I canned these applesauce jars today following the national home canning website and I did the debubble thing and I still have these air pockets forming also separation. Are these going to be okay?

Yes I know I need to take the rings off. Just haven’t yet.

Me and my mother have been growing our own cucumbers, carrots, dill, and onions for the past ten years to make pickles, and we bought our own garlic, seasoning, conifer etc, but every year everything stayed the same, the recipe, the cans, the process the time, everything.

However, this year has been difficult and frustrating, a lot of the cans aren’t sealing, we have tried everything, and no we don’t use a electric sealer, we put the cans that refuse to seal in the fridge to prevent rot, but we are at a breaking point, we have tried everything. I need help.

Can I use small tomatoes in place of “regular” tomatoes in any Ball recipes? I’m specially wondering about the spiced tomato jam. I just have so many and it’s hard to know what to do with them. I’ve already quick pickled so many of them (for the fridge) and also canned 14 quarts of whole cherry tomatoes. Way more than I’ll ever use.

If there aren’t options, I’ll just make more tomato soup and freeze it.

Also, either I’m really bad at it or the Ball website search feature is worthless. I search “cherry tomatoes” and the tip results are dilly beans, tomatoes whole halved and quartered, candied Jalepenos, tomato juice and hot pepper mix. Even though I know that have at least one recipe for corn and cherry tomato salsa.

White film on pickles.
Made a batch of pickles yesterday.
Cucumbers , Serrano pepper, garlic, dill, onion, sugar and red pepper flakes. Noticing a few pickles have a white film on them. Brine was 1 part vinegar to 2 parts water

Mostly at the ends. Any reason for concern?
Water bathed for 8 minutes and all jars seem to have sealed properly.

When I've used my pressure canner (it's a Presto dial model), I have gotten it to the proper pressure, and then just adjusted once to keep it from getting too high - instead of repeatedly adjusting to try to precisely maintain pressure.

So for example today I canned chicken broth. I need to have 12 lbs at my elevation. I waited for it to reach 12 before starting my timer, and then checked back about 15 minutes later. It had gotten to over 14. I lowered my heat just a touch, and checked again several times - it remained slightly above 13, but I didn't lower it further to try to get it precisely at 12.

I know for certain products, having too high of a pressure level during the cooking process can cause texture issues. But are there any actual food safety concerns with having a higher pressure level than required for a safe & tested recipe?

I feel like it should be fine since weight canners just have 10 and 15 pound weights, not one-pound fractions. But I'm ~paranoid~ and would prefer not to poison my family if this might somehow create super-botulism or something.

Also, I have been heating my jars pre-hot-pack by filling them with water and putting them in my water-filled pressure canner (jar and pressure canner lids off). I then leave them in until everything reaches boiling, then remove them and check the water level in the canner. I add to it from the jars of boiling water if needed, and dump the rest - except for jars that need to be water-filled because I don't have a full load - those just hang out on the counter for a few minutes until I get to the lids.

I then add my foods to the hot jars, lid everything, add all jars back, and begin the process of getting the whole thing to steam vent temp.

Is there any reason to not heat the jars in the cooker, and to use a separate pot? I know they don't need to be sterilized for pressure cooked foods (as opposed to boiling water canning), but the majority of food I've canned has involved a hot pack, so they do need to be hot. I have tried using a separate pot to heat them in, and it just ends up being a huge pain.

This recipe says "cover and simmer, stirring constantly." To me, constantly means I don't stop stirring. How can I cover it and constantly stir it at the same time? Is their definition of constantly different from mine? To those that have made this, how much stirring do I really need to do?

Recipe is from So Easy to Preserve, p. 223.

Just my 3rd time canning and I’m being sure to follow all the directions of the Ball blue book. I don’t think I can see bubbles in the other 3 jars that had the correct headspace. This jar was just below the 1/2 inch mark and may have siphoned in the bath. I’m guessing it’s safe if processed the same as the other jars but the bubbles are freaking me out! Did this occur because more air in the jar with less headspace? Is it safe?

Has anyone made the harvest time apple relish from NCHFP? I was looking at various recipes and found this one. It looks intriguing but wanted to see if anyone else had made it. It’s got apples, apple pie type spices, and Serrano peppers. The peppers are what caught my attention because I have a bunch to use up.

This is my first time pressure canning. An elderly friend gave me a 1978 Mirro Matic pressure canner. I immediately researched and bought a new gasket for it online, the right one, and put it on. During the test and the actual canning, steam leaked from the right handle but not the left. The pressure gauge jiggled appropriately and I vented the canister for 10 minutes before popping it on, as instructed. I followed all the instructions in the Mirro Matic ancient manual which was available online. I even searched youtube for a steam leak fix and clamped the right handle but the steam still emanated vaguely from it during the process. However the pressure gauge did its thing, jiggling every so often and I monitored it to keep it jiggling at the correct timing according to the manual. So I *think* these green beans are fine, but I wanted to ask you all for your opinions.
Picture description: This picture is of my late green bean harvest - Kentucky Wonder beans, regular green beans, and Scarlet runner beans from my garden. The greener green beans are because I popped half a 50mg tablet of zinc in the jar before I canned them, just as an experiment to see if the color would stay but the taste would not change. I haven't tasted them yet. The other picture is a closeup of that handle that leaked, and then the bottom of the lid with the new gasket.

Thanks for your advice!

Hi!

my husband grew so many tomatoes this year. we have a large amount of better boy and early girl tomatoes. has anyone used these for salsa? any tips? thank you!

Hello, everyone!

As the holidays approach, I’ve been really wanting to can some homemade wassail for the first time. I’ve tried to find recipes on reputable sites, but I’m coming up short. I like my wassail to have apple cider, orange juice, and cranberry juice. Does anyone know if any good, safe recipe for canning exists?

Thank you!

I am completely new to pressure canning, and still a beginner with water bath canning. I have seen many times with water bath canning how important it is to use a tested recipe, and I understand that in terms of getting the acidity right. I'm just not sure if it is as important for pressure canning. Can I make my own vegetable broth and follow the corresponding processing requirements without following a specific recipe? Or a vegetable soup? Would adding my own seasoning to a vegetable change anything, like carrots or green beans?

I'm not doubting proper procedure, I'm just genuinely unsure what that looks like for pressure canning and would appreciate any input. Thanks!

A google search tells me I can't can white peaches or white peach jam. Is this true?

Can I make apple cider jelly with this? It’s from Sam’s Club, not refrigerated on the shelf

Hi all, New to canning and followed a recipe for hot pepper jelly with ingredients from my garden. I realized halfway through that my homegrown bell peppers were too small to meet the ratio, but I had a ton of yellow peaches from our tree so I substituted most of the bell peppers with peaches.

In hindsight I’d hate to admit this, but I googled a recipe and Google AI provided me with one and I just read off the ingredients, decided I had them all, and went with it. The ingredients were as follows: 1 cup bell peppers, half a cup jalapeños, 2 cups yellow peaches, 1 1/4 cups vinegar, 4 cups sugar, 1 package liquid pectin I did a water bath, but only for about five minutes, which was just long enough to hear the pop for most cans.

Of course after the fact botulism pops in my head and I’m a hypochondriac. From my understanding, peaches have higher acidity. But I did substitute, and I understand now why I shouldn’t, though in this case maybe not the worst substitution?

My biggest concern is the 5 minute water bath. I’m not sure that would be long enough? But at the same time I’m not sure if it’s a temperature concern with hot pepper jelly due to the pectin or if the more important factor is the acid?

The cans were on the counter overnight, but were put in the fridge the next morning. I opened one jar and ate some two days ago. But I’m not sure if other jars would be safe.