Pearls of Wisdom #12 (Canning Shortcuts)

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I had some really great neighbors.

One of them taught me to run all canning jars through the dishwasher. Next put the used lid on upside down so the rubber rim won’t stick to the jar. Finally screw on the ring. When you’re ready to can, your jars are clean and sterile. Discard the used lids and put the new lids in a pan of hot water to simmer while you stuff jars.

Another one taught me a genius level shortcut for canning fruits including tomatoes. Fill jars according to what you are canning.

For low acid foods you don’t need to kill bacteria, just bring enough heat to seal the jars, thus the boiling water bath. …………..which takes nearly

forever per batch.

After putting on lids and screwing down bands, put the jars in a pressure cooker with a couple of inches of water in the bottom and process 10 minutes at 5 pounds of pressure. Let pressure go down and open canner to retrieve your jars.

Works for fruit, tomatoes, jams, and jellies. Amazing how much you can accomplish in one afternoon.

A note of humor here. I shared this with a farmers market comrade. The next time I saw her, I asked her how it went. She said it took all afternoon for the pressure to go down. Puzzled, I asked how much water was in the pressure cooker. She informed me that she had it half full. She scaled it down to a couple inches of water and had a great canning season.