My mother makes homemade salsa every year for the past 15+ years. My wife and I got 20 jars this year and had eaten all but one. Today we opened the final jar, it had a tight seal and smelled great like all the rest. The only thing "off" was the top 1-2 inches was slightly darker than the rest of the salsa. We mixed it in and started to eat some when I thought that could mean it went bad. There was a little less than 1 inch of head room on the jar when we opened it and it tasted fine. I'm very paranoid that we may have been exposed to botulism. Do you think it was safe? Have you had salsa dis ..read more

Unfortunately I do not have a photo of the jars as I dumped them out onto some raw chicken to marinate it.... and am now debating if I should just throw it all out to be safe; but I'm very new so I want to ask opinions here first. So; my parents canned some cowboy candy about 2 years ago and gifted me some canned along with canned leftover brine. My fiance and I like to marinate our chicken in the brine and some of the jalapenos so I got a jar of brine and candy out to do just that. Well, when I opened the brine the lid was... suspiciously easy to open — at least I thought so (I did not think ..read more

We had a banner year for peaches last year, and I made a lot of peach jam. It was so good that people were asking me for it all the time. I store it in a closet so it is dark and cool. However, I took a jar out and noticed that the color had faded from that lovely orange-yellow to a bit more brown. It was nothing wrong with the jam, but I noticed that the flavor wasn't what it used to be. The peach had faded back so much, and I tasted a lot more of the lemon. It was a low sugar recipe with Pomona's pectin, so I'm guessing that was it. But I did wonder.. how long do you keep your jam? It seems ..read more

I canned this two weeks ago and it is sealed completely. There are no nicks in the glass and no rust on the lid. Is it molded? Can remove the mold and still use it after opening? submitted by /u/JadedSpread1693 [visit reddit] [comments ..read more

Maybe I figured out the source of my woes. But maybe not. Okay. The big blue aluminum canning pot with the handled wire rack. Do you fill it with water and start it to boil while you are working on processing your tomatoes (Blanche, remove the skin, back in a second pot to get hot, into the jars, wipe rim, lid, ring finger tight, ouch that’s hot, into the rack, carry heavy rack of filled jars to the now-boiling point of water, down into the water very carefully for fifteen minutes after it’s returned to a boil.? Or do you put the packed jars into the big blue pot, fill it with water, then bri ..read more

It appears to be rust from a store bought can of banana peppers, it still made the pop when I opened it. Is this okay to eat or should I toss it? submitted by /u/beckywinchester1 [visit reddit] [comments ..read more

Not sure if right place to ask but I have no idea where to post. I'm making raw cheese, I have milk left in a half gallon glass jar but my room temperature is not quite high enough for the whey and curds to seperate. It's around 19C but needs to be above 23C. I thought about buying a cooler https://www.amazon.co.uk/cooler and placing a warm jar inside along with the milk. Will this warm up the cooler inside enough and will it keep temperature? I don't know what else to do. I bought a heat pad but milk might spill and it's electronic so not gonna use it. Anyone here have a way to keep a jar co ..read more

Hi all! New to canning and having fun so far! My sister and I are both pregnant (even due on the same day!). As summer approaches, I'm realizing how hard it's going to be without alcohol haha. Are there any good fruit syrup canning recipes that would be good for mocktails? submitted by /u/barefootdancer11 [visit reddit] [comments ..read more

I pressure canned salsa last night and checked the lids today and 3 didn’t seal. Since I left them on the counter to cool overnight, are the salsas that didn’t seal ok to eat? They didn’t seal ( I believe) due to lids being old and the ‘rubber’ on the lids disintegrated. Since I pressure canned them previously, I’m thinking that I can just leave them in the same jars and do a water bath today. Any suggestions? submitted by /u/Independent_Job_4403 [visit reddit] [comments ..read more

So I’ve picked several gallons of wild blackberries and would like to make some kind of preserves with them. I think I remember making refrigerator jam/jelly with my grandmother, where you didn’t actually do any “canning” but the finished product just went right into the fridge (though I could be remembering wrong). Does this sound like a recipe/technique ya’ll could direct me to? (Real canning still scares me but I figured doing something with my blackberry haul would be a decent place to start) submitted by /u/threefrogsonalog [visit reddit] [comments ..read more