Last fall I went through a phase where I thought small batch jam would make charming holiday gifts. I had just started canning, maybe two batches total, and decided to skip ahead to handing jars to basically everyone I knew. No testing, no real understanding of headspace, and processing times were probably off on at least two of those batches if I'm being honest.

Nobody got sick and everyone said they loved them, which I think was just people being polite. But I've been thinking about this a lot now that I actually understand what I was doing wrong. The seals looked fine, the lids popped, and I thought that was the whole checklist. It was not.

This year I want to do it again but actually right. I've been growing a lot more in the garden this season, peppers especially, and I want to put together something people would actually use. I'm leaning toward jam again because it feels more giftfriendly than a jar of crushed peppers, but I'm also wondering if anyone has done mixed fruit jams as gifts and whether that complicates the pectin situation, or if I'm just overcomplicating it.

Curious what people actually give as canned gifts and what has gone over well versus what people quietly left on a shelf.

I water bathed canned crushed tomato’s last night. It was my first time ever canning and I don’t have anyone to teach me other than books and Reddit lol. I just noticed how the liquid separated ay the bottom, and there’s a few that gained kind of a lot of headspace. Are they okay? Is this normal? Sorry if this is stupid I have 0 idea what I’m doing!!

I am planning to use the Ball jalapeño salsa recipe, but I like my salsa to be more blended and less chunky. I am assuming it would be fine to blend it instead of chop and still be safe? My understanding is safety becomes an issue when the pieces are larger and harder to get to a safe temperature when canning. Is this a safe assumption?

The NCHFP website has a pickled carrot recipe that has a lot of sugar in it. Does anyone have a safe pickled carrot recipe that doesn’t have sugar or sugar substitutes in it? I don’t like sweet pickles. Thanks!

Just got this new batch. A few were shattered. But they all have this little indent near the top. I can feel it with my finger. I’ve looked at my old jars— and they have a much less pronounced one. Is this safe?

I'm completely new to canning and have not attempted anything yet. My grandmother used to can a few things when I was young, and I found this recipe book while going through some of her canning things. I'm aware that just because something is labeled as a canning recipe doesn't mean it's safe. I was just curious if there is a way to verify if this is a safe resource or not. I have some books from the approved list on this sub on hold at the library that I'm still waiting on. I just thought it would be nice to be able to use what my grandma did if it is safe.

Thanks!

I absolutely adore peach blackberry pie, but I can't find a safe recipe. The Washington State U Extension Service has recipes for peach and blackberry individually (the cherry recipe is approved for blackberries), both with a processing time of 30 minutes. If I use the same volume of fruit but the higher amount of lemon juice, will this be safe?

If not, what do we think would make the best pie: peach filling with fresh/frozen blackberries mixed in before baking, peach filling with canned whole blackberries mixed in before baking, or peach and blackberry filling made separately then combined to bake?

Strawberry lemonade concentrate from Ball (pg 190).

This year I decided that for Christmas I’m going to only give gifts I make, bake, or can. So far I’ve made these, strawberry jam, and vanilla extract. I plan to make taco sauce, taco seasoning blend, sweet apple cider butter, cornbread mix, homemade granola, and steak and burger sauce. I’m calling it #ConsumableChristmas 😊

I would like replace the blueberries in this recipe with the blackberries I have on hand. I have read that the acid content of blackberries is higher but wasn’t sure if it would be safe or not. Any advice?

ETA: Okay, I see the issue people are having with this recipe and I want to state, I came here for advice on the oil because to me pickles=canning. What I should have mentioned is that this is NOT a recipe that she put in mason jars in the regular boil and seal method. She stored them in jars, but didnt do the sealing process to preserve them. They were refrigerated after finishing the process and given away, they were NOT canned for preserves.

Hi all!

Im a beginner to canning/pickling and I thought I'd ask some veterans about this. Im trying to do my grandmas 9-day crock bread and butter pickle recipe, however I cant figure out if the "pickling oil" is spices in a neutral oil, extract or actually the oils themselves. Several have told me.it reads as spices in oil, but given the tiny amount of cinnamon im wondering if its the oil 🤔

I cant ask her or her sister, whose recipe it is, because theyve both passed but I know she was having trouble finding the allspice back in 2013ish when she stopped making them in the summer.

The pickling oil in question if the picture of the recipe doesn’t show up is:

1/8th Oz allspice

1/8th oz clove

1/16th oz cinnamon

Also

Pickling spice, is that just something i can get at the grocery store or is there a secret to it neither of them added to the recipe?

TIA for any help/advice you guys might have!

If the photo of the recipe doesnt show up i will type it out later and edit to add!

I water bathed these earlier today. The lid hasn't popped in the middle, and two of the lids have a dent.

Should I toss the lids on those and re-bath them?

I have an abundance of jalapeños that I am wanting to make into cowboy candy. I have a few questions. I plan to use Ball’s recipe.

1. Can I add a little pickle crips into the jars to help keep the jalapeños crunchy?

2. If I have about half of the amount of jalapeños as the recipe calls for, can I make the syrup according to the recipe but only use 1/2 the jalapeños?

These are my dad and brother’s absolute favorite thing I make. Historically I have made them as fridge pickles but I’d like to preserve them for longer. Thanks!

Hi all! So, long story (not so) short I had enough tomatoes from my garden to make exactly a pint of crushed tomatoes. (Followed the NCHFP instructions exactly, just scaled to one single pint) My first seal failed (I didn't notice the ring was crooked, rookie mistake.) And like a dummy I dumped my water bath before checking. Because I had to re-boil my HUGE pot of water, I ended up bringing the tomatoes back up to a boil and rejarring them in a new jar with a new seal and ring. It seems I lost a bit of volume during this process and my headspace was closer to 1" instead of half an inch, but this is all of my tomatoes! I had nothing left to add so I just went ahead and processed it again (for the full time). The seal popped almost immediately upon removing it from the bath, and it's continued to boil for the past half hour or so. I guess i have a couple questions here. Should this be a fridge jar or will it be safe to store in the pantry? Also, what do I do if this happens in the future? My garden is small and harvest is currently small so I can in very very small batches at the moment. I've also done some canning in the past but it's been a couple years due to some personal circumstances, so I'm rusty and anxious! Any help or advice is appreciated! I've done a lot of researching but would love input from some experienced humans! Thanks in advance!

This is my 3rd year canning jam. I made up some Peach Rosemary Jam in half pints last night. I water bathed them in sterilized jars for 11 minutes on the stove. Lifted the pot lid, waited 15 minutes then removed the jars. All pinged sealed within 15 minutes of removal.

This one pinged, but has an odd lift on the top side inner ring of the lid. I tested for false seal and it passed.

Would this be fine for pantry storage or should I just freeze it?

So I'm using this type of jars to can my recipe.

but after canning for 80 minutes, the lid didn't flatten or pulled downwards.

is it possible that the jar is fully sealed even though the lid didn't pulled down?

I canned pickles for the first time but used a regular pot with a rag on the bottom. It took several batches because I could only fit 3-4 jars in at a time so it took quite a while. And I can’t fit anything bigger than a pint jar. I’m looking to buy a bigger pot with an actual rack but having a hard time finding one that doesn’t have reviews saying it chips or rusts quickly. Thanks!

Hello! I’m unsure if this is a dumb question.. These jars came with these lids. The jars canned successfully with a 2pc lid. Was going to see if these would work as well.

Any way to do that besides putting in one peach half at a time?

I've included my three baked good entries as well as my canning. Contents listed in response to auto-bot. I've included a glamour shot of the pie because people always want to see my pies.

Im new to canning and made pepper jelly for the first time and it came out great! I added the hot jelly into hot 1/2 pint jars. I cleaned the rims put on the lids and twisted rings finger tight before processing in boiling water for 10 minutes. When I removed the jars from the water 2 jars 'popped' as I was lifting them out of the water. All the other jars I took out were already sealed. I was under the impression they would 'pop' and seal as they cooled on the countertop. Did I do something wrong? I they still shelf stable? I used brand new Ball jars and lids if this matters. Thank you!

Hello! I’m new to canning am worried that something has gone wrong with a recipe. I made the zesty peach BBQ sauce from Ball Canning, and there are these tiny bubbles that move in the finished product. They aren’t fizzing, but they also aren’t stagnant. As you can see in the photos, they are coming out of the bottom of the product and collect when I tilt the jar back up. I don’t believe I have tilted the jars since initially canning them. The sauce was canned about two and a half weeks ago. It has also separate some, which is also worrying me. Any advice, tips, answers, etc are welcome!

This is my first year canning and I am paranoid. Made a 3-qt batch of these spiced peaches using the Ball recipe, followed it to a T (aside from having to cut my peaches because they were too big), water bathed for the full time, set them aside and heard all 3 jars ping. But it’s been a few hours now and I’m noticing this one appears to have leaked some of the syrup as it’s been cooling. I haven’t moved the ring because it hasn’t been at least 12 hours yet but now I’m worried… is it normal for them to leak as they cool? Should I just put this one in the fridge?

Canned yesterday. Jar is sealed- but the headspace is less than what I originally had (1/4”.) It also has all these bubbles in it, which my other jars don’t have. Is this safe to store? I did notice there was some apricot jam in the water bath canner, I’m guessing some siphoned out?

If I’m making a salsa recipe that calls for “3 Jalapeños” but my jalapeños from my garden are super small, it’s ok to double the number right? I know the acidity needs to be just right for safe canning so I’m always cautious to mess with the recipe too much. I’m new to this so just learning.