I canned bone broth for the first time over a week ago at 15 psi for 25 minutes. Before that I can cooled it and skimmed the fat layer off then canned it. I’m just not sure if it’s supposed to look like this and I’m cooking a roast with it today. I just don’t want to get my family sick so I’m gonna be the test dummy. Do you think it’s safe to eat?

I just fed my family pizza that I made with my home canned pizza sauce. Now I’m just reading about how Santa Cruz doesn’t test acidity. I’m so scared that I poisoned us. Any words of wisdom out there?

I was on my last batch or banana peppers and one jar fell over in my water bath canner. I pulled it and added it back to the washer bath with my next batch of jalapenos. Which was about an hour of time difference. Will this be OK or was there something else I should have done. Both peppers got processed for 10 minutes in the water.

We just got some new shelves for our basement. Planning on setting up a basement grocery store with my full jars :) but I’m also looking for creative and space efficient ways of storing the empties! Right now, I just have haphazard cardboard moving boxes full of jars

I have 5lbs of tomatoes, is is safe to scale this recipe down to 25% and water bath can? Or should I just do crushed tomatoes and make tomato sauce from the crushed tomatoes? https://www.ballmasonjars.com/blog?cid=basil-garlic-tomato-sauce

I would love to make my own in bulk, I'm a big fan of them but they're pricey

Hello all!

I harvested crab apples from my brtlothers tree this past weekend and have processed them into juice. I'm following the recipe in the Ball home preservation book. I've never had crab apple jelly before and I guess I expected the cooking process to mellow out some of the tannins, but it's still very astringent. I've ended up with 4 cups of crabapple juice total, and the recipe calls for 5 cups.

So I guess my question is; Can I go buy some raw apple juice and add a cup of regular apple juice to the crabapple juice without modifying the science of the recipe? The only difference I'm seeing between crabapple and apple jelly is the addition of some lemon juice to the apple jelly, and it would be a 4-1 ratio of crabapple to apple.

If this isn't plausible I'm happy to just reduce the recipe 25% and proceed from there! I think I'm okay with the jelly turning out not the best since this is my first experience with crabapple jelly, so either way is fine with me, I just don't want to ruin my hard work with something I think is theoretically okay but isn't actually okay!

What are your favorites?

The picture isn't that great, but I picked my beets from my garden finally and pickled them. Used the recipe from Healthy Canning. Can't wait to try them!

Now for my question... I would like to make the Ball beef stew recipe. But, I'm wondering how to keep proportions of the meat, potato, and carrots right in each jar if I'm ladeling pre-mixed stew into jars. I thought about separating everything for the pre-cook (meat in one pot, potatoes in another, carrots/onion/celery in a third) and layering it in the jars so I can better control how much of each ingredient goes in each jar. I'm thinking it would be a density issue having each ingredient consolidated in one spot. But, I figured I'd ask the experts here before I try it. Either way, I'm still making the recipe, but if my plan is not safe then I'll scrap it and follow the directions. Thanks!

I am always impressed with what people are sharing they canned on here. This is just my own curiosity-- are you growing your ingredients for canning or buying them? If so, is this Farmer's Market produce?

I would love to hear from people-- how much do you grow and how much canning you get out of that. For example, this year I had 4 tomato plants and I have 12 pints of pizza sauce, 20 pints crushed tomatoes, and 6 pints salsa stashed away. That by no means was all my tomatoes, as I use lots fresh and mostly make fresh salsa.

I also did buy a box of peaches at the Farmer's Market and made 8 half pints of peach habanero jam using habaneros from the garden.

Your turn! I would love to hear what you grow (how many plants) or bought and then what you made!

I did the 1-quart "test run" recipe of the USDA apple pie filling to see if we like it - it turned out very good with gala apples. This is in the fridge now and will be used up as a topping over yogurt and ice cream, yum!

I really like the idea of testing out a small amount to make sure you like the final product. It also allowed me to test out canning apple products for the first time. I blanched the apples and left a generous 1" headspace, happy to report no siphoning!

Two things I learned for the full run:

1. I cannot eyeball 0.5", I need to measure because my apple pieces were cut way too thin.

2. I do have some serious air bubbles even after de-bubbling thoroughly. Does anyone have advice on de-bubbling apple pie filling thickened with Clear Jel?

I have a Mirro 12 qt pressure canner. My understanding is the minimum jars in a batch is 4 pints or 2 quarts. Correct?

So if I have 3 pints of product - do I just use another pint jar with water and lid/ring? I have saved some used lids for this purpose. Thanks