Canning and Preserving Food for Beginners

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My kitchen in Riverview, Florida. I’ve got 40 pounds of tomatoes from my garden that all decided to ripen on the same week because tomatoes are apparently incapable of staggering their schedule.

My neighbor Linda — she’s 72, been canning since she was old enough to reach the stove — told me “just put ‘em up in jars, it’s easy.” So I went to Walmart, bought a case of Ball mason jars ($12), a box of lids ($4), and a big stock pot that I figured would work as a water bath canner.

And I went to YouTube instead of asking Linda to show me.

First batch: I filled the jars to the brim, screwed the lids on as tight as I could, and stuck them in the pot. When the water started boiling, the pressure had nowhere to go because I’d overfilled the jars and cranked the lids. One jar cracked. Not dramatically — no explosion — but it cracked along the bottom and tomato juice leaked into the pot. I pulled everything out and had a pink, tomato-flavored pool of disappointment.

Second batch: I left some headspace this time but I didn’t get the air bubbles out. Three jars didn’t seal. I didn’t know they hadn’t sealed because I didn’t know what a sealed jar was supposed to look and sound like. I put them in the pantry. Three weeks later my wife opened one and the smell — LORD the smell. Fermented tomato is not something you want in your house.

Third batch: I finally swallowed my pride and went next door. Linda spent about 90 minutes showing me the process. One afternoon. And every batch since then has been perfect. Two hundred and some jars over the last four years. Tomato sauce, salsa, pickles, jams, applesauce, green beans, chicken broth, beef stew. Our pantry looks like a country store and I love it.

But I wasted three batches of perfectly good tomatoes because I didn’t learn the basics first. So here are the basics.

Two Types of Canning (And Why It Matters A LOT)

This is the single most important thing in this entire article. There are two methods of home canning and they are NOT interchangeable.

Water bath canning uses boiling water (212°F) to process jars. This works for HIGH-ACID foods — fruits, pickles, jams, jellies, tomatoes (with added acid), salsa, and anything with a pH of 4.6 or below.

Pressure canning uses steam under pressure to reach temperatures above 240°F. This is REQUIRED for LOW-ACID foods — vegetables, meats, poultry, soups, stocks, and anything with a pH above 4.6.

You CANNOT water bath can low-acid foods. Period. No exceptions. Not “but my grandma did it.” Not “but I’ve always done it that way.” Clostridium botulinum — the bacteria that produces botulism toxin — thrives in low-acid, oxygen-free environments at temperatures below 240°F. A sealed jar of green beans processed in a water bath is literally the perfect environment for botulism. And botulism will kill you.

I don’t want to scare anyone out of canning. Millions of people do it safely every year. But this is the one rule you never, ever break: high-acid foods get water bath, low-acid foods get pressure canned. If you’re not sure, it gets pressure canned.

Water Bath Canning: The Beginner’s Entry Point

Start here. It’s simpler, cheaper, and you can practice the fundamentals before investing in pressure canning equipment.

Equipment you need:

• A water bath canner OR any pot deep enough to submerge jars with 1-2 inches of water above the lids. A 21-quart stock pot works. The dedicated canners ($25 at Walmart) come with a jar rack, which is helpful but not strictly necessary — you can use a towel or extra jar rings on the bottom to keep jars off the direct heat.
• Mason jars. Use Ball or Kerr jars. Don’t use random jars from spaghetti sauce — they’re not tempered for the heating and cooling cycle and they crack. $12 for a case of 12 quart jars.
• New lids. The flat metal discs with the rubber seal. These are ONE-TIME USE. The rings (bands) are reusable, the lids are not. A box of 12 lids is $4. Don’t skimp here. Old or used lids don’t seal reliably.
• A jar lifter ($6). Technically you could use tongs but when you’re lifting a quart jar full of boiling liquid out of a pot of boiling water, you want a tool designed for it. The $6 is worth not getting third-degree burns.
• A bubble remover/headspace tool ($3) or a butter knife.
• A funnel ($3) that fits mason jars.

The process:

1. Sterilize your jars. Run them through the dishwasher or put them in the canner and boil for 10 minutes. I just run the dishwasher and pull them out right before filling.

2. Prepare your food. Follow a tested recipe. I mean this — use recipes from the Ball Blue Book, the USDA Complete Guide to Home Canning, or the National Center for Home Food Preservation. Don’t use random internet recipes unless they cite these sources. The acid levels, processing times, and preparation methods in tested recipes are designed to prevent botulism. This isn’t like regular cooking where you can freestyle.

3. Fill the jars. Use the funnel. Leave the headspace specified in the recipe — usually 1/4 inch for jams and jellies, 1/2 inch for most fruits and pickles. Headspace matters because the food expands when heated and needs room.

4. Remove air bubbles. Slide the bubble remover or a butter knife around the inside edge of the jar. Those air pockets can prevent proper heat penetration.

5. Wipe the rim. Any food on the rim will prevent the lid from sealing. Use a clean, damp cloth. This takes three seconds and it’s the difference between a sealed jar and a spoiled one.

6. Place the lid and ring. Set the lid on the jar, then screw the ring on “fingertip tight.” This is looser than you think. You’re not trying to seal it by force — the processing creates a vacuum that pulls the lid down. If the ring is too tight, air can’t escape during processing and the jar won’t seal. This was one of my first-batch mistakes.

7. Lower the jars into the boiling water to process. Make sure there’s 1-2 inches of water above the lids. Start your timer once the water returns to a full boil. Processing times vary by recipe — typically 10-25 minutes for most water bath items.

8. Remove and cool. Lift jars out and set them on a towel. Don’t tip them, don’t tighten the rings, don’t touch them. Let them cool for 12-24 hours. You’ll hear “pings” as the lids seal — that satisfying pop is a vacuum forming. After 24 hours, press the center of each lid. If it doesn’t flex, it’s sealed. If it pops up and down, it didn’t seal — refrigerate that jar and eat it within a week.

Pressure Canning: Where It Gets Serious

Once you’re comfortable with water bath canning, a pressure canner opens up a whole new world. Meats, soups, stocks, vegetables — the stuff that really fills a pantry.

The pressure canner. Not a pressure cooker. A CANNER. The Presto 23-Quart is the standard entry-level pressure canner. About $85 at Amazon or Walmart. It holds 7 quart jars or 20 pint jars. It’s not fancy and it doesn’t need to be.

Important: pressure canners have a gauge that must be tested annually for accuracy. Your county extension office will do this for free. If the gauge reads 1+ pounds off, you’re not reaching safe temperatures and you’re gambling with botulism. This matters.

The process is similar to water bath but with critical differences:

• You put 2-3 inches of water in the canner (NOT full like water bath)
• You lock the lid and let steam vent for 10 minutes before putting the weight on
• Once the canner reaches the specified pressure (usually 10-11 PSI at sea level), you start your timer
• You maintain that pressure for the entire processing time
• After processing, you turn off the heat and let the canner depressurize NATURALLY. Don’t try to speed it up. Don’t open the vent. Don’t run cold water over it. Let it sit until the gauge reads zero.
• Wait 10 more minutes after it reaches zero before removing the weight and opening the lid

Processing times are longer for pressure canning — chicken breast is 75 minutes at 10 PSI for quart jars. Beef stew is 75 minutes. Green beans are 25 minutes.

What I Can and Why

Here’s what actually fills our pantry and gets us through winter without relying entirely on the grocery store. If you’re already growing your own vegetables, canning is the natural next step.

Tomato sauce (water bath). I grow Roma tomatoes specifically because they’re meatier and make better sauce. 40 pounds of tomatoes makes about 14-16 quart jars of sauce. Add 2 tablespoons of bottled lemon juice per quart to ensure safe acidity. Processing time: 35 minutes.

Salsa (water bath). We go through probably 30 pints of salsa a year. I use the Ball Book recipe because it’s tested and it’s good. Processing time: 15 minutes for pints.

Dill pickles (water bath). Cucumbers from the garden plus a basic brine of vinegar, water, and salt. I add fresh dill, garlic, and a pinch of alum for crunch. Processing time: 10 minutes for pints.

Green beans (pressure canner). Raw-pack — just stuff the raw beans into jars, add boiling water, and pressure can at 10 PSI for 25 minutes (quarts). Dead simple and they taste way better than the canned stuff from the store.

Chicken broth (pressure canner). I save chicken carcasses in the freezer and make broth in big batches. Strain, jar, pressure can at 10 PSI for 25 minutes (quarts). Homemade chicken broth is liquid gold. We use it for everything.

Venison stew (pressure canner). After deer season, I make big batches of stew — venison, potatoes, carrots, onions, beef broth. Pressure can at 10 PSI for 75 minutes (quarts). Having ready-to-eat meals on the shelf that just need reheating is a game changer.

Common Beginner Mistakes

Because I made literally all of them:

Using paraffin wax to seal jars. Old-timers still do this for jelly. It’s not considered safe anymore because the wax seal isn’t reliable and doesn’t produce a vacuum. Use proper lids.

Inverting jars after processing. Some recipes say to turn jars upside down after filling. This was an old sterilization method that’s been debunked. It can actually interfere with sealing. Don’t do it.

Adjusting tested recipes. “I added extra garlic” or “I used less vinegar because I don’t like sour.” Adding extra garlic is fine. Reducing vinegar is NOT fine — that changes the acidity and potentially makes the product unsafe. The rule: you can ADD acid and you can add spices, but you cannot reduce acid or change the proportions of low-acid ingredients.

Overfilling is another one I did my first batch. Leave the headspace. The food needs room to expand. Overfilled jars don’t seal well and can crack during processing. Learn from my mistake.

One more: never reuse lids. New lids every time. The rubber sealing compound on the lid only works once. Rings are reusable, lids are not.

The Cost of Getting Started

Water bath canning setup: about $60 total. A case of jars, lids, a canner or large pot, jar lifter, funnel. That’s it.

Pressure canning setup: about $150 total. The Presto 23-quart canner plus jars and supplies.

After that, ongoing costs are just lids ($4 per dozen) and whatever food you’re canning. If you’re growing it yourself, it’s nearly free. Last year I calculated that our canned tomato sauce cost about $0.85 per quart. Comparable organic sauce at the store is $4-6 per quart.

But the real value isn’t money — it’s food security. Our pantry has about 200 jars right now. That’s months of food that doesn’t need refrigeration, doesn’t need electricity, and tastes better than anything from a can at the store. If you’re thinking about emergency preparedness or building up food reserves, home canning is one of the best skills you can learn.

Linda was right. It is easy. Just maybe learn it from Linda instead of YouTube.

Canning is one piece of the homesteading puzzle. If you’re also thinking about livestock, our guides on backyard chickens and raising goats on a small property cover the animal side of self-sufficiency.