I thought I’d make an individual post on Hot Water Bath Canning. It is included in my post Salsa Time  from holy cow, four years ago! When I decided this morning that I needed to do something with my abundance of grape tomatoes, I decided to make a small batch of salsa. I knew I had the canning instructions somewhere, but it took a while for me to find it. So, here it is again:

The first step in the canning process is preparing the jars. The jars need to be washed and rinsed and placed into a large pot, submersed in the water so that the water completely fills the jars and is about an inch over the jars and then heated to boiling. After the water begins to boil, lower the heat and continue boiling the jars for 30 minutes. After that time, you just need to make sure the water stays hot so that when the hot salsa is ladled into the jars they don’t break.

While your salsa, or whatever you are making, is cooking, place the lids (not the rings) into a pan with enough water to cover the lids and heat on low. This makes the rubber on the ring pliable. Keep the lids in water until you are ready to put them on the jars. Wipe out the insides of any of the rings to make sure they are clean and will achieve a good seal.

Ladle the prepared ingredients (what ever you are canning) into the prepared jars. Remove any air pockets by running a knife inside the jar. Wipe away any residue left on the jars from ladling the salsa (or whatever) into the jars. Place the lids and rings on the jars, tightening the rings just enough so they are tight and resubmerge them in the hot water. The water in the filled canning pots needs to be brought back to a boil, the temperature lowered and boiled for twenty minutes. After that, CAREFULLY remove the jars from the boiling water.

Let the sealed jars stand for 24 hours before moving them again. If the center of the lid has popped up, this means you have not achieved a good seal, and that jar should not be stored, but refrigerated and used first. The other sealed jars can be stored in your pantry.