By October, I am no longer precious about preservation.
By that time of year I am just throwing shit in jars.
Suddenly, its June, with grape leaves andraspberriesandstrawberriesready for canning, and the excitement starts all over again.
But thats not how I started.
Those mushrooms go into mushroom ketchup, which is all my electrician wants in exchange for small jobs.
Heres what youll need to get started.
Sounds complicated, but its usually pretty simple.
For that reason, theUSDA is adamantly against open-kettle canning.
Cold or hot food is put into jars of the same temperature.
Try electric if youre anxious
In the past few years, someelectric cannershave appeared on the market.
Think of it like an automated water bath.
The upside is that if you are really nervous about canning, this is a reasonable first step.
When to pressure can
A pressure canner is just like a pressure cooker.
There are a few different brands, withAll AmericanandPrestobeing the two most popular.
(This chartis helpful.)
I can process chicken stock in my pressure canner, but I still sous vide my pickles.
The point is, its important to understand the different needs of your food and what options exist.
If youve never noticed them before,hardware storesare another likely outlet for new jars.
Flats of new jars are generally going to run you $15 or so.
Depending on size, youre getting 6-12 jars, complete with lids and rings.
The jars are all reusable.
The rings are reusable until they rust, and common metal lids are never reusable.
They are one use.
(Grandma may say otherwise, but Ball and the FDA are pretty solid on their stance.)
Going off a common pint or quart, that puts the value around $1-$1.50 per jar.
With inflation, you could go as high as 75 cents.
Theres nothing special about new jars; wash an old jar and its good as new.
Just purchaselids and ringsseparately in bulk, since youll need to do so for canning anyways.
For beginners, I recommend starting with metal lids.
(Narrator: She does anyways, so will you).
Jars go all the way up to half-gallons, which are great for juice.
In between there are half-pints, pints, pint-and-a-halfs, quarts, and half gallons.
A squat half-pint is ideal for mustards and ketchups.
Otherwise, the jar you choose is mostly about personal choice and usage.
Neck width matters
All jars come in two stock neck widths: regular and wide mouth.
These are interchangeable between brands, and are well known within canning.
A regular width can has shoulders, as the mouth is smaller than the width of the jar.
A wide mouth jar is the same width as a pint jar.
You cannot freeze in regular mouth jars, because of those shoulders.
Recipes almost never call for one or the other.
These lifters hold the jars really well, making it easier to pull hot jars out of the water.
you might buy theliftersandfunnelsseparately, so a kit isnt needed.
This is how youll learn that the word preservative is not bad, its scientific.
The major preservatives youll work with are sugar and salt.
You have absolutely no idea how much sugar is in jam and jelly, but youll soon find out.
If you cant find it, other non-iodized salt is fine.
Youll also usecitric acidan awful lot.
Youll see calls for pectin when working on jams; this is the additive that allows jams to gel.
I recommendthe real stufffor the best mouth feel.
Pickle Crisp, which is just calcium chloride, are small white pellets that help keep your food crunchy.
Older recipes often utilize naturally occurring tannins by placing a grape leaf or oak leaf into your jars.
