Basics for Canning at Home: A Primer for Preserving Vegetables & Fruits

Despite the cornucopia of grocery store offerings we enjoy in the United States, many people are discovering, or rediscovering, the joys of home canning. There are benefits to preserving your vegetable and fruits by canning. Bets of all, it’s neither difficult nor overly time consuming, once get the knack of it. If you can follow a recipe to bake a cake or casserole, you can preserve vegetables and fruits in your home.

Once upon a time, before refrigeration was the norm, every home reserved a special storage area, where glass jars filled with the growing-season’s fresh bounty were lovingly labeled and organized. Families relied upon their home preserves through the long winter months, when a trip to the nearest market or supply store was a dangerous undertaking. Home preserving, canning, or “putting by” was a skill every young girl learned and every young man grew up helping in any way they were asked, knowing how delicious these foods were, and how vital to their well-being.

Today, despite the cornucopia of grocery store offerings, many people are discovering, and rediscovering, the joys and benefits of home canning. Some choose home preserving to help cope with the rising cost of groceries, others for prolonged storage of their homegrown foods and use of recyclable glass and metals, and some folks want to ensure they and their loved ones are eating foods without harmful chemicals or questionable additives. Other common starting points are a bountiful an abundance in their home gardens, or someone they know bestowed them a bushel of beautiful, ripe tomatoes! Bottom line: canning vegetables and fruits is easy and requires very few, if any, specialized tools.

If you can follow a recipe to bake a cake or casserole, you can preserve most vegetables and fruits in your home. It’s neither difficult nor overly time consuming. Your home canned goods take up no room in your refrigerator or freezer; they will keep perfectly well on a pantry shelf for up to a year, with some canning jar brands and lids now boasting up to 18 months of storage.

There are two methods of home canning: the water-bath method and the pressure-canning method. Pressure canning is a type of preserving used for low-acid foods. When a food that’s higher on the pH scale (meaning less-acidic) than 4.6, bacteria can survive in it. To reliably kill any bacteria (including botulism), the contents of the jar must be brought all the way up to 240-250 degrees F. The only way to do this in a home setting is under pressure, in a pressure cooker. (Are you thinking of instant pot canning?

DON’T do it! Canning with an instant pot or electric pressure cooker, IS NOT considered safe! There is no way to test the accuracy of the pressure your food is cooking at.)

The water bath method, also known as boiling-water heat processing, is the easiest and offers a safe preservation method for the most common acidic vegetables, with a pH of less than 4.6. We will focus on this method.

Canning vegetables in your home with the water-bath method is not rocket science; practically anyone can do it with a few simple tools, most of which you probably already own. But home canning IS based on science. Following a few basic rules will ensure your success.

Here are a few simple Do’s and Don’ts.

1.  Invest in an up-to-date home preserving/canning cookbook authored or endorsed by a trusted, established authority. (Ball® is probably the most well-known.) Your local County Agricultural Extension office is also reliable source for home canning information.

2. Always follow the precise measurements in a recipe. This is especially important for ingredients such as salt, sugar, and vinegar.

3. When in doubt about doubling a recipe, or making a smaller batch, or perhaps being tempted to make an ingredient substitution, contact your local County Extension office to ensure the safety of your end result.

4. Always use clean, sterile glass canning jars.

5. Always use new jar lids; bands without any signs of rust or dents can be reused.

6. Always precisely follow cooking and heat processing times.

Remember, take no shortcuts! The time you invest by doing it properly will preserve edible goods perfectly and save you time later on when preparing meals. Your efforts also will provide you and your loved ones with safe foods, with some nutrients intensified after canning, and the concentration of specific vitamins and antioxidants higher after the canning process, as with tomatoes.

As discussed above, vegetables and fruits with higher acidity (a pH lower than 4.6) can be processed easily using the water-bath method. Certain foods with a variable pH value (depending on their ripeness, plant variety, and other factors) can be safely preserved with the addition of an acidic ingredient, such as lemon juice or vinegar. Some of the most popular fruits and vegetables that are preserved using the water bath method include:

· Fruit jams, jellies, and butters

· Applesauce and pie fillings

· Relishes, chutneys, and chili sauces

· Cucumber and other vegetable pickles

· Tomatoes, tomato sauces, juices, salsas, and paste

To get started, you will need a boiling-water canner, or a large kitchen stock pot that you can use as one. This pot must be deep enough to accommodate the size canning jars you intend to fill, have a rack that keeps your jars a bit above the heated bottom and allows for even heat distribution to all the jars, and have a lid.

Racks designed for canners have handles for easy removal of the processed hot jars. Some people use a cake cooling rack that fits in the bottom of their pot, or have used extra screw bands secured together to fashion one. With such homemade racks, you would want to purchase a jar lifter to safely lift your hot jars from the pot. Any pot you use must be deep enough to completely immerse the jars in water by at least one inch, while also allowing an extra two inches for a rapid boil.

You will also need glass canning jars and new two-piece metal closures. Typically, jelly jars are 8-ounce, pickle jars are 16-ounce, and sauce jars are 32-ounce. The larger the capacity of the jar, the deeper your water-bath pot must be.

Glass canning jars, often referred to as mason jars, are the only containers recommended for safe home canning. Though your jars do not need to be new, they must be completely intact. Be sure to inspect each one before using; the top must be smooth and flat, with no chips, otherwise the lid will not form a tight seal.

Two-piece metal screw bands include a flat metal lid with a channel filled with a sealing compound. The threaded metal screw band fits over the threaded neck of the glass jar; it holds the lid in place during heat processing and helps facilitate the seal.

Though not required, you will find a few other tools helpful. Use a canning funnel with a wide mouth to more easily fill your jars. A magnetic lid wand is handy to lift metal lids from hot water without burning your fingers or scratching the lid’s coating. A chopstick or thin spatula will help release air bubbles in the jar before placing the lids. Our 5-piece canning kit includes these tools, and more!

Whether you’re canning squash, canning beans, or canning cherries, it’s essential to use fresh, ripe produce! Select the highest quality fruits and vegetables at their peak of freshness; those that show signs of decay or are heavily bruised should be avoided. You will achieve best results if you can your produce within a day or two of harvest or purchase.

Nearly all homegrown, natural, or organic produce will have blemishes. Simply cut out the blemished parts to ensure the fruit or vegetable is fine inside, and to keep your preserves looking their very best. If blemished parts are still edible, put them aside for your next batch of soup, chili, stir fry, or pie. Consider freezing these castoffs for future use.

When water is a recipe ingredient, only use what you know is safe to drink, as the quality of your canned goods might be affected by the amount of minerals in the water. Hard water contains high levels of magnesium or calcium, which could lead to the formation of a cloudy brine and eventually settle at the bottom of the jar. Other minerals, like iron, can darken light-colored foods and add an unpleasant flavor. If your water supply is affected by any of the above, consider using filtered bottled water or filtering it with a commercially available water filter.

Use only vinegars that are labeled as 5 percent acidity and that are labeled as pasteurized, since they produce consistent results. White vinegar is usually preferred when light color is desirable. Do not use homemade vinegars or any vinegar of unknown acidity in your pickling brine.

To ensure safe acidity in whole, crushed, or juiced tomatoes, recipes require that lemon juice be added. Fresh-squeezed lemon juice can contain inconsistent amounts of acid, so to ensure safe results, use bottled lemon juice purchased at your supermarket. An alternative to lemon juice for acidifying tomatoes is citric acid, usually sold as a white crystalline powder. Citric acid is also used to prevent the browning of fruits when baking, freezing, or canning them, so it’s handy to have on hand.

Finally, use only quality spices in your home canned goods. Pickles made with stale pickling spice will taste like…. you guessed it: stale pickles. Spices frequently used in canning include: pickling spice, yellow mustard seeds, ground ginger, black peppercorns, ground cinnamon, celery seeds, dill seeds, red chili pepper flakes, bay leaves, ground turmeric, cinnamon sticks, whole cloves, whole allspice, dry mustard, salt, and black pepper.

Now that you are familiar with the basics, give it a try! Start small to get your bearings and your first successes under your belt. Remember: follow the recipe, follow the safety rules, and contact your local County Agricultural Extension office for reliable answers to all your canning questions.

Happy canning!