PC. Some do not and they PC, BWB or freeze quite well. To test whether the oranges you have will generate a juice that will change taste, juice it and place it in a glass jar and in the refrigerator. If after 24 hrs the juice has changed in flavor, you are better off, freezing it. Otherwise, PC or BWB and enjoy when there are no oranges around! They also freeze well!