With Extension home and community professor, Melanie Jewkes.
Canning is a great tool to prevent food waste and make your favorite recipes last outside of the fridge. Salsas, jams, and pickles are all frequent favorites that can be made and saved through canning.
Starting canning isn't all fun and games, though. Improper canning can lead to some serious consequences, including botulism and other foodborne illnesses.
Jewkes is here to tell us how to start on the right foot by canning safely.
Wynter Varner
Thank you for joining us today.
Melanie Jewkes
You're welcome, it's good to be here.
Wynter Varner
So what are the different methods for canning?
Melanie Jewkes
Yeah, there are about three different methods for canning. Two of them are most common.
1. Boiling water canning.
This is when a jar is completely submerged in boiling water (about two inches above the rim of the jar). This is for high acid or properly acidified foods, such as salsas or pickled products only.
2. Atmospheric steam canning.
Some high acid foods can be canned in an atmospheric steam canner. That's an older, traditional method where there's just a little bit of water at the bottom and a big dome lid over the top, and the cans get steamed.
But it's not for everything, and it can't be done for longer than 40 minutes. That's like a sometimes option, but the boiling water canning method can be used for all high acid and properly acidified foods.
3. Pressure canning.
The other method is pressure canning, and this is for low acid foods. Foods like vegetables that aren't pickled, meats, and seafood can be pressure canned. That gets the adequate temperatures under pressure to destroy any microorganism that could cause botulism.
Wynter Varner
Why is safe canning so important?
Melanie Jewkes
Safe and proper canning will heat food to the temperatures held long enough to destroy harmful microorganisms and inactivate enzymes. Then, it forms a vacuum seal that prevents recontamination.
That process reduces the risk of both the spoilage of food and the risk of contamination by foodborne illness, including botulism.
Safe canning is a matter of using a tested recipe that's going to heat to an adequate temperature for an adequate amount of time. That way it heats all the way through all the molecules inside that jar.
Wynter Varner
What would your general rules of thumb be for making sure we're properly processing foods before we can them?
Melanie Jekwes
Always use a research-tested recipe. These won't usually be found on like popular food blogs or popular canning books.
There are three main sources for these recipes. The first is the National Center for Home Food Preservation. The next is the USDA Complete Guide to Home Canning. And the third is the Ball canning company's Ball Blue Book of Preserving.
A fourth option would be Extension universities throughout the country. They are providing the safe, up-to-date canning information that you can trust to be research-tested.
Using these sources will ensure that it has the adequate amount of acid, food processing time, and temperature to destroy those microorganisms.
Another is making sure to process low acid foods in a pressure canner. That's an absolute necessity. High acid foods that are research-tested recipes can be done in a boiling water canner; and, in some instances, that steam atmospheric canner.
Another thing I would suggest is making sure that we are adjusting time and pressure based on our elevation, following recommended jar size headspace (the amount of air at the top of the jar), and following equipment guidelines.
These tips can help you make sure the time and effort you're putting into storing that food and canning that food is well utilized.
Wynter Varner
What are some problem-foods that may be more difficult to work with, and why?
Melanie Jewkes
Low acid foods, such as vegetables, meats, and seafood. They're more challenging because they can support the growth of botulism, and that just means you have to use a pressure canner to reach high enough temperatures to be safe.
Boiling water will never get high enough to destroy the Clostridium botulinum germ if it happens to be in your food. Pressure canning techniques have to be used. Those, though safe and possible to do at home, take just a few extra steps to do.
Tomato products can also be tricky, because their acidity varies. The National Center for Home Food Preservation in the USDA, actually, for more than 30 years, have been suggesting and requiring that acid needs to be added to almost all tomato products.
This would help to keep those tomatoes at a safe enough pH that they will not get botulism if they're canned properly. They can be tricky.
Because a lot of people learned to can from family members or friends, they don't learn about adding the acid, but that is an important, critical part to add to each jar of tomatoes when canning them.
Wynter Varner
Thank you so much for joining me today.
Melanie Jewkes
You're welcome.
Wynter Varner
This has been Wynter Varner with the USU Extension Education Highlights. Thank you for tuning in, and happy canning!
More information and canning resources can be found here.
