Beef is a low-acid food, so a boiling-water canner cannot make it shelf-stable. Pressure canning is the only home method that heats the jars to about 240°F (116°C), hot enough to destroy Clostridium botulinum spores. Strips, cubes, and chunks may…
Fully fermented sauerkraut can be canned in a boiling-water bath. Fresh cabbage cannot. Fermentation is what makes the water bath safe: lactic acid bacteria drop the pH below 4.6, the level at which Clostridium botulinum cannot grow. The National Center…
Tomato soup is one of the most requested home-canning projects, and one of the easiest to get wrong. You can can tomato soup at home, but only if the recipe and the method match the ingredients. A thin, acidified tomato…
Chicken broth is a low-acid food. The only tested, safe way to make it shelf-stable at home is pressure canning: hot-pack strained broth with 1 inch of headspace, then process 20 minutes for pints or 25 minutes for quarts at…
Peppers are a low-acid vegetable. Packed in water, they cannot be made shelf-stable in a boiling-water canner. That process never gets hot enough to destroy Clostridium botulinum spores. Plain peppers must be pressure canned. Peppers packed in a tested vinegar…
Canning chicken soup is safe only in a pressure canner, never in a boiling water bath. Chicken, broth, and everyday soup vegetables are low-acid foods, so the jars have to reach about 240°F to destroy Clostridium botulinum spores. Keep the…
Watermelon jelly is a clear, pink preserve made from strained watermelon juice, sugar, acid, and pectin, then sealed in jars. You can water-bath can it for pantry storage, but only if the juice is acidified first. Plain watermelon sits at…
Yellow peaches can be canned in a boiling-water bath because they are high-acid fruit. White-flesh peaches cannot. That distinction matters more than any syrup recipe. Canning peaches is one of the better first projects in home canning. The process is…
Canning cinnamon apples means packing peeled slices in a cinnamon syrup, or packing them as a thickened pie filling, then processing the jars in a boiling-water canner. Which jar you get depends on the recipe you follow. Slices in syrup…
Red potatoes can be canned at home, but only in a pressure canner. They are a low-acid vegetable, so a boiling-water bath never reaches the temperature needed to destroy Clostridium botulinum spores. The tested method is the USDA process for…