Ingredients for home canning

There are many ingredients in home canning that are important, or helpful, in addition to the actual food that is being canned.

If, before you started home canning, you had a problem with spices going old on you before you could use them up, that will no longer be an issue in your life.

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1 Typical home canning staple ingredients

Typical home canning staple ingredients


 Apple Cider Vinegar


Apple cider vinegar is one of the many vinegars that is acceptable to use for home canning; it's also one of the more popular ones in North America. It can make some pickled foods a bit murkier, but many swear that the taste improvement is worth it.


About...
 Calcium Chloride (aka Pickle Crisp®)


Calcium Chloride is a generic firming agent that can be used in pickling.

Many people like it and swear by the results; a few still say that nothing will ever replace the crispness of an actual limed pickle.

Going into the preserving process,...
 Citric acid and home canning


Citric acid is a concentrated powder that raises the acidity level of a food or solution it is added to. It also may slightly help in better keeping qualities for flavour and colour.

Its use in home canning is endorsed by the USDA:
Citric Acid:...
 Clearjel Starch Thickener

Clearjel's role in home canning 
Clearjel® is a modified corn starch that has been accepted by the USDA and the National Center for Home Food Preservation for a single canning application as of 2015, which is for use as a thickener in some fruit pie ...
 Dill substitute for pickling


In real life, outside of coffee-table beautiful home canning books, some gardeners may find that their cucumbers are ready before their dill weed is.

Other canners will find that their store has a deal on cucumbers but there's no fresh dill weed...
 Flour and Corn Starch Use in Home Canning


Flour and corn starch can be fightin' words in canning circles and are generally taken to be a dividing line between safe and unsafe canners.


It's fine to use flour and corn starch in modern canning recipes 
It's fine to use flour and corn starch...
 Herbamare® Salt Substitute


 

Herbamare®  Sodium-Free is a salt substitute made in France by the A. Vogel®  company.

People eating home canned products made seasoned with Herbamare Sodium-Free believe there is salt in it. They taste no difference between Herbamare a...
 Home canning with herbs


 

You have some discretion about changing the flavouring of your preserves and canned goods with dried herbs.

While the general rule of thumb is not to change tested canning recipes one bit, changing the flavouring is actually the one thing...
 Can you use sage in home canning?


You will see in many places a recommendation not to use sage in home canned goods.

It's not a safety issue, but a taste issue, reputedly.

Some say it causes bitterness; some say it causes bitterness after a period of storage.
What the established...
 Using bay leaves in home canning


 

Bay leaves are great for home canning.

Many people believe that we eat with our eyes and noses first before our mouths. A bay leaf makes a jar look like that extra detail of care was taken, and, there's a wonderful aroma that rises out...
 Home canning with stevia


HealthyCanning.com works with liquid stevia as its default sweetener in home canning recipes that require a sweetener.

For those wishing to make the original full-sugar versions of the recipes on the site, every recipe provides that alternative ...
 No Sugar Needed Pectins


Pectin in home canning is a substance you can add  ^[1] Of course, pectin is also a naturally occurring substance in fruits  to jams and jellies to help in getting a firmer set. It has traditionally required the use of copious amounts of sugar ...
 Bernardin No Sugar Needed Pectin


Bernardin offers a "no sugar needed" pectin for use in jams and jellies.

Normally sugar is required to get pectin to set, but this pectin requires no added sugar at all for the gel to happen.

Note: if you are in the States, this pectin is sold...
 Pomona Pectin


Pomona is a brand name of a low methoxyl pectin. Instead of needing sugar and acid to cause a gel reaction, it needs calcium. (See No Sugar Needed Pectins .)

The company is located in Washington State, USA. The product is actually made for them...
 Passata


If you are looking at making a tomato-sauce based product for home canning, instead of always buying fresh, whole tomatoes as a base it may in some instances be worth considering using tomato passata -- fresh, sauce-quality tomatoes pressed through a f...
 Pickling Spice


 

Pickling spice is a spice mixture that can be used to add flavouring and aromatics to savoury preserves, pickles and relishes.

You can buy pickling spice mix pre-mixed in jars or packages, or, make up your own.

See our sample simple...
 Pickling vinegar


"Pickling vinegar" is an elusive term.

It is not a legally-defined item with strict definitions to it.

It can be used to mean some quite different products by various food manufacturing companies.

Here, we look at and compare pickling vinegars...
 The acidity of lemons and home canning


Many home canners assume that white distilled vinegar is the most acidic ingredient in their arsenal.

Not so: lemon juice is actually even more acidic than white distilled vinegar.
pH of a few typical canning acids 
Here's a comparison in descending...
 Vinegar strength in Australia and New Zealand


Vinegar strength is important in some forms of home food preservation.

Standard household vinegar as sold in Australia and New Zealand is slightly weaker than that sold in other countries such as the US, Canada and England.

Consequently, when...
 Water's Role in Home Canning


Water has such a huge role in home canning, yet we take it for granted.

There are three issues to consider:

1) Clean, safe, potable water (See page on bacterial load .)

2) Hard water (See page on hard water .)

3) Using fresh water instead...
 Hard water and home canning


Hard water can cause two issues in canning, though neither of them is a safety issue, thankfully.
Build-up on canner and jars 
Minerals in the hard water can cause build-up on the insides of the canner and clouding on the outsides of the jars. Overtime,...
 Vinegar in canning water

Adding vinegar to your canning water -- a little dab'll do ya! 
The three accepted home canning methods (water bath canning, steam canning and pressure canning) are all based on water, and can cause spots or films to appear on the glass sides of your...
 Why some canning directions call for fresh water


Many pressure canning instructions for vegetables call for fresh water to be added to the canning jars, instead of using the water that the vegetables were blanched in.

This will seem counter-intuitive to many cooks new to canning, because they'll...

References[+]

References
↑1	Of course, pectin is also a naturally occurring substance in fruits

Comments

Maggie Klemm

August 02, 2017 at 5:45 pm

I’m going to try an oven roasted marinara sauce today or tomorrow that I found on the healthy canning site. I read somewhere to leave out the olive oil when canning. Is this necessary? I’d think that a little olive oil to coat the baking sheet before baking in oven would be o.k. and prevent sticking. Can I proceed using a tiny bit of olive oil? Thanks for your help.

- Healthy Canning
  
  August 03, 2017 at 7:09 am
  
  It is fine to use oil in tested recipes that call for it. See: https://www.healthycanning.com/fat-and-oil-in-home-canning/

Typical home canning staple ingredients

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