No, it's not quite cherry season yet! I took those cherries I found in my freezer over the weekend and decided to make a mini-batch of cherry preserves for my morning oatmeal and afternoon toast. Two jars of preserves, in fact. But here's my real confession: this was my first time canning. Ever. And guess what I discovered?
Canning isn't that hard. It really, truly isn't. I know, I'm just as surprised as you are! Or if you're a veteran canner, maybe you're chuckling to yourself right now and rolling your eyes, but this was a real discovery for me!
I started out with the idea of just making refrigerator jam - that is to say, cooking down the cherries into jam, but not actually going through the canning process. The jam would have to be kept in the fridge and used within a few weeks, but I didn't think that would be a problem.
But once I'd gotten as far as cooking down the cherries, I figured, "Why not?" I had clean, un-used canning jars and lids. The recipe I was following gave instructions for canning. The rest of my afternoon was completely free. If the lids didn't seal, I'd be eating the jam in the next few weeks anyway. So why not?
I brought a pot of water to a boil about 10 minutes before the jam was finished cooking and sterilized two jars and their lids. I fished out the jars with salad tongs and set them on a clean towel. I filled them with the hot jam using a soup ladle, set the sterilized lids on top, and got the rings screwed on. Back into the pot of water they went for a ten minute boil.
And then I was done! The preserves cooled on the counter overnight and the lids sealed properly (as far as I can tell). One jar went into the fridge right away. The other went on the shelf for later.
Here's what I learned:
1. You don't actually need a lot of fancy equipment. Aside from the canning jars themselves, I used a big stock pot for boiling, salad tongs for grabbing the jars and lids from the water, and a metal trivet submerged in the bottom of the pot to keep the jars off the bottom. (I don't know how important this really is, but I was following the directions!).
2. Small-batch canning is less stressful. - Fears of "doing it wrong" have kept me away from canning. I worried about lids not sealing properly or things not being completely sterilized, and then accidentally making myself or others sick. But since I was only doing a few jars, I realized that everything felt much more in my control. I wasn't so worried about overlooking something or messing up a step. For me, this was a good way to start getting over my fears and learn the ropes.
3. Small-batch canning is totally doable in an afternoon. Until now, I'd had this idea that you needed pounds and pounds of fruits or vegetables in order to can, and that you had to set aside entire days for the process. Cooking down two pounds of cherries took about 45 minutes and the canning process took roughly another 15 minutes. So...an hour total? Totally do-able.
True, you probably need to be canning a certain minimum in order to make it worth it. I felt a little silly cracking open that first jar mere hours after it had finished cooling. But canning a couple pounds of fruit or vegetables at once seems reasonable. It's not enough to see you through the winter, but definitely still satisfying.
I'm excited to have made my small-batch canning discovery just as fruits and vegetables are starting to come into season. I hope to do much more canning in the months ahead!
Get the Recipe: Cherry Preserves from Martha Stewart - I scaled this recipe down for two pounds of sour cherries.
Related: Home Hacks: How to Make Your Own Canning Equipment
(Images: Emma Christensen)
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My first experience with canning was this past fall. In my mind it was a "large" batch and a big process, but in reality it probably was on the large-side of a small batch (about 10 quart jars of tomatoes). It was pretty successful and we enjoyed fresh pasta sauce and tomatoes all winter long.
However, I'd advise to be careful with the salad tongs. That was my implement of choice to fish out the full jars, too. It was working fine until one jar slipped back into the boiling water and splashed up onto my face. I was left with an incredibly red and painful face for about a week. While I'd agree that you don't need to buy a ton of fancy equipment, I'll at least be purchasing one of those can lifter tools to use instead of my tongs this time around!
Emma,
Welcome to the wonderful world of canning! I'm glad you found it so simple.
I love showing people how easy it is; the hard part is making the preserves, or prepping the veg. The canning is EASY.
A note on those salad tongs: I have a pair of silicon coated tongs I got from Ikea for about $5; they work fantastically for lifting jars. Regular metal tongs might slip, as in mdmeyer's experience above. You can also use one of those Orca Mits, the heat-proof silicon oven mitts. They advertise being able to submerge your hand in water while in the mit, so that should work.
I personally really enjoy small batch canning. It means that I don't need to spend a bundle on 15lbs of fruit to get started, and it also means that I don't end up eating the same thing every day for a full year. I find, too, that I'm more comfortable experimenting with smaller batches; if I want to try blackberry Meyer lemon marmalade, for example, I'm going to make a small batch first in case it doesn't turn out the way I want.
Pickles, bread and butter, with the spices I like! I just have one small jar left, but the cukes are starting and soon, there will be more.
We had satsumas and I made jam and it's like sunshine in a jar.
Thanks for posting this. I grew up around epic canning sessions by my mother and grandmother with the HUGE pot, the flock of mason jars, boiling paraffin wax, and metal racks and tongs at high temperatures being flung around. I always loved the results, but have never been eager to unleash that kind of high-heat, high-intensity science experiment in my own tiny kitchen with my own little one underfoot. But two cans? I can do two cans, right? Sure!
I second the idea to use the heatproof silicone mitt for lifting the jars out. That has worked very well for us.
It's easy to feel confident about the seals of the jars - you can hear them "ping!" when they seal. Also, if you press down on the middle of the top and it doesn't pop down, then you know it's sealed.
I picked up a pack of canning tools at a garage sale this weekend and thanks to you sharing your experiences, feel like I can finally take the canning plunge, too! Thanks!
I think I paid about $5 for my jar lifter at the local discount grocer (Winco) which has an impressive array of canning supplies. Many of my other canning supplies were inherited from family members. I started canning a couple of summers ago and really enjoy it. It's much easier than I thought it would be. We have no problem getting fruits and veg to can, as my mother-in-law has a large vegetable garden with apple and pear trees. We also use the strawberries from the garden to make mass quantities of strawberry freezer jam, which is also really easy to make and far better than any store-bought jam.
Could someone tell me when I can expect cherries in my farmer's market? I live in Florida.
Thanks,
Tamara
Hello!
My mom has been canning sauces and preserves for ages and she uses jars of one quarter and half a quarter (1 L and 500 ml) and smaller. She never uses tongs, though... she uses cloth bags with a big handle. She fills the jar, screws the top, puts the closed jar in a bag and tosses (so to speak) the bagged jar onto the boiling pot. After a while she uses a wooden spoon to hook the handle and takes it out from the pan.
I think she wears gloves, too.
The bags are custom made (not the first ones she used, but she soon made a big batch), and are roomy so it's easy to remove them.
She lets the jars cool upside down, does anyone else do that?
Pick up a jar lifter, it's worth the money for the convenience, it really is.
Brilliant! Most recipes call for six tons of this or that, and the idea of doing only a small batch sounds like it would lend itself to being more creative with canning and preserve making than the traditional unload-the-truck size batches as well as being an excellent intro to canning for a noob.
Another thank you for this post. I too have been canning-shy, because it sounds like such a huge investment of time and equipment and produce - what a waste if I do it wrong! This definitely seems like a much better entry point.
I canned for the first time about this time last year and was able to pull it off with things I already owned, minus the jars and lids, naturally. I was scared at first too, but it turned out to be much easier than I thought. Wasn't there a post here a while ago about a home-hack for canning? I believe they placed some rubber bands on their tongs to give them a little more resistance and make the jars less likely to slip.