Basic Water Bath Canning for the Traditionalist (or Rebel)—The Introduction
Canning can be an intimidating thought, at least it was for me for many years. Water bath canning is much easier than I thought it’d be, and I’m sharing what I’ve learned with you. Keep in mind, I am not a video person, I don’t do YouTube or Instagram or TikTok. If you’re interested in step by step, minute details, and non-moving parts, I’m you’re girl! I also subscribe to a more Rebel style, but I prefer the word Traditional more. I’m not saying you do or don’t have to subscribe to the thought. Your kitchen, YOUR rules!
Stock Photo, I only wish my cantry looked like this!
Basic beginning water bath canning starts with simple equipment. You can spend as much or as little as you want. My own equipment was handed down from my in-laws, who were master gardeners and taught 4H canning back decades ago. The huge galvanized pot hold 7 quarts, and I lost the lid to it a long time ago so improvising with a skillet lid. It works. The rack is the older variety that has handles on each side, and has rusted with time. I keep it as a nostalgia piece, and moved on to a more modern rack in the bottom. It works. The tall juice sieve still works well and still has its wooden plunger.
For my regular day to day work, I use that big galvanized pot and make shift lid. I have a pressure canner (again, lid missing) that I occasionally run pints or half pints through for a second canner, and also use it to make soup, stock, or hold extra boiling water for canner #1. I’ve accumulated jars over the past few years, although for most of the past 4 years they lived in a storage shed waiting to come out and play. I was starting to get cranberries and juice under control and then I went to work on call as a railroad driver, so that didn’t work with canning much, as you don’t want to turn off your work when you get called for a 10-20 hour day (yes, they were that long then). This past fall the jars returned home where they belong, and more joined them. I’m not picky, I use any jar, from Mason type to those with a lug lid (think salsa, jelly/jam, pickle, etc jars with a one piece lid). Since I only water bath, these work very well and don’t have the issues that come with pressure canning. I use a standard jar lifter, and while I do have the magnetic wand looking thing, I seldom use it. I prefer cold jars/cold food/cold canner so no real need to worry about putting hot flats and rings on anything. I don’t de-bubble, and use whatever utensil is handy to press down food into the jars. Today I used a 1/4 cup oblong measuring cup—it fit perfectly and was already in use putting stock into jars, why dirty another item.
I was not taught how to can anything. I learned on my own and am always interested in learning more about the whole preserving process. I absolutely enjoy being able to purchase foods in bulk on sale and then put the items away for future use potentially years from now. Case in point, I put up 35 jars of butter a week or so ago. Butter itself is shelf stable and doesn’t NEED to be canned. But, I wanted to get the 25+ pounds of butter out of the fridge and freezer and on to my shelf. It made room for other things like meat and veggies to go in the freezer. I use butter daily, in coffee especially, and cook with butter often rather than seed oils. It makes sense to me to have it put up for long term storage. Another week I put up approximately 30 pounds of cranberries during the Thanksgiving and Christmas season. At 50 cents a bag, who could say no to that bargain? So, many jars of straight cranberry, some juice, and some sauce went up. The other day I tried potatoes, and one siphoned so I just cooked it today for my husband’s supper. There were 30 pounds of potatoes that I found on sale and went into my jars. None of this I learned from the generations of family ahead of me, I learned by listening to a couple of my friends who do canning and from reading in Facebook groups and watching YouTube. (I do not know how to actually put a video on YouTube but I watch them).
My ways of proceeding may not be what you expect, but they work for our home. I’m a homemaker plus take care of special needs adult kids, work part time (and occasionally full time), and try to keep up with home and other needs. I’m not conventional. I don’t follow USDA or any other agencies, and don’t believe that just because a recipe hasn’t been tested that it’s not useable. I don’t mind being the tester. Generations of women (and men) ahead of us cooked and preserved and lived to tell the tale, and there’s nothing new under the sun. So, if that’s how you tend to look at things, follow along in my journey, add your comments along the way, and we’ll enjoy preserving together!
