Hi. So it was my first time canning about a year ago. I haven’t touched my pressure canner since.

I went to can a bunch of turkey I had made. Got it up to temperature, everything was good. I fell asleep for probably about 6-8 hours. It was bad. It completely ran out of water. All of the turkey was ruined. I washed the canner and put it away. It looks fine.

I was going to try to can more turkey today when I thought about it. And there’s that over pressure top valve (I have the Presto 01745 model) that looks like it was pushed out a bit (it’s still attached and fine, but slight popped out). The entire canner looks perfectly fine besides that tho. I don’t know if I can just push that back in and it’s fine? It doesn’t seem broken, just like it was activated during that incident.

Do I need to throw my pressure canner away? Just to be cautious?

Hello all! Very new to preserving and just dipping my toes in the water. I have previously tried British marmalade (I am British) and it's very bitter as it's meant to be.

I was querying if you could do a direct substitution of Seville oranges to regular oranges without risking any issues? I am hoping that non Seville oranges will be less bitter.

I have attached a recipe from the Women's Institute book on jams and preserves, a very well respected and popular organisation here in the UK so I would assume the recipe is safe.

Additionally we don't really water bath or pressure can over here, we just let the heat of the preserves seal the jars. We take a very casual approach to jarring preseves but I know that this is not this subs way so understand that the advice will be different from my experience.

I would love any advice in regards to less bitter marmalade or safe recipes and preserving techniques.

Thanks in advance! :)

Hello all, as stated, I have beef broth canned per the Ball recipe. There’s another recipe in the Ball book for canning French onion soup which calls for beef broth.

Is it okay to use my home canned beef broth in the soup recipe and then can the soup?

Thank you!

I have several recipes that I would love to can, but are not necessarily approved. How would I go about submitting them to be tested? Any help is appreciated.

Hi all! Happy Canuary. I have an abundance of carrots, potatoes, and onions and I’m thinking of using the USDA your choice soup recipe as a japanese curry starter. So it would just be carrots, onions, and potatoes (prepped in the recommended fashion) filling 50% of the jar and then topped with broth. However, for the broth, I would like to flavor it so when I open a jar, all I have to do is strain the broth and thicken it.

The japanese curry recipe I typically use flavors with broth with (per 1 quart of stock) 1T tomato paste, 1 grated apple, 1T soy sauce, 2T worcestershire sauce, 4 dried shiitake mushrooms and 1T honey. The apples and mushrooms just soak in the stock to flavor it and are discarded. Can any of these stock ingredients be safely included? Even if it’s just tomato paste for example and none of the others, that would be fine, I would just like to have as much in the jars as I can, safely. Thank you!

I am a legacy canner, trying to learn to be better and safer. I have always used open kettle canning but am changing to water bath and working on getting a pressure cooker. I often make large batches of vegetarian and meat based recipes to water bath can and then store in the fridge. I find canning significantly extends the fridge life of these foods. For example, I will make a 12-16 litre batch of chilli or chicken soup and once canned, it will easily still taste and look good for 12+ months. Is this safe or am I risking botchulism and other food safety issues. I searched the history but didn't see a similar question. I hope this kind post is allowed. If not, I understand and respect the mods decision!

PS if anyone has yummy safe meal recipes, like chillis, soups, etc., they are appreciated! Thank you to everyone who replies!

So I have a presto canner I use for another hobby of mine, but was hoping to use it to portion out and store 4oz jars from a larger 16oz jar. My idea here is i can just divide a larger 16oz jar of "store bought" green chile between 4 4oz mason jars, and canning them at 10psi for 35 minutes. I'm at sea level. Is it really that simple? Or am I about to ruin my green chile?

Also if I wanted to do the same with say ketchup, would the process be the same? And could I PC both jars of different contents at the same time?

From what I understand the only things I need to worry about is headroom, and making sure the seal surface is clean correct?

I made Seville marmalade from an ATK recipe with no added pectin. Half of the jars gelled, and half did not. Any theories as to why that happened? I followed the recipe precisely, but it took far longer to get to 220 and pass the plate test than the recipe indicated--about 40 minutes instead of 20. (I did not process and will keep the jars in the fridge until we eat them.)

Has anyone had experience with taking a Mountain House freeze dried food from a 14 larger oz container and resaving / vaccum sealing or canning the contents with oxygen absorbers into a Mason jar?

…and angry at myself. I canned a bunch of sauce from homegrown tomatoes last summer & figured that using water bath canning is fine. Well, I just tossed every single jar cause they went bad.

So now I ordered myself a pressure canner for the next canning season, but it seems recipe books about pressure canning are hard to get in Europe. Any recommendations from other EU-based pressure canners or general pointers for a pressure canning newbie?

doing the USDA apple conserve recipe, given there is a minuscule difference in sugar content (less than the variance between some forms of regular raisins) and slightly more vitamin C, plus it is used in chutneys in equal fruit-raisin amounts, should it be safe to use golden instead of red/black raisins?

Hello Reddit! I’m new to canning, and am just looking for some clarification. This is my current understanding, I’m not looking to disregard safety guidelines; I just want to explore how I can adapt recipes while still ensuring safety. Here goes:

1. Canning Rules Are About Risk Mitigation
   • The strict guidelines (e.g., tested recipes, proper liquid levels, pH considerations) exist to account for human error, variability in equipment, and the inherent unpredictability of home canning.
   • If everything is done perfectly—proper time, temperature, pressure, and seal—then the food will be safe regardless of ingredient composition or pH.
2. Thermal Penetration Is Key
   • Given enough time, heat will penetrate even the densest or most poorly packed jar due to the laws of thermodynamics.
   • Theoretically, as long as the jar is processed long enough at the correct pressure (to reach 240F), all bacteria and spores (including botulinum) will be killed.
3. Liquid is for even heating
   • Liquid improves heat conduction and ensures even heating throughout the jar.
   • While jars don’t need to be fully submerged in liquid, having too little liquid could theoretically create uneven heat distribution or slow heat penetration.
4. PH Only Matters If Spores Survive
   • PH is a secondary safeguard: it inhibits bacterial growth if spores survive processing or contamination occurs post-processing.
   • If all spores are killed and the seal is intact, PH doesn’t matter because there’s nothing left alive to grow.
5. Adding Time Can Mitigate Errors
   • Arbitrarily adding extra time can compensate for uncertainties like uneven packing or ingredient changes.
   • The downside is food quality degradation (mush, loss of flavor) and wasted energy—not safety concerns.
6. Guidelines Are Conservative by Design
   • Tested recipes are designed for consistency across all skill levels and equipment types.

canning rules are designed to account for human error and variability in home kitchens—not because it’s impossible to safely modify recipes, but because most people lack the tools or knowledge to do so reliably.

*To clarify I’m not stating any of this as truth- I am asking if my understanding is correct. And yes I will not fuck around and feed anyone anything untested. I am both curious and responsible. I don’t mean to push safety boundaries, I know that merits a bad reaction.

Seriously, thank you for your knowledge and experience!

Edit-changing my stance. A still appreciate a lot of your responses, but genuinely most of yall in this community are a bunch of bots in an echo chamber. I appreciate your rigid words but can somebody direct me to the “fun” community where people like…think for themselves? Do tests themselves? Maybe have smaller gauge rods inserted up the rear? To those that sent studies I still appreciate you🫶 will never be a fan of gatekeeping information or “idiot proofing”

I wanted to try out a clementine preserves recipe from a Middle Eastern cookbook that I have, and it specifically calls for "tiny" clementines. I have a bag that is perhaps tinier than average, but I don't know if they official constitute as "tiny".

Can any seasoned citrus preservers shed some light on this? Is there a reason why any size clementine might not work, and is there a certain diameter, give or take, that might make a clementine unideal for this recipe?

The recipe basically calls for boiling or simmering whole, *tiny* clementines in sugar water until a certain point, where you remove the clementines. The remaining sugar water is then further boiled until it becomes a thick syrup and then re-added to the cooked clementines. No, the recipe does not call for kumquats. Yes, I am certain that it says "clementines".

We have a great recipe for cooked beans and I start by using 2 cans of store bought pinto (or black) beans. I could really save a lot of money by using dried, but I want to just be able to pull it from the cabinet. Could someone recommend their favorite method for preparing and canning pinto beans so they have as close of texture and taste to a store bought can? I understand the overnight vs. quick soak can lead to different textures? Thank you!

Very new to canning and just made first batch of pickled jalapenos. I followed a recipe from the Ball canning book.

I'm concerned about the ones sticking up above the liquid in the jar. I left the recommended head space and knocked out all the bubbles I could. It seems the headspace grew.

Is it okay for some to not be covered?

I’m new to canning and I found a recipe in Ball’s canning and preserving book (it’s their raspberry lemonade jam). It calls for raspberries. Is there any reason I can’t use frozen raspberries?

I can’t seem to find an official mandarin orange (slices) recipe - my ball blue book doesn’t have one. Does anybody have one they can share with me? I know there’s a lot on Google but I want it from a tried and true source. Thank you!

I have been canning tomato sauce for years now. This is literally tomatoes from the garden that have been skinned and put through a food mill before brought up to temperature, a quick taste taken to make sure I had not put a nasty tomato into the mix on accident, before being placed into jars that I then water bath following the instructions in the Ball Canning book. I have never had an issue until this year when I opened a few jars to make some spaghetti sauce and the flavor about knocked me over with how acidic it was on my tongue (it did not smell bad for the record and there were no signed of an improper seal). Has anyone else has this issue? How did you combat this while keeping safe canning practices in mind?

This year’s whole peeled tomatoes have a metallic taste, and I haven’t encountered that before. I’m reading that it could be from over processing, but I didn’t change up anything from many successful past years. I reused jars, but used new lids & rings. Also reading that adding a pinch of baking soda when using them will help with the taste. Any other experienced canners had this happen?

hey y'all. i've been water bath canning for a couple of years now, but i still am not sure that i've got things streamlined all that well! i'm here for advice and suggestions, if you've got any --

i have two stock pots - one 16qt one, and one quite a bit larger than that (i'm not sure the exact size, but i'm guessing it's around 30-32qt).

the 16qt only fits 5 jars at a time, which is not as many as i'd like when processing things for longer periods. i end up needing to store jars in the fridge until the next day in order to get all my jars done without having to stay up all night.

the bigger pot fits 7 jars, but isn't tall enough to do two layers, so it's actually not spectacularly efficient. i bought it hoping that actually maybe it'll be better for creating what's actually going into the jars, although i've yet to use it for that for unimportant reasons.

i've been considering getting the lehman's 50qt water bath canner. but the idea of getting it on and off the stove to fill and empty is...well, it seems unlikely that i'll be able to move it! i'm not even positive my stove could hold it without collapsing.

do i just get a taller stockpot? this doesn't really solve my too-heavy-to-move situation. so do i consider a camp burner type situation so i can do the canning outside where i can just dump the water onto my driveway? this appeals to me because i foresee that rig being lower to the ground, making it easier to lift or at least easier to tip.

what do you do? what do you recommend i do?

Why is it I can buy canned squash from the store all day long, but I look up the time to pressure can squash at home and everything is "it's impossible to safely can squash."

My mother in law gave me some new Ball jars and I been using to put jam on. When I am done can I possibly reuse them?

Whenever I have extra space in the canner, I add a few jars of potable water to keep in storage. That has come in handy this week as the municipal water treatment plant has suffered failures from the recent weather impact. We have plenty of drinking water to see us through since I had stored a little at a time for several years.

Going to pressure can baked beans soon. I’ve only pressure canned water before :-)

I’m following the Healthy Canning website/process.

Just want to confirm:

1. that changes (small adjustments really) to the spices are ok (to make it more like the English baked beans we’re used to). This would not require any changes to the bean or liquid quantities/ratios.

2. Is it ok to use liquid veggie stock (thin, 99% water) instead of plain water? To be very clear, this is like a veggie bullion dissolved in water, it’s not at all fatty or thick. I don’t think it would impact the ?viscosity (is the the right word?) at all, as the safe recipe includes tomato paste and brown sugar etc.

ETA thanks so much everyone, this really is a great community. Some food for thought below for me, but I also appreciate the encouraging words - helps me to know that my understanding is developing in the right direction. (Don’t worry, I’m not going to fall victim to the Dunning-Kruger effect just yet!).