Basic Instructions for Hot Water Bath Canning

seven quarts in a canner (photo by jhy)

You will need: see Equipment Needed for Hot Water Bath Canning

What is Hot Water Bath Canning?

Canning your own food to preserve it can be very satisfying, and it's a great way to work at becoming more of a locovore. However, if you have not done this before, the whole process can seem daunting. Trust me, even though there are a lot of steps, the basics remain the same for any recipe, so you will quickly become adept at the job. There is a lot of cleanup, and rustling of large pots and pans. None of us can do anything about that!

Processing by the hot water bath method means to submerge jars of hot food in boiling water, and keep them at the boiling point for a specified length of time (stated in individual recipes). This raises the temperature of the food in the jars high enough that bacteria is killed. When special types of lids are used, which seal when the jars cool, food can be kept without spoiling for years (although color and texture may change with age).

Hot water bath processing is suitable for fruits and acid vegetables. Other foods need to be processed in a pressure canner which will raise the temperature higher than 212 F (100C). In general beans, corn, meats, and any low-acid food requires pressure canning, or the bacteria will not be destroyed. Don't take chances with this, because home-canned food can kill if botulism is present.

Steps Used for any Recipe

Don't prepare more food at one time than you can process in one canner load. It's fine to do fewer jars, though; the canner does not have to be full.

You have to do some multi-tasking here. Somewhere between steps 1 and 5 you have to get the food ready that's going in the jars. You want the water in the canner to be hot and ready to receive the jars of food. You don't need to be boiling empty jars for an hour, but you do want to be sure they are hot and sterile when you need them. I usually do step 1, get the water for step 4 ready and warmed up, then hold it just under a boil until I'm almost ready for the jars.

1. Wash canning jars thoroughly. Check the rims for any nicks, or scratches; these jars probably won't seal. Never use a jar with a crack- it's sure to break.

2. Fill the canner at least half full of water, and put the rack in it. Begin heating this. It's good to have it just below the boiling point when the jars of food go in. It takes a long time to heat this much water, so that's why I put this as step 2. You should also fill another kettle, teakettle, etc with water and bring it to a simmer, too. When you have the jars in the canner, you'll probably need to top it off, and you should do this with hot water.

canning lids soaking (photo by jhy)

3. Put lids to soak in a shallow dish of clean, warm water. This softens the sealing material slightly. I usually alternate them, one up, one down, so I can easily grab them when needed. If they are all stacked one way they can be difficult to separate when I'm in a hurry to get one on the jar.

4. Place clean jars in a kettle of simmering water, laying on their side. They don't have to be completely submerged, but be sure that the water is boiling enough to produce what my mother used to call "live steam." If you can only fit a couple of jars in your kettle at a time, that's fine. They only need one minute in the boiling water/steam to sterilize them. You can be sterilizing the next one while you are filling a jar with food.

1/2 inch headspace (photo by jhy)

5. When the food is ready, put a towel on the counter or table. This insulates and cushions the hot jars so they are less likely to break when contacting the surface. The chances of that happening are slim, but I've had it happen once with a jar full of hot tomatoes, and it was no fun at all. I suspect that jar had a crack I didn't notice. Fill the jar with the food leaving the amount of headspace indicated in the recipe. Headspace just means the distance from the top of the liquid to the rim of the jar. Depending on the food, a canning funnel can be really useful for this job.

6. Using a very clean damp cloth, or a damp paper towel (I prefer this as I can always have a clean spot), wipe the rim of the jar to remove any drips. Even one grain of sugar can prevent a jar from sealing. Do this carefully.

7. Take one of the wet lids and place it on the jar with the sealing compound against the rim.

8. Screw a band on the jar to hold the lid in place. Tighten it snugly, but not forcefully.

9. Place the jar of food in the canner. The rack will keep it from touching the bottom of the canner, and will also hold it upright. Repeat steps 5-9 until the canner is full or you have used all your food. If there is some food left over, just refrigerate and use soon. Partially filled jars won't seal.

10. Top off the water in the canner. Jars should be covered with at least a half inch of water. Bring the water in the canner to a boil. It does not need to be a full rolling boil, but needs to really boiling, not just producing occasional air bubbles.

11. Boil (process) for the recommended time in the recipe.

12. Turn off the heat and remove jars from the canner. It's possible to do this by lifting out the rack to remove all the jars at once, but I'm always concerned that I'll jostle or drop them, so I use my jar lifter and remove them one at a time. Place them on the towel again, and don't let them touch. In fact, keep them at least an inch apart so that the cooling takes place evenly.

13. Wait at least 12 hours. In fact, my mother always said to not even move the jars for a day.

14. Remove the rings. Wash the outsides of the jars. Particularly if the contents were sugared, some syrup is likely to have oozed out during processing and made them sticky. Label- don't think you'll easily remember what's in the jars. A lot of things look a lot alike after a few years on the pantry shelf. Unless it's for a gift, I just use a marker and write on the cap. Be sure to include the year! This way you can use the oldest jars first. It's also handy for reference if one batch turned out particularly good or bad. 15. Clean up the whole mess, and start another batch of something!

Equipment Needed for Hot Water Bath Canning

my basic canning equipment- OK, not the houseplants (photo by jhy- click to enlarge)

This article is part one of two which will give general directions for processing foods for storing by the hot water bath method. The focus of this article will be the equipment that is needed.

If you are new to home canning of foods, the list of equipment and steps required may seem daunting. I will admit that there are a lot of pans and dishes and steps involved. However, once you get used to it all, it doesn't seem quite so bad. The reward of eating foods you have preserved yourself is great!

THE LIST!

canner with rack and lid
canning jars
lids and rings
jar lifter
canning funnel
assorted utensils- knives, spoons, ladles, scoops, scrapers, measuring cups, bowls, small dishes, etc.
cloth towels (I prefer linen over terry)
paper towels (optional but good)
several large kettles- 1 gallon and 2 gallon are good sizes

THE EXPLANATIONS

Canner- this is a large pot, usually between 11 and 21 quart capacity. It will hold 7 canning jars. The most ordinary size is 11.5 or 12.5 quart. It needs to be large enough to fill with jars, and then have enough room above that to have about an inch of water. The smallest size might have problems with some jars, if your jar collection includes an odd mixture of all ages and brands. The rack will hold jars up off the bottom of the pot so they don't have direct heat transferred to them from the metal, which might cause them to crack. Don't process jars without a rack. Lid- although the processing itself is done without the lid, you can cover the pot to help conserve energy while bringing the water to a boil. Mine is aluminum. I'd prefer granitewear or stainless steel, but that's just me.

Canning Jars- These glass jars vary in size from less than a half-pint (one cup) to two gallon. The most common sizes are half-pint, pint and quart. They are made in two standard mouth sizes, and this is important. There are narrow (or regular) mouth, and wide mouth jars. The mouth size is important, because the sealing lids must fit properly. Some commercial product jars may be able to be used, although more products have gone to plastic rather than glass. The most common example is mayonnaise jars. That said, I have quite a few pint-and-a-half jars that came from Tang breakfast drink long ago. Some spaghetti sauce jars will work. Glass jars can be reused indefinitely as long as the rims don't have any chips or scratches. This can prevent the seal from holding. Glass always cleans up beautifully, retaining no odors or colors.

Lids and Rings- Lids can be purchased anywhere that canning supplies are sold, in either narrow or wide-mouth varieties. The best sources say that lids shouldn't be reused, but I confess that I've done it. If I can pry the lid off a sealed jar with my fingers, rather than a tool, so that it has no dings or bent spots, I wash it carefully and reuse it. The issue is that they may not seal when re-used. I take my chances, and just realize that I may need to use an occasional jar of something right away, or re-process with a new lid. The rings are used to hold the lids in place until the seal has formed. Then they should be removed for storage (so you won't need nearly as many rings as lids). This is not a hard-and-fast rule though. In general, if you leave the ring on it may rust or sugar may make it stick to the jar so much that you will have a hard time removing it later. I usually remove them. However, sometimes for gift foods, I'll leave the ring on and use it to hold a piece of decorative cloth in place- minimalist gift wrapping!

Jar Lifter- I did without one of these for a few years, which was totally silly. They don't cost much, and prevent a lot of burned fingers. This is essentially a pair of tongs which can be opened wide enough to grab and lift canning jars. The metal should be coated with something to protect the jars.

Canning Funnel- This will be used a lot, so don't cheat and try to get by without it, either. A canning funnel has a wide opening at the bottom end, instead of a typical narrow one. This allows you to fill jars more easily than trying to ladle hot liquids through the opening.

Assorted Utensils- In general, I prefer anything other than plastic. I never liked how plastic can retain odors of hot foods, and now that we know more about BPA and other chemicals which can be released when plastic is heated, I like my metal, glass, or wood tools even better. That said, I do have some large bowls of plastic which are really useful for sorting foods to be processed. Like any collection of kitchen tools, you will have your own preferences, but be sure you have bowls, measuring cups, a colander, sieve(s), spoons, forks, sharp kitchen knives, ladles or dippers, small dishes to catch drips, etc. Most ordinary kitchens will have these, but you may need to be sure you have large enough containers for dealing with quantities of food. Other specialty items may be needed for some food preparation, a grinder, food mill, jelly bag, etc.

Cloth Towels- You will need some cloth towels to place on counters to receive the hot jars of processed food. This buffers the jars from direct contact with a surface of a different temperature, which can cause cracking. You may go for years without having a jar crack, but if it happens to you just once, spilling boiling liquid over everything, you won't skip the towel again. I prefer linen towels, because terrycloth ones really stick to sugary syrup with may have leaked during the processing.

Paper Towels- I hate paper towels; they are such a waste. And yet, I find that there are a few things I like them for. (I buy about one roll a year). I use a piece of a towel, moistened, to wipe the rims of jars before putting on the lid. This way, I know I always have a clean "cloth" touching the rim. Large Kettles- I find that the minimum I need (in addition to the canner) are two 1-gallon kettles, and a 2-gallon kettle. All have lids. The next article will deal with Basic Instructions for Hot Water Bath Canning.