Canning vegetable soup is safe when you use a pressure canner, keep the soup thin enough for heat to move through the jar, and follow a tested USDA or Ball method. A boiling-water bath cannot heat low-acid vegetables hot enough…
Home canning bacon is popular in homesteading and preparedness circles because bacon is expensive, bulky in the freezer, and easy to run out of. The short answer is less popular: there is no research-tested, USDA-supported method for home canning bacon.…
Canning ham and bean soup is possible, but only in a pressure canner, and most popular “dump dry beans in a jar” recipes skip the details that actually keep the soup safe. Ham and bean soup is a low-acid food.…
Applesauce can be pressure canned safely, but only with the short, low-pressure process published by the USDA and the National Center for Home Food Preservation. Apples are a high-acid fruit, so a boiling-water canner is also an approved method. Pressure…
You can can apple pie filling in a boiling-water canner when you use cook-type Clear Jel, bottled lemon juice, and a tested recipe. Flour, cornstarch, and tapioca do not belong in the jar. Those thickeners can clump, break down, and…
You can water-bath can beets only if they are pickled in a tested vinegar brine. Plain beets packed in water are a low-acid vegetable. A boiling-water bath never gets hot enough to destroy Clostridium botulinum spores, so those jars are…
Canning apples is a water-bath project when you start with fresh, firm fruit and hot-pack it in water, juice, or a light syrup. You do not need a pressure canner for plain slices, applesauce, or a tested pie filling. What…
Canning green tomatoes for frying is a way to keep end-of-season unripe tomatoes in slices you can bread and cook months later. Unripe tomatoes may be canned like ripe tomatoes if you acidify each jar and use a tested tomato…
Sweet peppers are a low-acid vegetable. Packed in water with no added vinegar, they are not safe in a boiling-water canner. The only tested method for plain sweet peppers is a pressure canner, using half-pint or pint jars, a hot…
Grape jelly sets when juice, sugar, acid, and pectin reach the right balance, then the filled jars are processed in a boiling-water canner. A tested batch uses measured grape juice, sugar, and commercial pectin, packed hot with ¼-inch headspace and…