Plain watermelon flesh and unacidified juice are not safe to can. Watermelon sits well above the acidity cutoff that boiling-water canning depends on, and no tested pressure-canning process exists that leaves the fruit edible. The shelf-stable products that extension services…
Fish is a low-acid food, so the only research-tested way to can it at home is in a pressure canner. A boiling-water bath never gets hot enough to destroy Clostridium botulinum spores, and those spores can produce a toxin inside…
Canning chicken is a pressure-canner job, not a water-bath project. Chicken is a low-acid food, so only a stovetop pressure canner can reach the temperature needed to destroy Clostridium botulinum spores. Follow a tested method from the National Center for…
Nacho cheese sauce cannot be safely home canned. There is no research-tested process from the USDA or the National Center for Home Food Preservation for canning cheese sauce, milk, butter, or other dairy, and Cooperative Extension services advise against it.…
Apple pie jam is a spiced apple preserve you cook until spreadable, pack into jars, and process in a boiling-water canner. It is not the same as canned apple pie filling. Jam uses pectin and a short process time. Pie…
A tested apple butter recipe canning project is a water-bath job, not a pressure-canner one. Cook apples with a measured liquid, thicken the pulp until it mounds on a spoon, pack it hot into half-pint or pint jars with ¼-inch…
Home canning peanut butter is not a tested or recommended preservation method. Colorado State University Extension has told home canners not to try it: peanut butter and other nut butters are too dense for heat to move through a jar…
A shelf-stable sweet pickle relish is chopped cucumber, onion, and pepper cooked in a sweet-tart vinegar brine, then processed in a boiling-water canner. The version most people want for hot dogs, burgers, potato salad, and tartar sauce is the classic…
Canning pears is a water-bath job: peel and core firm-ripe fruit, hot pack it for 5 minutes in syrup, juice, or water, then process pints for 20 minutes and quarts for 25 minutes at altitudes up to 1,000 feet. That…
A roasted salsa can be canned safely, but only when the recipe was tested for both acidity and how heat moves through the jar. Roasting deepens the flavor. It does not replace the acid or the processing time. Salsa mixes…