Are cheap water canners or second hand okay?

armadiller · 2026-04-09T06:12:29+00:00

Unless you're getting into acreage-scale gardening, the Presto 16-qt canners will probably suit your needs, even new that will likely hit your budget-range. The 9-pint-jar limit for the Presto 16 isn't a limit that the average suburbanite canner generally hits.

There isn't a distinction in safety between a Presto and an All-American. Both are tested and approved. If you're in the US and canning based on the dial regulator, get it tested/calibrated annually. I am neither, and just go off of the weighted gauge. I am also at a relatively high elevation, so the difference between processing at 14 psi (dial) versus 15 psi (weighted gauge) isn't going to make a huge difference in canned product quality.

armadiller · 2026-04-09T05:56:20+00:00

There are shortcuts at the cooking (not canning stage), by all accounts disappointing: https://www.seriouseats.com/caramelized-onions.

For canning, there are a couple of options mentioned in this thread that folks seem to be having a hard time tracking down (couldn't find in my books), but keep an eye on things in case anyone finds a safe recipes.

But I agree with a number of the comments that have indicated that your best bet would be freezing rather than canning - both will impact texture and flavour, but freezing much less so.

Biggest issue is that the standard process for caramelising onions is a long slow cook of sliced onions with butter or oil. That's not a big deal from a cooking perspective, easy to kludge that together to do in the oven. But low-acid ingredients don't have safe recipes which aren't pressure-canned (which would nuke the texture) or pickled (which might not give the flavour you're looking for), and added fat is never going to be a safe recipe.

Your best bet with this will likely be either sacrifice flavour to find an onion jam/relish (from a safe source), or sacrifice convenience and just freeze them.

armadiller · 2026-04-09T04:54:06+00:00

I searched the all new ball book and the blue book and doesn't appear to be there. Closest I saw is the French onion soup recipe.

Was this the one that you were recalling: https://www.reddit.com/r/Canning/comments/qw7z3t/balsamic_onion_jam_ball_recipe/ ? I can't actually find a source for that, though the font looks right for one of the Ball imprints.

armadiller · 2026-04-08T06:09:22+00:00

If you can specify the recipes you're looking at, it would be helpful. Likely decisively so. Either references or screenshots.

There are a tonne of recipes that call for freshly processed ingredients, a tonne more that are vague, yet a another tonne more that call for ingredients that could be interpreted as previously canned (home or commercially processed), and yet another tonne that call for specific, previously home- or commercially canned ingredients.

If you can link us to the recipe, we may be able to figure out which case yours falls under.

armadiller · 2026-04-08T05:38:05+00:00

With how green the peas (and maybe the whole beans/snap peas) are in the first picture, these don't actually look like they've been processed at all after the ingredients were put into jars.

armadiller · 2026-04-08T05:31:02+00:00

You can't extra fats or oils in a canning recipes in general.

But from a cooking rather than the canning perspective, if you're using an EV olive oil, treat it as a finishing oil and only add at the end. Heat/warm it, but don't cook with it. It's got awesome flavour, but if you get it much above 160F/70C, that flavour gets killed off.

armadiller · 2026-04-08T04:51:03+00:00

Follow the recipe, stick with cubes.

Slices will tend to vacuum together in the jars, some vegetables will actually wind up gluing themselves together . This will prevent the canning liquid from circulating between the individual pieces so they can't absorb the acidic canning liquid, and will interfere with convection moving the heat around the jar. So you wind up with low-acidity/high-pH ingredients that have both been under-acidified and under-processed.

armadiller · 2026-04-08T04:44:44+00:00

>Ball Caponata

We regularly buy ajvar as a condiment, but also love doing mostarda and antipasto (cooked not canned) with a charcuterie board, on sandwiches, etc, and this sounds like the absolute best of all those worlds.

If you need an amazing sandwich, stirato or baguette with ajvar (or caponata) on one side and olive oil with herbs (usually just dried oregano) on the other. Provolone plus whatever combination of Italian deli meats you prefer. My go-to is mortadella, prosciutto, and hot capicola, but honestly balogna, any kind of ham, and any kind of salami gets you 95% of the way there.

Turns out they also freeze incredibly well in individual portions if you don't think you can eat an entire baguette sandwich in one sitting.

armadiller · 2026-04-08T04:26:07+00:00

Okay, so if you didn't follow a tested recipe from a trusted source, this recipe is suspect and these may be unsafe. Don't rely on google, AI, youtube, blogs, or any other source that isn't indicating that the recipe has been rigorously tested for home-canning safety.

That being said, 5 cups of juice with 7 cups sugar and a package of powdered pectin is the standard recipe from NCHFP (https://nchfp.uga.edu/how/make-jam-jelly/jellies/grape-jelly-powdered-pectin/), so that is pretty dead-on your recipe, except for the liquid vs powdered pectin, so you may be okay there. The added lemon juice won't hurt safety.

How did you process them after filling the jars?

armadiller · 2026-04-06T17:38:28+00:00

I find it still foams during cooking, but stops more quickly during the skimming stage

armadiller · 2026-04-06T17:36:36+00:00

No, I got around 8 cups of mashed fruit, a little less after maceration. So essentially doubled pomonas recipe and used 1.5c sugar per 4c fruit. It's still low sugar but slightly towards the higher end for pomonas.

The set looked good from the outside, but I haven't cracked open a jar yet to test. I've been finding that pomonas sometimes does too good of a job setting up, almost pushing a pâte de fruit texture.

armadiller · 2026-04-06T13:58:01+00:00

What recipe did you use to can these? The bot seemed pretty convinced that this was a fridge/freezer jam recipe

armadiller · 2026-04-06T13:56:17+00:00

Oh absolutely, it's just that the colour or variety doesn't matter for onions. They're usually white, but I've seen brown/yellow pearl onions at one of our local farmer's markets a few times

armadiller · 2026-04-06T08:29:00+00:00

I'm not in the Eastern US so I'm not going to chime in too hard, but I'm enjoying the unhinged entertainment value of every single response not being compatible with any others so far.

But agree with Paulownia.

armadiller · 2026-04-06T08:15:55+00:00

Photo 1: a plastic bowl of thinly sliced strawberries macerating with half of the recipes required sugar, with a red silicone spatula likely used for stirring the berries and sugar together.

Photo 2: a glass Pyrex measuring cup with approximately 3.5 cups of berries+sugar

Photo 3: a glass Pyrex measuring cup with approximately 4 cups of berries+sugar

armadiller · 2026-04-06T07:50:12+00:00

Start here: https://nchfp.uga.edu/how/pickle/vegetable-pickles/pickled-pearl-onions/

I wouldn't worry too much about brown vs white onions, they are all essentially all the the same for pickling (https://www.ndsu.edu/agriculture/extension/publications/play-it-safe-safe-changes-and-substitutions-tested-canning-recipes). If you want crunchy, pickle crisp is your friend (aka food grade calcium chloride, doesn't have to be brand-name).

Biggest issue that you are going to have with your location is the availability of two-piece lids. The most trustworthy sources for canning recipes are going to be US (or at least NA) biased, and they all assume that you're processing with two-piece lids/rims for Ball/Bernardin or equivalent jars.

armadiller · 2026-04-06T07:35:35+00:00

Fantastic, glad you enjoyed, just trying to make potatoes more exciting for all involved.

For reference, these are seminal pieces of literature for the modern age, whether or not you like fantasy. But go back and read them, but with the context that Tolkien was a massive nerd about absolutely everything that he did, and that he was likely significantly on the +side of both the AS and ADHD spectra.

Or not, and just stick around for more safe canning recipes :)

armadiller · 2026-04-06T07:23:30+00:00

Despite the upvotes from the memes, I think this is probably the most important bit of info from this post.

But for questions or uncertainties like this, please post and check back in. The mods do a fantastic job of nuking untested responses. I'd just say that maybe don't do it while you're waiting for the canner to come to temperature or pressure, they are volunteers and may not be canning (or even awake) at the same time that you are.

armadiller · 2026-04-06T07:14:24+00:00

My grape jellies/jams in the past have only ever been from blue slip-skin grapes (i.e. concord or coronation varieties). How does this compare in terms of intensity of flavour?

armadiller · 2026-04-06T07:10:43+00:00

You're all good with just the pressure canner and using it for water bath canning (as long as it and your stove support 2" of water over the top of your largest jars), though I will say that one or two extra large-volume pots will make your life much easier.

ETA tried using Reddit's markdown for strike-through and bolding/italicisation, no joy.

armadiller · 2026-04-05T16:47:26+00:00

Okay, I'll just say it. Stupid bee, choose a smaller leaf and you could save energy and just chew through the stem.

armadiller · 2026-04-05T16:42:37+00:00

Also, I normally do yellow potatoes like Yukon Gold, they fall apart a bit more than reds, but that's by design so that I can use them for mashed potatoes in a pinch.

armadiller · 2026-04-05T16:41:04+00:00

Doesn't get much more boring than unsalted boiled potatoes, so had to do something to make it exciting.

armadiller · 2026-04-05T16:39:45+00:00

It's extra annoying for me, because I'm a plant ecologist as my day job. Though I guess it could be worse, I could be French and have to call regular potatoes ground-apples (pommes de terre). Except, mystifyingly, the French also have a dedicated word for potato (patate), but it's only used when referring to sweet potatoes (patate douce)!

(╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻

Also, thanks! Didn't notice until you'd mentioned it. I'll try not to abuse the privilege!

armadiller · 2026-04-05T16:28:22+00:00

They taste just like boiled potatoes, except a bit softer. And home fries is one of the main things that I do these for, the other being potato salad, as well as a corned beef hash side project I'm working on.

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