Rules:

I’m making fruit jams and butters following ball recipes.

Adjusting for altitude I need to water bath can my half pints for 20 mins. However I’m out of half pint jars! New jars, at a reasonable price, will take a week or two to arrive.

Have plenty of pint jars and tons of fruit.

I assume it’s safe to WBC pints instead of half pints, I just need to know if/how much I should adjust timing to be safe.

Thanks brains trust!

I have some carrots I received from a farm that hadn’t been cleaned and the skin started to get dark spots on them and a little moldy. However after peeling the carrots they seem fine. Are they safe to eat? Pickle? Cook?

Hi all. I'm relatively new to canning. I had been doing it in the oven but my understanding after researching it - is that it's not a particularly safe way to can. I have a bunch of apple butter that I was planning on canning using the oven.

I also read that you can't use a water bath canning technique because the water isn't hot enough as compared to a real steam canner.

I kinda poked around - can I use an Instant pot to can? I have a really large one? Or is this dangerous? Any advice is appreciated. I can always make this batch into fridge apple butter because I don't have a pressure canner.

Hi Canners! I just started canning a few weeks ago with my first recipes being fruit butters, jams and jellies. Those all involved apples or cranberries, some pear and orange, if such a thing even matters. I worked my way up to pickling and have 8 jars of that as well. Before today, all of those canned items add up to about 60 jars (mostly 4 oz., also several half pints, full pints for pickles). For all of those, lids started pinging within minutes of pulling them from the water bath.

Today, I have processed twelve 4 oz. and one half pint of Ball's Kiwi Daiquiri Jam. To make that many, I did two separate batches (this makes me wonder, does anyone double jam recipes in a single cook, or might that cause problems? For me, jams and jellies are starting to set before I get to the 7th or 8th jar so I figure it's best I don't double recipes for now.) The only thing I changed about the recipe was to omit the 1/4 cup of rum (because kiddos) and I simply replaced that with more of the pineapple and lime juice that the recipe calls for. To be specific, to make up that 1/4 cup, I used 3 extra tablespoons of pineapple juice and 1 extra tablespoon of lime juice. I may have done an even mix but the kiwis were not all at their sweetest.

Most of today's lids have pinged but more than a few have not, including just one from a the first batch, which was pulled from the water bath about 3 - 4 hours ago. I'm trying not to worry as I know I should give them until tomorrow to be sure... but I can't help it. These would be my first lid failures and I do know that happens sometimes, so it wouldn't be terribly surprising I guess. Also though... I need to make 24 of these 4 oz. jars for the kiddos to share with friends and teachers this holiday season, so I just want to be prepared.

This is the tartest jam I've made... idk if that tells us anything, but in my opinion, it's also the best jam I've made. Sooooo delicious! I did check all the lids prior to washing and thought they all looked good.

My prep work involves washing jars, rings, and lids. The jars then go in the canner to get hot and the lids and rings go into a glass bowl. When the water in the canner is just starting to steam (not simmer or boil) I dip a quart or two out of the pot and pour it over the lids and rings. That's how lids and rings are held until it's time to use them. I saw this in some YouTube video and liked the idea of how this submerged method keeps things clean and warm (I have a cat who's not allowed in the kitchen when canning, and unbelievably, he never has jumped on counters or tables... but there's no telling when a hair might float by).

Sorry to be such a worrying noob, but I just wanted to ask you experienced folks if should I be worried over jars who's buttons are still up at 4 hours after processing? Also, the pic looks a little messy and all wrong, but that's the extra that went into the fridge. A couple of drops of green food coloring made this the perfect color to match with the red Christmas jam and the golden Apple jelly. The kids asked if I could make a bunch of three packs of mini jelly jars in Christmas colors. So far, so good... as long as this excellent kiwi jam seals up right.:D

Are they ruined for cowboy candy since they’re frozen?

I'm new to pressure canning. My canner is still in the box, brand new. I have a recipe for a soup called soup joumou. There is no canning recipe for it. It's basically a base of pureed butternut squash with seared beef, vegetables (carrots, celery, onion, cabbage, plantain, turnips, etc), potatoes, tomato paste, lime juice, olive oil, spices, herbs, and it is supposed to contain noodles but the noodles may be left out for the actual preparation of the meal. I'll link a video to show the full recipe and I also included the full ingredient list.

https://youtu.be/WecVJbpR_hQ?si=a0Fy0yDpI8B9g0n8

Recipe:
1 plantain
5 carrots
5 red potatoes
1 head of cabbage
2 beef bouillon cubes
2 jalapenos poked with cloves
parsley tied with thyme
1 bag of celery sticks
salt to taste
3 Tablespoon of Haitian spice / epis
1/4 cup of olive oil
3 teaspoon of freshly squeezed lime juice
2 Roma tomatoes
1 box of ragatoni or any pasta of your choice
3-4 pound of beef
1 butternut squash ( i actually used 1/2 of the butternut, but u can use the whole thing if you wish)
1 buttercup squash
1 Tablespoon of tomatoe paste
18 cup of water - 4 cups to cook the meat, 2 cups to cook the squash, 12 cups to make the liquid for the soup

I'm curious about what would a pressure canning process look like for this recipe. Can it be a hot pack or would it be a raw pack? Should I make the recipe in the way that the video shows it and then can the resulting stew? What would be the appropriate jar size, headspace, and processing time for this recipe?

Any sound advice is appreciated.

Hello!

I'm truly getting into making jam at home again. It's even becoming a passion of mine now that .I've retired from sewing and embroidery. I do it more for myself & family, though I've been thinking of someday selling what I make. 🥰

But, one thing disturbs me constantly! The labels I print and stick never quite fit/adhere fully onto that dern diamond pattern Ball makes!

Can someone recommend a reliable jam/jelly jar that has smooth & straight sides for my labels please? 🙏

The husband is losing patience with me as I can['t stop making (canning)_ things. He is wanting me to start making Christmas cookies etc. LOL I know, he is right.

So, my question is what can I purchase now (fruits, veggies etc) and say, freeze and get back to canning after the holidays?

Right now I have a 5 pound back of apples and want to get mandarin oranges *I think they are on sale again this week,

See, I do have issues! LOL

Does anyone know if the collection elite wide mouth pints are discontinued? I wanted to add to my jar inventory but these aren’t available anywhere.

So, my family has always made pickled eggs (beet juice, white vinegar, and peppers) and allowed them to sit out. They’re in a huge jar and just sit on the counter and we eat on them until they’re gone. How concerning is this?? I never really considered the dangers because growing up that always how my family made/kept them.

I have a recipe for fridge pickles with habaneros, garlic, bay leaves and other dry or whole spices. Besides that it's a basic vinegar/salt/water brine. I want to make some shelf stable to last longer than 2 weeks-1 months allowed by the fridge pickles before spoiling. I've looked all over a for a recipe with cucumbers and habanero but I can't find anything. Would I be able to modify a dill pickle recipe with adding habanero? Or does anyone have a safe tested recipe? The garlic is just nice to have, but I would like to also include bay leaves/corriander seeds for the flavor it imparts onto the pickles.

I'm going to be adding something like 3-6 habaneros for every quart jar and I am worried it would impact the acidity too much for water bath canning.

So, I made this apple butter recipe and I tasted the apple pulp after the puree process and it was amazing as is so I was wondering if I could can the puree I get before adding the rest of the stuff for the butter because I wouldn't mind having a bunch of that set aside as well. Thank you in advance!

Hi everyone, I made some applesauce on Nov 17. I had used the water and apple ratio from this recipe (but I kept the peels on) and followed this recipe for the actual canning process since I wasn't sure why the All Recipes recipe didn't discuss canning at all. I added some lemon juice as described by this recipe (though I wasn't sure if it was necessary). I let it cool at room temperature for about half a day or so and it has been in the fridge ever since. I haven't opened it.

I have read a couple horror stories and cautionary tales and now am a bit nervous to eat this since I followed a blog post and not an official recipe from Ball or something similar. To make applesauce in the future, is canning necessary? If so, did I choose an appropriate canning process? Did keeping the peels on affect the safety? Is lemon juice necessary for canning high acidic foods?

Thanks all.

I've seen youtube shorts of people leaving the skin on. I like the skin and I've heard its good for you anyway.

For canning pumpkin, it says boil for 2 minutes. Is that bringing it back to a boil for 2 minutes or just throw it in boiling water for 2 minutes only?

Every time I've canned pumpkin or squash the water obviously stops boiling once I throw in the pumpkin, but I have let it come back to a boil then boil for 2 minutes.

Why would I even want to? Well, I just need to do a few small batch recipes to test flavor before gifting for the holidays. So, say I can get 2 batches done on day 1, and batch 3 done in the morning on day 2, then I would process that afternoon. These three batches should equal about 6 half pint jars (maybe a bit more), which will fill my water bath canner, and processing them all together would save time, water, effort, electricity, and thus, money.

As far as I know, a big risk comes if food is left out too long... and the fridge can help with that, but would I need the fridge if all were done in less than 24 hours?

The risk then becomes thermal shock and possible distaster...

• Could I slowly bring up the temp of the jars as I heat the water in the water bath? Or, am I risking leaking into or out of jars if I do this?
• And, I wouldn't get that rolling boil unless temps in jars were high enough, right?
• Alternatively, I could heat previously filled jars separately before processing them all together. I'm thinking I could just use my soup pot filled to just below the rings, and bring that temp up until it's starting to simmer. Do you see any problem with this method of bringing the temp up?
• Am I missing anything?

In case it's important, I will be using Pamona's Create Your Own Jelly/Jam method to can apple jelly, grape jelly, and tart cherry jelly. What I am testing is the level of sweetness and I just don't want a whole bunch of each. So, I will do small batches for testing, and full/no messing with method batches for gifting.

Don't worry, already have 13 half pints of Christmas jam done, and there was no messing around with method there. ;) I hear a lot of folk like Christmas Jam made with cranberries, orange, and strawberry, but I haven't tried that yet and I cannot imagine it beats Ball's cranberry, orange, pear. That jam is so delicious!!!

Thanks Canners!!

I’m looking to turn some applesauce I was given into jam, jelly or whatever applesauce makes. All the recipes I’ve found are juice or fruit, none applesauce. And there’s no consistency with the recipes I’m finding. Can I just substitute sauce for juice? Do I use citric acid or pectin? I have both. What sugar ratio should I use? Recipes vary greatly.

https://preview.redd.it/76y19r95yf4e1.jpg?width=290&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=aeb781b5205095663d8c19de86621b17a2d713fa

Has anyone made both and had a preference? The recipes are similar but different. For example, bernardins calls for a lot more vanilla than balls.

I’m also confused because the Bernardin recipe has more of all ingredients but says it makes only 3 jars vs balls 4 jars.

This Jam has become my new favorite and I wanted to share the recipe. Beautiful dark almost black color and wonderful deep tangy flavor.

1.5lbs blueberries

1.5lbs Aronias

2 large Lemons juiced (1/2cup) and zested if you feel like it.

2 cups water (or juice if you want different flavors)

10T low sugar pectin (possibly redundant, it sets almost instantly due to high pectin berries)

2lbs sugar + to taste

Boil berries/water/juice, add pectin, boil again, add sugar. Now at this point I used an immersion blender to well blend it because the aronias do not break down very well. If you do not blend the end product will be a little chewy but not badly so. Then boil 1 minute, can, and pasteurize. Makes about 5 pints.

https://preview.redd.it/0uy842xvuc4e1.jpg?width=3000&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=f281cd2c278e3d3993609ea134084cb1d34293b7

This is the salsa I canned! I followed a ball recipe. All sealed. Here’s the mistakes I made 🤦‍♀️

1. Didn’t leave 1/2inch head space per recipe. It was 3/4in when I measured. (It was 3/4in before it was processed, looks like less now). I added a couple minutes to the processing time to hopefully make up for that..

2. Forgot to wipe rims. Honestly they weren’t dirty, I was pretty careful when filling so I think that’s why I forgot.

3. There’s bubbles present in the jars (you can see them in the photo if you zoom) is that bad? They aren’t moving or anything.

So does any of this make these unsafe? I wanted to use them as gifts… Thank you!

Edited to add- solved! Thanks everyone!

Lately I’ve been meal prepping soup for lunch at work. I’ve been using jars as storage because I want to avoid plastic as much as I can. I fill the cold jars with hot liquid- not boiling. Seal them up, and let them cool on the counter and place them in the fridge. They’re always very sealed tight and the tops are sucked in before I refrigerate them. When I go to reheat them at work I really have to pry the lid off that’s been suctioned to the top.

My question- I have some in the fridge I never got around to eating from a week or two ago. Normally that’s not good obviously but would it still be safe to eat since it’s in a sealed and suctioned jar? Like did I accidentally can them? TIA!!

Hi everyone! I’m looking to purchase a new vacuum sealer so that I can store more foods in the freezer (meats, soups, ready to cook meals, etc) and dry goods on the shelf. I’ve been canning for a while, but not all things can be preserved that way. I have seen many pros and cons to various vacuum sealing systems, so I am curious what your favorites are and why. Can you please share your recommendations?

Recipe could not be simpler, just can chiles in cider vinegar. Threw in some peppercorns and mustard seeds out of habit and a 1/4 tsp of pickle crisp.

Makes a great, easy, & cheap gift for the hot sauce nuts in your family. I’ll probably transfer this to some kind of shaker bottle for the table.