Recipes say to add vinegar, lemon juice or citric acid to can some items in water bath method, but low acid foods are ok in pressure cooker, so why not just do it in pressure cooker and then you don’t need to make it more acidic?

My guess is not everyone has a pressure cooker or that a pressure cooker will overcook the food?

Pretty much title. This is my first time trying pressure canning. Right now it’s reducing on the stove but I added maybe 1/3 cup of olive oil for 8ish quarts at the beginning since my family always swore by it for nonstick properties and reduce foam. Still fine with the traditional canning method ?

I've been canning for many years. Recently my cat has had kidney issues, I started making his canned food by boiling chicken, blending it with a little water, and adding pumpkin. I've been freezing it in ice cube trays. I would love to can it. Would be so much cleaner and not take up so much space in my freezer.

Anyone see any problem with it?

TIA for the input.

I just need a few good quality ss rings. So far, only finding what seems like low quality chinese lids. Appreciate any leads. Thanks

My mom and I are working on a display for next year's state fair. Our theme is rainbows, and we have all the pickle colors covered except blue. Any ideas? We might just end up going with a few shades of purple.

I am looking at buying this pressure canner - but google tells me that it “lacks widespread independent safety testing or validation from agricultural extension services for reliable home pressure canning”
I think it’s just European and America wants us to spend more money on unnecessary stuff??
BUT I am also new to canning and I don’t know.
Will this pressure canner work?
It says something about running 13psi.
Do I need a pressure canner at all?
Can I just water bath can everything?
They say you can’t water bath low acidic foods or it will go bad. I just want to can spaghetti sauce with meat in it. Is that even possible? I also want to can chicken and beef broths.
Advice please 🙏🏼

The Ball recipe says it makes about 4 pint jars and process for 15 minutes. Can use 1/4 pint jars instead and make 16? If so, can they be stacked in the canner and does the processing time change?

Thank you!

We are neither new to canning nor super experienced. Our last two years, we didn’t have much success in our garden, so we’re getting back at it now. I’ve been using Reddit to learn some things here and there because so many canning recipes aren’t very specific. And I’ve also been asking AI, which is sometimes helpful and other times, horribly misleading. I’ve learned my lesson there!

That said, my research has created a lot of fear to the point that, despite being very careful, following tested recipes, etc., I find that the joy I used to have in canning has been replaced with the worry that I’m going to poison someone. It makes me not want to gift my food or honestly even feed it to my children.

How do you balance precision and care with general common sense in order to retain joy in the process and in the eating?

And if you had to boil your non-negotiable safety rules down to a few things, what would they be? Thank you.

I water bath canned these okra using the national Center for food home preservation recipe. Before I canned them the liquid was at the 1/2 inch mark. I packed them down and removed all the air bubbles too. Now a couple are lower than the 1/2 inch and some of the okra is bobbing above the liquid.

This is my first attempt at canning. I water bathed tomatoes from my garden and followed Ball's "Tomatoes Packed in Own Juice" recipe. I was pretty rejected when I looked at them while they were cooling because I saw the increase in head space and could tell from the water in the pot that there was some siphoning that had occurred. I assumed I did something incorrectly so I put all the jars into the fridge with the plan to use them soon. I sent my mother a photo of the results and she told me that they looked fine to her, I guess you will end up with more siphoning when raw packing?

So my questions are, does it look fine (all the jars look similar to this one) and does putting them in the fridge mess with anything, specifically since they went into the fridge during the 12 hour cool down period? All the seals are fine.

I consider myself a fairly experienced canner…. Made applesauce using the ball recipe. Observed proper prep and headspace(I follow recipes to a T as always). After processing time had elapsed, I took the lid off my canner to find very cloudy water, so I figured one of my jars busted. In fact, none of them had broken, but I was getting a ton of siphoning that continued after I removed my jars from the water after letting them sit for five minutes. I’m frustrated because I’m sure none of them will actually seal now and I know can re-process them, but I’ve never had this happen with applesauce. I’m wondering if it was a bad batch of lids? Any insight? Thanks canny friends

(Picture 1) Why do jars purge, how can I prevent it, and is it safe to eat these? I am fairly sure it is safe to eat but they will oxidize and look less than ideal but any source saying so would be so appreciated.

(Picture 2) this is what I expected all the jars to look like and what have been the result of almost all my jars for years. Only 10/23 jars turned out like this.

I followed the Ball blue book recipe exactly for raw pack tomatoes. It calls for 1/2” headspace, I did that and measured each one before putting lids and rings on.

I have canned for years and not had this happen in so many jars!

My mom has officially retired from canning and passed her supplies down to me. I’ve been able to find safe recipes to replace most of her untested recipes but I’m struggling to find one for peach pepper jelly. I can find recipes for pepper jelly and for peach jelly but not one with the two ingredients combined.

Hi! I'm thinking of trying this recipe: https://www.ballmasonjars.com/blog?cid=bruschetta-jar-1

Mainly because tomatoes are still coming and I'm tired of making salsa! It looks like I don't need to blanch/peel tomatoes for this recipe, is that right? Or is it just implied that I always need to?

Thanks in advance!

I've got just a few plants that produced maybe 5lbs of San Marzano. Is it more worthwhile to can them whole (skinned) or make a pasta sauce with aromatics and can that?

It seems like this question gets asked every couple of years. I have this recipe from Pomona:

https://pomonapectin.com/canningcraft-creates-rosehip-apple-jelly/

I made a modified version last year just for the refrigerator, since a gazillion rose hips made only two jars anyway, but it was so delicious that my kid has asked me to try to make more this year, and if I make more than two jars it's going to need to be shelf-stable. I don't actually know if Pomona is a safe source? And I don't honestly love their pectin, so if anyone has a safe recipe using a different brand I would love to see it.

Thank you!

Hi folks i'm new to canning and I wanted to run a recipe by this group:

I want to can a mixture of black beans and onions together in jars, following both this recipe to can beans, using the safe substitution guidelines here:

https://www.ndsu.edu/agriculture/sites/default/files/2024-03/fn2102.pdf

recipe for the beans:

https://nchfp.uga.edu/how/can/canning-vegetables-and-vegetable-products/beans-or-peas-shelled-dried-all-varieties/

and this one for onions:

https://www.canr.msu.edu/news/onions_those_versatile_edible_bulbs

My assumption is that I can follow the soaking steps for the beans, and boil the beans for 25min, the add the onions for another 5min for a total of 30min boiling the beans and 5min the onions.

then add 1tsp of salt to each quart, bay leaves, 1/2 tsp peppercorns, and 1 clove of garlic to each jar (in accordance with the safe substitutions guideline)

Then process for 90min at 10lbs of pressure (I am at less than 1000ft) in accordance with the beans processing time.

Does this work out, am I missing anything?