With the long history of preserving food in jars, it was inevitable that many of the methods and practices would change over the years as new knowledge came to light and better supplies became available. But, with the trend of returning to the old ways that many homesteaders and preppers have adopted, unfortunately some of the gains in safety made in recent times have been rolled back.  I don't want you to get me wrong. I am all for getting back to the lost ways of the past when life was simpler and people were more self reliant. But, when it comes to canning safety and avoiding food borne illness, the old ways are not always the best ways.  Take for instance the return to the practice of inversion canning to seal jars. I addressed this in detail in another post, here and the reasons why this is not a safe practice no matter what your Grandma said.  Another old practice I have seen some new canning enthusiasts make reference to is using flour or cornstarch to thicken a r...

Today I wanted to add another list of helpful hints and tips for home canning. Some of these are things that have been learned and shared by canning veterans who are kind enough to share what they know and things we may never have thought of on our own. I enjoy hunting down and gleaning knowledge from experienced canners!  Isn't it a blessing that people are willing to reveal their discoveries and secrets?  So without further ado here are seven very helpful tips to make your canning experience more satisfying and successful! If you have any tips of your own to share, feel free to leave them in the comments section for others to learn from! Keep hard water deposits off your jars by adding 1/2 cup of vinegar to your processing water.  Half a cup of lemon juice is a good substitute for "Fresh Fruit" to keep your fruit from turning brown while you are working with it. In a pinch a butter knife or chopstick makes a good bubbling tool.  Don't plan to cook dinner ...

Let's face it,  no matter how much you enjoy canning it can sometimes feel like work and we can always use some advice and tricks to make things easier! So I have compiled a collection of eight handy tips to make things go more smoothly. You know? Less like work and more like a fun pass time! 1. Line your workspace with foil, wax paper or even old newspapers for easy clean ups...  2. DIY water bath set up: using a large stock pot and a homemade rack that you create by tying jar rings together with string... 3. Can in smaller batches and lighten your harvest workload by freezing part of it until you are ready to can it. 4.You can use store bought frozen fruits for jams and jellies. 5. Have all your ingredients and equipment gathered and prepped ahead of time 6. If you don't use a divided wire rack for your jars, you can wrap a large rubber band around the middle of each jar to keep them from bumping together and breaking in the boiling water bath. 7. When yo...

When reading the canning recipes on this blog or anywhere else you find them, you will notice that they all have one thing in common. They always say to cook foods in a non reactive pots and pans.  Or they might word it differently and say "do not use aluminum or cast iron". Actually aluminum and cast iron are not the only reactive types of metal cookware out there. You need to be aware that copper and brass are also reactive and not suitable to cook your foods in for canning. I know that copper and cast iron cookware are making a huge comeback lately and if you just spent a small fortune on new sets for your kitchen don't despair!  Just add a few special non reactive dedicated pots for your canning adventures! Note: I have read conflicting data regarding copper pots, some saying that they are okay for sugary jellies and jams but not for pickling. As for myself, to avoid wasting food, I would just err on the side of caution and not use them for any canning recip...

Did you know?  You can easily make your own gift hang tags for your mason jar gifts by cutting your own from a business card? It is so easy to do and the card stock makes the perfect tag.  All you have to do is trim off the two top corners of the tag and using a small hole punch, make a hole in the top center to accommodate your twine. You can use blank cards and write your own details on, or I make it super easy for you in my shop with some pre-designed cards that can be customized to fit your needs, whether you are just a hobby home canning enthusiast or you run a cottage food kitchen for profit. I have a small but growing selection of designs that you can purchase in my shop and if you have any ideas for a custom design that you would like me to create please leave a comment or contact me via email. I will be happy to publish one for you!  Below is one example of a business card designed specially for this purpose.  They come in packs of 100 cards and ...

Down through the years the recommendation has been that you sterilize your canning jars in boiling water for ten minutes before filling with hot pack foods. But the National Center for Home Food Preservation has recently stated that if your food will be processed for 10 minutes or more at 1000 ft altitudes and below, there is no need for pre-sterilizing the jars as they will be sterilized in the heating process. Most jelly and jam recipes call for 10 minute processing so that means that a good rinse with very hot water should be enough to preheat the jars and prevent cracking when you add the hot food. This advice was a big surprise to me and of course if you are iffy about the saftey and just want to be extra cautious then what is an extra few minutes to make sure your food is at optimum safety for your family?  This can be especially true if you are planning to gift canned food at the holidays. However if you are pressed for time it is nice to know that you can save some ...

Water bath canning is the method of putting your jars in a large pot of boiling water with a wire rack on the bottom to keep the jars from touching the pot. If your canning is limited to jellies, jams or other high acid foods, you do not need to invest in a pressure canner.  A water bath canner is all you need. There are many other types of foods you can preserve with this method. Water bath canning processes foods at a lower temperature than pressure canning and is ideal for high acid foods. Time and temperature combine to destroy mold yeast and enzymes that cause spoilage while at the same time creating a vacuum seal by forcing air out of the jars. Following is a list of some of the food types that this canning method is recommended for with the proper high acid recipes.  Chutneys, sauces, pie fillings Condiments Fruits and fruit juices Jams and jellies Salsa Tomatoes Pickles and relishes Flavored Vinegars Bonus Tip: Make sure the water level is at least an...

If you are part of my generation you will remember a song that went "I had some dreams there were clouds in my coffee..."  Great song! But nobody dreams of having clouds in their jelly so here are a few trouble shooter tips as to why it happens and how to avoid it happening to your jelly. Reason number one why your jelly can come out cloudy is using fruit that was under-ripe or too green. By using fruit that is fully ripe and firm you can avoid the clouds.  Reason number two for having cloudy jelly is overcooking the fruit before straining the juice. To avoid this cook the fruit only until it is tender.  Reason number three that jelly gets cloudy is there was some fruit pulp extracted during the juicing process. Keep the clouds away and get the clearest possible jelly by straining your juice through a dampened jelly bag or several layers of dampened cheesecloth, and do not squeeze the bag trying to rush the process.    Reason number four why you might...

Did you know that the Ball-Kerr website says you don't need to preheat your canning lids anymore? Well, since I was taught eight years ago how to can the old school way by my mother in law, the only manual I actually read up until recently was the instructions on how to use my Presto pressure canner.  So this was a new one on me too, but according to them it is not such a new idea. They said in 1969 they stopped using latex to make the sealing gasket on the inner lid and started using something called Plastisol which doesn't need to be softened with boiling water the way latex did. So the recommendation became to just wash the lids with hot soapy water and keep them at room temperature until ready to use. It should be noted here that they also only recommend that you use official Ball or Kerr brand lids which are made in the USA and BPA free. I also personally believe we should use the good brand name equipment whether it be jars, flats (aka lids) or rings. Why?  Becau...

There are methods used in home canning that might seem like insignificant details to the beginner and you might wonder why do I need to worry about that?  One of those things is the recommended proper headspace in the jars, or in other words how full to fill them with the food or added liquid. Head space is the empty space between the top of the jar and the top of the food or liquid in the jar and it is important to insure a proper vacuum seal of the jar lids which is the difference between food that is safe to eat and food that will make you bad sick. If too little headspace is allowed the food may expand and bubble out of the jar during the processing when air is being forced out of the jar. This can soil the rubber coating on the jar flat lids causing them not to make a tight vacuum seal. When too much headspace is allowed there can be discoloring of the food in the top of the jar and also the jar may not seal properly because not enough air is forced out during the the pr...

Inversion Canning: Why I do not recommend it!  First of all for those of you who immediately said to yourself, "What the heck is inversion canning?" let me explain.  It is the shortcut method of just filling the jars with hot food, setting the lids and then turning the jars upside down to seal without any additional heat processing. Yes, it is an old time method of sealing jars and many a grandma did it, but it is not the safest way to preserve foods and doesn't always provide a good vacuum seal. If you have ever had food poisoning I don't have to say anymore. Food borne illness is no fun and while it won't kill you it will make you wish you could die, so we want to do everything in our power to keep the bacteria that causes it out of our canning process. And especially if we give it away as gifts or sell it. This means sterilizing our jars and equipment with boiling water, canning in a clean environment and proper heat processing of our foods. Why ...

Making clear jelly requires fruit juice. When you hear that you might get excited and think of using store bought juices. But don't do it. They have added ingredients that we don't want and can affect the gelling process. You want pure homemade juice that you made yourself and extracting juice from your fresh fruits isn't really isn't as hard as it sounds. Here is a walk through on getting juice for jelly making. For hard fruits like apples, pears and nectarines:  Make sure the fruits you choose are top quality. Wash and remove the stems and blossom ends, it is not necessary to peel or core them. Quarter or chop the fruit and measure it by slightly heaped quarts. Add one cup of water for each quart of prepared fruit, put it and the fruit in a large saucepot. Cover and simmer until the fruit is soft. Strain the mixture through a damp jelly bag or several layers of cheesecloth to extract the juice. For soft fruits like grapes, cherries and berries: ...

9 signs of spoilage in your home canned foods. When using home canned foods it is important to know how to identify signs of spoiled food and to dispose of them properly to avoid food poisoning. Carefully inspect each jar before using to make sure it is vacuum sealed. If it does not require a can opener to pry off the flat lid, Do Not Use It ! Other signs of spoilage include: broken seals seepage mold yeast growth gassiness fermentation cloudiness slime spurting liquid bad odors   If you suspect a jar of food to be spoiled just throw the whole jar away sealed in plastic garbage bags after detoxifying them in a boiling water bath. Put the whole unopened jar into a large pot and cover with 1-2 inches of boiling water. Boil for 30 minutes. Then discard all the contents of the pot, jars and all (do not open them).  Wipe any surfaces with 1 to 5 parts bleach water solution and let set for 5 minutes before rinsing.  Discard any rags or sponges used in...

When I was learning to can, I had heard that you need pure cane sugar in order for your jelly to gel. But my mom said that my grandmothers who lived in Colorado where they made sugar from beets,  always used beet sugar and never had any problems. I didn't know which was right, but I knew I wasn't going to risk wasting a batch of jelly to find out. Well tonight while I was reading up on making jelly since I don't make it often and I always need a refresher, I saw this in my Ball canning guide. "Sugar helps in gel formation, contributes to flavor and serves as a preserving agent. Beet and cane sugar may be used with equal success."  That was an aha moment and a relief but I don't think I will try to argue the point with any old timers that still believe in the myth. Interestingly the article went on to say that you can substitute part of the sugar in a recipe with light corn syrup. It said for recipes without added pectin substitute 1/4 of the sugar and...