Canning Equipment - Healthy Canning

Home canning requires a certain amount of equipment.
It can be expensive in your first year of canning as you acquire the basics. After that, though, mostly everything (except the single-use, throw-away metal lids) is re-usable year after year.

 Ball


Ball is a brand of home canning supplies.

Home canning advice given by Ball is considered to be amongst the most reputable advice in the world from the private sector.

Ball puts out one of the best-known books in the field of home canning, its...
 Ball HarvestPro Sauce Maker


The Ball® HarvestPro™ Sauce Maker is a good mid-range tomato mill product, and very good value for its price point.

It's among the least expensive of the electric food mills, but comes with some very desirable features, such as a splash cover, a ...
 Bernardin


Bernardin was started by Alfred Louis Bernardin in 1881 in Evansville, Indiana. The company invented two famous bottle caps: the wire one still used today to hold champagne corks on, and, the standard beer and pop bottle cap also still in use today....
 Bernardin History

The first years of Bernardin 
Bernardin was originally just a bottle cap and lid company. It transitioned into a mason jar lid company making lids for other companies' jars, then a Canadian company. It did not actually start selling its own mason jars...
 Bernardin Jars


Bernardin is the largest supplier for canning jars for the Canadian home canning market.

The jars are made in the States under the Jarden company umbrella, and shipped up to Canada.

Bernardin jars are sold in boxes of 12. The boxes are cardboard ...
 Bernardin Vintage Jars (Green)


Bernardin has released two green "vintage" jars.

One is 1/2 litre (500 ml / 1 US pint) regular mouth; the other is 1 litre (1 US quart) wide mouth.¹

Both are in a dark...
 Bernardin Vintage Jars (Purple)


In the spring of 2015, Bernardin released large purple coloured jars.

They are 1 litre (technically 946 ml, so 3 tbsps short of a full litre) in size and have a wide mouth.



They have a less ornate, simpler Bernardin logo on the front, and...
 Emerie Brine


 

Emerie Brine has been the public face of Bernardin  in Canada since at least 2008. He is Bernardin's Executive Chef, as well as consumer spokesperson. He is a Red Seal Certificate Chef and a Master Food Preserver.

Brine also holds other...
 Canning supplies in Canada


 
Canning supply vendors 
Overall, Canadians are as well-supplied as Americans are for canning supplies, and at similar costs. For the past several decades, the leading vendor by sales volume in Canada of basic supplies, such as jars and lids,...
 Funnels for home canning


Canning funnels are funnels specially designed for use in filling jars for home canning.

The purpose of a canning funnel is to keep jar rims cleaner and prevent waste, all the while letting you work just a little bit faster and more efficiently...
 Jars


If you're someone who home preserves regularly, jars are something you will be periodically buying.

Sometimes a new design of jar will come on the market that catches your fancy. Sometimes you'll need to expand your inventory to handle a bumper...
 Atlas mason jars for home canning


The Hazel-Atlas Company was an actual company from 1902 to 1964.  They made actual Mason jars for home canning, as well as other glass items, such as depression glass and milk glass.² They also ...
 Bail Lid Jars


Bail lid jars have a two-part wire clasp attached to the top of them. Newer-style French Le Parfait, English Kilner and Italian Fido jars operate on this principle. Older-style bail jars, made in the first half of the 1900s, were known as "lightning"...
 Frutta del prato jars


Frutta del prato is a line of home preserving jars sold in many countries around the world.

Depending on where you are in the world, and where you buy them, they can be more expensive than other home preserving jars, or less expensive.

In some...
 Gem Jars and Lids


Gem jars are shouldered Mason jars that came in (Imperial) pints, quarts and two-quart sizes.

What is now unique about them is the mouth size on them: the mouth size of 78 mm falls in between the now-standard sizes of 70 mm (regular) and 85 mm...
 Golden Harvest Mason Jars
 



Golden Harvest brand Mason jars for home canning are a lower-priced line of Mason jars sold by the Newell Corporation, which also owns Ball, Bernardin and Kerr jars.

The jars are sold in Canada and the U.S.

The Golden Harvest jars...
 Jar Sizes


 
When can you change the jar size that a tested recipe calls for? 
You can use smaller jars than a tested recipe calls for, but not larger.

You can't use a larger jar than the recipe indicates. The reason is that larger jars usually requires...
 Kilner Jars


Kilner is an English brand name of home preserving supplies.

Many different types of jars, flasks, bottles and preserving accessories are sold under the Kilner name.

Kilner also sells kits for related preserving ranges such as sloe gins, and ...
 Le Parfait Familia Wiss Mason Jars


Le Parfait  jars are highly desired by cooks the world over. The name means, "The Perfect".

The company makes a line of wide-mouth, straight-sided Mason-style jars with two-piece lids for home canning. The jars are sold under their "Familia Wiss" ...
 Le Parfait's hinged-lid jars


Le Parfait is perhaps best-known for its classic hinged-lid (aka bail-type" lid) jars.

The glass, hinged lids are permanently attached and re-usable indefinitely.

At the start, we'd like to note that the USDA currently recommends against this...
 Leifheit Jars


Leifheit jars are very sturdy preserving jars from Germany.

In the preserving world, Leifheit is not as famous as Weck is. Many people in Germany know Leifheit only for their "cleaning supplies": small appliances and tools for laundry, kitchen...
 Lightning Jars


A lightning jar was a type of jar made for home preserving in the first half of the 1900s.

These jars are now recommended against for home canning purposes. This article is for historical reference only. Do not attempt to do home canning with lightning...
 Quattro Stagioni Jars


Quattro Stagioni (Four Seasons) are preserving jars made in Italy.

The jar mouth sizes come in regular mouth, wide mouth, and non-standard mouth.

The jars take screw-on lids.

The jars are, it appears, still actually made in Italy. They are...
 Re-using jars from store-bought products


Can you use recycled glass jars as canning jars?

The answer depends on who you ask, and revolves around operational safety, rather than food safety.

 
No, don't use recycled jars for home canning 
Here are some responses from the "no,...
 Weck Jars


Weck's home canning jars are well-known in Europe.

The Weck canning jar system consists of glass jars, glass lids, tabbed rubber gaskets (sealing rings) and metal clamps.

The most noticeable difference between Weck jars and Mason jars is that...
 Jelly Bags


Jelly bags (aka "jelly strainer bags") are fine mesh bags designed to strain liquid mixtures in order to clarify them into a clear liquid for use in making jellies, or for drinking as a juice.

If your mixture is fruit based, the bag will strain ...
 Kerr Jars


Kerr is a range of mason jars for home canning. They can also be used for freezing, dry storage, and decorative functions.

Kerr is primarily marketed in the western United States, where it has historically had a loyal customer base.


Kerr Jars...
 Lids for home canning


Jar lids play a vital role in home canning. In addition to ensuring that the preserved food stays in the jar, they also keep that food sterile after the jar has been processed by keeping nasties from re-entering the jar.

Over the course of time,...
 BPA and Canning Lids


 

Bisphenol A (BPA) is a compound often used in plastics. For several years, home canners were concerned, rightly or wrongly, about the presence of the compound in the lining on the underside of their canning lids.

In response to consumer...
 Buckled Lids


In modern home canning terms, a buckled lid is a permanently distorted metal lid on top a jar.

The jar should be treated as unsealed, even if it has sealed.

Luckily, buckled lids are rare and easily prevented.

Note: this does not occur with ...
 Magnetic Lid Wand


A magnetic lid wand is used to fish metal canning lids out of hot water.
What exactly are they for? 
A magnetic lid wand helps you to lift a metal lid out of boiling water without scalding yourself. Mind you, you're not supposed to be putting your...
 Mason Jar Lid Tighteners


One low-level but constant question that people have is just how tightly to screw the canning ring bands onto mason jars for processing.

The phrase usually given as the answer, "finger-tip tight " seems to answer the question at first, but a few...
 One-piece lids for home canning


There are one-piece canning lids (aka "Twist-top lids"), such as you see on commercially-purchased bottled goods, that are sold for home canning use.

You put them on jars and process the jars. According to the manufacturers, if a dimple (sometimes...
 Pinholing


Pinholing (aka pitting) is the appearance of small holes or corroded areas on the undersides of the metal lids of your home canned foods.

This does not mean that the food in the jar has gone unsafe. In fact, the food in the jar will still be safe...
 Tattler Reusable Canning Lids for Home Canning

What are Tattler lids? 
Tattler reusable canning lids are two-piecsee plastic lids for mason-type preserving jars. Both parts are reusable.

Whereas current standard metal lids for mason jars are two pieces physically joined together -- an actual...
 Mason jar storage caps


Plastic caps from many standard Mayo-style jars will fit regular-mouth (70 mm) Mason jars for refrigerated and dry storage.

To be clear, this usage covers refrigerated storage of opened home canned goods, and dry storage of dry goods -- NOT canning ...
 Newell


Newll is a company that produces most of the mason jars and mason jar lids for North America. They do so under the following brand names: Ball, Bernardin, Golden Harvest, and Kerr.

 	Ball jars  are mostly sold in the eastern-half of the United ...
 pH Meters and Home Canning


A pH meter is a device used to measure the acidity of foods.

"A low pH, below 4.6, will prevent the growth of potentially deadly spoilage bacteria in canned foods."   (( McGlynn, William. Choosing and using a pH meter for food products. Oklahoma ...
 Plastic Storage Caps


 

These are one-piece white, plastic screw on lids meant for preserving jars for refrigerator storage of preserves that have been opened, or, for shelf-storage of dry goods such as beans, rice, etc.

Ball guarantees that theirs can also...
 Storing Canning Rings


 

All the experts have pretty much agreed that it is safest to store your canning without the canning rings on .

The problem then arises of what to do with all your rings. Every time you buy another new box of jars you get more rings that ...
 Water Seal Canners


A water seal was a stove-top "pot" designed to water bath process jars of food at temperatures slightly above boiling by means of slight pressure. It sold for home canning use at in the first few decades of the 1900s.

It is unclear exactly how ...
 What do you call your canning jar rings?


Mason jars over the past century traditionally have had a two or three piece lid system. One of those pieces has always been a "ring" that screws onto the top of the mason jar in order to hold down the actual lid part during the canning process.

It...
The 1 litre is actually labelled as 946 ml, which is exactly 1 US quart ↩
Hazel-Atlas Glass Company. Accessed December 2016. ↩
Comments

Lyn says

October 29, 2017 at 2:31 pm

What do you know about Orchard Road canning jars? I don’t see any mention on them here?

- Randal Oulton says
  
  October 29, 2017 at 6:56 pm
  
  No experience with them, but people seem to be happy with them so far, and people seem to like their smooth sides as they are easier to label than Ball jars.
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