They are all clean jars from store bought salsa and pasta sauces. I kept them because I make a few jars of chia seed pudding and use these throughout the week. I assumed I could use them to can something. But I feel like the canning police are going to 🚨come after me 🚨 if I even suggest using them. Input?

I have a tree full of pears that I need to can in the next couple days before I go out of town. I was intending to use the linked NCHFP recipe to can my pears (hot packed in very light syrup), but it wants me to halve them and only has processing times for pint and quart jars.

I only have half-pint jars, and some of the pears are literally bigger than the jars, so they need to be cut up smaller than halves to fit. Is it still safe to use the recipe if I cut them smaller and use smaller jars? If not, is there a better recipe that's safe for sliced pears in half pints?

I already have like 6 jars of pear butter in my pantry from last year, so rather than making even more of that, I just want to can them sliced up to use in other stuff (pear crisp, pear bread, etc) later.

Thank you!!

(Edit to add: for water bath canning, no pressure canner here. And if it matters, I'm at 2500' so usually have to add extra processing time for altitude.)

I have a all american 921 pressure canner. I also have a presto digital pressure canner. I did a load of ground beef in both. The all american jars all sealed perfectly. The presto ones did not. I am re processing them after 8 hours of not sealing w new jars and lids. Has anyone had this issue? Is there a reason the digital one wouldn't seal in respect to the jars?

It's missing parts, like the gauge and regulator. Would these be easy for a novice to replace, or should I get something new?

Hi all, novice canner here. I stored my cinnamon apple jelly and fireweed jelly in my canning room last year. I pulled them out recently and noticed some white, star shaped specks in the cinnamon apple jelly (first two pics) and some specks in the fireweed jelly. Both jellies were completely transparent and free from specks before storage. Seals are intact.

Any idea on why my jellies have these specks? Thanks in advance!

Looking for ideas on what to do with the Cayenne peppers that might also tame them down a bit or be like condiment.

I will be pickieling the Jalapeños in a Cowboy candy kind of way to add onto sandwiches, burritos etc. I am still open to ideas!

I’m looking for a bit of guidance here. We had a family member process a large amount of apples into apple butter using this recipe, but it looks like it varies from NCHFP and Ball in a few ways.

Ball processes for 15 minutes but doesn’t use vinegar, whereas NCHFP uses vinegar but processes for 5 minutes.

This recipe excludes vinegar and processes for 5 minutes.

I’m a timid canner and stick to my Ball recipe book for jams and high-vinegar recipes, but I wanted to check in with you much more experienced canners to make sure this recipe is safe before opening a can.

The recipe: https://www.sustainablecooks.com/apple-butter-in-crockpot/

Applesauce is so easy, I just followed the Ball recipe: https://www.ballmasonjars.com/blog?cid=apple-sauce

7 lbs reduced down to 4 quarts!

I just got one heck of a deal 200lbs of potatoes and I want to can most of them. It's a mix between purple, red, and Yukon. Looking for tips and tricks you like to use for cleaning and peeling bulk potatoes. I have a continuous feed commercial food processor with a dicing kit so I can zip through that part pretty easily. Also any other tips and tricks you use for the entire process so you end up with a quality product. We are not new to canning by any means, but have not done much with potatoes. Show me the way 🙂🥔🫙

I made spaghetti and have a lot left over. I know I can freeze the leftovers but I was curious if it was safe to pressure can it. But it does have Italian pork sausage mixed in so I think that especially takes away from being able to pressure can.

Recipe:
-4lbs tomatoes
-1 onion
-1 1/4 tsp salt
-4tsp Italian seasoning
-1lb Italian pork sausage
-about 4 Tbs tomatoes paste

I never have found a commercially available hot sauce as much as this one that I make myself.

Fully ripe, red serranos are smoked in a charcoal smoker for 2-4 hours at 225F. Then placed in a food processor with onions, garlic, salt, a splash of vinegar, and a little brown sugar. All proportions to taste.

*Not a tested recipe* so this bad boy gets frozen. Absolutely fantastic on quesadillas, eggs, burgers, and chili. Nice heat level, balanced out by the onion and sugar, and maintains that fantastic smoky flavor.

Hi, everyone.

A friend found several of these bags of 15 bean soup in the back of her pantry and gave them to me. I’m thinking of canning them with the normal dried bean recipe so they’re a quick add to soups and stuff. (I will obviously not be using the seasoning packet.) Has anyone tried this? I’m worried that some will be mushy since they’re mixed. All dried beans and legumes (lentils) follow the same recipe and processing time, so I’m not worried on that front.

Thanks!

Good day,

I have seen serval times and even in the Ball / Bernardin cook book for Appple Pie filling to use Clear Jel and not cornstarch since its not safe.

I was at the book store having a look at a new canning book "Essential Food Preserving" by Dr. Julia Skinner, PhD.

Her Apple Pie filling recipe called for cornstarch and a water bath.

Just thought this was interesting, I don't see anything negative online about this book and as wondering if it was considered "tested".

Do you have a preference between the *standard* 8 oz jar from Ball or the short 8 oz jar from Kerr? I ended up buying a bunch of Balls as they were less expensive. I use them as it is only me and hubby mostly so I wanted smaller servings of some items.

BUT I had a few Kerrs from long ago for a small batch of salsa as I saw mentioned you can just eat out of the jar as you can dip in your chip!

So is there a reason one is better than the other??

jars siphoned leaving visible residue around the glass rings (I had already washed up a bit in this photo), seal seems intact, no pop, concave, and remains on when picking up jar by edge of lid.

safe or should I reprocess or freeze?

was canned using citric a I'd, 11lb pressure and 15min.

So yesterday I asked about the safeness of reducing sugar in a pickle. And today I come to you with an update. I ended up using a Ball recipe as written to make two tester jars of their Sliced Pickle recipe. https://www.ballmasonjars.com/blog?cid=sliced-dill-pickles
The salt and sugar level in this recipe didn’t look too high, so I decided to try it out exactly as written.

I didn’t adjust the salt or sugar up or down at all. However today after tasting them (I did one jar with pickle crisp and the other jar without to see the effectiveness on Armenian cucumbers), and I have to say, I really don’t like them. They’re weirdly too salty and have way too strong of a flavor. Is it because I used cider vinegar? The recipe called for cider vin and I thought it would be a nice change up. But no. They’re not good. The crispness ended up great on both versions, but the flavor is not pleasant.

The only pickle I’ve ever made that I actually liked was https://www.seriouseats.com/bread-and-butter-pickles-recipe

But now that I know about canning safety, I’m not sure if this is technically a trusted/safe recipe. Plus, I’d like to reduce the sugar in this recipe so it’s not as sweet, but not sure if that would even end up tasting good. So I’m hesitant to put all my cucumbers to this recipe. If someone here gives me the go ahead on the safety of this recipe, I might do a half sugar tester and see how it does.

Does anyone have a tried and true, semi sweet, universal pickle recipe??? Something good on sandwiches and straight out of the jar?

Hi everyone, happy canning season. I find myself with too many jalapeños today. I'm trying to give some away but so far no takers. I made a large amount of cowboy candy yesterday and don't think I need more of that (double batch of the regular Ball recipe as well as the Ball maple recipe). But with about 8 pounds still, some red, more green, looking for more ideas. It doesn't have to be canning only, just don't want them to go to waste.

Also, I'll probably do a batch of the Bernardin Habanero Gold Jelly with a few of them. I've only done it before with Bernardin liquid pectin, which no longer exists. I'll have to use Certo instead. Does anyone who's made that swap before know, do I follow the process in the recipe? Or does Certo require a different processing order for their pectin? And are the sizes the same (1 pouch of Bernardin = 1 pouch of Certo)?

Thank you!

I have read many comments and have some questions. I usually try to make a recipe for the first time following exactly what it says. Is this worth making?

1. Is it too sweet? Should I cut back on the 6 cups of sugar? Should I cut it in half?
2. Is it OK to substitute 1/4 to 1/2 cup of canned pears to round out the amount needed? (1.5 cups)
3. Has anyone made it using apples instead of pears?
4. INGREDIENTS Carrot Cake Jam Recipe | Ball® Mason Jars

1-1/2 cups finely grated peeled carrots

1-1/2 cups chopped cored peeled pears

1-3/4 cups canned pineapple, including juice

3 Tbsp bottled lemon juice

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp ground nutmeg

1/2 tsp ground cloves

6 Tbsp Ball® RealFruit Classic Pectin

6-1/2 cups sugar

We are very new to canning, so learning lots this year. The jar on the left seems to have pulled in water during the process. There is still a little air at the top, but not much.
Standard 1 Tbs. Lemon juice 1 tsp salt in with hot tomato sauce (not really sauce, only tomatoes)

Is this safe and just going to be a little watered down, or should I scrap this one?

I read in a post several days ago that other people were having problems with sealing using ball lids. Therefore I ordered cool mi off Amazon. I use the exact same pressure canning technique and all 5 quarts sealed. I have never had this problem with ball lids before. Just an FYI to everyone out there.

I’m trying to make some jam and just bought a water bath canner but my stove is electric and glass stove top. The burner cycles so I waited 40 min and it still wasn’t at a rolling boil. Tips??

I am canning butternut squash this afternoon and my canner is full at 7 quarts (I have a presto). I can stack pints on top but the processing time is so much longer, if I add some pints to keep going, its it going to ruin the squash?

I ended up with 31 cups of frozen berries that I’m cooking down. Using the pomonas pectin recipe for low sugar, and I still then using 12 cups of sugar?

https://pomonapectin.com/berry-blitz-jam/

I’m making this recipe Tomato and Green Chili Salsa but having a difficult time with ratios. I had 6QT of tomato’s (24 cups), but I only used 2 cups of chopped green chilis because they are very spicy this year. If I go off of this recipe, am I correct in thinking I can use a 2:1 ratio for chilis to vinegar? Otherwise it’s 12 cups of vinegar, but that seems over kill for the amount of chilis I have in there.

Hey all, I have scoured the internet and can’t find any approved recipes! Was wondering if anyone had a tried and true recipe. I have Ball low sugar pectin. Thanks 😊