Ball Jar Canning Tips
There are many ways to date old ball mason jars and one of the easiest is to look at the logo.
Ball jar canning tips. The company started making mason jars back in 1880 and many people today still use these for canning or collect the jars as a hobby. This was previously recommended in order to insure a good seal. The heat interrupts natural spoilage by destroying food contaminants and at the same time removes air from the jars. Canning with ball jars can help you turn those thoughts into realities.
Just one step beyond cooking canning involves processing food in closed glass ball canning jars at high temperatures. You don t need to warm your lids ahead of time. This how to video gives you a quick overview of the water bath canning. 2015 update to canning procedures source ball website.
The mechanics behind canning are fairly simple. Making sure that our ball or mason jars are sterile before canning is crucial to our canned foods long term viability. Canning rack to raise jars off the bottom of the pot a cake cooling rack or a layer of extra canning jar rings will work in a pinch wide mouth funnel to make filling jars easy bubble tool to release trapped air in the jars substitute a plastic knife chopstick or skewer. I ve come across countless canning recipes that tell you to preheat the lids in simmering water before using to soften the sealing compound for better adhesion and even ball s previous product packaging and older editions of their canning book.
I first heard this from the ball canning test kitchen a few years ago and i was floored. It is no longer considered necessary to simmer jar lids in water before adding them to the tops of filled jars. You fill a clean jar with prepared food apply the flat lid and the threaded ring to the jar and submerge the filled jar in boiling water for a prescribed amount of time times vary widely depending on what you re canning. In this article we go over the canning jar and lid sterilization process.
Water bath canning is the easiest method for preserving high acid foods like fruits tomatoes and pickled vegetables. Ball mason jars are a type of home canning jar made by the ball corporation.