Buzz
By October, I’m no longer meticulous about preserving. At this point, I’m just tossing whatever I can into jars. Harvesting at the end of the season is tiring, and I’m ready to embrace fall and winter, when I can relish the literal rewards of my efforts and watch friends marvel at my colorful jarred creations.
By spring, my stash of tomatoes and pickles is running low, and rummaging through the nearly empty shelves feels like a game of Jar Jenga. Then suddenly, June arrives with grape leaves, raspberries, and strawberries ready to be preserved, and the excitement of canning begins again.
Reasons You’ll Fall in Love with Canning
Canning is a skill, one that has been passed down through the generations, with valuable support from local extension offices and master food preservationists. However, this wasn’t how I began. I learned from Martha, cookbooks, and the internet, and it fills me with great joy to now help others learn how to can their own foods.
Whether you grow your own produce or purchase it for preservation, canning not only saves money and reduces waste, but it also results in fresher, more flavorful canned food than what you can find at the store, customized to your liking. It also promotes self-sufficiency, and whether you realize it or not, those jars of food become a form of currency. I’m always surprised by how effective a jar of jam can be as a thank-you gift or a bribe (same thing, really). A jar of my salsa is how I exchange favors with the person who provides me with grape leaves. In return, a jar of preserved grape leaves is my way of thanking the friend who brings me mushrooms they’ve foraged. Those mushrooms end up in mushroom ketchup, which is what my electrician will accept in exchange for his help on small projects.
If you find the idea of bartering appealing, or if you just want to extend the summer flavor into the colder months, now is the perfect time to start canning. Here’s everything you’ll need to get going.
Select the right canning system for your needs
The main cost you’ll face is purchasing a system to process your jars. After filling your jars with food, you’ll need to process them at the correct pressure and temperature, for a specific period of time, depending on the jar size, contents, and your altitude. It may sound complicated, but it’s generally quite straightforward.
You can skip open-kettle canning
If you learned canning techniques from your grandmother or someone with European roots, you likely encountered some open-kettle methods. In simple terms, this involves heating the food and the jar separately, then pouring the very hot food into the hot jars, sealing them with a lid, turning them upside down, and relying on the heat to create a vacuum seal. I bring up open-kettle because you'll come across it in recipes, and it's good to be familiar with it. However, there are some issues with this technique. While you don't need special equipment, you're not cooking the jar under the pressure required for complete sterilization. This is why the USDA strongly advises against open-kettle canning.
When to use a water bath
Acidic foods (with a pH of 4.6 or lower) can be safely processed using a water bath, which is endorsed by the FDA and the trusted experts at Ball Canning, where many safe recipes originate. Cold or hot food is placed into jars at the same temperature. The jars are sealed with lids, then placed in a large pot, resting on a rack, and covered with water. Once the pot is covered with a lid, bring the water to a boil, and start timing as soon as it begins boiling. This method works well for foods like salsa, jam, and pickles, but it is not suitable for canning meat, which requires a pressure canner (PC).
Try electric if you’re anxious
In recent years, some electric canners have emerged in the market. These allow you to place a few jars inside, push a button, and let the canner handle the rest. It's essentially an automated water bath. The drawbacks are that they only process a small number of jars at a time, take up valuable counter space like any other appliance, and are generally pricey. However, the advantage is that if you're nervous about canning, this provides a manageable first step.
Try sous-vide canning for delicate foods
As you can imagine, exposing delicate foods like pickles to intense heat and pressure can affect their quality. In recent years, we've applied our understanding of pasteurization to jar processing. With a sous-vide immersion circulator, you can process acid foods at lower temperatures for longer periods to reach the perfect temperature without compromising the food’s quality.
When to pressure can
A pressure canner operates similarly to a pressure cooker. You secure a heavy lid onto the pot and use a pressure gauge along with a weight to ensure that the correct pressure and temperature are achieved for your food. The jars are placed inside in much the same way as with a water bath, and you can also use your pressure canner as a regular pressure cooker when it’s not in use for canning. Various brands exist, with All American and Presto being the most well-known. Pressure canners come in different sizes, generally based on the number of jars they can hold. Unlike a water bath, you can stack jars in a pressure canner as long as they’re separated by metal plates (which are included with the canner). Thanks to the ability to reach higher, more precise temperatures, you can safely can meat and fish.
Even if you own a pressure canner, you’ll probably still use other methods for foods with a pH of 4.6 or lower, such as naturally acidic produce, or items pickled with vinegar or treated with citric acid. (This chart is useful.) For example, I process chicken stock in my pressure canner, but I sous vide my pickles. I water bath my tomatoes, but jam is hard to damage, so it goes into the PC because I can process so many jars at once. The key takeaway is that it's crucial to recognize the different needs of each food and know your options.
Pick your fighter:
A pressure canner, for just about everything: Presto 23-Quart Pressure Canner
A water bath setup for pickles and the like: McSunley 21.5-Quart Water Bath Canner with Glass Lid
An electric canner for those feeling nervous: CAREY 9.5-Quart Smart Electric Pressure Cooker and Canner
A sous-vide setup for delicate foods: Anova Culinary Nano Sous-Vide Precision Cooker
How to source jars cheaply
Most grocery stores sell jars. Depending on your location, they might be tucked away near seasonal items or baking supplies. If you've never noticed them before, hardware stores are another great source for new jars. The good news is that you don’t always need to buy new ones; secondhand jars are often a much better deal, but let’s dive into some jar math to understand why.
New jar flats typically cost around $15, which usually gets you 6-12 jars complete with lids and rings. These jars are reusable, though the rings last until they rust, and the common metal lids are single-use only. Grandma might say otherwise, but Ball and the FDA are firm on this. If we take a standard pint or quart, the cost works out to be around $1-$1.50 per jar. Since you need to replace the lids and rings, a jar without them is worth about 50 cents, or maybe 75 cents with inflation. There's nothing particularly special about new jars, though—just wash an old jar, and it's as good as new. Hunting for secondhand jars online, sold at this price point, is a great way to get started with canning. You’ll just need to buy lids and rings in bulk separately, as they’re necessary for canning anyway.
The two main brands in this space, Ball and Kerr, are now under the same ownership, and the differences are minimal. However, during the pandemic, a shortage led to the rise of new brands for both jars and lids, but most canners I know don’t trust them. The reason trust is so important here is that canning involves a lot of effort, and if the seal fails, it leads to wasted food, time, and energy.
A quick note on lids: reusable plastic lids are now available from Tattler, which come in two parts—a lid and a rubber gasket. They can be a bit trickier to use since you have to take the jars out of the hot water to tighten the lid after processing. For beginners, I’d suggest sticking with metal lids.
Jars come in all kinds of shapes, sizes, and colors
When choosing jars, the right ones will depend on what you plan to put inside, how you plan to process them (whether hot processing or freezing), and your eating habits.
Common jar sizes start as small as four ounces, which is ideal for jams, jellies, preserves, tomato paste, and some pickles. These small jars are often used up quickly, preventing spoilage in the fridge, and they keep things from piling up. (Narrator: The fridge still ends up full of jars—yours will too). As a single person, I prefer using pint or half-pint jars for canned tomatoes, but a larger family would use quarts, as they need more at once. Jars range all the way up to half-gallons, perfect for juice, with plenty of options in between like half-pints, pints, pint-and-a-halfs, quarts, and half gallons.
Pint-and-a-half jars are tall and narrow, designed for things like carrots, asparagus, and grape leaves due to their height. For things like mustards and ketchups, a squat half-pint jar works best. Other than that, the jar you choose generally depends on your personal preferences and what you plan to use it for.
While jars are available in a variety of fun colors these days, these don’t affect the canning process and typically cost more than the clear jars.
Neck width is important
Jars come in two common neck widths: regular and wide mouth. These sizes are interchangeable between brands and widely recognized in the canning world. A regular-width jar has shoulders, meaning the opening is narrower than the jar’s body. A wide-mouth jar is the same width as the body of a pint jar. Canning funnels work with either size, and the choice depends on what you’re canning and where it’s going. You can’t freeze in regular-mouth jars due to those shoulders.
Only certain wide-mouth jars are suitable for the freezer, as they provide enough space for expansion, and this will be clearly noted on the packaging. Regular-mouth jars, due to their shoulders, are great for keeping pickles submerged under brine, but a wide-mouth jar makes it easier to place the pickles in. Eventually, you’ll find yourself with both types of jars, even though most people tend to prefer one over the other. Recipes rarely specify which one to use.
Utensils are useful but not necessary
Canning kits, which have been available for years, typically include three essential tools: jar lifters, a magnetic stick for retrieving jar lids from the sterilization bath, and a funnel. The funnel is especially helpful since it not only keeps your jar rims clean but also ensures you don’t overfill your jars.
A jar lifter has two sides—one with rubberized grips for safely grabbing jars and another with comfortable handles to hold onto. These lifters provide a secure grip, making it much easier to lift hot jars out of the water.
The magnetic stick has become less important these days because we no longer need to heat our jar lids, according to Ball. The FDA has also clarified that jars processed for over 10 minutes are sterilized, which means clean lids are sufficient and don’t require heating. If you prefer to continue heating your lids, though, it might be simpler to use a lid holder instead of a magnetic stick.
Some kits may include extras that you won’t really need, like sticks for pushing food down (a chopstick or clean knife works just as well), tongs (which you probably already have in your kitchen), or a jar tightener (which is only useful if you have arthritis, and the cheap version in the kit won’t be the best option).
You can purchase the lifters and funnels individually, so a full kit isn’t necessary.
Of course, you’ll need bowls, measuring spoons, and knives for processing, but I’m guessing you already have those in your kitchen. Occasionally, you might need more specialized tools, like a food mill or grater, but it’s best to wait until a recipe specifically calls for them before buying.
Jars, lids, and other tools you might require:
Tops and bottoms: Ball jars and lids
A canning funnel: Norpro Canning Wide Mouth Plastic Funnel
A handy recipe book to get you started: The All New Ball Book Of Canning And Preserving
Preservatives are actually quite beneficial.
It’s no secret that preservation requires preservatives. You’ll soon realize that the term ‘preservative’ isn’t bad—it’s a scientific term. The primary preservatives you’ll use are sugar and salt. You might be surprised by just how much sugar goes into jams and jellies, but you’ll get used to it. In the beginning, it’s best to follow recipes exactly, but later on, feel free to experiment with alternatives like maple syrup, molasses, brown sugar, or sugar substitutes such as Stevia.
Chemical additives for keeping food safe and delicious include:
Salt: Morton Pickling Salt
Citric acid: Ball citric acid
Pickle crisp: Ball Pickle Crisp Granules
Pectin: Apple Pectin
When discussing salt for preservation, we’re referring to canning salt. This isn’t the same as table salt or iodized salt, and it’s typically found in large green boxes labeled ‘canning salt.’ If you can’t find it, any non-iodized salt will do.
Citric acid is something you’ll use frequently. It comes in small pellet form, and you don’t need much—usually less than a teaspoon. That small amount is all it takes to preserve and stabilize foods that have a pH higher than 4.6, which is the optimal level for water bath canning.
When making jams, you’ll often encounter pectin. This is the ingredient that makes jams gel. There are many types available, such as Sure-jell, which is a type of gelatin, or authentic apple pectin. For the best texture, I suggest using the genuine apple pectin.
Pickle Crisp, which is simply calcium chloride, consists of small white pellets that help maintain the crunchiness of your food. Whether you’re fermenting or processing vegetables like cucumbers, asparagus, or carrots, heat or fermentation can affect their texture, and calcium helps preserve their crispness. Older recipes would often include a grape or oak leaf in jars for the tannins, but I use both: a grape leaf and Pickle Crisp—because I’m all about a crispy cucumber.
While some recipes may require specific tools or ingredients from time to time, the items listed above are sufficient for most canning tasks. With ripe strawberries and peas ready, it’s time to begin building your canning library and getting started.
