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I'm curious: is the process for canning meat sauces (with tomatoes, etc. in the jar also) any different from canning vegetarian sauces?

How do you can something when you didn't make it specifically from a canning recipe? I make all kinds of soups I would love to can but they're not from a canning recipe book.

I have been told that its fine to use sterilized jas and put HOT soup in them... then turn them upside down and let them seal themselves. Is this a good method for low risk foods?

I have a recipe for some amazing marinara sauce that calls for canned & fresh tomatoes. Can I safely preserve something that includes ingredients that have already been canned?

I've always used a boiling water bath, but now I've been given a pressure cooker canner set with shiny new tools and I want to use it. It seems to be a cheap one, though - there's no gauge! So, 2 questions:

1) does the water level need to be over the tops of the jars as with boiling water canning?
2) How do I know how long to process when most recipes say "can at X pounds for Y minutes"?

Thanks so much!

Wow! ... lot's of pressure canning questions here.
Me too!

I have a new Mirro 22qt. pressure canner (with regulators/jigglers)... and I have a glass top range. The manual states canning's ok. I've preserved lots with the boiling water system but never as long as the times required to pressure can. Are the special considerations I need to take into account?

I'm interested in canning meat... maybe liver pate? I've got this idea that it would be a great thing to have in my larder for last minute dinner guests. Eugenia Bone has a recipe to preserve tuna in her book Well-Preserved. Is there a similar one for pate?

Really, I just want independent confirmation that I'm not going to kill myself with botulism for the two things that have been mildly concerning me lately.

Scald vs. sterilize - if something is being processed for 10 minutes, you don't need to sterilize the jars, just dip them in the boiling water?

If some liquid escaped from the canning jars during the water bath process, but the jars seal upon removal, they're still OK to eat?

I live in Israel and Mason Jars are almost impossible to find... many people here use a different kind of jar (look like commercial jars that are used in the USA) they have some sort of sealant on the cap...
I bought a bunch of these jars with new caps - and want to use them for canning.

Can I use the technique used in the USA (hot water bath and pressurized cooker) or do I need to use a lesser technique (hot packing into sterilized jar and turning the jar over hoping that it would seal while cooling).

What are the limitation of the second technique in regards to the length of time that the food is preserved? can I use this to can meats and other foods that require pressure canning? Do you have other suggestions?

Thanks

several months after canning strawberry jam, i looked at the jars and the top layer of the jam was brown and smelled and tasted bad. any idea what i may have done? it was so disappointing! i do this every year and the brown stuff has never happened before. i did *not* waterbath them (never have), i did the upsidedown method due to the acid in the berries.

I just canned a whole bunch of food for the first time yesterday. Mostly pickles and jam, but I also canned two tomato based things: spicy salsa and crushed tomatoes. I added commercial lemon juice to the crushed tomatoes and the salsa contains plenty of vinegar. I removed air bubbles before putting on the lids, but there are now air bubbles in the product. The lids pinged, so I know a seal was formed, but I have no idea if this is normal!

Hi Marisa! I'm a big fan of your blog.

Is it true that you can pressure can just about anything? Is it safe to pressure can items that are usually processed with a water bath canner?

Also: I sometimes sterilize/scald my jars in the same water that I later use to process my cans (i.e., in the same water bath pot). Is that OK? I figured that if the water had been boiling for a few minutes anyway that it would be sterilized before I put the jars in.

Hi Marisa,

I've just begun with canning, and your blog has been so helpful and inspiring. I did my first water bath canning over the weekend (your dilly bean recipe, a vinegar onion), as well as a LOT of recipe reading, and have come up with a inquiries:

I am looking for a spicy tomato jam recipe that can be canned. I would like one of the recipes that is more like a chutney, uses whole tomato (not just juice), and doesn't use pectin. I made a delicious recipe over the weekend, but I don't think it has a high enough acid content for it to be canned long-term. I just made one jar and it is just refrigerated. (I used this recipe: http://www.frontiercoop.com/store.php?Screen=recipe&recipe=736 Is there a way to alter it for canning?)

In a similar vein: How do you determine the correct acid content for canning? For example, many recipes I am interested in include bell pepper, which I don't like. I would like to replace the bell pepper with another vegetable, but am not sure how to adjust the amount of lemon juice the recipe calls for. Or if I wanted to spice up a relish recipe with an extra jalapeno or 2, how much extra vinegar do I add? Would I have to change the processing time? Is there a rule of thumb?

I've canned a few things, and am ready to branch out and do some experimentation. Specifically, I've been on a quest for a sweet chili-garlic sauce to can. I haven't found one, and am ready to invent my own. Generally, I'm wondering: what guidelines do you have for using your own homemade recipe? Can you use pH strips to test if the food is acid enough for a water canner? Or if it's not, how can we know how long to process in a pressure canner (and is a pressure canner different than a pressure cooker)?

And about the taste: I know how I like things to taste if they're not canned--do you have general guidelines for what changes to allow for, post-processing? E.g., do foods get hotter/milder or sweeter or saltier after processing?

Thanks a mint!

I second hungrybruno's question about bubbles -- I canned some peaches in syrup a few weeks ago, tried smooshing out the bubbles with a knife, and still, there are some in there! I've heard that bubbles are a sign of spoilage, but mine aren't rising or anything unless I pick up the jar and move it around. What's the deal?

Love your blog -- thanks for the help!

I just finished processing some spicy pickled green beans, and the beans are shriveled! Did I process them too long? I followed the directions exactly from the Ball Blue Book of Canning.

It might be too late, but I'll try anyway.

I canned some tomatoes last night for the first time and the jars came out with a lot more headspace than what they had when I put them in. Maybe an inch or even a bit more! Is this ok? Here's what I did:

I blanched the tomatoes to peel them and cut out the cores. Then I raw packed them into wide-mouth pint Ball jars (with 1 tbs lemon juice and 1/2 tsp salt per jar) and pressed down until they exuded their juices and filled all the gaps. I added more tomatoes and repeated until the jar was full with a 1/2 inch headspace. I removed the bubbles with a plastic knife, wiped the rims, and set lids (that had been sitting in simmering water) and screwed on the rings. The rings were screwed on fingertip tight. I processed for 85 minutes. When I removed the jars from the canner, the water in the canner had some tomato solids and smelled tomato-y. In the jars, it looked like the tomatoes were separate from water and they were floating on top. I let the jars cool overnight. When I got up this morning, everything had settled and looked just like canned tomatoes, but I had a LOT of headspace. I unscrewed the rings and tested the jars for seal by lifting them by the lids. One was not sealed, but the rest are strongly sealed.

So, is it ok? Why is there so much headspace? Is a hot pack better for tomatoes? What if I don't want to make juice ahead of time? Is there a way of hot packing tomatoes without adding extra pre-made juice or water?

Thanks!

Just preserved peaches, pears and salsa for the first time this weekend. I'm hooked!

Most of the lids sealed, but a couple didn't. What are my options? Should I refrigerate and eat right away, or can I reprocess the jars? If you recommend reprocessing, what do I do differently from the first go-round?

Thanks!

m!

you may have had more headspace than the 1/2" you left if you did not remove the air bubbles after packing your tomatoes in the jars. that's what the plastic rod is in your canning set. you stick that straight in, and like magic, the bubbles rise to the top. otherwise, you are going to have a lot more air the jars than you meant to.

i do think hot pack is better for tomatoes. i do not add extra juice or water. what i do is cook them in the oven for about 20 minutes. they release their natural juices, get a little soft, and the ones on top get a tiny bit caramelized on top. they are so much tastier than cold-pack tomatoes.