Canning potatoes is a great way to store a glut of potatoes, to ensure they don’t go bad.
In exchange, you get jars of delicious-tasting potatoes that are ready to use in an instant for quick meals.
They are a great staple to provide to relatives such as aging parents and friends to make sure they are eating properly, too.
Potatoes must be pressure-canned; there is no alternative way to can them. Here we walk through the USDA procedures, which you’ll also find replicated in the books from Ball and Bernardin.
Note: potatoes must be peeled. Advice to the contrary elsewhere on the Internet is grossly uninformed. See notes below on this.
Note: the potatoes are to be canned in small chunks. After peeling (and yes you must peel), cut potato into 2 cm (½ inch) cubes. Small potatoes ( 3 to 5 cm / 1 to 2 inches) may be left whole. To be clear, the recommended shape does not include sliced, nor French fries shape, nor shredded. Heat penetration patterns were not tested for those shapes / densities. The good news is: you can dehydrate those shapes and still end up with a high-quality product.
See also: Dehydrating potato slices, Dehydrating shredded potato
- 1 Quantities of potatoes needed
- 2 The recipe
- 3 Canning potatoes
- 4 Reference information
- 5 Recipe notes
- 6 Recipe source
- 7 Nutrition
- 8 What varieties of potatoes are good for canning?
- 9 Peeling the potatoes
- 10 Washing the potatoes
- 11 How big for the pieces of potato?
- 12 How long to parboil the potato before canning?
- 13 Packing water for canned potatoes
- 14 History
- 15 Cooking with canning
Quantities of potatoes needed
Numbers are approximate guidelines.
On average, as a very rough guideline, expect to need about 1 kg (2 ¼ lbs) of potatoes per 1 litre (US quart) jar of canned potatoes
- 1 large bag potatoes = 22 kg (50 lbs) = 18 to 22 litres (US quarts) canned potatoes
The recipe
Jar size choices: Either half-litre (1 US pint) OR 1 litre (1 US quart)
Processing method: Pressure canning only
Yield: varies
Headspace: 3 cm (1 inch)
Processing pressure: 10 lbs (69 kPa) weighted gauge, 11 lbs (76 kpa) dial gauge (adjust pressure for your altitude when over 300 metres / 1000 feet.)
Processing time: Half-litres (pints) 35 minutes; litres (quarts) 40 minutes.
Canning potatoes
Instructions
- Wash potatoes. Peel. Cut into 2 cm (½ inch) cubes. Small potatoes ( 3 to 5 cm / 1 to 2 inches) may be left whole.
- Place in water as you cube them; don't leave peeled potato exposed to the air or most varieties will blacken on you.
- Put a large pot of water onto boil. This will be your blanching water for the potato.
- Put other water onto boil (either another pot, or a kettle.) This will be your canning water to fill the jars with.
- Give prepped potatoes one final rinse.
- Put potato in the large pot of water, bring to a boil. Boil cubes for 2 minutes, whole small potatoes for 10 minutes.
- Drain potatoes.
- Pack into half-litre (US pint) jars or 1 litre (US quart) jars. (Optional: season with ½ teaspoon or a teaspoon of salt).
- Leave 3 cm (1 inch) headspace.
- Top up with your clean boiling water, maintaining headspace.
- Debubble, adjust headspace.
- Wipe jar rims.
- Put lids on.
- Processing pressure: 10 lbs (69 kPa) weighted gauge, 11 lbs (76 kpa) dial gauge (adjust pressure for your altitude when over 300 metres / 1000 feet.)
- Processing time: half-litre (US pint) jars for 35 minutes OR 1 litre (US quart) jars for 40 minutes.
Nutrition
Processing guidelines below are for weighted-gauge pressure canner. See also if applicable: Dial-gauge pressures.
| Jar Size | Time | 0 to 300 m (0 - 1000 feet) pressure | Above 300 m (1000 ft) pressure | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ½ litre (1 US pint) | 35 mins | 10 lbs | 15 lb | |
| 1 litre (1 US quart) | 40 mins | 10 lbs | 15 lb |
Reference information
How to pressure can.
When pressure canning, you must adjust the pressure for your altitude.
More information about Salt-Free Canning in general.
Recipe notes
Yes, you must peel the potatoes. Processing times were developed based on the potatoes being peeled, which reduces the bacterial load going into the jars. Leaving the peels on increases the bacterial load, so processing times would have to be lab-tested for that, and there is currently no funding for that at the present time.
The reason you wash before peeling is so that you aren’t pushing surface bacteria into the potato flesh while peeling.
See discussion below about using the blanching water in the jars. While Ball says you can, the National Center for Home Food Preservation feels that the water will contain a lot of starch and could cause density / heat penetration issues inside the jar, so they prefer clean, fresh hot boiling water from a kettle.
No salt is needed in the jars at all. However, the potatoes can indeed come out very bland all the way to their core, and when you go to use them, it can be very hard to compensate no matter what you do for that internal blandness. Try it yourself and you’ll see. But after a while, you may go along with the old timers’ suggestion of adding a few pinches of salt to the jars. You could also use a non-bitter, non-clouding salt sub. We have found Herbamare Sodium-Free performs well in that regard.
Don’t can leftover already-cooked potato, as it would decidedly turn to a mooshy paste and encounter density / heat issues in the jars.
Recipe source
Potatoes, White – Cubed or Whole. United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). Complete guide to home canning. Agriculture information bulletin No. 539. 2015. Page 4-17.
“New Potatoes – White.” In: Andress, Elizabeth L. and Judy A. Harrison. So Easy to Preserve. University of Georgia Cooperative Extension. Bulletin 989. Sixth Edition. 2014. Page 94.
Nutrition
Presuming either no added salt, or a salt sub used.
Serving size: 250 g, drained (about one half of a ½ litre / US pint jar, if 500 g went into the jar.)
Per 250 g (½ lb, drained): 193 calories
Weight Watchers PointsPlus®: 250 g = 6 points
* Nutrition info provided by https://caloriecount.about.com
* PointsPlus™ calculated by healthycanning.com. Not endorsed by Weight Watchers® International, Inc, which is the owner of the PointsPlus® registered trademark.
What varieties of potatoes are good for canning?
The National Center for Home Food Preservation has addressed this question on their blog:
White potatoes for canning should be the “waxy” or “boiling” kind. Different types of potatoes have different amounts and types of starches and they react to heating differently. You want a potato that keeps its shape and texture well after a lot of heating, and not one that falls apart, becomes “fluffy” after cooking, and is better for mashing. Most red-skin potatoes are of lower starch than baking potatoes and work well for canning. Many white round potatoes with thin skins fall into this category with red-skin potatoes too. Russets are not good for canning but are good for baking (they have a high starch content). Yukon Gold may not be the best potatoes for canning. While they seem good for boiling, they do tend to fall apart when overcooked. From what we have read, there is a wide variety in the types and amounts of starches in blue potatoes, so not all blues are the same, just like not all white potatoes are the same in these characteristics.” [1] NCHFP blog posting. Preserving Potatoes. 6 October 2014. Accessed July 2016.
Peeling the potatoes
You must peel potatoes before canning.
You may read a few bloggers saying they do not peel their potatoes for canning, but the National Center for Home Preservation explains the safety risk in not peeling them:
As for canning potatoes, our recommendation is to peel potatoes before canning. That style of preparation is how the research was carried out to determine the recommended processing, and in order to know that the peeling does or does not make a difference, research would need to be done with unpeeled potatoes. Different assumptions might be needed in assessing just how many spores of C. botulinum or other bacteria might be present at the start of the process and what amount of heat might be needed to meet standards for the risk of possible survivors. We do not know of research of canning potatoes with peels left on, so we recommend the preparation steps provided with the process recommendation, especially because there is a possibility that the deviation could result in a less safe situation.” [2] NCHFP blog posting. Preserving Potatoes. 6 October 2014. Accessed July 2016.
If you are concerned about food waste, wash the potatoes before peeling, then peel them, and then make a potato peel broth from the peels, and freeze for a future use. It’s actually a delicious base for soups and sauces.
Washing the potatoes
The USDA is the only guide that doesn’t specify washing again after peeling (though they do for carrots).
They just say,
Wash and peel potatoes. Place in ascorbic acid solution to prevent darkening…. Drain.” [3] National Center for Home Food Preservation. Selecting, Preparing and Canning Vegetables: Potatoes, White – Cubed or Whole. Accessed May 2015.
The Ball / Bernardin Complete Book authors want two washes:
Wash potatoes and drain. Peel and wash again.” [4] Kingry, Judi and Lauren Devine. Bernardin Complete Book of Home Preserving. Toronto, Canada: Robert Rose Inc. 2015. Page 392.
The Ball Blue book does, too:
Wash white potatoes under cold running water; drain. Peel potatoes. Rinse under cold running water.” [5] Ball Blue Book. Muncie, Indiana: Healthmark LLC / Jarden Home Brands. Edition 37. 2014. Page 116
As does Presto:
Wash, scrape and rinse…” [6] Presto Pressure Canner and Cooker, 23 quart model, #72-719F. 2014. p 41
So the USDA, even though they are the authority, are the odd-man out on this.
How big for the pieces of potato?
Ball and Bernardin talk about quartering large potatoes, but because some potatoes such as russets can grow large — that, when contrasted with the max 2 to 2 ½ inch (5 to 6 cm) size otherwise specified, makes it all a bit unclear.
The USDA says,
Choose potatoes 1 to 2 inches in diameter if they are to be packed whole…. If desired, cut into ½-inch cubes….” [7] National Center for Home Food Preservation. Selecting, Preparing and Canning Vegetables: Potatoes, White – Cubed or Whole. Accessed May 2015.
Ball / Bernardin Complete Book says,
Leave small potatoes whole and cut large potatoes into quarters or small uniform cubes…” [8] Kingry, Judi and Lauren Devine. Bernardin Complete Book of Home Preserving. Toronto, Canada: Robert Rose Inc. 2015. Page 392.
Ball’s Blue Book says,
Potatoes that are under 2 inches in diameter or smaller may be canned whole. Cut large potatoes into quarters.” [9] Ball Blue Book. Muncie, Indiana: Healthmark LLC / Jarden Home Brands. Edition 37. 2014. Page 116
Presto likes the same, small-size cubes that the USDA does:
… new potatoes 1 to 2 ½ inches in diameter. If desired, cut into ½ inch cubes.” [10] Presto Pressure Canner and Cooker, 23 quart model, #72-719F. 2014. p 41
So Easy to Preserve says,
“For packing whole, choose potatoes 1 to 2 inches (3 to 6 cm) in diameter… If desired, cut into ½ inch (2 cm) cubes.” (2014 edition, page 94.)
How long to parboil the potato before canning?
Ball’s Blue Book wants 10 minutes of blanching for all sizes of pieces; the other guides are 2 minutes for small cubes, 10 minutes for larger pieces.
USDA says,
If desired, cut into ½-inch cubes…. Cook 2 minutes in boiling water and drain again. For whole potatoes, boil 10 minutes and drain.” [11] National Center for Home Food Preservation. Selecting, Preparing and Canning Vegetables: Potatoes, White – Cubed or Whole. Accessed May 2015.
Ball / Bernardin Complete says,
Boil small cubes for 2 minutes and small whole potatoes or quartered potatoes for 10 minutes…” [12] Kingry, Judi and Lauren Devine. Bernardin Complete Book of Home Preserving. Toronto, Canada: Robert Rose Inc. 2015. Page 392.
The Blue Book says 10 minutes, flat:
Put white potatoes in a large saucepan. Add water to cover potatoes. Bring mixture to a boil; boil 10 minutes.” [13] Ball Blue Book. Muncie, Indiana: Healthmark LLC / Jarden Home Brands. Edition 37. 2014. Page 116
Presto is like the others, 2 minutes for small pieces, 10 minutes for larger:
Cover potatoes with hot water, bring to a boil and boil whole potatoes for 10 minutes, cubes for 2 minutes….” [14] Presto Pressure Canner and Cooker, 23 quart model, #72-719F. 2014. p 41
Packing water for canned potatoes
Ball says you can use the water you parboiled the potatoes in; the other three (USDA, Ball / Bernardin Complete and Presto) insist on fresh, boiling water, and the NCFHP specifically says not to use the parboiling water. The parboiling water will contain a great deal of starch, and in the jars with the potatoes could cause density issues for the processing times that were tested. Plus, you would end up with a lot of undesirable looking goopy sludge in your jars. (Tip! Freeze the parboiling water in tubs, for a start to some great soups.)
The National Center for Home Food Preservation says,
Cover hot potatoes with FRESH boiling water, leaving 1-inch headspace and covering all pieces of potato. (Caution: Do not use the water you cooked the potatoes in; it contains too much starch.) [15] National Center for Home Food Preservation. Selecting, Preparing and Canning Vegetables: Potatoes, White – Cubed or Whole. Accessed May 2015.
They elaborate further in their blog,
….all potatoes — white or sweet — should have fresh, boiling water prepared to pour over the preheated potatoes. Do not use the cooking liquid. That cooking water contains a lot of starch that comes out of the potatoes and the process time was determined using fresh boiling water to cover. The added starch can create a safety problem by slowing down heating of the potatoes in the canner, and it also creates a very unappealing pack with possible masses of gelled or congealed starches around the potatoes. If you have spoilage, this makes it very hard to see the signs of some spoilage.” [16]NCHFP blog posting. Preserving Potatoes. 6 October 2014. Accessed July 2016.
Ball / Bernardin Complete says,
[Discard] cooking liquid. Pack potatoes into hot jars, as directed in Step 3, ladling in fresh boiling water to cover potatoes.” [17] Kingry, Judi and Lauren Devine. Bernardin Complete Book of Home Preserving. Toronto, Canada: Robert Rose Inc. 2015. Page 392.
Ball says you can use the blanching liquid:
Ladle hot cooking liquid or boiling water over potatoes….” [18] Ball Blue Book. Muncie, Indiana: Healthmark LLC / Jarden Home Brands. Edition 37. 2014. Page 116
But Presto implies it wants boiling water, as opposed to boiling blanching or cooking liquid:
Cover with boiling water…” [19] Presto Pressure Canner and Cooker, 23 quart model, #72-719F. 2014. p 41
History
Advice on canning white potatoes only entered the Ball Blue Book in 1936. (Prior to then, it was only sweet potato.) At the time, the book allowed for either pressure-canning or water-bath canning them. [20]Ball Blue Book. Edition T. 1936. Page 23. Over the next ten years, while their pressure canning processing time recommendation held steady at 45 minutes, their water-bath time recommendation kept increasing, from 2 hours, to 2.5 hours, to 3 hours. By 1953 — Edition 26 of the Blue Book — the water-bath option had been dropped, and the pressure canning advice was ” Wash, scrape, and rinse freshly dug potatoes. Boil 10 minutes. Pack, hot, into hot Ball Jars. Add 1 teaspoon salt to each quart. Cover with boiling water. Process pints 30 minutes, quarts 40 minutes, at 10 pounds pressure.” [21] Ball Blue Book. Edition 26. 1953. Page 48.
As far as the Cooperative Extension System goes, the advice to pressure can potatoes, as opposed to water-bath them, has been in place since at least 1942. Here’s what the University of California Extension advised back then:
NEW POTATOES: Peel, pack in jars or cans. Fill with dilute brine, containing 2 per cent salt or about 1 level teaspoon per quart of water. Heat the cans in steam or boiling water 5 minutes and seal them. Handle jars as with string beans or peas. Sterilize quart and smaller containers at 240° F (10 pounds’ pressure) for 40 minutes and 2 quart size jars, or no. 10 cans, for 60 minutes.” [22] Cruess, W.V. and A.W. Christie. Home Canning. Circular 276, revised Augusts 1942. University of California Agricultural Experiment Station. Page 38.
[Note: to be clear, this is historical reference only, and the 2 quart size jar recommendation has been withdrawn since then.]
For the first half of the 1900s, though, the USDA as a whole didn’t offer any advice for home canning white potatoes — only sweet potatoes. They advised people just to store them in cellars instead. Here’s the USDA’s advice from 1943:
The home economists of the Department of Agriculture do not advise canning either hominy or potatoes. Neither of these foods needs to be canned to keep…. Most people who grow potatoes store them in a pit or down in the cellar. Potatoes are bulky. If you canned them, they would take a good many jars — too many jars that should be used for other canned food. Jars or cans are precious these days. .. should be used only for putting up foods that must be canned to keep. In any case, both hominy and potatoes are non-acid foods, so would need canning under steam pressure. Nowadays, it is difficult to get new pressure canners. But by all means save the hominy and the potatoes in some way. All food is valuable in wartime and needs saving. Store your potatoes in a cool place. . . around 40 degrees if possible to prevent sprouting.” [23]USDA. Homemaker’s Chat. 24 June 1943. Page 2.
In 1975, Extension System canning advice for potatoes re-emerged in a 1975 publication from Illinois State extension. “Pare” means “peel”.
University of Illinois Cooperative Extension Service, Urbana-Champaign. Canning Fruits and Vegetables. Circular 1112. May 1975. Page 12. Provided for historical reference only; use up to date canning advice.
Home canning of potato advice was formally accepted and incorporated in the first USDA Complete Guide 1988, with the recommendations that are still current today: 10 lbs pressure weighted gauage (11 lbs dial), adjusted for altitude. Pints 35 minutes, quarts 40.
A 2015 botulism outbreak in Ohio was caused by water-bath canned potatoes. [24] Herriman, Robert. Ohio botulism outbreak: Potato salad with home-canned potatoes made using a boiling water canner. Outbreak News Today. 2 August 2015. Canning experts termed the potatoes “grossly underprocessed.” The water-bath home-canned potatoes sent 29 people to the hospital with botulism. A woman named Kim Shaw, 55, from Rushville, Ohio, died of it.
Cooking with canning
References
MJS
I canned my potatoes exactly according to recipe last night. Now the liquid looks cloudy and a little starchy but the potato pieces do not fall apart. Is this a safety issue? Thank you.
Healthy Canning
It is normal for the water in jars of home-canned potatoes to look cloudy and starchy. How much will depend on the variety of potato used.
Marlo
Hello, I canned red potatoes and noticed that after pulling the jars out of the pressure cooker, that some of the rings had come loose. Also, I noticed that in two of my jars, the potatoes are sticking above the waterline in the jar. Are these two things a big deal?
Healthy Canning
After canning, do not tighten the rings (unless you are using a re-usable lid such as Tattler or Harvest Guard.) It is fine if some potatoes are sticking above the waterline.
Amber
After reading the process for the USDA, it states from your article, “If desired” to blanch the potatoes.
Am I reading that correctly, that it isn’t a necessary step?
Healthy Canning
The “if desired” refers to the cut size.
LISA
After i pack my potatoes in jars and get them sealed, do i have to immediately can them or can i wait a few hours before i pressure cook them?
Healthy Canning
You need to pressure can them immediately. It’s meant to be one continuous process.
Grada Lamb
I am off Dutch origin and we have dishes that combines several veggies togeher, like to know if I they are suitable for canning. For instance, their is a Dutch dish called Hutspot, which has carrot, onions and potatoes.
Another one is Boerenkool stampot, which is Kale and Patatoes and a little onion.
ANother one is Zuurkool stampot which is sauerkraut and potatoes
Stampot means mashed ‘Ofcourse you can do the mashing when you open the jars.
I would make it Quart jars.
Really appreciate the input
I did see that same people use onionsoup mix for the carrots since they stated they do not taste good
Healthy Canning
The University of Wisconsin Extension service, as well as Ball canning, say “You may create vegetable mixtures as long as there is a tested recipe for each vegetable that you are combining and you follow the processing time for the vegetable that has the longest time listed.” You need to prepare each vegetable as the directions for that veggie expect for it going into the jar, which is to say, as you yourself said, no mashing ahead of time. So for the Hutspot, with carrot, onions and potatoes, you would process for the potato time, as that is the longest time. The same for the Boerenkool. There’s no tested pressure canning time for cabbage or sauerkraut so the third one, Zuurkool stampot, would be out.
It’s worth noting that some home canning authorities are not comfortable with the “longest time” advice, and prefer that any combinations be lab-tested as such. So there are the two points of views on that.
sylvia Hinesy
Yes, I agree with above comment. Use of wrong waxy potato for canning and you using the starchy, citric water instead of fresh boiling water to cover before canning. Try dehydrating your yukon golds. Might be a better alternative than canning that variety of potato.
Craig Helewski
Hello – I am in desperate need of some help and advice. I recently canned 1/3 of my potatoes (Yukon Golds) this year and with it being my first year of canning potatoes I am now wondering what went wrong. After researching here is the process I used. I peeled the potatoes and cut them into 1-2″ pieces one evening and ran out of time to can them so after rinsing them very well about 5 times I left them in a pot full of cold water with a little citric acid and put them in the fridge until the following evening. After work the next day I brought the pot up to a boil and let the potatoes boil for about 3 min once they were at a full boil. I then pulled the potatoes out of the pots and placed into my jars using a spoon with holes in it to not take the same water they were boiled in and added some citric acid to the jars. I then brought fresh water to a boil in other pots and filled my jars with it before sealing. I then processed them in my pressure canner at 10 lbs for 40 min. What has happened is that my potatoes are now in a very THICK gel like substance and they taste almost like there is a touch of vinegar in them. Are they safe to consume and what caused this to happen? Was it boiling them in the same water they sat in for a day? The citric acid in the jars? Not rinsing them after boiling? All or a combo of the above? Please help… I really want to can the other 2/3 of my potatoes and have them turn out better. Thank you so much in advance!
Healthy Canning
You reheated the potatoes to piping hot, then packed them in jars, added fresh water, processed them at 10 lbs for 40 minutes. Provided 10 lbs is the correct pressure for your altitude, that is the USDA procedure.
You are running into two things.
One is not part of the procedure — the citric acid. It is not called for. It is possibly that which is giving it a vinegary taste, particularly because the potatoes have a triple dose of it, in soaking in it, and being boiled in that citric acid soaking water, and then again in canning. (How is it btw you’re tasting them anyway if they are in jars?)
The second is something that the National Center does caution about specifically– the variety Yukon Gold. It’s falling apart on you into a starchy paste. “Yukon Gold may not be the best potatoes for canning. While they seem good for boiling, they do tend to fall apart when overcooked.” https://www.healthycanning.com/canning-potatoes/#what-varieties-of-potatoes-are-good-for-canning
So going by what you said, you are looking at a quality issue. If the rest of your potatoes are Yukon Golds, how many do you have — do you have enough freezer space to freeze them? https://nchfp.uga.edu/how/freeze/potato_new.html