The Beginner's Guide to Preserving Food at Home - Janet Chadwick [23]
To remove a stuck screw band, wring out a cloth in hot water, and then wrap it around the band for a minute or so to help loosen it.
To prevent hard-water mineral stains on jars and buildup in canners, use ½ cup vinegar per canner-full of hard water.
BOILING-WATER-BATH CANNING: Fifteen Steps
Boiling-water-bath canning is the USDA’s recommended way of canning acid foods — fruits, pickles, and acidified tomatoes. With a boiling-water-bath canner, you immerse jars of food in hot water to cover and begin counting the processing time once the water begins to boil.
Make sure your work area and all equipment are spotlessly clean. If your jars have not been prewashed, wash and rinse them. Check the jars for nicks and cracks. If you plan to hot-pack, keep the jars hot in water.
Assemble your equipment and set your tools where they will be most convenient. You will need a scrub brush, a colander and/or strainer, paring and chopping knives, a cutting board, food processing equipment, measuring cups and spoons, a bubble expeller (wooden chopsticks work well), a widemouthed funnel, large bowls, canning jars, a boiling-water-bath canner, a preserving kettle, a teakettle filled with hot water, canning lids and screw bands, large wooden and slotted spoons, a soup ladle, a jar lifter or tongs, a timer, hot pads, mitts or heavy potholders, and towels.
Fill your canner with about 4 inches of water for pints and 4½ inches for quarts. (These amounts are for a 20- to 21-quart canner.) Place the canner on the stove and begin heating. Heat extra water to boiling in a teakettle.
Wash your jars in soapy water, rinse well, and then keep hot by placing the jars in the preheating canner or in a dishwasher. If processing for 10 minutes or less, as for jams and jellies, sterilize the jars by boiling for 10 minutes in the canner. Leave the jars in the water until you are ready to process.
heat water in canner
Place the jar lids and screw bands in water according to the manufacturer’s directions.
Select perfect fruits and vegetables at the peak of their maturity. Wash the produce. Drain.
Prepare the vegetables for pickling or canning: peel, slice, dice, julienne, or leave whole.
Pack the jars.
Raw-pack. Firmly pack clean, heated jars with fruits or vegetables. If desired, add ½ teaspoon salt to pints, 1 teaspoon to quarts. Fill the jars with hot, not boiling, water, syrup, or juice, leaving the proper headspace, as noted in the recipe.
Hot-pack. Place prepared tomatoes, fruit, purée, or juice in a large pan; cover fruit with syrup or juice. Bring to a boil and simmer tomato products for 5 minutes, fruit for 3 minutes. Pack loosely into clean, hot jars, adding ½ teaspoon salt to pints and 1 teaspoon to quarts, if desired. Fill jars of whole tomatoes or fruit with hot liquid, leaving the recommended headspace.
Expel air bubbles in the jar by running a nonmetallic kitchen utensil gently between the vegetables and jar. Add more liquid if necessary to maintain the proper headspace.
Wipe the rim of the jar with a clean, damp cloth, and seal.
When the jars are packed and the lids are in place, check the canner. If the water is boiling, add cold water to reduce the temperature enough (140°F for raw-pack foods and 180°F for hot-pack foods) to cushion the shock of adding the cooler jars to the boiling water.
place lids in water
wash produce
pack jars
expel air bubbles
wipe rim
lower jar into canner
Carefully lower the jars, using long-handled tongs or a jar lifter, into the hot water in the canner. Be careful not to bump jars against one another as you lower the rack; this could cause jars to crack. Water should cover jars by 2 full inches. If necessary, add more boiling water to the canner.
Start counting the processing time required in the recipe as soon as the water returns to a full boil. Keep the water at a full boil throughout the processing time. (A teakettle of boiling water should be kept on hand to replenish the water in the canner, if necessary.) See the chart on page 58 if you are processing