All About Home Canning, Freezing and Making Jams and Jellies

reply to post by Lynzer


Lynzer

I don't know if this is right or wrong but I have been running my jars through a dish washer with dishwasher soap and a cup of javex. I have been doing this for several months now and everything seems to be fine. It is a lot easier than boiling the jars! Of course - I always wash the jars with hot soapy water and a brush first before I put it in the dishwasher to make sure that there are no residues of food left in the jar before I put it in the dishwasher. I bought those brushes that bars use to clean glasses and it was well worth the money.

Tired of Control Freaks.

Last weekend I canned applesauce. Finally got apples on our trees, took awhile since the deer kept mauling them until we fenced them. I purchased a Back to Basics Food Strainer several years ago, at the affordable price of around forty dollars. It is well worth the price and I've used it for canning tomato sauce and berries and applesauce, apple butter. Super easy to do the applesauce, too. All you do is pick your apples, wash them, put them in a bit of water and cover and steam until tender. Quarter them and put them through the strainer. Put them in a pot on the stove and add sugar and cinnamon to taste and can in a hot water bath for twenty minutes. Just be sure to leave enough head space as a few of them I overfilled. I highly recommend the Blue Ball Book of Canning. It has great, easy to follow recipes.

reply to post by TiredofControlFreaks


You can run them through the dishwasher. The main thing is that they stay hot and sterile. I've done this and have never had any issues. It does help on cutting down water usage and time.

reply to post by queenofsheba


Queen of Sheba

How do you keep the jars hot after the dishwasher cycle. I find that at best, my jars are warmish. I keep them in the dishwasher until I am ready to fill them.

Tired of Control Freaks

reply to post by TiredofControlFreaks


Jars need to heated to 180 degrees and you could put them on a baking sheet and keep in your oven after the dishwasher. I have done it that way.

This is from the Ball Blue Book of Preserving (page 10): "A dishwasher may also be used for heating jars. Jars should be washed and dried using a compete regular cycle. Keep jars in the closed dishwasher, removing one at a time as needed." I have a friend who does this and she's never had problems.

I keep my jars heated in a big pot on the stove in simmering water at 180, good idea to get a thermometer. It gets crowded on the stove top but I prefer this method.

I know this is a year old thread, but it's that time of year again, and I figured it'd be better to bump an old thread than to make a new one. I just did my first canning. I did a batch of grape jelly in the water canner method. For a few weeks now I have been itching to take the plunge, and I figured I'd work my way up to pressure canning. Water bath seemed like a good place to start, especially since I already had grape jelly on my shopping list. I did take the easy route and use grape juice, but plan on doing it with "real" grapes once the wild ones I'm watching ripen. I found some peaches for 98 cents a pound today, and some mangos for 50 cents each. So I got 5 pounds of peaches and 10 mangos, which I plan on doing tomorrow. Here's a couple of things I learned today, that might help anyone who's thinking about starting canning.

If you are thinking about canning, and are not sure, start with water bath canning. And start with jelly. The steps were simple enough that aside from rechecking quantities of sugar and pectin, I didn't have to keep looking at instructions. That helped a lot. Also, if you are anything like me, you might become frantic and feel like you need to rush, rush, rush. DON'T. Just take your time and enjoy what you're doing. I used too small of a pan and my temp was too high (gonna have to find that sweet spot), so my jelly ended up boiling over. This can be quite scary! If it happens, pick the pan up immediately! Set it off the stove even if you have to ruin the nice neat spot you had set aside for cooling the jars.

Assess your pot sizes to burner sizes before you start. I had used the smaller pan because it was the one for my next largest burner. The largest burner had the canner warming up. I think that next time, I will fill the jars and set them in the crockpot with water to stay warm (this is how I kept them warm pre-filling). Then I can put the canner to warm. I don't know if that will help or not, but it will allow me to use the larger pot for mixing the jelly. I also learned that when jelly boils over onto your glass top stove with the burner on high, it will SMOKE. A LOT. And hot jelly splashing onto your arm as you try to remove it from the heat hurts (quite a bit).

I also learned that it won't kill the jelly to sit for minute while you run around opening windows and turning on fans. Watch lots of youtube videos so you can have an image of each step in the process in your head. It will help lesson the anxiety and rush-y feeling. Lastly, if you are not sure about if canning is more economical or not, I am pretty sure it is, if you do it smart. For example, I figured up the cost to make my jelly excluding my initial start up costs (canner, jars, tools). This number just included the cost of the grape juice, pectin, and sugar. Then I divided by the number of jars I ended up with. Final calculation, approximately 60 cents a jar (I used half pints). This is, in my opinion, a significant savings when compared to the prices at the grocery store (about $2 for 18oz jar). I ended up with ten jars and won't have to buy jelly for a very long time since we don't actually eat that much of it, lol.

I am anxious to see what I end up with after doing the peaches and mangos tomorrow, and if the savings are present for them as well. I think the key to canning, if you can't grow your own food, is to shop the sales. Go to different farm stands and buy from the one with the better prices. And, if you're like me and need to see financial savings to feel justified, write down the prices of the grocery equivalent of whatever you're canning, so in the end you can compare and see what you're saving. Not to mention the added perks: convenience, preparedness, knowing what's in your food, and a sense of accomplishment.

I hope that sharing my first experience might help some people! Also, check out bexarprepper on youtube, she's very inspiring and has several helpful canning videos.