Canning Fruits and Vegetables

Canning methods have changed dramatically in

recent years. Read our article including
canning instructions for canning fruits and
vegetables. Learn how to safely preserve your
harvest
By Sue Weaver

Is it safe to eat canned fruits and vegetables? And is canning fruits and
vegetables something worth learning to do? In a word: yes.

However, there is more to preserving safe, tasty, nutritious canned fruits, vegetables and
meats than hauling out Grandma’s old pressure canner.

Here are the facts about canning instructions and methods.

Because modern hybrid vegetable and fruit varieties are often less acidic than heirloom
varieties and modern canned goods are generally stored under vastly different conditions
than they were just decades ago, in 1989 our U.S. Department of Agriculture updated its
home canning guidelines and declared certain old-fashioned canning methods verboten.

Extension Services in every state reprinted canning instruction manuals to reflect the
USDA’s findings. In 1994 it released its own definitive work, Complete Guide to Home
Canning.

Unfortunately, many home canners aren’t aware of these safety updates and still follow
instructions from old books and bulletins. Others contend “the old ways are best.”

Between October 24, 2000, and January 10, 2001, the Center for Home Food
Preservation in conjunction with the University of Georgia called 5,259 randomly
selected households across the United States; 1,244 households reported freezing or home
canning in 1999.

The Center polled 501 of these home-canning households with these startling results:

• Only 19 percent followed canning instructions gleaned from cookbooks and

County Extension bulletins (and some of these were badly outdated); 48 percent
obtained instructions solely from friends or relatives.

To preserve high-acid products such as fruits, pickles and tomatoes, the USDA
recommends water bath or pressure-canning methods.
Old-style, open-kettle canning as well as oven and microwave procedures are deemed
unsafe.

Yet, 21 percent chose the open-kettle method and four percent canned in ovens. Only 58
percent of the home canners polled used the water-bath method and 15.5 percent used a
pressure canner.

Furthermore, when canning low-acid foods like vegetables, poultry, seafood, meats and
combinations such as stews and salsa, processing in a pressure canner is the only way to
safely kill botulism spores.

Still, only 30 percent of the canners polled always used a pressure canner; 39 percent
used water-bath canners, 29 percent used pressure cookers, 15 percent used the open-
kettle method and three percent used the oven. Obviously, things need to change.

Safety and Benefits

Be sure to follow canning instructions exactly for your and others safety. A safely canned
food yields numerous benefits.

Safety
Clostridium botulinum, the deadly neurotoxin that causes botulism, thrives in under-
processed, low-acid, home-canned goods.

A single nibble or sip of botulism-laced food, ingested as soon as three or four days after
processing, can prove fatal. Why take that risk? C. botulinum and the other bacteria that
contribute to spoilage are easily destroyed when cooked for the right amount of time at
240 to 250 degrees F—the temperature in a properly-regulated pressure canner.

Benefits
Canned foods are often more wholesome than weeks-old “fresh” produce at the market.

Even refrigerated, the nutrient content of fruits and vegetables begins declining at
harvest. Within a week, up to 50 percent of certain vitamins may be lost. However,
although heat destroys one-third to one-half of Vitamins A and C, riboflavin and thiamin,
once these items are canned, the process slows to five to 20 percent per year.

Canning is economical. The same equipment—including canning jars—can be used year

after year. Only lids must be purchased new each canning season.

Canning lets you savor favorite foods all year, including out-of-season and homegrown,
organic goodies. It’s convenient—precook and can dried beans for chili recipes or
chicken to simmer with those dumplings.

It beats freezing: stored canned goods don’t spoil when the power goes off. Most frozen
foods claim a one-year life expectancy. But with only slight decline in looks and flavor,
canned items can last for two to three years or more.

What You Need to Get Started

If you’re convinced and want to try canning this year, here’s what you’ll need to get
started:

• Reliable canning instructions and recipes

Check the copyright date on material you may already have on hand. If it’s dated
before 1989, it’s best to discard it. Take heirloom and other favorite recipes to
your County Extension for updating or compare them to modern recipes and
based on those, add significantly to their processing times.

Reliable canning instruction and recipes are free and abundant. Pick up bulletins from
your County Extension agent or download them from the Internet. Phone or e-mail
canning-supply companies such as the Alltrista Corporation (makers of Ball and Kerr
canning jars and lids), and ask for free brochures. Many offer inexpensive materials like
Alltrista’s 120-page classic, The Ball Blue Book: Guide to Home Canning, Freezing &
Dehydration; 32nd Edition, available directly from Alltrista (see “Resources” on page
90). If in doubt, pressure canning (according to modern USDA recommendations) is
always your safest ploy.

• Wholesome, properly handled food

When possible, grow or pick your own fruits and vegetables. For optimal flavor,
nutrition and appearance, can them within six to 12 hours of harvest. Choose fully
ripe (but not over-ripe), bruise- and blemish-free produce.

Harvest, pick or buy only the amount you can process in two to three hours. Rinse and
lightly scrub fruit and veggies but don’t soak them prior to canning.

• Canner
If you put up vegetables, including low-acid tomatoes, poultry, meat, seafood or
processed entrees such as chili or stew, you’ll need a pressure canner. Grandma’s
pressure canner, if she had one, was a heavy, bulky monster with thick walls and a
cumbersome clamp-on lid. Redesigned in the 1970s, today’s models are sleek,
thin-walled and lightweight, featuring replaceable gaskets, twist-on lids with
automatic cover locks, one or more safety valves and dial or weighted pressure
gauges.

Pressure canners range in size and price from Mirro, Presto and Maitre’s petite 4.2
models (they handle three-quart jars and list for around $45 but often sell for much less)
to the enormous All-American 941 (19 quarts or 32 pints and close to $350), although the
average pressure canner holds seven quarts or eight to nine pint jars in a single layer or
18 pints in two and retails for $100 to $150.

Used canners purchased at yard sales or on the Internet may or may not be bargains.
Before buying one, make certain all parts are present and functioning. You can pick up
replacement gaskets, dial gauges, counterweights and safety valves for modern canners at
most hardware stores or order them from manufacturers and canning supply outlets, but
parts for antiquated canners are all but extinct.

Dial-gauge models, like those built by Presto and All-American, accurately measure the
appliance’s internal pressure and are preferred by many home canners. One drawback:
gauges must be checked for accuracy before every canning season and again if dropped
or mishandled.

Weighted-gauge canners, manufactured by Mirro and Maitre, feature a steam vent or

petcock closed by a weight that jiggles and hisses two or three times per minute while the
canner is suitably pressurized. Both incorporate rubber or rubber-like lid gaskets to form
a tight seal. The gaskets in modern canners are permanently pre-lubed at the factory but
those in older models should be periodically slathered with vegetable oil. Nicked,
gummy, stretched or dried gaskets don’t properly seal, causing steam leaks and under-
processed canned goods. Replace them.

Never force-cool any pressure canner. Cool down is factored into processing time.
Dousing any canner with running water causes lid-seal failures and liquid loss from jars.
Older models’ lids can warp, resulting in unfixable steam leaks.

Because water boils at lower temperatures as altitude increases, and canning instructions
are generally calculated for elevations below 1,000 feet above sea level, unless their
gauges are adjusted, temperatures inside pressure canners used at higher elevations will
be incorrect. Unsure if you’re affected? Ask your nearest County Extension agent for
assistance. Don’t omit this step.

While you can put up fruit, high-acid or acidified tomatoes, relishes, pickles, jams and
jellies in a pressure canner with the lid clamped in place and the exhaust valve (petcock)
open, the same foods can be processed faster in a water-bath canner. You may want to
buy both kinds.

Water-bath canners, sometimes called boiling-water canners, are deep, porcelain-covered

steel or aluminum pots fitted with snug-fitting lids and removable canning racks. They
cost $10 to $30 at hardware stores or the large discount chain stores. With canning racks
removed, they can be used to fix hefty batches of food for group feeds or for freezing. In
water-bath canning, packed jars are immersed in at least one inch of boiling water for an
allotted time—nothing could be simpler!

• Canning jars
Buy them new, packed one dozen per package, at grocery stores, hardware stores
and the like, in 1¼2 pint, pint, 1 1¼2 pint, quart and 1¼2-gallon sizes, and in
standard and wide-mouth configurations. Most popular are pints and quarts, with
canners designed to contain these sizes. Wide-mouth jars, measuring three inches
across, are easier to fill, empty and wash than their standard (2 3¼8”) mouth
cousins.
 Jars are safe to reuse if they’re designed for use with modern, flat canning lids and
screw-on rings. Scaly, film-covered jars are salvageable. Soak them for two to
three hours in one cup of five percent acidity vinegar to one gallon of water
solution, then hand or machine wash as usual. When considering a box of used
canning jars, glaze your forefinger around their rims, checking for chips, nicks
and the sort of uneven surface that will prevent your canning lids sealing. With
use, jars do weaken and crack. New ones are often a better buy.

Don’t buy or save commercial mayonnaise containers to use as canning jars. They’re
neither heat-tempered nor sturdy enough to withstand home canning, especially more
than once. A mayonnaise jar’s narrower rim surface makes seal failure likely and it could
shatter during processing or even explode when the canner is opened. If you must use
recycled food containers, use them only for water-bath canning, never inside a pressure
canner.

• Canning lids
Not so many years ago, canning jars were sealed with porcelain-lined, zinc screw-
on lids with separate “jar rubber” gaskets. Antique jars are still around but finding
new rubber gaskets is iffy and the USDA no longer endorses their use. The same
goes for old-fashioned jars with wire-bail-attached glass lids and jar rubber seals.

The only safe canning topper is today’s self-sealing, two-piece vacuum lid. Its flat metal
lid has a strip of rubbery gasket compound molded to its crimped underside. Heated, the
compound softens and semi-seals while still allowing air to escape from the jar. This seal
becomes airtight as the finished product cools and a vacuum forms.

During processing, the lid is clamped in place by a metal screw-on band or ring, which is
removed after the finished product cools. Lid flats must never be reused but screw bands,
if properly handled, will last indefinitely. Lids are sold as two-piece units or flats only.

Canning lids boast a five-year shelf life, although with age, more seal failures occur. It’s
best to buy just enough for a single canning season. Over 30 companies manufacture
these lids and not all work precisely the same. Always read and follow manufacturer’s
instructions when prepping canning lids for use.

• Accessories
While most of the essentials you’ll need for processing food are standard kitchen
tools, a few items are specific to canning.

Spooning food into canning jars is a lesson in frustration; wide-mouth plastic funnels
make filling canning jars a breeze.

You’ll need a jar lifter—a specially-shaped set of tongs with rubber-coated handles—for
fishing blistering hot jars out of your canner.
For cold-packing fruit, a small-bladed plastic or rubber spatula will coax bubbles out of
jars before processing. Some instructions recommend a knife but metal causes certain
fruits to turn odd hues.

To prevent breakage, you shouldn’t pack cool jars with

warm food. Bring them to a simmer in a kettle of water and hold them there till you’re
ready to fill them. Use a large kettle that will hold all the jars for one batch. A water-bath
canner is ideal.

An accurate kitchen timer is a must, as are measuring cups and spoons. Canning is an
exacting science. Time and volume measurements must be precise.

Saucepans for warming lids; colanders for draining product; knives and cutting boards for
peeling and chopping; pot holders or mitts to protect your hands; a big spoon for stirring
and towels to cool your canned goods upon.

Home canning is a safe, economical way to put delicious, nutritious food on your table at
every meal. Blackberry jam for breakfast, tasty home-canned chili for lunch, green beans
from your garden, peaches from your trees—delicious! Give canning a try. Here are some
more resources.

When that first batch of jewel-like jars stands cooling on your countertop, you’ll be
thrilled you did.

About the Author: Sue Weaver is a freelance writer who raises horses, gardens and cans
with her husband, John, on their hobby farm in Arkansas.