First time making this ever, found recipe online and seemed easy enough. It even had pictures at every step/stage for comparison. I had strawberries that were on it's last leg before death by compost so I thought let's give it new life.

I don't have a thermometer (kill me, I know), but the recipe gave some guidelines of physical appearances to tell when it'd be ready. Saying it'd take roughly 15 minutes of cooking or maybe more if it's watery. Towards the end I tested it on a cold plate to see if it wrinkled (per the instructions), and it did a bit but not well. So I had it go for 2-3 more minutes after the initial 15 minutes. Then I prepped the glass jar, slowly temping it with warmer and warmer water so it wouldn't crack from the jam being poured in.

But as it settled my 'jam' became candied jam. Last night I ate some and it was very gummy like, quite tasty and delectable. I thought, "Uh oh, I hope this doesn't get harder." (Spoiler, it did)

After having it in the fridge overnight, I woke up this morning excited to see how my creation had faired overnight. Well, she has become full on hard candy and my spoon is standing.

The help I need; how do I make this scoopable AND spreadable?

Tl,dr; First time making jam, accidentally made it into candy, and now it's not scoopable. Please help make it scoopable and spreadable. Thanks.

Pretty much that. Trying the recipe for the first time today and it's in the Crock Pot, but it's salty like the sea and really doesn't taste good. I used less salt than called for, too. Just me? Do I need to figure out what I messed up? It still has a couple of hours to cook but I'm not going to bother to finish it if no one will eat it.

Good day,

I have seen serval times and even in the Ball / Bernardin cook book for Appple Pie filling to use Clear Jel and not cornstarch since its not safe.

I was at the book store having a look at a new canning book "Essential Food Preserving" by Dr. Julia Skinner, PhD.

Her Apple Pie filling recipe called for cornstarch and a water bath.

Just thought this was interesting, I don't see anything negative online about this book and as wondering if it was considered "tested".

I am making this recipe. Can I just slice the onions, stuff in jars and pour boiling brine over them? I will process exactly as the recipe states just wanted to skip boiling them before processing if possible

This is one I haven't encountered yet. Yesterday, I made and canned *16 PINTS* of Plum Jelly using the instructions that came in the Certo Liquid Pectin package--4 cups of juice, 6-1/2 cups of sugar, 1 packet of liquid pectin.

Not one jar has set into jelly. Not one.

So I did some searching. Bernardin site's recipe calls for 4 cups of juice, 6-1/2 cups of sugar, and 1 packet of liquid pectin. https://www.bernardin.ca/recipes/en/plum-jelly-liquid-pectin.htm?Lang=EN-US

The NCHFP site calls for *7-1/2* cups of sugar. https://nchfp.uga.edu/how/make-jam-jelly/jellies/plum-jelly-liquid-pectin/

Sure Jell calls for 6-1/2 cups https://www.kraftheinz.com/sure-jell/recipes/519493-certo-plum-jelly

The Heinz/Certo site calls for *7-1/2 cups* https://www.kraftheinz.com/sure-jell/recipes/512677-certo-plum-jam-recipe (notice how this link and the one above it are both from Kraft/Heinz)

And Ball only has recipes using powdered pectin, which isn't comparable to recipes calling for liquid pectin (I'm not fond of using powdered pectin).

So what the heck??? Clearly the 6-1/2 cups of sugar is not the correct quantity since none of my jelly set, despite them all passing "sheeting from a spoon" test before pouring. And how I have *eight* 1-quart batches of jelly to recook and re-can. SO annoyed.

Has anyone here made plum jelly recently with 7-1/2 cups of sugar and liquid pectin? Did it set like it should?

Thanks so much for any input anyone can give. I've never seen such a wide variation in recipes that are all supposed to be tested and good.

I used the Ball mint jelly recipe, and it said bring to a boil over high heat stirring constantly until it reaches 220°F, and do a sheet test with a cold spoon. I'm not understanding something because it went from a very light gold color to this brown burnt mess and 337°F before the sheet test worked. It turned to glass basically. The plate and spoons in the 2nd pic are vertical 😪

goodmorning everyone! i need some urgent help before i start crying on my kitchen floor😂 17lbs of mulberries, and 7lb of sour cherries just.... ruined i guess🥲 ive done three batches of jelly this year, and one batch of pie filling this year not a single one hardened their all still syrup liquids🥲 the first round (one round of mullberry jelly, one round of mulberry pie filling) i originally followed the recipe off of the national center for food preservation using mrs wages pectin. i assumed maybe it was the recipe so for the last two rounds of jelly (sour cherry, and mullberry) i followed the recipe card with the pectin. nothing has sat. is there something im doing wrong? i am using a cast iron pot that is glazed or something like that, so maybe its that? im not sure. but im feeling extremely defeated, and even with a family of canners, no ones been able to solve the problem they all just use it runny which i do not mind, but i cant do that with the pie filling:/ is there any way to save it? or any thing i could have done that i should do differently next time??

editing to add: im using the glazed cast iron pot for cooking the insides, i have a water bath canner for canning!

I really love bread and butter pickles, but often times find them just slightly too sweet. Would it be safe to take an approved recipe and cut the sugar in half? Would that affect safety, flavor or texture at all?

And conversely, could I adjust an approved recipe for a kosher dill style pickle with slightly more sugar than is called for? Would that be safe still as well? Or would it affect flavor or texture too dramatically?

And alternatively, does anyone have an approved recipe for a "reduced sugar" (no splenda), slightly sweet cucumber pickle?

Side question, do Armenian cucumbers water bath well?

Edited to add recipe in comments, and whether or not reducing onions/sugar while keeping everything else the same would be fine…?

I've been searching for a hot sauce recipe that doesn't call for tomatoes, and I happened upon the linked exchange regarding the NCHFP Cayenne Pepper Sauce. "The garlic, onions, tomatoes and cilantro are optional in this recipe, but you must use the amount of peppers, vinegar, and water as stated in the recipe."

While this makes sense to me, how would I know that the majority of the non-vinegar ingredients are optional when the recipe itself doesn't state this? Is there a rule of thumb that removing ingredients, other than acids, is generally safe?

Are the tomatoes just providing bulk in this recipe?

Can I safely reduce the sugar in this recipe? I'm not a fan of super sweet cucumbers.

It says I can put pretty much anything as long as I use 1/2 broth.

I make a soup with mini meatballs and was wondering if it was okay? The meatballs are only about 1” across. So basically I was going to fill the jar with meatballs 1/2 way up the jar, and add broth.

The other thing I just can’t wrap my head around is canning meat with no liquid. It seems crazy!

I always second guess myself - when a recipe calls for a certain weight of an ingredient, does it mean the weight “before” coring/pitting/etc, or after? I’ve always assumed after, but my anxiety is making me check myself. Thank you! This is the Plum Habanero Salsa from Ball website.

Hi, VERY new to all this and I promise I will look start researching into this more in depth. But for today I need some quick help with a change in recipe.

Cowboy candy

6 cups apple cider vinegar
4 tsp canning salt
8 - cups sugar
4 - tsp turmeric
1 - tsp chipotle powder
4 - tsp mustard seed
12 - cloves garlic (minced)
8 - Ibs jalapeno
Makes 10 pints

Water bath for 10 minutes

I have to change the chipotle powder to canned chipotle, will this be ok?

How long would this last for in the fridge?

After opening the jar to eat, how long will it be safe to eat for?

Thanks!

Local farm advertising this recipe on a “make your own salsa” kit. I’ve never done traditional salsa before

I'm making the Ball Salted Caramel Pear butter. (https://www.ballmasonjars.com/blog?cid=salted-caramel-pear-butter) It calls for cooking ingredients in the crockpot, then water-bath processing. I slipped and added too much lemon juice. I'm not in my best form, and didn't sleep well last night, but the pears were ripe and it had to be done lol. Or so I thought, in my muddle.

Can I skip water bath processing and instead, freeze jars of the end product? I figure I'd need to cool it to room temperature, refrigerate overnight,and then add to jars with correct headspace for freezing, which I think is 1/2 inch.

Does this make sense/seem safe? Thanks in advance.

(lol my mom always froze raspberry jelly; naturally with the paraffin top, in ball jars.)

Editing the next day, to give an update for anyone who tries this recipe: It took about 6+ hours for the pear butter to cook down, during which time I got some coffee, ate, and regathered myself. Decided to waterbath can it after all, everything sealed, rings off, it all looks good. Recipe made 5 jars, plus the little bit I have in the fridge, which tastes good, some of which I'm about to eat with some yogurt.

Thanks to the mods and fellow canners for your encouragement and camaraderie!

Hello all. I'm about to do my very first canning of pear jam. We do not normally eat pears, and I honestly can't even remember what a pear tastes like haha. We have a pear tree that surprised me with a lot of fruits this year for the first time. I've read through a few different recipes, and most call for slightly underripe pears. Here is what my pears look like. They taste slightly sweet, but very difficult to cut through the core. So you think they are ready to be made into jam or should I let them ripen more? Sorry again, like I said I've never canned pears nor have I grown them before 😬

Can I omit the cranberries/ raisins? We just will not utilize it with this ingredients

I’m very new to canning (first batches of water bath canning and pressure canning last night!). Not a stranger to food science and food safety and rightfully paranoid, so want to get this right.

I’m struggling with the NCHFP’s information regarding peppers used in salsa recipes.

I want to make a batch of the Tomato Taco Sauce (https://nchfp.uga.edu/how/can/canning-salsa/tomato-taco-sauce/).

I don’t want it screaming hot. I have tons of jalapeños and drowning in various types of sweet/bell peppers. I don’t have green chiles. So trying to navigate the swap of different pepper types for the 4 green chile peppers the recipe calls for. Would like to use that pepper allocation for more jalapeños and a bit of sweet pepper.

Honestly I’ve never handled a green chile before. So I have no concept of how large they are. And where the recipe uses a count of the number of fruits (4), I’m quite perplexed as to how a person goes about swapping out the type of pepper used.

NCHFP gives some guidance on the use of peppers in salsa recipes (https://nchfp.uga.edu/how/can/canning-salsa/ingredients-for-salsa-recipes/) but it’s…a bit silly to me. Basically they say you can swap out one type of pepper for another safely, but emphasize that you cannot increase the total number of peppers. They state, “You may substitute bell peppers for some or all of the long green chiles.” My bell peppers are massive.

This hurts my brain! Obviously if a person replaced jalapeños for a full sized bell pepper, count for count, you’d end up with a totally different composition which may not be safe. I’ve spent a fair bit of time trying to look this up online. Best I can find is AI telling me that four long green chiles chopped is a cup, but when asked for sources AI backpedaled and said there was no accepted measure. Told me to go buy four long green chiles, dice them, measure and discard and substitute based on that 😂😂

Sorry the novel, just wanting to be very prudent here. Any advice/reputable sources of info you can point me to would be greatly appreciated! I really don’t feel like infecting myself with botulism.

I’ve never eaten corn relish & the recipe calls for clear jel. Never used that either. For those of you who have had it, what’s it like? What is the mouthfeel with the clear jel? Bernardin says you can use flour in place of clear jel. Is the texture of that acceptable with the flour? Saves me from buying another product. I really don’t want to go to a bunch of work for a product I have to play the game of hide the corn relish. What do you use it like? I know it’s a relish but also says side dish. I’m confused. I intend to use the recipe on the HealthyCanning website. For those of you experienced I would appreciate your input and any tips. Thank you for your help and time. This is a great community! If you have any other corn recipes other than plain canned corn that you and your family enjoy I would also appreciate a heads up on them!

I'm using the All new Ball Book of Canning and Preserving: 350 recipes... (first edition was in 2016, mine was printed 2023). It says for fruit butters: "4lbs / 2 kg apples: wash, peel, core and chop." (p. 133) and because I'm new and a little dumb, I started questioning it.

1) Is 2kg before or after peeling and coring? I peeled 2.25kg of apples, but after coring they weighed roughly 1600g, so I peeled another three to reach 2000g.

2) How much can I differ on a recipe? I.e. if a recipe is 2kg (2000g), and I have 1970g, do I need that 30g (~1oz) of apple?

3) The recipe calls for 60 ml (1/4th cup) of lemon juice. Per the FAQ, that should be 120ml (1/2 cup), right? (Good thing I added lemon juice instead of a liquid in the pear butter last week...)

New to canning, I want to can dill pickles using the following recipe but with the following alterations: https://www.healthycanning.com/dill-pickles

- Increase salt from 3 Tbsp to 1/2 cup (same salt ratio used in this recipe: https://www.ballmasonjars.com/blog?cid=picklecrisp)

- Reduce sugar from 3/4 cup to 1/4 cup (I like sour pickles and don't want much sugar)

- Remove pickling spice and bay leaf

- Add peppercorns to the jar (1 tsp per quart jar)

Every source I can find says sugar and salt do not contribute to food safety, and dry spices can be omitted or added.

Since I am not deviating from the vinegar/water ratio or adjusting the processing time, are these alterations safe?

Is there instead perhaps an alternate tested recipe I haven't found that has the things I'm looking for?

I just bought a bunch of strawberries and wanted to make strawberry pie filling. Every recipe I'm seeing uses something called Clear Jel which I don't have and I can't find anywhere except Amazon and I don't buy from Amazon. Is this ingredient necessary? I have Sure Jell if it needs something like that or are there any recipes that don't use Clear Jel? Thank you

Hi all. I'm working on making sauce based on this Ball recipe: https://www.ballmasonjars.com/blog?cid=homemade-tomato-sauce

I am just about to finish step 3 under cooking, where all my tomatoes and juices will have gone through the initial cooking / crushing step and put through the food mill. But I have a LOT of tomatoes and have had to do several batches to get to this point and would like to know if I can put the milled tomatoes into the refrigerator and complete the cooking down and canning steps tomorrow.

Does anyone know if this would be safe to do? I have a pretty big pot, but think it will require several batches to cook this product down by about half in order to get to the actual processing. Thank you!

I’m getting ready to make and WBC Ball’s Peach salsa (recipe here). But my state, SC , is one of 27 affected by a Salmonella-tainted jalapeño supply. Neighboring states equally hard-hit while also having cyclospora in produce.

Which chilis should I sub in for the jalapeños in this recipe? I thought either poblano or Serrano since those are green & would replace the green of the jalapeño . Will remove the pith and seeds in whatever I use since the recipe also has ground cayenne pepper. (I gift salsa to family and friends with various heat-tolerance levels so I never make it too spicy. )

I usually added a fresh jalapeño, partially seeded (pith removed) when serving the salsa.

So I need my salsa safe . Suggestions appreciated, thank you in advance!

If you've made the Ball Fig Rosemary and Red Wine Jam, which wine did you use? The recipe recommends a good quality Merlot or Pinot Noir. These are not my favorite reds, but I don't want to ruin the recipe.

(Also, "good quality" -- is this a wine I'd like to drink with dinner? Or do I have to splurge lol.)

I'm visiting friends later this fall, and my (plain) fig jam was a hit the last time I visited. I thought I'd bring a variety of jams this time, and thought I'd branch out from single fruit jams

Thanks in advance for your experience and/or any suggestions.