If you’re new to canning and want to build your skills, this list of recipes is for you. Here’s what I suggest you can, in the order I think would build your skills the best, working from very fastest and easiest, to little bit longer and slightly more involved recipes. Think of it as a canning self study course. These are the canning recipes to build your beginner skills!
The FIRST canning recipe you should make is raspberry jam.
If raspberries aren’t available, make strawberry jam.
Raspberry jam is an ideal first canning recipe because it cooks up SO fast (DONE in about 20 minutes) and has naturally occurring pectin making it firm up so perfectly with no work on your part. It is a great choice as your very first (or 100th) recipe. It also requires no additional pectin.
The SECOND recipe you should try is a mixed berry jam
OR a pickle like carrot pickles or dilly beans. Make jam if you have berries and work on those skills of quickly mashing and cooking OR make a pickle and relish (pun intended!) how easy it is to heat up the brine and pour it over the veggies you pack into jars- SO SIMPLE! These two types of recipes are just a tiny bit more difficult/time consuming than a plain raspberry jam.
The THIRD recipe you should make is pickled pearl onions
OR a pitted cherry in a fruit cup.
These are a little bit more prep – pitting the cherries or peeling the onions- but it is super simple to prepare a brine or syrup and ladle it over the warm cherries or onions. These take a little time to prep but the cooking time is very little, making them ideal for the hottest days. You’ll have nutritious canned fruit or veggies in under an hour with these canning recipes.
FINALLY, make my Fast Tomato Sauce
or Tomato Jam.
Tomatoes aren’t difficult but they take a bit more work (they need to be blended/pureed) and they require the addition of an acidifying ingredient to put them safely within the acid range of 4.6 or lower (which is greater acid). This isn’t difficult either; you’ll simply follow the recipe and add an acidifying ingredient as directed. They take a bit longer than a jam, but they are so versatile and wholesome (no added sugar in the Fast Tomato Sauce, and such great pantry staples!) that if I had to can just one thing for the rest of my life, it would be fast tomato sauce.
Download the free Acid & Canning Chart to SEE where tomatoes are on the acid scale (they are much less acidic than you think!) and understand what swaps are safe and which are not when canning.
If you’re newer to canning, or need to brush up, I suggest you check out the Canning Jump Start Guide
The Canning Jump Start Guide contains:
·10 Easy Recipes
·Equipment checklists for both water bath and steam canning
·Stovetop guide
·Elevation adjustment guide
·Canning season planner
Pantry checklist
It’s a visual guide to help you dive in today! The best part? It’s only $5!
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