I have been preserving food at home for some 30 years now and have collected many books on the subject over the years. The boiling water bath method is a constant thread throughout all the information and opinions on the best way to preserve. No matter what country I was in or what group I was working with, the science of home preserving all comes down to food safety. The boiling water bath was the safest method when it was first developed over 200 years ago, and it remains the safest method today.

I learned about the boiling water bath when living in Pennsylvania, a state heavily influenced by the large Amish population that lives there. Below, I share the steps to ensure that your preserves are safe to eat for years to come, although I recommend rotating your stock regularly.

Boiling Water Bath method

It is important to note that only high-acid foods can be preserved with the boiling water bath method. This includes most jams, jellies, fruit in syrup, and pickles.

With so many great high-acid recipes to choose from, it’s easy to get started. You don’t need any specialised equipment, and the process is simple. You can even recycle the jars. All you need is a recipe and, for safety’s sake, new lids.

Equipment

This is the basic equipment needed for boiling water bath preserving.

• Large Pot
• Something to put in the bottom of the pot, such as a round cake cooling rack
• Jar Lifter
• Lid Lifter
• Stainless steel funnel

You will need a large pot to use as your boiling water bath. This pot must be large enough to hold several jars and then be filled with water until the jars are completely submerged.

As you will be standing glass jars in this pot, you need to create a space between the jars and the bottom of the pot. You can use a round cake rack or the removable bottom of a spring-form cake tin to do this. It doesn’t need to be a large space, but enough so that the glass jars are not sitting directly on the bottom of the pot.

You will need jars. These can be reused from the jars you purchased food in from the grocery store. If you do not have any at home, ask a neighbour if they have any jars. They end up in the rubbish most of the time, so people will be quite willing to give them to you.

You will need lids for the jars. It is not advisable to use lids that have been used before. If you look inside the lid, you will see a ring made of a rubbery substance. This is what makes the seal. This substance is affected by the acids in the original jar contents and in the recipe you are processing, and can become degraded with multiple uses. Lids are only to be used once to ensure you get a good seal. My new lids are what you need. You will also need a jar lifter, some clean towels and a wide-mouth funnel.

Procedure

Prepare a batch of one of the preserves or sauces from the examples in my Blog, my book, Sugar-Free Home Preserving, or a recipe from another publication if you have one. Remember, you will be eating this, so a little taste test along the way is recommended.

Wash the jars you will use in hot, soapy water and then rinse well. Leave them in a sink of hot water to await being filled with your preserves. Do the same to the lids and leave them in a sink of hot water, waiting to be placed on the jars once full.

If the processing time for your recipe is less than ten minutes, the jars and lids should be sterilised in boiling water after washing.

Spread a towel on your counter, and when you’re ready to fill your jars, place them on the towel right by the pot of preserves. This is where you need the jar lifter to prevent burning your hands when removing the jars from the hot water. You also want the jars to be hot when you put the hot preserves into them. Hot liquid poured into a cold glass can cause the glass to break, so be sure to leave your jars in hot water until you are ready to start filling them.

Fill each jar with the preserve, using a wide-mouth funnel, leaving the recommended headspace as specified in the recipe you are using. Once the jars are full, wipe off the rims with a clean cloth. Be sure that there is nothing on the rims of the jars, as anything that gets between the rim of the jar and the lid can prevent a good seal.

Once you have cleaned off the rims of the jars, you are ready to put on the lids. Using the lid lifter, remove the lids from the hot water and place them on the jars, tightening them securely.

Now you are ready to process the jars to achieve a vacuum seal, ensuring freshness.

Get the large pot and place the article you have chosen into the bottom to create a space between the bottom of the pot and the jars. As mentioned earlier, this can be a cake rack or a similar item. Then, place the jars into the pot, ensuring they do not touch each other. Then, using a jug, begin to fill the pot with hot water. Do not use boiling water, but also avoid putting cold water in, as the glass is hot. You do not want to risk any jars breaking due to rapid temperature change. Fill the pot till the jars are completely submerged and covered by at least 4 centimetres.

Turn the stove on and bring the pot of water with your jars to a boil. This should be a full rolling boil, or what John Gross describes in “Food Preserving At Home” as “briskly boiling” water.

Process the jars for the time specified in the recipe, taking into account the jar size. Larger jars are processed for longer.

Once the processing time has elapsed, turn the stove off, remove the jars using your jar lifter, and place them on a tea towel on the kitchen counter to cool.

As the jars cool down, a vacuum is created. If you use safety pop-top lids, they will pop down as the jars cool. You do not have a vacuum seal if the pop tops do not pop down.

If any of the jars do not seal, you can process them again or decide that this is the jar you will use right away. There are several reasons why a jar may not seal. There may have been some preserve left on the rim of the jar, or there may be a defect, such as a chip on the rim of the jar. Additionally, if you do not leave enough space at the top of the jar, you may prevent a vacuum from forming.

Now that your jars are cool and the vacuum seal has been created, you must label them with their contents and the date. This is important, as no matter how good your seal is, you do not want to leave a jar at the back of the cupboard for years without a date. Always eat the oldest jar first. Even preserved foods that you purchase in the grocery store are dated with the use-by date.

I preserve all of my high-acid foods this way and have a pantry full of goodies. It saves me a significant amount of money on my shopping, and I have real food with no nasty artificial flavours, colours, or preservatives.

I hope that you enjoy the bounty of your harvest and that this post helps you do so.

As always, live well.

Valerie