Hi - only recently ran across your site when looking for ideas to use the bounty of lemon balm we have. I've been water bath canning for over 40 years. For the last 10 years with our good size veggie garden have been putting up 30 to 40 quarts of tomatoes. Also, using the fruit that grows wild in our neighborhood (cherry plums, mountain cherries, various apples, table grapes, etc) to make jams, spreads, etc. Later today, hope to make the lemon balm jelly from you site.
I do have a question, too. After removing the jars from the water bath - they dry with a thin coating of residue - most likely due to hard water we have - I wipe it off with a damp cloth, yet is there a way to prevent the coating from happening?
Some people suggest adding a splash of white vinegar to your canning pot to help prevent the hard water scale. I've found that when I do that, my canning rings break down much faster and start to rust. Instead, I just wipe the jars down with a rag dampened with vinegar after they're cool before storing. It works just as well to remove the film. But yes, it's likely your hard water, we have hard well water too.
Thanks Ashley - Didn't think about the rings breaking down faster.... will give it a try, as just a damp cloth (with water) isn't all that effective. cheers, Fred
I’m loving fruit syrups this year. Clear the fruit out of the freezer, heat & strain it for juice, add honey (& some lemon juice) & jar it up! I water bath can it so it’s shelf staple… Yum!
Nice! Ball canning has this great recipe for blueberry butter that you make with the pulp after you've made blueberry syrup, and it's my dad's absolute favorite recipe that I make. He had me make it for all the guys at his work even. It's great with blueberries, but it should work for most any fruit honestly:
Ashley, thank you for this community. I have recently renewed my interest in water bath and pressure canning. I am very interested in pressure canning whole meals (beef stew, chicken, beans, etc.) I am eager to dive in to the resources that you have made available. One specific question that I have: is there a way to successfully pressure can an already-prepared lentil rice casserole that we love? The main ingredients are french green lentils, brown rice, onion, celery, carrots, olives, vegetable broth, and herbs like oregano, basil, thyme. It would be great to just open, heat if possible, and serve. We are beginning to try to build an emergency pantry. Thank you so much!
Rice and other starchy things are not tested for home canning due to density issues. Rice and pasta in particular don't turn out well when canned anyway, and there are no tested recipes using them.
You can, however, can the lentils just fine. The university of Oregon did testing and found that they're the same as split peas for canning times and procedures. It sounds like without the rice your recipe is very similar to split pea soup, and likely you could develop a recipe there for canning the lentils and veggies based on the split pea recipe. At that point, you'd just have to cook the rice on the side.
As a volunteer, I will be leading the High School cooking class for a Montessori school this coming year and would love to introduce them to canning. This past Spring I attempted to make Wild Violet jelly which turned out to be Wild Violet syrup, so I am seeking a more foolproof set of recipes. Hoping you can steer me in the right direction. I truly enjoy your posts, pictures and straight forward method of teaching.
Flower jellies are reasonably foolproof, and if it didn't set then it's possible it's a problem with your pectin. What type did you use?
With normal pectin (like sure jel in the yellow box), you need 4 cups liquid, 1 box pectin and 4 cups sugar. Add the pectin to the liquid, stir to dissolve. Bring to a boil and cook on high 1 minute. Add the sugar, stir to dissolve and then boil 1 minute. Ladle into jars. That's it.
ANY liquid (water, flower tea, fruit juice, etc) should set just fine. Problems happen when you add things in the wrong order (like adding sugar before pectin), cook too long or not long enough (though there is a pretty good margin and it doesn't have to be exactly a minute), or don't use the right amount of sugar.
If you want to use less sugar, use a low sugar pectin (like sure jel low sugar in the pink box).
If you have a strange brand of pectin, sometimes the instructions are different and the results can be mixed.
Ashley, thank you for your detailed reply! I actually used the liquid pectin. I made it so many months ago Im not sure of the brand but I think it was SureJel. Since I didn't have enough flowers, (only enough for 1/2 batch) I halved the amount of liquid pectin...maybe this was my problem? Either way, thank you again for your time and insight into my dilemma. I will try again next Spring....hoping to send you a good report. ;-)
Hi! New to canning. I made the strawberry pie filling 2x. First time only 5 jars, so yesterday measured the blanched strawberries in 7 qt jars first. Now I’ve got 8 1/4 jars. Is it still safe because the lemon ratio was still 1/4 cup. Should I add lemon juice and recan them?
I've found that the pie filling recipes from the extension services, and the strawberry one in particular, can have really variable yields. Part of it has to do with the blanching step, where some fruits shrink a lot and others not. This can vary a lot between commercial strawberries and the more delicate PYO and homegrown varieties too.
The idea, however, with those extension recipes is that there's A LOT of safety margin in the amount of lemon juice added to the recipe. To my judgement, an extra jar over or 1 to 2 jars under is fine in terms of canning safety (though inconvenient for batch size planning obviously). Personally, I think they'd be fine, but as always, you're the one eating it so use your own best judgement.
For pasta sauces, last summer I tracked down every safe, tested sauce canning recipe out there. There are only about 25 in existence that have been tested, and I'm slowly working my way through making those. Here's the full list: https://creativecanning.com/pasta-sauce-recipes-for-canning/
Loving your content Ashley! You have many useful recipes for canning that are beyond any of the books I have ever seen!
One thing I have been trying to find for years is a recipe for giardiniera and muffuletta in olive oil. The commercial version is delicious, but is preserved in soybean oils. I would love to make my own healthy version.
Both use a lot of lemon juice (which is more acidic than vinegar) to help preserve things.
Often commercial versions are adding preservatives as well as oil, or pre-treating the veggies in various ways to ensure preservation. Or using astronomical amounts of salt.
The thing is, they have you put the olive oil in the jar when you open it and put it in the fridge. Not a huge deal really, as the olive oil will maintain better quality if kept separate and not canned anyway. Another reason they use "salad oil" or soybean oil in many of these recipes, it's forgiving in preserves (mainly because it always tastes nasty, so it doesn't get nastier when canned).
You can scale down any recipe, that's no problem. With pressure canning, the minimum batch size is 2 quarts or 4 pints so that everything heats evenly. With waterbath canning, there's no minimum batch size. Canning a single jar is perfectly fine. I actually have a small, but tall and deep pot that I use for canning very small batches so I don't have to bring a giant canner to a boil for just a few jars.
For pectin, a "box" of pectin is 6 Tbsp and you can open the box and store the extra in a jar to use as needed. I often make half or quarter batches of jellies, making just 1 or 2 jars. Just divide the "box" into 3 Tbsp for a half batch or 1 1/2 Tbsp for a quarter batch.
Beyond that, there's a really great book called "Preserving by the Pint" which has lovely small batch recipes for jams, jellies, sauces and pickles. If you're looking for small batch waterbath canning stuff, it's a great resource.
I am a Brazilian who moved to Australia to live with my Australian partner. He just adores pears and after some internet research, I’ve found your Pear Jam Recipe. It looked great and it proved to be just PERFECT! I have made it over and over again in the last year and wanted to come here to thank you! It is an absolut success every time!!!!
I'm deep into all things sweet cherry right now! I'm making whole cherries in syrup, your dark cherry jam and cherry limeade concentrate. However, since you asked, I'm looking for meat-free meals in a jar and meat free soups. I have all of the ones you've posted already, and I can't wait to get into making all of them. I'm an experied canner/pressure canner, and I dehydtrate and freeze dry also. I'm looking for all kinds of creatiive ideas to make my life easier when all I want to do is hibernate!
Nice! I just posted a few more meat free soups in the last week or two. Southwestern vegetable soup is amazing, though there's a lot of different ingredients to source, it's so darn worth it: https://creativecanning.com/southwestern-vegetable-soup/
For tart cherries, I've been meaning to make a version of this tart cherry BBQ sauce that uses fresh instead of dried. I think 3 cups fresh in place of the 1 cup dried should be about right, but you'd just need to cook it down more: https://ucanr.edu/sites/default/files/2020-05/326718.pdf
Thank you so much! I had plans to make those pickled cherries too-they sound amazing! I’m going to grab those soup recipes right now! That bbq sauce sounds amazing also. I’m also going to make a cherry mustard. I have a lot of sweet cherries to play with LOL, and sour cherries will start up in about two weeks.
Do you have any recipes for chicken fahitas or other mexican dishes? Also I would love a recipe for sweet and sour chicken and asian dishes. I'll look through my recipes to see which came from you and leave a review. Thanks for all the recipes.
I have a recipe coming out shortly for fajita in a jar, as well as a Japanese pork belly for ramen. But yes, I could use more recipes in those genres for sure. Chipotle beef is one of my favorites (https://creativecanning.com/chipotle-beef-taco-meat/) and taco soup is great too (https://creativecanning.com/canning-taco-soup/). I'm hoping to dial in a recipe for green chili pork stew and pineapple carnitas soon too.
Are there any recipes in particular that your family loves that you'd like to see adapted for pressure canning?
Good question! Cinnamon sticks can make some things bitter or over seasoned sometimes (in pickles and canned fruit like peaches), and the same thing happens with ground cinnamon on occasion. I think it has to do with the source perhaps, as it's not all cinnamon.
Cumin, Cinnamon and Cloves all intensify over time in the jars, so it's best to season lightly when using those.
Sage can get weird in canning too, and that's pretty dependable. I recommend avoiding it.
I've found that some chili powders also don't do well in pressure canning, and yield off flavors, so it's best to do a small test batch if you're canning Chili con Carne or something like that.
That's all I can think of, and most others I've used are the same as regular cooking.
I’ve enjoyed going through the recipes and have saved a few for future use. I can’t wait to try soups in a jar.
Lovely!
Hi - only recently ran across your site when looking for ideas to use the bounty of lemon balm we have. I've been water bath canning for over 40 years. For the last 10 years with our good size veggie garden have been putting up 30 to 40 quarts of tomatoes. Also, using the fruit that grows wild in our neighborhood (cherry plums, mountain cherries, various apples, table grapes, etc) to make jams, spreads, etc. Later today, hope to make the lemon balm jelly from you site.
I do have a question, too. After removing the jars from the water bath - they dry with a thin coating of residue - most likely due to hard water we have - I wipe it off with a damp cloth, yet is there a way to prevent the coating from happening?
cheers,
Fred
Some people suggest adding a splash of white vinegar to your canning pot to help prevent the hard water scale. I've found that when I do that, my canning rings break down much faster and start to rust. Instead, I just wipe the jars down with a rag dampened with vinegar after they're cool before storing. It works just as well to remove the film. But yes, it's likely your hard water, we have hard well water too.
Thanks Ashley - Didn't think about the rings breaking down faster.... will give it a try, as just a damp cloth (with water) isn't all that effective. cheers, Fred
I’m loving fruit syrups this year. Clear the fruit out of the freezer, heat & strain it for juice, add honey (& some lemon juice) & jar it up! I water bath can it so it’s shelf staple… Yum!
Nice! Ball canning has this great recipe for blueberry butter that you make with the pulp after you've made blueberry syrup, and it's my dad's absolute favorite recipe that I make. He had me make it for all the guys at his work even. It's great with blueberries, but it should work for most any fruit honestly:
https://creativecanning.com/blueberry-butter/
Ashley, thank you for this community. I have recently renewed my interest in water bath and pressure canning. I am very interested in pressure canning whole meals (beef stew, chicken, beans, etc.) I am eager to dive in to the resources that you have made available. One specific question that I have: is there a way to successfully pressure can an already-prepared lentil rice casserole that we love? The main ingredients are french green lentils, brown rice, onion, celery, carrots, olives, vegetable broth, and herbs like oregano, basil, thyme. It would be great to just open, heat if possible, and serve. We are beginning to try to build an emergency pantry. Thank you so much!
Diana
Rice and other starchy things are not tested for home canning due to density issues. Rice and pasta in particular don't turn out well when canned anyway, and there are no tested recipes using them.
You can, however, can the lentils just fine. The university of Oregon did testing and found that they're the same as split peas for canning times and procedures. It sounds like without the rice your recipe is very similar to split pea soup, and likely you could develop a recipe there for canning the lentils and veggies based on the split pea recipe. At that point, you'd just have to cook the rice on the side.
Hope this helps!
This is very helpful, Ashley! Thank you!
As a volunteer, I will be leading the High School cooking class for a Montessori school this coming year and would love to introduce them to canning. This past Spring I attempted to make Wild Violet jelly which turned out to be Wild Violet syrup, so I am seeking a more foolproof set of recipes. Hoping you can steer me in the right direction. I truly enjoy your posts, pictures and straight forward method of teaching.
Flower jellies are reasonably foolproof, and if it didn't set then it's possible it's a problem with your pectin. What type did you use?
With normal pectin (like sure jel in the yellow box), you need 4 cups liquid, 1 box pectin and 4 cups sugar. Add the pectin to the liquid, stir to dissolve. Bring to a boil and cook on high 1 minute. Add the sugar, stir to dissolve and then boil 1 minute. Ladle into jars. That's it.
ANY liquid (water, flower tea, fruit juice, etc) should set just fine. Problems happen when you add things in the wrong order (like adding sugar before pectin), cook too long or not long enough (though there is a pretty good margin and it doesn't have to be exactly a minute), or don't use the right amount of sugar.
If you want to use less sugar, use a low sugar pectin (like sure jel low sugar in the pink box).
If you have a strange brand of pectin, sometimes the instructions are different and the results can be mixed.
Ashley, thank you for your detailed reply! I actually used the liquid pectin. I made it so many months ago Im not sure of the brand but I think it was SureJel. Since I didn't have enough flowers, (only enough for 1/2 batch) I halved the amount of liquid pectin...maybe this was my problem? Either way, thank you again for your time and insight into my dilemma. I will try again next Spring....hoping to send you a good report. ;-)
Hi! New to canning. I made the strawberry pie filling 2x. First time only 5 jars, so yesterday measured the blanched strawberries in 7 qt jars first. Now I’ve got 8 1/4 jars. Is it still safe because the lemon ratio was still 1/4 cup. Should I add lemon juice and recan them?
Thanks
I've found that the pie filling recipes from the extension services, and the strawberry one in particular, can have really variable yields. Part of it has to do with the blanching step, where some fruits shrink a lot and others not. This can vary a lot between commercial strawberries and the more delicate PYO and homegrown varieties too.
The idea, however, with those extension recipes is that there's A LOT of safety margin in the amount of lemon juice added to the recipe. To my judgement, an extra jar over or 1 to 2 jars under is fine in terms of canning safety (though inconvenient for batch size planning obviously). Personally, I think they'd be fine, but as always, you're the one eating it so use your own best judgement.
Thank you so much! I’m good with it, it seemed very lemony.
I'm new to "Creative Canning", but would love a great spaghetti sauce recipe and meal-in-a-jar recipes.
Nice! I have quite a few meal in a jar recipes, and probably 20 more coming out this summer from recipes I've been developing all winter long: https://creativecanning.com/category/pressure-canning/meal-canning-recipes/
https://creativecanning.com/category/pressure-canning/soup-canning-recipes/
For pasta sauces, last summer I tracked down every safe, tested sauce canning recipe out there. There are only about 25 in existence that have been tested, and I'm slowly working my way through making those. Here's the full list: https://creativecanning.com/pasta-sauce-recipes-for-canning/
Loving your content Ashley! You have many useful recipes for canning that are beyond any of the books I have ever seen!
One thing I have been trying to find for years is a recipe for giardiniera and muffuletta in olive oil. The commercial version is delicious, but is preserved in soybean oils. I would love to make my own healthy version.
There are not many tested canning recipes that use oil. I only know of two, those being marinated peppers: https://nchfp.uga.edu/how/pickle/vegetable-pickles/marinated-peppers/
and marinated mushrooms: https://nchfp.uga.edu/how/pickle/vegetable-pickles/marinated-whole-mushrooms/
Both use a lot of lemon juice (which is more acidic than vinegar) to help preserve things.
Often commercial versions are adding preservatives as well as oil, or pre-treating the veggies in various ways to ensure preservation. Or using astronomical amounts of salt.
You can definitely make a giardiniera at home just as a pickle, and ball even has a good recipe here: https://www.ballmasonjars.com/blog?cid=hot-italian-giardiniera-recipe
The thing is, they have you put the olive oil in the jar when you open it and put it in the fridge. Not a huge deal really, as the olive oil will maintain better quality if kept separate and not canned anyway. Another reason they use "salad oil" or soybean oil in many of these recipes, it's forgiving in preserves (mainly because it always tastes nasty, so it doesn't get nastier when canned).
Sorry this doesn't exactly answer your question.
Yes it actually does answer my question with your wealth of experience! And it gives me known recipes to try.
THANK YOU!!
Any advice for smaller recipes for canning when you are providing for just one person?
You can scale down any recipe, that's no problem. With pressure canning, the minimum batch size is 2 quarts or 4 pints so that everything heats evenly. With waterbath canning, there's no minimum batch size. Canning a single jar is perfectly fine. I actually have a small, but tall and deep pot that I use for canning very small batches so I don't have to bring a giant canner to a boil for just a few jars.
For pectin, a "box" of pectin is 6 Tbsp and you can open the box and store the extra in a jar to use as needed. I often make half or quarter batches of jellies, making just 1 or 2 jars. Just divide the "box" into 3 Tbsp for a half batch or 1 1/2 Tbsp for a quarter batch.
Beyond that, there's a really great book called "Preserving by the Pint" which has lovely small batch recipes for jams, jellies, sauces and pickles. If you're looking for small batch waterbath canning stuff, it's a great resource.
Dear Ashley,
I am a Brazilian who moved to Australia to live with my Australian partner. He just adores pears and after some internet research, I’ve found your Pear Jam Recipe. It looked great and it proved to be just PERFECT! I have made it over and over again in the last year and wanted to come here to thank you! It is an absolut success every time!!!!
That's so wonderful! I'm glad you enjoyed it, my husband loves that one too =)
I'm deep into all things sweet cherry right now! I'm making whole cherries in syrup, your dark cherry jam and cherry limeade concentrate. However, since you asked, I'm looking for meat-free meals in a jar and meat free soups. I have all of the ones you've posted already, and I can't wait to get into making all of them. I'm an experied canner/pressure canner, and I dehydtrate and freeze dry also. I'm looking for all kinds of creatiive ideas to make my life easier when all I want to do is hibernate!
Nice! I just posted a few more meat free soups in the last week or two. Southwestern vegetable soup is amazing, though there's a lot of different ingredients to source, it's so darn worth it: https://creativecanning.com/southwestern-vegetable-soup/
The roasted red pepper soup and poblano corn chowder from the past few weeks are also really amazing and plant based. https://creativecanning.com/category/pressure-canning/soup-canning-recipes/
Many of my recipes are pretty meat-centric and I'm working on more plant based stuff during the summer season when the veggies are fresh.
For cherries, try a small batch of pickled cherries, they're really unique (and delicious). Best done with nice firm sweet cherries. https://creativecanning.com/pickled-cherries/
For tart cherries, I've been meaning to make a version of this tart cherry BBQ sauce that uses fresh instead of dried. I think 3 cups fresh in place of the 1 cup dried should be about right, but you'd just need to cook it down more: https://ucanr.edu/sites/default/files/2020-05/326718.pdf
Thank you so much! I had plans to make those pickled cherries too-they sound amazing! I’m going to grab those soup recipes right now! That bbq sauce sounds amazing also. I’m also going to make a cherry mustard. I have a lot of sweet cherries to play with LOL, and sour cherries will start up in about two weeks.
I want to make crabapple jelly
Nice! It's really darn good. I have a recipe for that one on my homesteading site, but not yet on my canning site: https://practicalselfreliance.com/crabapple-jelly/
I've looked at some of the recipes and they sound delicious! Are your recipes safe and tested?
Yes, I follow the current USDA guidance for canning.
Do you have any recipes for chicken fahitas or other mexican dishes? Also I would love a recipe for sweet and sour chicken and asian dishes. I'll look through my recipes to see which came from you and leave a review. Thanks for all the recipes.
I have a recipe coming out shortly for fajita in a jar, as well as a Japanese pork belly for ramen. But yes, I could use more recipes in those genres for sure. Chipotle beef is one of my favorites (https://creativecanning.com/chipotle-beef-taco-meat/) and taco soup is great too (https://creativecanning.com/canning-taco-soup/). I'm hoping to dial in a recipe for green chili pork stew and pineapple carnitas soon too.
Are there any recipes in particular that your family loves that you'd like to see adapted for pressure canning?
I would love to know more about your preservation kitchen. I hope to have one in the future.
That's a good idea!
What herbs and spices should I be wary of when seasoning fruit preserves; jams, jellies etc?
Good question! Cinnamon sticks can make some things bitter or over seasoned sometimes (in pickles and canned fruit like peaches), and the same thing happens with ground cinnamon on occasion. I think it has to do with the source perhaps, as it's not all cinnamon.
Cumin, Cinnamon and Cloves all intensify over time in the jars, so it's best to season lightly when using those.
Sage can get weird in canning too, and that's pretty dependable. I recommend avoiding it.
I've found that some chili powders also don't do well in pressure canning, and yield off flavors, so it's best to do a small test batch if you're canning Chili con Carne or something like that.
That's all I can think of, and most others I've used are the same as regular cooking.