Bizonkulous

I phoned my mom and found that you are supposed to put in baking soda or sugar ANYWAY, so I put in some of both. I tested one bowl with liquid smoke and one with curry. My roommate preferred the former, I preferred the latter. So I added both to the main pot (not enough to taste the curry, but it does cut down on the burny taste a bit; the liquid smoke makes it feel more like the burny taste is there on purpose). Then I added some tabasco, some chipotle, and some paprika. So now it tastes burny in a sort of okay smoky way, and the burny aftertaste is replaced with a burny aftertaste of the tabasco sort. Not bad!

But on the canning front - I suspect my pressure canner is not quite right :/ and a pressure canner is definitely not something you want malfunctioning in your kitchen, or anywhere near your person actually. You’re supposed to put the jars in and boil it without the pressure regulator on to exhaust some steam for 5 minutes, then put on the pressure regulator, at which point the pressure in the pot forces up the air vent/cover lock, a) sealing off the air vent so the contents stay under pressure and b) preventing you from opening the lid. The cover lock is not coming up and steam keeps escaping. Not good. I took the whole thing apart, cleaned it, and am starting over now.

Edit: it works.