Use glass jars and two-piece caps approved for home-canning.
Always use new lids for canning unless you purchase reusable lids, which can be used for multiple canning seasons.
Start counting your water-bath processing time when the water reaches a full, rolling boil.
Begin counting your pressure-canner processing time after releasing air in the canner and achieving the required pressure.
All temperatures are Fahrenheit.
Note: All recipes and processing times are developed for altitudes at sea level to 1,000 feet above sea level. (For higher altitudes, refer to the altitude adjustment charts for water-bath canning in Chapter 4 and for pressure canning in Chapter 9.)
Finally, to make the content more accessible, we divided it into 6 parts:
Part 1, Getting Started
Part 2, Water-Bath Canning
Part 3, Pressure Canning
Part 4, Freezing
Part 5, Dehydrating and Storing
Part 6, The Part of Tens
Foolish Assumptions
In writing this book, we made some assumptions about you:
You know your way around a kitchen. You’re familiar with basic cooking techniques and food preparation methods.
You’ve never canned or preserved food before or have relatively little experience with food preservation methods and want basic, easy-to-understand-and-follow instructions.
If you have canned and preserved food before, it was long enough ago that you want to find out more about the newer, safer, and easier techniques that are recommended today.
Perhaps most importantly, you want to stock your kitchen with more natural, healthier, homemade alternatives to standard supermarket fare.
Icons Used in This Book
The following four icons appear throughout this book and point out specific points or remind you of items you’ll want to be sure not to miss.
Beyond the Book
In addition to the abundance of information and guidance related to canning and preserving food that we provide in this book, you get access to even more help and information online at Dummies.com. Check out this book’s online Cheat Sheet. Just go to www.dummies.com and search for “Canning & Preserving For Dummies Cheat Sheet.”
Where to Go from Here
Although you can start in any portion of this book, don’t skip Chapter 3. It describes safe processing methods and tells you how to identify spoiled food. If you have any doubts about canning and preserving safety, this chapter puts your fears at ease.
If you want to know about a particular food-preservation method, go to the part devoted to that method. Each one begins with a chapter that explains the technique. Review these initial chapters before selecting a recipe to make sure you have a decent idea what that particular food preservation method requires. If you still can’t decide where to start, review the recipes and start with one that sounds good to you! Then just back-track to the general techniques chapter as you need to. If you’d like to make the Pickled Dilly Beans recipe in Chapter 8, for example, check out Chapter 4 for the basics on water-bath canning. If you want to dehydrate strawberries (you find the recipe in Chapter 17), check out Chapter 16 for general dehydrating information.
And if you want to jump right in? Go to the Recipes at a Glance page to find a recipe that sparks your interest.
Part 1
Getting Started
IN THIS PART …
Discover the benefits of canning and preserving your own foods.
Find the best tools for each type of food preservation.
Dispel the rumors you may have heard about preserving food.
Grasp how and why safety recommendations exist for all types of recipes.
Chapter 1
A Quick Overview of Canning and Preserving
IN THIS CHAPTER
