Shelf-stable pickled mushrooms depend on one laboratory-tested recipe: USDA marinated whole mushrooms, packed in half-pint jars and processed in a boiling-water canner. Mushrooms are a low-acid food. The lemon-juice blanch and the vinegar in the brine are what make this…
I have enough from official canning guidance and what readers actually look for. Writing the article next. Fall canning is the season when orchard fruit, late tomatoes, beets, grapes, and winter squash arrive at once. The useful work is not…
Pickled garlic is easy to make at home. Canning it for the pantry is not. Garlic is a low-acid vegetable, and current university food-preservation guidance does not support a tested, shelf-stable home-canning process for pickled garlic cloves. The method that…
The best spaghetti sauce canning recipe is the National Center for Home Food Preservation formula, with or without meat. It is built for a pressure canner, uses a fixed amount of onion, garlic, celery or pepper, and optional mushrooms, and…
Cranberries are one of the easiest fruits to turn into a shelf-stable jar of jam. They are naturally high in acid and pectin, so a simple pot of berries, sugar, and a short water-bath process is enough—no boxed pectin required…
Figs sit on the wrong side of the acidity line for water-bath canning. Their pH often hovers near or above 4.6, so a pot of cooked fruit and sugar is not automatically pantry-safe. Bottled lemon juice is what pulls the…
Canning apple juice is a short, hot-pack water-bath process: clarify fresh juice, heat it until it begins to boil, fill jars with ¼-inch headspace, and process in a boiling-water canner. At elevations of 1,000 feet or less, that is 5…
Canning meat works only one way: in a pressure canner. Beef, pork, poultry, and game are low-acid foods. A boiling-water bath tops out near 212°F, which is not hot enough to destroy Clostridium botulinum spores. Those spores can grow in…
A surplus of plums is easier to handle than it looks. Ripe fruit is acidic enough for a boiling-water canner, so you do not need a pressure canner unless you prefer one. The first decision is not which recipe sounds…
Split pea and ham soup can be canned safely, but only in a pressure canner, and only if you follow one tested method all the way through. It is a low-acid food. A boiling-water bath never gets hot enough to…