6 canning myths you must know, because if you don't, you run the real risk of making yourself or a family member very sick. I love canning, in fact, I may be addicted to stuffing food into Mason jars to line my home pantry shelves and food storage. But, there are some serious dangerous practices going on in the canning world and we're going to talk about them.
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6 Canning Myths You Must Know
1. If it's canned in the store you can “can” it at home. Nope. I wish this was true. I truly do, but commercial canners can reach much higher temperatures than our at home pressure canners, which means they can can things we can't. Some examples, pumpkin butter and pumpkin pie filling. Just because it's canned in the store doesn't mean you're safe to can it at home.
You'll see store canned chicken noodle soup, but you can't can this at home with the noodles in it. I have a complete post on how to alter your soup recipes to make them safe for home canning.
2. My grandmother and great-grandmother canned this way for years and they never got sick. You might be willing to gamble with your health and that of your loved ones, but I'm not. We know that botulism isn't killed by the temperature of boiling water, which is 212 degrees Farenheit. Boiling food for longer doesn't make it safe, even if you boil food for six hours, it still won't reach above the temperature of the water, 212 degrees.
Botulism grows very well in an anaerobic environment (without the presence of oxygen, like sealed jars of canned food). It doesn't grow in acid, so you may safely can acidic foods at home with a water bath, but for your vegetables and non-acidic foods, you must pressure can them.
Most people are canning food to be frugal, create healthier food than the grocery store, and to prepared for disaster. Let me tell you, a hospital visit isn't cheap, becoming sick isn't healthy, and preparing for a disaster while using means that could create one doesn't make much sense to me. Botulism isn't a form of food poisoning like the stomach flu. You can die from it. (Learn more about botulism prevention and preservation safety tips.)
I don't tell you this to scare you. Canning food at home is completely safe, but you need to follow updated guidelines.
3. Oven canning is just fine, it's the same temperature as boiling water after all. Oven canning is not a replacement for using a water bath. First, it's a dry heat, and the glass canning jars aren't made for dry heat, so you're risking breaking your jars. Second, you don't know that the internal heat of the food inside the jars is reaching a high enough temperature to kill off all the bacteria because dry heat is very slow to penetrate the jars and to sustain said heat long enough to kill the bacteria. Third, water bath and pressure canning help a jar vent, or simply put, it pulls out the oxygen from inside the jar. You're not going to get this on a reliable level in an oven. They're not designed for it.
Again, there's lots of things I buck the rules on, but my families safety isn't one of them. Use a water bath.
4. My jar sealed so I'm good to go. No. Sorry, just because your jar sealed doesn't mean it's safe. Some older recipes call for pouring your hot jam (or pickle brine) into the jar, putting on the lid and band, and turning it upside down to get a seal. You will get a seal in most cases, but generally the seal is weak and will come undone a few months into the jars shelf life. Most important, a seal in no way means there isn't bacteria present, which is what the whole water bath and pressure canning process does.
I have to confess, when I first started pickling, I did this with some of my pickles in order to help keep them crunchy. I ended up losing almost every single jar because they came unsealed on the shelf, even though they'd initially sealed. Lesson learned. I'm thankful it wasn't at the expense of my families health.
5. Just scrape the mold off of the jam/jelly and eat the rest. This used to be common practice, but once you see mold, even scraping off the top layer, the mold spores are already throughout your jam and jelly. We eat mold spores every day, little small ones we can't see, and for most of us, it doesn't cause any harm. But (you knew this was coming, right?) to someone with a compromised immune system, it can result in a fungal infection in the lungs. This is extremely hard to get rid of and to treat.
A better practice is to can your jam and jelly in smaller size jars. If it's getting mold from being opened in the fridge too long, then simply can it in smaller jars.
If you see mold when you pull the jar off the shelf, then your seal was compromised and you should toss it out. The golden rule of canning is if in doubt, throw it out.
6. Canning is dangerous. Despite all these myths, canning is safe if you follow the guidelines and stay up to date with your practices. I've eaten home canned food my entire life and canned on my own for over 16 years. We've never gotten sick, ever. I want to reassure you again, canning is easy and fun, just follow the “rules”. Canning isn't the place to be a rebel.
Home canned food is often much more nutritious than store bought canned goods. One, most home canned food is canned from produce picked from the vine and processed almost immediately. Your home canned jams and jellies don't contain food dye, high fructose corn syrup, or other GMO additives, and usually, they have less sugar. Especially if you're using my low sugar recipes.
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Didn’t do any canning this year—Sadly way too busy. But I enjoyed your post! 🙂
I’ve been canning, off and on, for almost 40 years. The last 10 years I’ve been doing a lot more canning of a lot more foods, preferring to can instead of freezing because canned food stays edible for years and doesn’t go bad if you lose power for a week.
I have done water bath canning, but have found that foods canned this way don’t have the shelf life that pressure canned food does. Things like tomatoes and kraut will last for many years if pressure canned, but generally only one season if processed in a water bath. You have to make realistic choices (pressure canning pickles comes to mind-yuck), but pressure canning will definitely extend the shelf life of your canned foods.
Ray,
I’m with you, I tend to pressure can most foods, except for jam/jelly or pickles. I even pressure can my applesauce and apple pie filling.
How long do you pressure can you apple pie filling? I only saw a time for water bath.
I have done water bath canning fruit vegetables with Microwave Oven for many season and the results are very good .
Hey Tony. You may want to look up the new research on microwaves. It has been proven they destroy all of the nutritional values of food. I did not want you to miss out on all of natures goodness. ☺️
Life, Love & Peace 🌻
The microwave doesn’t destroy anything. That was a myth going around and its been proven false. However using your microwave will result in uneven heating and whatever you are cooking very likely isn’t fully reaching proper temps, which could result in bacterial growth if one was to use microwave for canning
I’ve been canning for most of my life, my mother and grandmother taught me when I was very young, I always enjoyed being in the kitchen when my grandmother canned, cooked and especially baked, I’m in my 60’s now and have always used a good recipe and follow the guidelines in books like the Ball Blue Book, I’ve canned everything I could from chili to vegetables but I have to say the worst experience is with pickles, growing up it was commonplace to go to the basement open a crock and pull out pickles, sauerkraut or peppers and eggplant that was packed in oil that my dad put up, those memories are great but I just make fresh or frozen pickles when I want them, as far as long term storage most of what we can is used up by the time the next canning season comes along, since it’s now just my wife and I we’ve cut back from canning over 400 quarts to less than 100
Jerry,
Thanks for sharing. This is my first year making pickles the old-fashioned way in crocks, and the next batch I’m trying with a layer of oil on top! Sounds like you come from a long line of self-sufficient folks.
Before you ferment with oil, check out some safe-fermenting sites. Oil can encourage the wrong kinds of growth in your ferments, just like some of the “old fashioned” canning techniques. 🙂
Thank you for posting this. I am a trained home economist (bet you didn’t know that) and can’t emphasize canning safety enough. I hope everybody who reads this takes it to heart.
Patty,
I didn’t, you’re just full of amazing talents. 🙂 And no wonder we’re friends! I hope so, too, I get concerned when I see people not taking proper safety measures.
Melissa I am so sorry but every time I try to download the e-book it won’t download. I don’t know what I am doing wrong. Can you help me? Thank you
Wynette,
Is the link from the email not working? Which e-book?
Hi Melissa,
I am new to your website and your podcasts. I have been listening for the last week or so and have learned so much!
I have a question regarding canning “dropped” or “windfall” apples. A local orchard sells these for $9 a bushel. I would love to buy these, cut off any bruises or imperfections and can a ton of applesauce. Howeer, I have read conflicting information about whether it is safe to can these. Obviously, I would not can any rotting or moldy fruit, only the ones that I felt had cosmetic blemishes or minor bruises.
Can you please give me your opinion on this? Do you can dropped apples?
Thanks for your help!
Kerri
Kerri,
Hello and welcome to the “pioneer family”! There is nothing wrong with taking apples that have fallen and cutting out the bruised part. I’ve done this many a time. Obviously, you don’t want to can anything that is rotten or icky, but taking windfall and disregarding the blemish/bruises is absolutely fine for applesauce in my book. The concern is bruised apples have more bacteria, so to be on the safe side, you can add 1 Tablespoon lemon juice to each quart jar. Or you can add 1/4 teaspoon citric acid.
Melissa,
Thanks for getting back to me so quickly! This is great, as $9 for a bushel of fresh New England apples is hard to pass up.
I have never canned before – but we grew a TON of raspberries this year that we are planning to can whole in a light syrup. Plus, I really wanted to make applesauce and possibly apple jelly (we planted apple trees this year and it got me thinking of all of the things I could do with apples). Here’s hoping our first time goes well.
I have to say, I’m also excited to learn that I can can my own broth! I stopped making broth last year, because I just did not have room in my freezer and could not use it fast enough fresh. I didn’t like tossing those bones, as it was such a waste – plus homemade broth tastes so much better than canned. My husband and I are excited to try this once I get a pressure canner.
Thanks again, I’m really enjoying your podcasts.
Have a great day,
Kerri
Kerri,
Raspberries are one of our favorites and I love raspberry jam… I’ve got mine in the freezer to make into jam within the next month! We were too busy to do it at harvest time.
If you didn’t see this post, you’re going to be so excited, because I kind of have apple mania, too! They’re so versatile. https://melissaknorris.com/2014/09/9waystopreserveapplesathome/
Broth is so wonderful, but make sure you use a pressure canner for that one. I’m so excited you’re stepping into canning, it’s a total passion of mine. In fact, I’m going to be doing a webinar on it soon.
Have a great day!
Hi Melissa,
Thanks so much for the link to your apple article. There is a lot of great information in there!
Have a great day,
Kerr
You’re so welcome! I’m like you and always cringe when I hear people say that because I know they don’t understand the dangers of it. Always happy to meet a fellower canner!
My opinion is you can’t ever be too careful with putting up food. Canning, freezing, or dehydrating. You don’t play Russian roulette with your foods!
If you are buying drop apples from the orchard, that is ok, but do not pick up drop apples yourself from an orchard you don’t know as the do spray the drops for rodents prevention after some time.
“You’ll see store canned chicken noodle soup, but you can’t can this at home with the noodles in it.”
I’m wondering why this is. I have never canned before but have been looking forward to getting started. I was most interested in canning soups that contain noodles but now I am a bit discouraged. I could probably can a soup and add noodles later when eating but I love the way flavors can soak into a noodle so that’s why I was hoping to can it all together. Hopefully, the link you added about how to alter the recipes to be safely suitable for canning will help but I’m still wondering why we can’t. I’m just very curious 🙂
{Also, this post states there are 27 comments but I’m only seeing 7 (with 5 replies). So, I apologize if this has been asked and answered before.}
Thank you! Thank you for posting 6 Canning Myths You Must Know. I cannot tell you how often I see the “my grandmother and her grandmother did it this way …” or “turn the jar upside down to seal and you are good to go.” I’ve only been canning for three years, but I am extremely cautious and always re-read my directions, even if I did it last year and the year before. I totally agree with your message and am very happy you posted it.
[…] at Preserving the Harvest shared 6 Canning Myths You Must Know – a great […]
The word “comprised” means “verb [ trans. ]
consist of; be made up of : the country comprises twenty states.
• make up; constitute : this single breed comprises 50 percent of the Swiss cattle population | ( be comprised of) documents are comprised of words.”
The word you want is compromised. ” trans. ] weaken (a reputation or principle) by accepting standards that are lower than is desirable : commercial pressures could compromise safety.
• [ intrans. ] accept standards that are lower than is desirable : we were not prepared to compromise on safety.
• bring into disrepute or danger by indiscreet, foolish, or reckless behavior : situations in which his troops could be compromised.”
Otherwise, 10 very good points everyone should know! Well said.
Thanks for catching the typo.
I don’t know how long your post has been up, but THANK YOU for posting safe canning advice! I’m stunned by the number of reckless methods posters have sworn are safe.
You’re welcome and I was surprised too at all the things people were saying were safe and hope this helps those who are just beginning and might not know. Because I love canning, but keeping it safe is a must.
Hello Melissa, I recently made raspberry jelly using a pressure cooker. I did not sterilize the jars, just washed them. The Sure-Jell Certo directions from the past for cooked jam & jelly say “wash jars and screw bands in hot, soapy water; rinse with warm water.” The newest directions say something about sterilizing them. Since I gave away one jar of jelly, I’m getting scared thinking I might have done something wrong. Do you have any advice about why Certo changed their directions?
Karen,
The only time you need to sterilize jars is if the processing time is less than 10 minutes. I’m not sure what the processing time is for Certo. Jelly and jam are acidic by nature so I don’t tend to stress as much about those and never sterilize my jars for jam/jelly making, though all of my recipes say to waterbath for 10 minutes. Hope that helps!
Do you have a type of canner you recommend?
Amy, here’s my post on deciding which canner is best for you, because it depends on a few things. https://melissaknorris.com/2015/03/how-to-choose-the-best-pressure-canner/
“You’ll see store canned chicken noodle soup, but you can’t can this at home with the noodles in it.”
I’m wondering why this is. I have never canned before but have been looking forward to getting started. I was most interested in canning soups that contain noodles but now I am a bit discouraged. I could probably can a soup and add noodles later when eating but I love the way flavors can soak into a noodle so that’s why I was hoping to can it all together. Hopefully, the link you added about how to alter the recipes to be safely suitable for canning will help but I’m still wondering why we can’t. I’m just very curious 🙂
{Also, this post states there are 27 comments but I’m only seeing 7 (with 5 replies). So, I apologize if this has been asked and answered before.}
Hey, Bethenia,
You can’t can flour products at home because they break down and the noodles may inhibit proper distribution of the heat all the way through the jar (same reason we can’t do pumpkin puree or pumpkin pie filling at home). Most people just add the noodles to the pot when reheating and let it simmer awhile. Hope that helps.
Have been canning for years and years and I would love to learn something new.
I have read of people using the oven to can flour and dry goods. Is this something you’ve done? What are your thoughts?
I vacuum seal my flour and other staples. Even dried beans and pasta.
There is one wife tale u forgot. If pregnantDO NOT can acid foods. Told you I had a story. Pregnant with third child I canned tomatoes,corn,pickles, and etc. All my hard work down the garbage bag.nope will not can ever again I always freeze. That was so hard but I learned a valuable lesson. That was in 1971.
I’ve never heard that you can’t can acidic foods if pregnant. I’m curious to know why not? Thanks.
A lot of the preparedness links do not work.
[…] #21: 6 Canning Myths You Must Know from Melissa K. Norris […]
I knew all this but thanks for the reminder. Thanks for teaching the people new to canning how to be careful.
Thank you for the reminders of these myths. There is nothing like home canned veggies and such. The only thing that is better, is fresh from the garden, cooked! JMHO.
I would love to be able to can all of our veggies for the year and all jellies, jams, pickles and so forth. I can make a mean loaf of bread! Now to make my own butter. But no dairy animals. I do know how to make our own soap. Just need to figure out how to make lye with hard wood ashes.
Use to help Mom can lots of garden stuff (big garden) when growing up. So far we all survived back then. Am interested in learning the best ways to can, most of what I do now is freeze. thank you.
Hi. Can you cut pumpkin in chunks and can in liquid?
Hey Heidi, yes, you can safely pressure can pumpkin when done in chunk form with liquid, but not pureed.
I love Rhubarb. I want to copy this and try .
I don’t see a link to the “Free Home Preservation Guide” or the “30 Days To Preparedness” that you mention in Podcast 63, 6 Canning Myths You Must Know. Where or how do I find them?
I’m diving into canning for the first time and loving all your information! Trying to access the safety course but it’s not coming up 🙁 Do you have an alternative
direct link?
Does this link work for you? https://melissa-norris.mykajabi.com/pressurecanning
Just wanted to suggest a change to Myth 3 because it is a “myth” that canning jars are designed to withstand wet heat and not dry heat. They are not “tempered” to handle thermal shock under either condition. If you put cold glass in hot water, it will break just as easily as cold glass in a hot oven. This is why jars need to be preheated for hot fill, or you need to lower the canner temperature for cold fill.
Hi Melissa. I have been watching your videos on Youtube, and now these blogs on Facebook, and I have a canning question for you. I hope you can help. When water bath canning, using the small jelly jars, how do you keep them from falling over in the big canner rack? The holes that the big pints and quarts sit in so nicely are too big for the little jars, and the boiling water causes the little ones to tip over. I can’t find any information on what to do. Thank you for your time. Gardening in Oregon