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On today’s episode we shared our very best gift ideas for the canner in your life. Here’s what we would want as a gift. 

Food Mill: I love the Oxo brand one. 

Food processor 14 12 cup – Cuisinart or Ninja brand.

New lids

Weck jars

Jam pan- copper- or stainless. 

Wood spoon from Etsy or other small business.

Apron- good quality with pockets.

Pressure canner- more expensive but so valuable. We like this one and this one. 

Steam canner – so useful if under 4000 feet elevation.

Steam juicer

Anna’s Basic Canning Course or Advanced Canning Course at www.smarthomecanning.com 

Jenny’s Canning for Beginners Ebook Bundle at www.startcanning.com

Immersion blender

pH tester- Anna reccomends this one

Termoworks thermometer – Anna’s favorite thermapen 

Dehydrator – goes up to 145 degrees, round are good, square/rectangle are better for avoiding cross-contaminating flavors.

That’s our list of gifts for a canner! We hope you find it useful!

In today’s episode we interview Melanie Jewkes, Extension Professor with Utah State University. She’s a wealth of knowledge and has been in her position for over a decade. She enjoys preserving, sharing up to date information with others, and was so gracious to join us for an episode. 

Melanie helps set up spring and summer webinars where people can learn before canning season more up to date canning information. She helps run the Master Food Preserver program as well. 

In her role at USU, she helps field hundreds of canning related questions yearly and she says the biggest issue facing new canners is not realizing that there’s a science behind preservation and canning and not knowing that there’s a safe way to preserve. 

We discussed what to do if a cooperative extension office isn’t near you and how pH meters are used both correctly and incorrectly at home. 

Melanie shared a horror story perfect for this Halloween week episode: A caller explained how she and “canned” chicken, left it on her countertop and she discovered it was already rotting. After careful questioning, Melanie realized the woman was following directions for pressure COOKING (ie in an InstantPot) rather than pressure canning. She had pressure canned her chicken for only 10 minutes, and thank goodness the jars showed signs of spoilage in under 24 hours. 

Melanie shared also that the bot toxin can begin to grow, if present inside sealed jars at the 24 hour mark. So, the directions for re-processing jars includes this window- jars must be re-processed before 24 hours has passed. 

We hope to have Melanie back on the show soon; thanks, Melanie!

In this episode we are exploring more frequently asked questions, their tested, up to date answers, and our best tips for canning fruit, vegetables, and meat. 

It IS safe to can food without salt as it is a flavor booster and not necessary to prevent spoilage. 

Is IS safe to can fruit without sugar. Sugar isn’t required for safety, but does boost color, texture, and flavor. 

Aspirin nor other medicines should be added to canning recipes. 

Canning low acid recipes like green beans requires the use of a pressure canner only; adding vinegar in moderate amounts does NOT make a water bath appropriate for canning low acid foods. Use only tested canning recipes. 

For best quality, pre-cook your veggies before canning. Raw packing may seem faster, but typically the quality is improved with pre-cooking. 

Corn, peas, and lima beans all expand during processing- pack loosely. 

Corn turns brown during processing sometimes due to caramelization; bring to temperature slowly to avoid. 

Canning is not recommended for summer squash and zucchini because the quality of these items is poor when canned and they aren’t appropriate for canning; the squashed pieces of squash create uneven heat distribution. 

Salsas in particular are rife with potential pitfalls; use a tested canning recipe for salsa canning. 

Giblets should never be canned with other chicken cuts as the giblets will give a terrible flavor to the rest of the chicken. 

You may pressure can meat without salt safely; however, it is an important flavor booster so consider adding it for flavor. 

Remove as much meat fat as possible before pressure canning to avoid the fat from inhibiting a seal as it will climb the jars during processing. 

In this episode we discuss the most frequently asked general canning questions we get on our blogs, social media, and in person and we share the up to date, tested answers to questions and pitfalls. 

Canned food can be safely recanned if the unsealed jar is re-processed in a jar with a new lid within 24 hours of discovery of an unsealed lid. Processing time remains the same. 

If a jar of canned food is frozen during storage, there’s no reason to worry. The food is still safe to eat. 

You must process jars of food as determined by a tested canning recipe. Many old books give directions for open kettle method which is no longer recommended. Use up to date canning recipes. 

Headspace is important for driving oxygen out of jars, preventing spoilage, and creating a vacuum tight seal. Maintain proper headspace.

Properly canned food will keep (be safe) indefinitely, but most foods are highest quality when eaten within a year. 

Two layers of jars can be processed at the same time in a water bath, steam canner, or pressure canner IF there is a rack used to separate the layers. 

It is critical that you exhaust a pressure canner before bringing it up to pressure. 

Liquid lost during the processing of jars should not be replaced and is often typical, depending on the recipe. Excessive loss (2-3 inches of liquid) is called siphoning and can compromise the seal integrity. 

Do NOT reuse lids in a 2-piece metal lid system. 

Lids sometimes discolor because of the foods canned (tomatoes are a common culprit) and discoloration does not signal spoilage. 

Broken jars in the canner can be caused by using commercial jars rather than canning jars, using cracked jars, placing jars directly on the bottom of the canner rather than on a rack, putting hot food into cold jars, or putting cold food into the hot canner. 

If you find mold inside a jar of food, the food should be discarded. 

Add a splash (a few tablespoons) of white vinegar to the processing water in all canning processes to avoid the hard water film from forming on jars. 

In this episode we talk about the scariest thing in canning: Botulisim. This was the perfect topic to explore just before Halloween, but in reality, there’s nothing to be afraid of.

Botulism poisoning is caused by a toxin produced by the C. Botulinum pathogen. This poisoning is fatal if untreated as it causes respiratory failure. 

Spores are resistant to heat, and thrive in a no-oxygen environment. Therefore it must be heated to over 240 degrees F to be killed which is achievable at home in a pressure canner. Spores cannot grow in an environment of 4.6 or greater acid. This means low acid recipes must be pressure canned to kill the spore, while high acid foods can be water bath canned. 

In our episode we mention this YouTube video of a survivor of botulism poisoning. Watch it and see how easily all her mistakes can be avoided. 

Download the Free Acid and Canning Chart here.

Get the Thermoworks ph meter here. 

And the Thermoworks temperature pen here.

Listen to the Acid & Canning Episode here.