Learn about safe canning in this mini training series and confidently can and preserve food at home!
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Canning Equipment
Welcome to the third episode of this mini-training series for National Food Safety Education Month! Tune into the podcast training or read on to learn more!
If you have any canning questions then let me know in the Facebook group for a special bonus podcast episode!
Preparing for the busy season ahead
I hope you are harvesting lots from the garden right now and getting prepared for winter to arrive! This time of year is always busy whether you have a homestead on fifty acres or a small postage sized plot of land like us misfit gardeners homesteading in the suburbs! Canning supplies are always in short supply at this time of year which is why I share my canning mistakes and tips with you so you can work smarter not harder when things are busy.
Get the best quality
To get the best quality canned and preserved foods you really need the freshest ingredients and you can’t really get fresher than growing or raising it yourself.
You want to can your fruits and veggies within 6 to 12 hours after harvesting if possible. For meat and fish get it cleaned and chilled quickly and can it within 2 days. Remember to use foods that are free from disease and bruises. That’s both meat, seafood, fruits, and vegetables!
You also need the right equipment to can and store your homemade preserved foods. So let’s talk about those!
Canning Containers
When it comes to canning, you can preserve food in glass jars or metal containers. Glass jars can be reused over and over again and used for other purposes like storing seeds. Metal cans or tins as we call them in England can only be used once and need specialized sealing equipment.
If you are careful with your glass jars, they will see you through many years of service with only new lids being needed each year. You want to be using Mason jars. They are thick glass with a thread for screw bands.
They come in a regular and wide mouth that’s how big the jar opening is. Wide mouths are good for big food items like whole pickling cucumbers because it’s easier to get them out of the jar. These Mason jars are in lots of different sizes from half-pint to half-gallon. Although the half-gallon size is only recommended for very acid juices. Not sure what an acid or low acid food is, read week 2 on the training How Canning Preserves Your Food.
Your jars should match the lids for fit. Remember the lid and jars create a vacuum seal that keeps the air and bacteria out of the food you have prepared.
Check your jars carefully for chips, cracks and scratches. If in doubt, don’t use them. Glass with chips, cracks or scratches can break in the canner leaving you with a hot sharp mess to clean up.
Lids
The most common type of lids are in two pieces. A metal lid with a red or white seal on the underside around the rim and a metal screw band. During the canning process, this red seal softens and flows around the jar rim to form an airtight seal.
Follow the manufacturer’s directions for how to prepare the lids for canning. There are differences since some need boiling whilst others do not.
Check your lids before you use them. If the sealing material is crumbling or missing don’t use them. Also, don’t reuse lids, use old, dented, or deformed lids as these won’t seal properly meaning your food might escape out into the canner or the canning water into your food.
Here’s a top tip for you! You can carefully remove the screw band after the processed jars have cooled. This stops the screw bands from rusting and becoming difficult to open later.
Types of Canners for Home Food Preservation
So there are two types of canners the water bath canner for your acid foods and the pressure canner for your low acid foods. Most canners are designed to hold about 7-quart jars or 8 or 9-pint jars.
It doesn’t matter if you get a dial gauge pressure canner or a weighted gauge just remember to get your dial gauge checked for accuracy each year before you use it. If your gauge reads high then you could be under processing your food and not killing the bacteria that might be present in the jars.
If your gauge reads high or low by more than 2 pounds then it needs to be replaced. Contact your manufacturer or check out the farm, ranch, or homestead stores for replacement parts and keep hold of the user manual that comes with the canner!
If you have a weighted gauge the weight rocking or jiggling indicates that the canner is working at the right pressure. They can’t correct accurately for altitude though so they need to be operated at a canner pressure of 10 instead of 5, 10 or 15 PSI that is read on a dial gauge.
Racks
Always make sure to use the canning rack in your water bath and pressure canner. The rack keeps the jars off the bottom of the canner where they are more likely to break with the heat from the stove. The rack helps water and steam to circulate.
Cooling Jars Properly
You can use cooling racks like the ones you use to cool cake or biscuits and cookies on to cool processed jars out of the canner.
Air can circulate around the jars reducing heat damage to counters and breaking the jars. For cooling jars, you can also use a towel on the counter.
Jars need to cool at room temperature for 12 to 24 hours after canning to form that solid air-tight seal.
Canning Accessory Kits
You can now pick up canning kits with accessories
Wide-Mouth Funnel
I can’t think of a tool that had made filling jars cleaner than a wide-mouth funnel
Bubble Remover & Headspace Tool
This is a thin plastic tool where one end you push into the jar along the sides of the glass to remove bubbles
Magnetic Jar Lifter
Helps to remove lids from the hot water
Jar Lifter
We have at least 2 of these so the both of us can lift out jars from the canner
Summary
Investing in the right, good quality tools will keep you canning for many years to come and there’s something really satisfying about going into the basement and seeing shelves of jars that you have canned and preserved yourself. Imagine spreading homemade jam on fresh-baked bread or making pasta with homegrown and preserved tomatoes. It’s like summer preserved in a jar!
You can do it too! September is a great time to head out to the farm or fruit stands or the farmer’s market and get a great deal on buying in bulk and try canning!
Learn More
Learn more about canning and catch up on the mini-training series:
- Week 1 – Safe Canning Basics
- Week 2 – How Canning Preserves You Food
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Always ensure to operate safely. All projects are purely “at your own risk” and are for information purposes only. As with any project, unfamiliarity with the tools, animals, plants, and processes can be dangerous. Posts, podcasts, and videos should be read and interpreted as theoretical advice only and are not a substitute for advice from a fully licensed professional.
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