Canning gone awry

[balagan]

I've never in a forum before. if someone sees this, can you let me know when I put in my actual dilemma/situation/question?
today, I canned for my first time. it was a it disaster. I paid a fortune to get all of the right equipment. nothing went as I had anticipated totally due to the equipment. I need help before I can try again.

 

[taxlady]

Welcome to the forum balagan. Tell us what happened and maybe we can help.

 

[dragnlaw]

Welcome to DC balagan.
Hope we can help. So first a couple of questions,

What type of canning were you doing? Water bath or pressure.
What food were you trying to can?

and what went wrong?

I'm sure someone will/should be able to help.

Hello again to the forum!

 

[balagan]

canning issues

Thank you for your quick reply and offer to help. my mom had this incredible recipe for cranberry sauce. i found it. i decided to make some cranberry sauce. i over-produced by a lot. i decided to learn how to can. i studied as much as i could. i shopped and read articles before i purchased a pot. i bought a big one - 23 quart from amazon. by the description, i couldn't imagine ever needing anything bigger - or even that big. i read that cranberries cold be processed suing water bath process. i started the day out following step by step. i had 2x 22 oz and 2 - ! quart jars. in the end - the pot was useless. I, in no way, could fit the 4 jars - not 3. then, the ones i could fit were not totally covered by water - per instructions. so i did the only thing i could figure out. i put one jar at a time on its side and followed the instructions. i was talking to a friend a couple of days later - only to find out that jars being processed is not ok. perhaps i should not have purchased combo pressure / regular pot. i thought i might use pressure cooker for canning nonacidy foods. i returned the pot. next, my plan is to do applesauce. at some point i want to do dilled pickles - at which point I'd need to know how to do half-dills. i can't stand mushy ones. the canned jars stayed on shelf for out for several days. then i tried a new recipe - had to open a jar to use the cranberries. 5 days on shelf and i lived to talk about it. i know it's no test of my success. but, they were good! that's about it. if you wish to reply, I'm sure i'll learn a great deal. thanks for listening. 2.20am. time to go to sleep. i hope you and your family is healthy and safe. oh - can. you suggest what kind of pot i should buy? i think 3 or 4 jars -2 quarts at a time- plus smaller ones with them, maybe, sometimes.

 

[dragnlaw]

For starters.... you cannot process, neither by the boiling water nor pressure, jars on their sides.

One being the premise to force air out of the jars to create a vacuum seal.

Secondly, you should not process jars of different sizes at the same time. Different sizes need different timing.

I have a hard time visualizing not being able to get those jar in. Why don't you get a few more 1 cup (approx 10 oz) jars. Do smaller amounts.

Are your jars wider than they are taller? Do you know the make?

 

[jennyema]

You need a pressure CANNER not a pressure COOKER for canning.

Your problem seems to stem from the fact that you are using jars that are too big. The whole point of canning is to preserve the food. A quart of cranberry sauce is a lot. Will you be able to eat it all after opening the jar?

Use smaller jars.

Also, since canning is so specific and badly canned food can make you sick or kill you, I d recommend consulting experts, like through an extension service or a specific canning forum for advice.

 

[taxlady]

For starters.... you cannot process, neither by the boiling water nor pressure, jars on their sides.

One being the premise to force air out of the jars to create a vacuum seal.

Secondly, you should not process jars of different sizes at the same time. Different sizes need different timing.

I have a hard time visualizing not being able to get those jar in. Why don't you get a few more 1 cup (approx 10 oz) jars. Do smaller amounts.

Are your jars wider than they are taller? Do you know the make?

I agree with everything dragnlaw wrote.

One detail, 1 US cup = 8 US fluid ounces, in Imperial measure 1 cup = 10 Imperial ounces.

 

[taxlady]

You need a pressure CANNER not a pressure COOKER for canning.

Your problem seems to stem from the fact that you are using jars that are too big. The whole point of canning is to preserve the food. A quart of cranberry sauce is a lot. Will you be able to eat it all after opening the jar?

Use smaller jars.

Also, since canning is so specific and badly canned food can make you sick or kill you, I d recommend consulting experts, like through an extension service or a specific canning forum for advice.

I agree with what jennyema wrote.

If you buy a PRESSURE CANNER, you can also use it for cooking. But, not the other way around.

 

[GotGarlic]

It's not safe to use a recipe that has not been tested and approved because it may or may not be acidic enough. A recipe will also specify how long to process the food to ensure that enough heat reaches the center and what size jars have been shown to be safe.

You can generally process jars of different sizes, but you need to process them for the period of time specified for the largest size. However, not every recipe can be processed in quart sizes because some foods are too dense.

The National Center for Home Food Preservation is a great source of reliable information on safely canning and otherwise preserving foods.
https://nchfp.uga.edu/

Here are tested recipes for canning fruits, including cranberry sauce.
https://nchfp.uga.edu/how/can2_fruit.html

 

[dragnlaw]

Although in Canada where we generally use Imperial measures, I think you will find our measuring cups all give 8 oz as equal to 1 cup.

Cups manufactured across the pond will, in all probability, be different.

But for the case of preserving I really don't think 2 oz is going to make a tremendous difference. Jars are usually specified in recipes to keep 1/4 to maybe 1/2 inch below the top of the jar. This is the more important issue as many people do not use 'canning' jars for their preserves.

 

[GotGarlic]

Here is another resource for canning; this is the beginning of a section called Canning 101 - it describes gear you'll need and the basic process and answers a lot of common questions.

https://foodinjars.com/blog/resources-new-canners/

I believe the Presto brand is the most popular one for pressure canning.

 

[balagan]

really wonderful advice. Thank you for taking the time to help me. i will consult with links to see if they'll offer additional help. I'm afraid to say that I'm pretty sure i'll be in touch again. be well. be safe. again, thanks.

 

[blissful]

I usually use a no sugar puree recipe for canning fruit.

https://nchfp.uga.edu/how/can_02/fruit_puree.html
Sugar is optional for safety. We add honey at the table for oatmeal w/cranberries, or we add sweetener while cooking after canning, not during canning.
Or make a cranberry sauce with sweetener or sugar, where sugar helps it form a gel, but again, not for safety reasons.'
https://extension.oregonstate.edu/s...uments/8836/sp50929preservingcranberries0.pdf

This week, cranberries were on sale for 50 cents/12 oz, we bought 57 bags, or about 43 lbs of them. Cooked them in 4 batches of 2 kettles each. Canned a total of 67 pint jars. This will be enough for a year or so, going through a pint about once a week.

We used a water bath canner (not a pressure canner), 15 minutes boiling.


Water bath canners come in 2 sizes, something like 21 quart and 33 quart, usually with a rack, and a lid. This (these) can be used for canning fruits, for pickles, salsa, tomatoes. Depending on the type of jar (in the pint sizes) you are using, you can get quite a few in the larger sized one. I'm using ball jars, but I hear if you use the jars that are wider at the top than the bottom, less jars fit in the canners.


Water bath canners are less expensive than pressure canners. They can often be found at rummage sales and facebook market place for pennies on the dollar.

 

[balagan]

hi blissful. Thanks so much for your really helpful information. actually, my cranberry recipe is also sugarfree -- almost. i use @ of the little truvia packets in $ pounds of cranberries. but -- i also use 12 oz of frozen concentrated apple juice. if i dilute, at all, it is with 6 oz of water - to 4 pounds of cranberries. i bought, what was touted to be a comprehensive canning book. not so much. all of you have been so helpful. i bought the combo pressure canner /water bath pot because i thought I'd be doing both. i misspoke in an earlier message referring to pot as a pressure cooker. it was not. it was water bath/pressure canner. my sauce is not so much a gel as it is 'chunky.' it has large pieces of orange rind and meat of the orange. the cranberries are still intact. the list you gave of foods that i can use water bath method - I'm good with a plain pot, for now. happy not to have to spend the money! can you opine as to whether or not using the truvia and apple juice will serve as a safe substitute for sugar? so far so good. but eating canned food after @ weeks ain't much of a test. i think that's all for now. thank you so much for your advise. i'll let you know how it goes. if it doesn't go so well, i'll have my successor beneficiiary let you know that i did something worong - but, I had fun trying!!!success!

 

[blissful]

Hi Balagan, The sauce can and will get quite thick, there is a lot of pectin in the berries once they pop. I used about a cup of water/4 cups of berries and some orange concentrate. Once they reach a boil and begin popping, they will foam a LOT, this is due to the air in the berries, keep stirring. Then the foam goes from white to pink to red and almost settles completely and the sauce is thickened. That is when I put it in jars.



The popping cranberries are a little explosive, spattering onto you or the stove, and you want them all popped if possible. Popping in the jars can cause problems with the seals, little bits of skin may lodge between the lid and jar. Every single cranberry will not pop when you boil them but close to all of them do.

 

[blissful]

Balagan, "can you opine as to whether or not using the truvia and apple juice will serve as a safe substitute for sugar? so far so good. but eating canned food after @ weeks ain't much of a test."


In terms of canning safety, sucrolose has been tested and is safe, does not break down upon canning, according to the university extensions.


https://extension.psu.edu/sugar-substitutes


Truvia Natural Sweetener is made with simply three ingredients: stevia leaf extract, erythritol and natural flavors.


Like I said earlier, I make mine without sugar or sweetening, add that later.
Make it how you like it as long as it is safe.
There just isn't enough data on whether truvia is safe to say one way or the other.

 

[balagan]

thank you for the reply to my sweetener question. I have one more ask for an opinion. anyone can chime in - just get pushy and tell me what kind of pot I should buy. I want a fairly large one. I won't do quarts anymore. I may want to do 16 oz for the most part. if I can water bath cranberries, orange marmalade, dill pickles (not to be eaten at the same time) I'll be good with that kind of pot. also - can you tell me the size of rack I need for your recommendation? I got the wrong size for. the one I had. maybe it will work for your idea. apologize for making you work so hard. Thank you for everything. wish I could return the favor.

 

[GotGarlic]

For water-bath canning, all you really need is a large pot - about 21 quarts - and a rack that fits inside it. You can usually find them in the same place. A set of accessories for canning will come in handy.

 

[balagan]

Thanks so much. have a good weekend. stay safe. I'm sure I'll be back.