ELI5: how does canning work??
I recently watched a video where a woman put a bunch of raw chicken into mason jars and put them in her canner (some kind of huge crockpot looking thing). I simply cannot wrap my mind around the idea that you can “can” something that would usually be bad in about a week in the fridge, but because it is “canned”, it can be shelf stable, out of the fridge, for years. I know this is a practice that has been around for ages. My father grew up canning food. I just want to understand the science behind it. How does it not go bad? Is this because it is airtight? Help me understand!!