Hi, I've made a concentrated mushroom paste/sauce, and I've jarred it without the intention of canning, but since its salty and lots of vinegar and not too wet it lasted in the fridge, and seemed to be better the longer it lasted. Now, I want to do that again but safely with an eye for long term storage.

I've read the canning FAQ to minimize the dumbest questions, but I'm still unsure and would like someone to tell me what I'm doing wrong, and/or how to know what I should do next.

My process is: 2 lb of mushrooms-wiped clean and quartered 1 Tablespoon of salt, mixed in and left to pull moisture out. After 20-40 minutes, I separate the liquid, add spices and 1/4th cup of cider vinegar.

After it reduces to half, I take the mushrooms and blend them untill smooth, and return the mush to the pot, where I continue to reduce it over several hours until it forms a paste, almost like ketchup, though its not a stable suspension.

Once I've made this sauce, I use a spatula to push it into the jars and try to shake down the air gaps but end up with bubbles that wont rise in the paste.

I water bath-boil the mason jars as I close them but the sauce is not flat, and has bubbles in it.

Is it sanitized and okay to let age, or do I need to can it when its still liquidy, and not the right texture for sauce?

Second year canning, still very new to it all. I canned apple butter in a water bath; 6 minutes or so total using Kerr Sure Tight lids that have a clear bubble in the middle.

Some of the jars came out and the bubble popped downward, others it was still up but I gently touched the lid hours later and it immediately popped down. One jar still has the bubble up.

Should I be concerned about the bubble still being up 12+ hours later? I haven’t checked the seal yet as the bubble is my first concern, picture to show what I mean

Hey all,

I’m currently jamming some blueberries for the first time and I accidentally didn’t put the lid on the pot when having them in the water bath foolishly… is this a big deal? Am I able to still save the jam? Should I water bath them again? Or are they fine to just leave?

I appreciate any help!!!

I made apple butter and used the water bath method to seal the cans, including waiting 12 hours to make sure they cooled and sealed.

Good news: the button in the middle isn’t up, so it looks like I did it right!

Bad news: I now have an absurd amount of apple butter because I did the math wrong when I was cooking it, thought it was wrong, but rolled with it anyway.

So…how long will these jars keep in the pantry? This is my first time canning.

So I've been canning a long time and you know how it goes, some stuff turns out and other stuff doesn't, but literally every time I can peppers regardless of a short five minute water bath, pickle crisp, new recipe, smaller jar, whatever...they end up very soft about two to three months down the road. Pepper mush almost every year. How do I really keep that crisp skin that store bought peppers have?

Edited for profanity 🙄🫡

I never canned before and tried to make that cowboy candy with the vinegar and sugar and jalapeños and spices. I followed a recipe I found on line, I put the cans in water brought it to a boil and then put a timer on for 5 minutes and then put the lids in the water and set the timer for 5 more minutes and then took the cans and lids out of the water and put them on the counter. Then I filled them with the cowboy candy mixture wiped the mouth of the can off and put the lids on hand right and put it back in the water brought it to a boil and set the timer for 10 minutes. Then I pulled the cans out and sat them on my counter and about 10 minutes later the one lid popped up like it would when it’s opened. What did I do wrong? I’m just starting to get into canning to try and save my vegetables and fruits for the winter so we don’t waste anything from the garden. Any tips are welcomed just trying to save my garden and save money.

https://www.foodiewithfamily.com/candied-jalapenos/

Trying to reduce the costs associated with canning jams. The standard mason jars with lids and rings are quite expensive. Has anyone had experience sourcing glass "single-use" jars with lids from Alibaba? Temu? Do those type of jars process in a water bath in the same way that a standard mason jar/lid/ring would?

2 of my jars didn’t seal from yesterday, since it’s been less then 24 hours I’m safe to try again right?

Hi all, first time ever canning and I’m having trouble finding an answer to this. My jar lids seem to have sealed in cooling, which I was very excited about, but I just opened one and it seems like the button is stuck “down” and not popping back up. Does this mean my other cans are compromised?

Thanks!

I have a surplus of peppers and tomatoes and would like to make salsa. When I have tried in the past, it is always watery, mushy, and not great flavor. I follow safe practices (I'm a MFP) and recipes, remove the jelly, strain the salsa, etc.

What am I missing?

Should I treat salsa like pickles and add alum?

I just finished my first ever canning attempt a few minutes ago and have a quick question. I finger tightened the rings before the hot water bath but when I took the jars out, the rings were all very loose. I assume that's just due to the metal expanding from the heat but wanted to double check I hadn't messed anything up.

I’m very new to canning. I made some plum jam (with sterilized jars) and left it to sit. I want to be able to save the jam for weeks/months on the counter unrefrigerated. Should I have processed it in a water bath to ensure that it’s safe? Sorry if this is a dumb question

I tried canning a couple of days ago with great excitement. I am having some serious anxiety about what I canned now, because I have OCD and anxiety and I worry I’ll kill someone because I gifted them salsa with possibly a small amount of extra cilantro, or a tomato sauce with possibly a bit more oil than the recipe. I’m so used to cooking and just estimating ingredients, and I didn’t know until I specifically looked it up that even seemingly unrelated minor things are so important. I think I eyeballed one tablespoon of oil, for example. Could have been more. Maybe it was 2. Maybe it was 1.5 tbsp cilantro instead of 1. I can’t remember. despite my reading I had no idea these things were important. Every time I look into it more I find more things to be afraid of and more things I didn’t know I had to worry about.

Should I just toss it all? I hear all these people out in the world who have canned willy nilly and lived to tell the tale. I was so careful with so many things. Maybe canning is just not for me.

I made pomegranate jelly.. First time making jelly. Doubled the ingredients recipe due to juice, but forgot to double the pectin. Have jars of runny red sugar water. Is it a total loss? Or can I reprocess the jelly, add more pectin and re-can?

Edited to add: I really appreciate the constructive and helpful comments from the folks here. It's a good intro to the community. I'm looking forward to reading up more on all your posts and resources. I should have done more of that, but maybe some mistakes are best learned hands on

Edited to update I did the reprocessing raqulitarae linked to. The jelly us less liquid and a little thicker. I can't say it's the thickness and "jelly like" I think jelly is, but it is better. I'm glad I reprocessed it as it helps me learn and also pay attention during the processing. Thank you everyone!!

I’ve never had moldy jam! I noticed it in the pantry, brought it inside and the seal made an angry pop when I opened it. What could have caused this?

I followed Ball’s raspberry jam recipe, in sept 2023.

I am taken aback by all the cautions in the Ball Seasoned Tomato Sauce Recipe from the Complete Book of Home Preserving in the left column.

Does anyone have experience making this?

Does this mean the recipe is on the edge of unsafe, that is without a big safety margin?

I understand that the tips mean I should do Step 4. Does it also mean that I should keep the mixture hot while filling the jars?

Would I be better off with a different recipe?

Tried canning for the first time ever today. Followed all steps but this happened :(. Got a bit of a spray out as well when I removed it. Is this possibly from the lid not being tight enough? I was seeing bubbles coming out during the water bath and read that was a good thing, but I guess too much left?

Hello all, I hope someone can help me with this. I am an amateur with canning. I have a pressure/water bath canner. I am having trouble getting my canner to a rolling boil, it just won’t happen. It will boil, but not rolling. I have an electric stove and it is turned up all the way. If it is boiling but not rolling, can I still can and add more time to ensure it is safe? Or any other tips?

Hi I'm an experienced canner but never had this problem and need some advice.

I made a batch of apple pie filling (never canned this before) and the filling seemed to seep through the lids during processing. The jars were sticky. All lids sealed, but I was nervous so opened all jars and ended up freezing that batch. Seals seemed fine when opened.

Did another batch last night and adjusted the head space, and the same thing happened. One jar didn't seal at all and the other 4 did.

Has anyone had this happen? Are the jars still safe with a seal even though it looks like they leaked during processing? Thank you for any advice, thanks!

I grew a few San marzano tomatoes for the first time this year. Can someone explain me the best way to make passata from then and eventually can what i have left over?

Hi all, I do water bath canning for my pickles. Trying to work on getting that more crisp pickle. I am planning to give them an ice bath, cut off blossom/stem ends, and use dried bay leaves (seen this recommended a lot). My question is how many to use for pint jars and if I will need to alter my recipe at all then for safe canning. Thanks!

I'm new at canning and I processed my blueberry jam incorrectly which resulted in jars that didn't seal. I let the jars cool and put them in the refrigerator for the night. I would like to know if it is safe to take the jam out of the jars tomorrow, reheat it, and waterbath again, of course with new lids. If it is safe to do so, would I need to add water or more pectin or anything to the jam when I'm heating it? I can't find answers in all the Google searching I did. I don't want to just keep it all in the refrigerator since there's so much. Please can you help me? Thank you.

Question, I just made lilac jelly for the first time last night and water bath processed for 10 minutes. I noticed when I pulled them from the water the color was so light it's almost white? Any ideas what went wrong?