Home Canning has been known by most to require the use of a Pressure Canner (i.e. “Pressure Cooker with a Gauge”). You can however do home canning for some foods, which will only require you to use a standard stockpot that most households already have. If you’re planning to can foods that are acidic (fruits, tomatoes, jams, jellies, marmalade, etc.), you can just can these items by simply boiling the jars containing the foods by fully submerging.
The process is very easy. The only thing difficult to me is the “patience” needed because bringing a stockpot full of water to a boil takes quite a while…
The process can be summarized as follows:
1. Clean and sterilize your jars, using boiling water or steam.
2. Fill your jars with the food (only those that are acidic) you want "can", then close the jars with their lids with "finger tight" tightness.
3. Fully submerge the jars inside a stockpot with water
4. Bring the water to a boil, together with the jars already submerged. The jars and their contents will heat up together with the water
5. Once the water starts to boil. Start counting the time. The boiling time will be depended on the food you are canning. For the canning example here, I used oranges, which take around 15 minutes to process.
6. Take out the heat source and let the boiling water settle for a few minutes
7. Lift the jars out of the stockpot using a jar lifter. Please note that the water is still very hot, so be careful when taking out the jars
8. Let them naturally cool (undisturbed) for around 12-24 hours. By that time, the vacuum seal would have already been set in place.
If you want to see if canning is for you, try practicing by doing the "hot water bath" method 1st before you work on investing in a Pressure canner. How Water Bath canning is a good way for beginners to learn and practice honing their canning skills.
Featured here is a video I created when trying to "CAN" different Orange products like:
1. Freshly squeezed Orange Juice
2. Orange Slices in Light Syrup
3. Orange Marmalade
#raffynietohomecanning
#raffynietocooking
