No Noble Thing Can Be Done Without Taking Risks*

Show me someone who blogs about having done a bit of canning and I’ll show you someone who’s been anonymously scolded for real or imagined safety infractions. Home canners do, or should, pay attention to the latest guidelines, of course and I, myself, have reminded folks from time to time that the old ways are just that - old, as in former - for a reason. The problem is that defining “guidelines” as the word pertains to canning is nearly as futile as defining “risk”. Add to the mix variances in resources, facilities, and skill and you’ve got the makings for a world of experts, few of whom are shy about proclaiming the rightness of their own thoughts on the subject. Here are mine:

Risk is a tricky thing. Home canning has an inherent degree of risk (although we’ll do well to remember that likewise does consumption of commercially-produced foods) which has been mitigated over time with new research on food borne pathogens and corresponding technological improvements. That’s the upside. The downside is that, with every advance in safety knowledge, a whole bunch of people feel that the heretofore-regarded-as-safe activity in which they’ve engaged for years has been unjustly maligned. I confess that I feel this way about water bath canning plain tomatoes (no longer recommended, although I still do it with older varieties) and I’ve had more than one e-mail from folks who share their opinion that old mayo jars were good enough for grandma so they’re good enough now and that however many untold dollars are saved practicing this economy. Then there’s great and mighty Martha Stewart herself, who advocated for sealing jam with paraffin (admittedly for her own use only) not all that long ago, a practice now discredited.

Where does this leave us? Ultimately, I do not think that canning risk is different from any other. I do things all the live long day that are pretty darn dangerous – driving, sitting at my desk, grilling the family dinner – but the fear I might bring to these activities is tempered into mere caution with the application of knowledge and experience.

And there’s my bottom line: there’s nothing to do for risk but learning more and canning more. For those that would assume that someone is being foolhardy for one of those previously mentioned real or imagined infractions, I recommend further the understanding that no two people are going to be on the same place with regards to risk. For every person I’d love to convince to give up the mayo jars, there are two who would rather I not water bath my tomatoes. The mayo jar people have the weight of experience on their side since they’ve been at it for years and I call upon knowledge. I know the guideline and I know why it was issued, so I can react accordingly in my intent to disregard. It’s all about knowing where you are, being confident in what you know and getting on with it.

That’s the making. On the eating side, my feeling is that there’s less wiggle room. With luck, following good canning procedures will result in only good food on the shelf. That’s not always the case, though, and knowing what to look for when the time comes to open a jar is key. The jar shouldn’t be more than a few years old, for starters. Goodness knows that I find some ancient thing tucked in the waaaaay back of the cupboard more often than I’d like to admit and I’m not as good with labeling as I ought to be, so, you know, see also: cobbler’s children and shoes. Don’t eat anything that you cannot state when it was made and/or how long you’ve had it. Like the jar of mango jam I just found – I haven’t made mango jam in years and years.

Likewise, don’t eat anything for which the lid is weeping or oozing, or if there’s any strange looking unidentified stuff around the seal. Does the food look and smell as you expect? There will be some natural degradation of color, but generally the food in the jar should present as if it were put there yesterday – not a foolproof test since many nasties are odor- and colorless, but one to which attention should be paid regardless. Pass by anything that doesn’t appear to have been canned according to guidelines (er, see above for more on that point). See the jar up there? The apples were sealed without adequate liquid and, now that I think about it, I don’t know where these came from or how/when I got them. They’re outta here.

This pre-eating checklist seems cumbersome and scary, but it’s not. Experience and knowledge gets it down to as natural as when opening any other product. With the experience and knowledge comes the confidence to make and stand by your own canning decisions. Since I started canning in the first place to exert some control over my food supply that is entirely the point.

* Michel de Montaigne, French Philosopher (1533-1592). Monsieur de Montaigne also said, "He who fears will suffer, he already suffers from his fear" which also applies, don't you think?

Can Can Girl

New and experienced canners alike can be confused on the subject of gear. After all, newbies are new and the experienced among us can become hidebound by familiar methods. Home canning as we know it today hasn't been around so very long, after all, and it is just as influenced by science and technology as anything else. Methods change (witness new USDA recommendations for tomato processing times), as does fashion - you don't see much in the way of watermelon rind pickles these days but I get more hits for tomatilla salsa than anything else.

When someone asks me for recommendations for getting started with canning, I try to keep things simple and few in number. There are hacks and homespun ways to get around almost all of them, but I think that they're better accomplished by confident canners and do suggest that new enthusiasts stick to at least a minimal complement.

First: jars. I recommend Ball (or -type) canning jars. There are other varieties of jars but these are likely to be the most recognizable to those of us in the U.S. They are strong, will last for years with proper treatment (save a few losses here and there) and can also be used in the freezer. They take a two-part "dome" lid, the rings of which can be used over and over again (in fact, the you only need the rings to set the seal - once a jar is sealed you can take the ring off and store the jar without it, using the ring on the next jar to be processed).

For my money, the best canning kettle is one intended for canning. You can buy them with the rack included, and replacement racks are available. I've had my kettle for eight or nine years now and I'm ready to purchase a new rack. It is possible to use a spaghetti pot and wrap your jars in tea towels for cushioning but, even though I myself have done so (for quarter-pint jars) it's not the kind of thing that I think that newbies ought to do. If you already have a pot that will fit the rack dimensions, by all means spring for just the rack.

Then there are the little things, like a jar lifter, funnel, sterlizing rack, and magnetic lid lifter. Of all of these, I only bother with the jar lifter (although I often use folded towels instead) and funnel. The lifter is useful for righting tipped jars or fishing jars out of the kettle if the filled rack is too heavy to lift and a funnel is very good for filling jars without making a mess of the rims, which could interfere with the seal. A canning funnel is sized just right for Ball-type jars, too, and worth the expense in my opinion. The others...bah. Not worth it to me, but your mileage may vary. Once you have an idea of the kids of things you like to make, specialty stuff like cherry pitters and apple corers and food mills enter the picture. Hold off of these at the very beginning or borrow them unless you know for 100% certain you're going to want them and consume the products to which they contribute.

You can buy kits of various kinds that incorporate some or all of this gear. There are several online providers, as well, or you can check your old-timey hardware store. I routinely by lids at our locally-owned hardware place and I've been known to zip into the much-dreaded Wal-Mart in a pinch (although it seems to me that they are selling less in the way of reusable gear and more in the way of canning seasoning mixes). Several supermarkets in my area carry lids, rings and jars in their housewares aisles, too.

Like many hobbies, even practical ones, the start-up costs for canning aren't a trifle. I'm not sure I really save money through canning, although I'm pretty confident that I'm able to produce very high quality products for an excellent cost, not considering the intangibles of being able to deal with lots of homegrown or otherwise inexpensive produce. Since I use my jars for freezer storage, too, I think that helps me avoid food waste as well. Once people find out that you're canning, you will likely receive lots of jars - for some reason people have them in their basements a lot - and I've scored a few from Craig's List and FreeCycle. I buy lids all year 'round to avoid a large outlay in July through September - more of a psychological help than a real financial one.

If you're just starting out, it may be worth pitching in with friends for the gear and a few dozen jars and sharing the work of your first canning sessions. Sharing the work of chopping and boiling and mashing is a great way to learn and until you know if you'll be canning year 'round or wanting to produce a lot of your family's food in this way, you may as well go co-op on the equipment.

Next time, I'll make my website and book recommendations, and talk a bit about how to get one's hands on stuff to can.