How to Start Home Canning- Understanding how it works

Home canning is preserving food. It may be food you've grown yourself, had given to you or purchased for canning. With this food you can make jams and jellies, salsas and spaghetti sauces, pickles and relish, etc. The list just keeps going with possibilities. As your skills grow, you may want to learn to pressure can your other vegetables as well. But for now we start with a basic understanding of how and why canning works.

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Large pot or pressure canner
• Jars made especially for canning with lids and rings
• Canning recipes
• fruits and veggies

1. Home canning falls into three categories. Water bath canning, pressure canning and freezer. Water bath canning is for acidic foods and pressure canning is for low acid foods. Fruits and tomatoes are generally acidic and vegetables ands meats are low acid. Understanding the difference will ensure safe products when you are done. Freezer canning is using your freezer to preserve your food as apposed to heat processing to create a shelf stable seal on your jar.

2. Water bath canning is fairly simple. Follow the recipe, put food in the hot sterile jars and put in a deep pan and cover with several inches of water. Bring to boil and process for time described in the recipe. Having a rack at the bottom of the pan is also advisable to prevent boiling water from tipping the jars.

3. Pressure canning is more complicated and takes some pricey equipment as well. A pressure canner is basically a large pot with a lid that seals and holds in the heat and pressure when you use it. There is a gauge that regulates exactly how much pressure there is inside. Higher pressure means higher temperature and this is what heats the food in the jars to a high enough temperature to kill any harmful organisms. Too much pressure can be dangerous too so you must watch the gauge carefully.

4. Freezer canning is basically packing your food in jars to store in the freezer. There are special products out there for freezer canning such as freezer pectin for freezer jams. With freezer canning you can do some food that you might not otherwise do because of lack of equipment or safety concerns.

5. You must use jars and lids made especially for home canning. They are made to withstand the heat and pressure of water-bath and pressure canning and the cold of freezer canning without breaking. Processing creates a vacuum seal on the jar that prevents organisms from getting in and contaminating your food.

6. Now that you have a basic idea how and why canning works find a simple recipe to look at and give it a try.

Tips & Warnings

• Have Fun!
• Jams and jellies are the easiest place to start for most people.
• Don't be afraid. Once you understand the basics home canning can be fun and easy.
• Start small and work your way up.
• Don't change an approved canning recipe. The balance might thrown off and you'll end up with an unsafe product.
• Safety comes first so if in doubt, throw it out.

[Summersile]

on 10/30/2009 Good article on canning basics!

[auntkitty]

on 10/25/2009 Thank you for making it simple. I grew a big vegetable garden for the fist time this year and now that I think I've got it pretty much figure out, I'll be canning next year. This is super helpful.