Wednesday, July 2, 2014

5 Interesting Canning Tips and Tricks


"Home canning puts the pleasure of eating natural,
delicious produce at your fingertips year-round."

1. If you have hard water like we do, add 1/2- 1 cup of vinegar to your boiling water bath canner. This will keep that filmy residue from forming on your jars.

2. You can transform any pot into a canner by making your own custom sized canning rack using regular sized canning bands and some zip ties, wire, or produce bag ties (example here). This might also be useful for canning with smaller jars which wouldn't require such a large pot to boil in (therefore saving time and energy and water). Make sure your jars would still be covered by 1 to 2 inches of water when choosing a pot. 

3.  If you have extra space in your canner when preserving, fill up the remaining slots with jars of water (and process like you would with whatever items you are canning at the time). Some people recycle lids for this project to make it more economical since you aren't canning high risk foods. You can add these jars of canned water to your emergency food storage as an instant and safe drinking source. 

4. Use your leftover boiling-water-bath water for washing up any dirty dishes (once water has cooled a bit).

5. Don't leave your canning rack inside your canner for over 24 hours. Your rack will start to rust. If your rack is already rusty, you can replace the rack by itself without having to buy a brand new canner (or make your own as shared above). Just make sure to measure the inside of your canner so that it will fit.



14 comments:

  1. I really like tip #2 for canning just a few jars. I sometimes do only a few jars of tomatoes and don't need my big canner. Thanks for the tip! Have a great week!

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    1. Yes, a tall and slender stock pot or pasta pot would be perfect for that!

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  2. Great minds think alike:) Just got the notification that my canning books are in at the library. I want to can berry juice without adding sugar??? Don't you love the sound of the lids popping as they seal?
    Happy day.

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    1. Sure you can do that! Page 189 in the Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving :) Let me know if you can't find the recipe and I can email you it! And I LOVE that sound, music to my ears!

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  3. Great tips! Thank you for sharing them. : )

    -Sarah

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  4. Dear JES, thank you for sharing these tips - we love preserving in our home:). Blessings, Kelly-Anne

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  5. I love the picture! Searched Tineye for it but it's unique to you. Please tell where you found it.

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    1. I love this picture too and would love to tell you but I don't have the info! I have tried to start adding the name of artist at the bottom of the posts when I have it (since I do get asked on occassion), however, I used to just save paintings I liked (that I knew were past copyright) and put in a file for later. And once I use a picture I delete it so I don't accidentally use again... I am so sorry! I even tried searching on Google images for you and can't find it either :(

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  6. Great tips. I have always wanted to can. Never got the opportunity. My MIL did hot sauce a few times when tomatoes were plentiful. Back in the day we didn't have all the help like this. Maybe I could actually do it now. I have someone to call on for help! Thanks for sharing these tips.
    And thanks for coming by. I plan on joining your linky again next week.
    Have a wonderful weekend.
    Sherry

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    1. Yes, if you ever needed help, just pop me a comment or email :)

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  7. I always wondered why my jars had a white film on them! Never even thought about the hard water. :/ And I love tip #3...What a great idea! Thanks so much for sharing (I found the link at Raising Homemaker's link up).
    ~Candy

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    1. The vinegar makes all the difference! You will love your crystal clear jars :)

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  8. These are great tips! One thing I have learned this year is when I am pressure canning beef and have some spare room in the canner, I can some chili beans also. I got a recipe from a canning book that suggested this method. Now, when I want chili with meat for dinner, all I do is empty one can of the beef cubes and one of the beans in a pot, heat it up and presto - instant dinner (almost - still gotta cook the cornbread :).

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    1. Great tip! I want a little more info about it... Going to hop over to your place :)

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