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Must I have 1" of water over my jars in my bath canner?
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The water in the canner has to be at least 1" over the top of the jars. The water boiling over the top of the jars is what creates the vacuum in the jars. If it isn't over the top, then the vacuum isn't created. I have two sizes of water bath canners. One is only for pints. The other holds either pints or quarts. Maybe you are trying to put quarts in a pint canner? By the way, if the water gets low while you are canning, you need to add boiling water to the canner. Boiling water only or the canner will stop boiling and you will have to start timing all over again when the boiling restarts. Kathy "As Jackie" at www.backwoodshome.com has some excellent articles on canning a lot of different things. She also has an online column at the same website. Kathy, THE SCRUBBIE LADY |
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Thank you for visiting the National Center
for Home Food Preservation.
> question -> DO YOU HAVE TO
HAVE 1". WATER ABOVE YOUR JARS TO PROCESS PICKLED BEETS? MY
CANNER WONT DO 1"
Hopefully by now you found our recommended
procedures for boiling water canning. You must have the water
1-2 inches above the jars in the canner. (The longer the
process, the higher the water should be, to make sure it never drops
below the tops of the jars during the whole processing time.)
http://www.uga.edu/nchfp/publications/uga/using_bw_canners.html
(see step numbered 4)
http://www.uga.edu/nchfp/how/general/recomm_canners.html
(see step numbered 4)
If the water is below the tops of the
jars, then the heat doesn't transfer throughout the food in the jar
during the canning process in the manner which was used in coming up
with the process time. It produces less heating of all the parts
of the jar, so the food would be underprocessed and microorganisms
that the process is supposed to kill could survive.
One must choose a canner tall enough to
allow for covering the jars being processed in the recommended manner.
Either you are not using recommended jar sizes or not using a standard
boiling water canner if you can't accomplish this with your equipment.
Too small of a canner or jars larger than listed with the process time
could also result in underprocessing.
Elizabeth Andress
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Elizabeth L. Andress, Ph.D. Professor and Extension Food Safety Specialist Director, National Center for Home Food Preservation Department of Foods and Nutrition The University of Georgia 208 Hoke Smith Annex Athens, GA 30602-4356 Phone: (706) 542-3773 FAX: (706) 542-1979 Web: http://www.homefoodpreservation.com Web: http://www.gafamilies.org Email: [email protected] ----------------------------------------
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