100+ Home Canning Recipes and Resources (2024)

FAQs

What foods Cannot be home canned? ›

Fats / Dairy

Also any recipe that use one or more of these ingredients, such as mayonnaise, caramel, pudding, cream soups, cream vegetables, refried beans, nut butter (all kinds), pesto, chocolate (all kinds) etc. WHY: These will go rancid if not refrigerated, developing harmful bacteria.

⇨ You may add a small amount of seasoning, onions, or garlic when home-canning meat using an approved recipe without changing the processing time.

Pack cream style corn in only half-pint or pint jars because the density of the product slows heat transfer to the center of the jar. Corn may turn brown during processing because the very high temperature in the pressure canner may cause the sugar in the corn to caramelize.

Proper canning procedures are meant to kill spores of Clostridium botulinum, the bacteria that causes the potentially deadly botulism poisoning. Some examples of unsafe canning practices include open-kettle, dry canning, oven and dishwasher processing, and using pressure saucepans/cookers instead of canners.

Low-acid foods are the most common sources of botulism linked to home canning. These foods have a pH level greater than 4.6. Low-acid foods include most vegetables (including asparagus, green beans, beets, corn, and potatoes), some fruits (including some tomatoes and figs), milk, all meats, fish, and other seafood.

Growth of Clostridium botulinum in food may cause container lids to bulge and cause foods to have a bad odor. Commercial or home-canned food products with bulging lids or a bad odor should not be eaten.

As long as the can is in good shape, the contents should be safe to eat, although the taste, texture and nutritional value of the food can diminish over time. Home canned foods should be used within 1 year.

While extremely rare, a toxin or poison produced by the bacteria Clostridium botulinum (C. botulinum) is a very serious danger in canned goods. Botulism is a deadly food poisoning. The botulism bacteria — rod shaped under the microscope — grow best in anaerobic (absence of oxygen) conditions.

Have the pieces of garlic in your fermentations turned blue or green? Worried that everything may be lost? Don't panic, this is normal and totally edible! This colour change is due to a chemical reaction between the garlic and the lactic acid in the fermentation.

Can you can onions? ›

Canning Onions (but Not Garlic): Onions are low acid foods with a pH of 5.3 to 5.85. Thus, if they are to be canned, they must be pressure canned for safety. This tested recipe is specific for onions of 1-inch diameter or less.

Lastly, if you prefer fresh herbs in your salsa, I recommend adding them once you open a jar. This is for taste and appearance, as fresh herbs, like chopped cilantro, will turn very dark green once canned. You can use a small amount of dried herbs if you'd like.

To Prepare Whole-Kernel Corn

For freezing, place ears in 1 gallon of boiling water and blanch for 3 minutes after the water returns to a boil. For canning, blanch for 3 minutes after the water returns to a boil. Cool ears and cut kernels from cob at about three-fourths of the depth of kernel. Do not scrape the cob.

Instructions. Using a funnel, raw pack the cubed sweet potatoes into jars leaving a 1-inch headspace.

Recommended Varieties

Most sweet corn varieties are acceptable for canning and freezing. Bodacious and Incredible are good extra-sweet yellow varieties. Temptation, Delectable, and Providence are good extra-sweet bicolor varieties. Silver King, Silver Princess, and Whiteout are extra-sweet white varieties.

Since the canning process forces air out of food, the C. botulinum bacteria may find incorrectly or minimally processed canned foods a good place to grow and produce the toxin. Low-acid vegetables such as green beans, corn, beets, and peas, which may have picked up C. botulinum spores from the soil, are at risk.

Canned foods can be just as nutritious as fresh and frozen foods because canning preserves many nutrients. The amount of minerals, fat-soluble vitamins, protein, fat and carbohydrate remain relatively unchanged by the process of canning.

Water Bath Canning

Depending on the recipe, you'll do the boiling bath for 10 minutes or more once the food is prepared. Use the water bath canning method only for foods that have a high acid content, such as fruits, pickled vegetables, jams and jellies. Don't use this method for meats.