99 Products to Make at Home: Apple Sauce to Zucchini Pickles!

Home Canning Facts:

1) Home Canning is Thrifty!

Canning jars are readily available, both new and used, and are reusable for decades. Fresh foods, purchased or gathered at the peak of harvest are inexpensive. Having a wide variety of Home Canned foods on hand prevents extra trips to the grocery store(and impulse buys. The average home canner can expect to save 30-50% off the cost of similar prepared foods.

2) Home Canning is Quick and Easy!

If you already cook meals, it is very easy to do small batches of Home Canning at the same time. Home Canning doesn't need to be the week-long project we witnessed in Grandma's day. With modern methods, the home canner can easily produce 8 jars of homemade jam in about 30 minutes or 6 jars of pickled asparagus in 20 minutes.

3) Home Canning is Healthy!

Home Canned fruits, pickles, tomatoes, jams and jellies retain the nutrients just as well as their commercially prepared counterparts without the problems associated with mass produced foods. Canning jars contain no BPA and you have full control over the amount of salt and sugar that is added to the food.

4) Home Canning is Safe!

Recipes for Home Canned products have been laboratory tested for many years and the incidence of problems associated with Home Canned foods have been reduced to negligible numbers through cleanliness and science.

5) Home Canning is Green!

Reusing materials trumps recycling! Canning jars and rings are reusable, for the rest of your life, with minimal care. Canning lids are used once and then can be recycled or, with a small extra investment in Tattler Reusable Lids, the process can be completely reusable. 

Large amounts of food can be processed at one time which spreads the energy cost across the whole batch. For example, a full batch of Home Canned apple sauce made from a local fruit tree would be processed for 20 minutes--that is about 1.5 kWh of energy or 12 cents(in the Seattle area) or about 2 cents of energy per jar of food. The waste goes in the compost, too! Compare that to driving to a store to buy a few cans of apple sauce that are going to cost $1.00 or more each than the Home Canned apple sauce.

6) Home Canning is Inspiring!

People who learn to Preserve foods at home often find themselves looking at processed foods in the grocery store and thinking, "I can make that!"  So, what products can be made and processed at home? More than you might imagine!

After attending an Introduction to Home Canning Class, students will be ready to tackle the following projects with confidence.

Antipasto Relish

Apple Sauce

Apple Juice

Apple Pie Filling

Asparagus Pickles

Barbecue Sauce

Beer Mustard

Beet & Fennel Pickles

Bloody Mary Mix

Chow Chow

Fruit butter (any flavor)

Jams (any flavor)

Jellies (any flavor)

Fruit Syrups (any flavor)

Blood Orange Marmalade

Brandied Apple rings

Bread & Butter Pickles

Bruschetta

Chili Sauce

Chipotle Pepper Sauce

Chutney (all flavors)

Corn Relish

Cranberry Ketchup

Cranberry Mustard

Dill Pickles

Dilly Breans

Fig jam

Fruit in Light Syrup

Giardiniera

Habanero Dill Pickles

Herb Jelly

Herbal Vinegar

Hot Sauce

Jalapeno Jelly

Lemon (or Lime) Curd

Maple & Walnut Syrup

Marinated Mushrooms

Mushroom Ketchup

Piccalilli Relish

Pickled Garlic

Pickled Onions

Pickled Green Tomato Relish

Pickled Sushi Ginger

Pickled Peppers & Pimento

Pickled Three-Bean Salad

Pineapple Salsa

Rum Sauce

Salsa

Sauerkraut

Seafood Cocktail Sauce

Steak Sauce

Sweet Pickle Relish

Tomato Juice

Tomato Ketchup

Tomato Sauce

Tomatoes Sauce with Garlic & Basil

Zucchini Pickles

Classes are forming up all Summer! Visit the Registration Page to Sign-up or email vic.phelps at gmail.com

Pressure Canning Classes are also forming up! Visit my Pressure Canning Page!

Canning Basics: Jarology

While canning lids come in just 2 sizes, standard and wide mouth, canning jars come in many different shapes and sizes which leads to the question, "Why so many jars?"

And the answer is, different foods like different jars.

Breaking jars into the two main categories and discussing by size, here are my recommendations for what jars to use for what applications.

Standard Mouth Jars. 

These jars take the smaller of the two lid sizes and are usually straight sided until the 16 ounce size which has "shoulders". The replacement lids and rings are slightly lower in price so over the long run, it is cheaper to can in the standard mouth jars.

2 ounce--Great for powerful goodies like Bacon Jam or Plum Marinade. Also good for dry spice rubs and other special seasonings.

4 ounce--For Jams, Jellies, Marinades, Hot Sauces and Salsas.

8 ounce(half-pint)--Jams, Jellies, Salsas, Fruit Butters, Relish, Tomato Paste, Pizza Sauce and single servings of fruit(to pack in lunches).

12 ounce Quilted Crystal--Jams and Jellies, Pickled Asparagus, Pickled Beans and other pickles prepared in long slim sticks.

16 ounce(pint)--Usually this is the smallest size of jar that has "shoulders" which are useful to help hold fruits and vegetables, that might tend to float, under the level of the liquid. Use these jars for apricot halves, plum halves, tiny pickled whole peppers, brandied fruits, spiced apples, tomato sauce, fruit spreads for larger families.

32 ounce(quart) --Whole & Chopped Fruits, apple sauce, dill pickles, fruit juices and fruit juice concentrates, pie filling.

Wide Mouth Jars. 
These jars take the larger of the two lid sizes. The lids for these jars are slightly more expensive but these jars are easier to fill without making a mess and are very desirable in cases where food is to be "arranged" as it is put into the jars. Also in most cases, wide mouth jars are as comfortable in the freezer as they are in the pantry and can be used as a replacement for plastic containers.

8 ounce(Freezer-Safe)-- Frozen Soups, Canned Relish and Sauces.

16 ounce(Freezer-Safe) Thick Sauces, like Apple Butter, that will be spread with a butter knife. Frozen Soup for 2 people.

32 ounce-- Whole & Chopped Tomatoes, Pickles.

64 ounce(half-gallon) Fruit Juices, Fermenting, Dry Goods Storage.


Special Jars
These, rather expensive, jars are great for gift-giving.



"Elite Platinum" 4 ounce(half-pint)-- Dipping Sauce, Pesto, Jams & Jellies to be given as gifts.

"Elite Platinum" 8 ounce(pint)--Hostess Gifts of Homemade Pickles & Sauces.

Basic Skills: Sterilizing Jars

Is it necessary to sterilize jars before canning?
Jars do not need to be sterilized before canning if they will be filled with food and processed in a boiling water bath canner for 10 minutes or more or if they will be processed in a pressure canner. Jars that will be processed in a boiling water bath canner for less than 10 minutes, once filled, need to be sterilized first by boiling them in hot water for 10 minutes before they're filled.