Re: Safe Canning - Debbie's Back Porch

**sanderson** 7/11/2022, 8:54 pm

JAM23 wrote:. . . I was given this as a gift last Christmas and have earmarked some of the recipes that I would like to try this summer. Have you found any that are really good ones to try Scorpio Rising? I just canned some strawberry jam yesterday and I am excited that they all sealed and set up! I love hearing the sound of the lids popping. So exciting!

**sanderson** 7/11/2022, 8:56 pm

sanderson wrote:An alternative to water bathing: steam canning.

https://squarefoot.forumotion.com/t18519-steam-canning?highlight=canning

**sanderson** 7/11/2022, 8:57 pm

AtlantaMarie wrote:So Easy to Preserve is one of the books I use when teaching canning. I also show Ball's Complete Book of Home Preserving. Both have some great information! Definitely safe canning books. There is also a video series for So Easy. Some can be found here or at least lead you in the right direction:

Dr Elizabeth Andress - Healthy Canning

The Univ of GA is the home of the National Center for Home Food Preservation. They do all of the testing for USDA. Unfortunately Dr. Andress retired a couple of years ago. She spent ALL of her time teaching & testing. The school slowly but surely took her assistants away & she ended up being basically a single-person department. It was very frustrating. I don't know how much testing was done in her final few years as a result. (And I don't know what they're doing now. My main contact who did a lot of work with Dr. A has moved out of state & she loaded me up with teaching supplies before she left.) You can download the USDA books from the NCFHFP website:

National Center for Home Food Preservation | Publications Home (uga.edu)

Ball was purchased by Newell Rubbermaid in 2015, I believe. (NR also owns Food Saver, btw.) I've been hearing complaints for a couple of years now that they no longer completely use tested recipes. For those who are interested only in safe canning practices, this is a major concern. I would say use any older Ball books (pre-2016) but avoid the newer ones if this is a concern for you.

I do not own the Bernardin book. But in some of the FB canning pages I belong to, some folks have expressed concern about safety. I can't make any judgements or suggestions on this one.

Hope this helps.

**Scorpio Rising** 7/13/2022, 10:03 am

I love the bread and butter pickle recipe in that book, JAM23–I will have to look at the page number when I get home. I have never found a dill recipe that I like; they always end up limp-ish and not as good as my gold standard, Claussens. I have done the 2 day recipe in that book, and done Mrs. Wage’s spice recipe from the store. Meh.

I love the sweet pickle recipe too, and I chop them up instead of buying sweet relish—chunky and yum!

**sanderson** 7/13/2022, 3:02 pm

SR, Have you ever used Pickle Crisp?

**sanderson** 7/13/2022, 3:04 pm

AtlantaMarie wrote:"I can't remember the success/failure rate in forming a safe seal for Pur, nor for Golden Harvest."

Golden Harvest lids have worked fine for me in the past. But I've heard a LOT of complaints over the last 2 years about some of the imposters that look very similar to Ball's....

And those used mason jar lids can be reused to vacuum seal jars. That's what I do.

**Scorpio Rising** 7/15/2022, 7:21 pm

sanderson wrote:SR, Have you ever used Pickle Crisp?

Yes, it helped…but I wasn’t happy. The other thing I thought of is smaller cukes. I’ll try it again. I bought the lime but got all freaked out about safety when reading in depth about using it!

**sanderson** 7/20/2022, 6:45 pm

Just a note. At this time, there are no safe canning recipe for canning salsa using frozen tomatoes. Only fresh tomatoes. There are safe recipes for sauces using frozen tomatoes, just not salsa.

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