Anybody home canning.

[Duffster]

My wife and I recently started home canning.

I went to WalMart to picked up some pint jars this morning and the Golden Harvest brand jars were nearly a buck cheaper than the Ball brand. Is there a significant difference to justify spending more money? They are both made by the same company.

Thanks.

 

[YesDeere]

I don't think there's any difference just preference. They all work as long as you only use the lids once. For our beans we use the wide mouth quart jars by ball or kerr. Prefer kerr it's my last name. The wide mouth makes a huge
diference when packing the beans and it's easier to get them out when your ready to eat them.

 

[dmccarty]

I will second the use of wide mouth jars.

I buy what he store has which seems to be Kerr. More importantly which LIDS do they sell.

Later,
Dan

 

[dave1949]

Are you canning with a pressure cooker/canner or boiling water bath? For low acid foods, the pressure cooker method is considered safer.

I was going to can a bunch of tomato sauce last year - the late blight put an end to that.
Dave.

 

[dmccarty]

We use a pressure cooker.

Later,
Dan

 

[Chuck52]

I use a pressure canner or simple boiling water bath depending on what's going in the jars. I tend to freeze more stuff than can, so the pressure canner mainly gets used for beans. The GardenWeb Harvest forum is a great place to find information, though they do get a bit **** about what recipes can be canned safely, IMHO.

Harvest Forum - GardenWeb


Chuck

 

[MossRoad]

I use the narrow mouth quarts for stuff like apple sauce or stewed tomatoes. I have some plastic screw on lids for freezer canning that work great to keep a lid on the narrow mouth jars in the fridge when they are only partially used.

Amazon.com: Ball 36010 Mason Canning Jar Plastic Storage lids, Set of 8: Kitchen & Dining

We also use narrow mouth for 1/2 pints and jelly jars, although a short, fat wide mouth jar for apple butter works great.
Amazon.com: Jarden Home Brands 1440061162 Half-Pint Wide Mouth Jar: Home & Garden

I use wide mouth quarts for most other stuff.

We also bought a large Presto pressure canner last year so we could start doing more veggies. It also doubles as a water bath canner and cooks great corned beef and cabbage!

 

[Duffster]

I don't think there's any difference just preference. They all work as long as you only use the lids once. For our beans we use the wide mouth quart jars by ball or kerr. Prefer kerr it's my last name. The wide mouth makes a huge
diference when packing the beans and it's easier to get them out when your ready to eat them.

Thanks that is what I figured. I bought the cheaper ones.

Do you pack the beans whole? We did not start until after the beans were done last year but plan on canning a bunch of them this year.

I will second the use of wide mouth jars.

I buy what he store has which seems to be Kerr. More importantly which LIDS do they sell.

Later,
Dan

The lids at Farm and Fleet are in nearly identical boxes, from the same company, and are 2 different prices.

Are you canning with a pressure cooker/canner or boiling water bath? For low acid foods, the pressure cooker method is considered safer.

I was going to can a bunch of tomato sauce last year - the late blight put an end to that.
Dave.

We have used both so far.

Apple sauce, tomatoes and fruit juices in the water bath.

Carrots, Beef, Venison, Chicken, Soups and Chicken Broth in the pressure cooker.

I use a pressure canner or simple boiling water bath depending on what's going in the jars. I tend to freeze more stuff than can, so the pressure canner mainly gets used for beans. The GardenWeb Harvest forum is a great place to find information, though they do get a bit **** about what recipes can be canned safely, IMHO.

Harvest Forum - GardenWeb


Chuck

Thanks for the link I will check it out.

We also bought a large Presto pressure canner last year so we could start doing more veggies. It also doubles as a water bath canner and cooks great corned beef and cabbage!

My grandma used the pressure cooker to cook beef tongue. :licking::licking::licking:


Overall I haven't had to buy many jars since my grandma gave me hers. She said they were her Moms but from researching the age of some of them they would have had to been her Grandma's. So I am using my Great, Great Grandmother's jars.

 

[keegs]

I never have trouble getting lids or rings for Ball jars. I guess if there's no issues with getting lids for the other brand(s), then at a buck less I guess it's a no brainer.

 

[Duffster]

I never have trouble getting lids or rings for Ball jars. I guess if there's no issues with getting lids for the other brand(s), then at a buck less I guess it's a no brainer.

It appears the the lids are the same for both.

 

[buckeyefarmer]

Difference in lid prices might be the 2 different sized lids, widemouth lids are normally a little more expensive. We use both, prefer widemouth for all things, but use whatever. My wife likes the beans to be snapped about 3-4" long max, some prefer them whole.
We only do water bath, takes longer, but if they seal, they're sealed.
We also have had trouble with tomatoes the last couple of years, so are running low on canned tomatoes, but we still have lots of green beans. They sure are good this time of year.

I love home canned meats, but we haven't done any of that yet.

 

[aczlan]

Do you pack the beans whole? We did not start until after the beans were done last year but plan on canning a bunch of them this year.

We have always snapped them into 1-2" lengths by hand (great project for kids to do while watching a movie) and pressure canned them with some salt (1/2 tsp/jar IIRC)
Some general directions can be found at A guide to canning fresh green beans

Overall I haven't had to buy many jars since my grandma gave me hers. She said they were her Moms but from researching the age of some of them they would have had to been her Grandma's. So I am using my Great, Great Grandmother's jars.

The jars dont go bad unless someone breaks one.

Aaron Z

 

[Mousefield]

We usually can in the summer and fall. What are you canning at this time of year? :licking:

 

[dooleysm]

We can loads of green beans, tomato chunks (with and without green peppers), tomato juice, salsa, spaghetti sauce, a few potatoes, zuchinni relish, and bread and butter pickles. We freeze our corn and some green beans. We also make several gallons of refridgerator pickles that last well into the winter (just ate the last of them on Monday night on a pulled pork sandwich).

 

[MossRoad]

My grandma used the pressure cooker to cook beef tongue. :licking::licking::licking:

We just gave my mother-in-law the tongue. (Well, that sounds nasty. )

She cooks it up, peels it, chills it and slices it for sandwiches. I have never tried it, so I told her to call us the next time she cooks it so we can try it. Hey, I got a neighbor kid to eat liver the other day and she liked it. My kids won't touch it. The neighbor kid said the liver "Tastes like steak!" My kids gave her the :shocked: look and both of them blurted out "Your mom is feeding you liver and telling you it is steak!" :laughing: Liver does not taste like steak... but I love it. :licking:

 

[jinman]

Just over two years ago, we had a neighbor drive up and give us five cases of pint jars and several boxes of rings. He doesn't live here, but comes up on weekends to camp and fish in the lake. We had been giving him loads of veggies from our garden for a couple of years. He and his wife had a garage sale with lots of stuff from her mom. The jars didn't sell, even at just $2 per case. He just brought them to us.

 

[Duffster]

We have always snapped them into 1-2" lengths by hand (great project for kids to do while watching a movie) and pressure canned them with some salt (1/2 tsp/jar IIRC)
Some general directions can be found at A guide to canning fresh green beans

The jars dont go bad unless someone breaks one.

Aaron Z

Thanks for the link, I book marked it for this summer.

We usually can in the summer and fall. What are you canning at this time of year? :licking:

I just did apple juice a few weeks ago. Canning cooked chicken and bone broth right now and will be doing a ton of beef in the near future.

 

[2manyrocks]

The Mrs. does the canning now, but I used to refer to USDA's Complete Guilde to Home Canning quite a bit in my bachelor days. You can download it in PDF or follow the link to buy a paperback copy. National Center for Home Food Preservation | USDA Publications

I have to compliment the USDA on this one.

 

[YesDeere]

Asked the wife about jar preference and she was thumbs down on the golden harvest. Said they chip easy around the opening and then won't seal. I don't care as long as I don't run out of blue lakes before the next ones are in!!

 

[Bird]

She cooks it up, peels it, chills it and slices it for sandwiches. I have never tried it,

My mother used to do that. It's been many years since I ate beef tongue, but I thought it was good when I was a kid. And my parents moved us to Baltimore when I was a baby and I remember them saying that "cold tongue sandwiches" were a popular item on a lot of restaurant menus back east. I've never seen that on a restaurant menu, but I think all our supermarkets do have the beef tongues in the meat departments.