Red-skinned potatoes are perhaps the most desirable potato to can in North America.
The reason is that potatoes with red skins are a waxy potato, and as such, stay firm when canned, and can be used for nearly instant potato salads when opened and drained.
“Red-skinned” is a generic way in North America of identifying a waxy potato. (It’s just the skin that is red; the inside potato is white.) In other parts of the world, you may find them sold as “salad potatoes”, or, as named varieties such as Jersey Royals.
If you ever wonder how these people who are already busier than is ever possible still manage to produce potato salads for a crowd at a few hour’s notice, chances are they are doing it from home-canned potatoes.
The only difficulty is, red-skinned potatoes rarely seem to go on sale. So when they do, you need to leap fast, and leap high, and can a good size batch of them.
Red potatoes must be pressure canned using the USDA’s process for canning any potato; there is no other way to can them. But if you have a pressure canner, these are pure gold to have on hand, especially in the summer for last-minute potato salads.
If you do have salad use in mind, we would highly recommend adding a few pinches of salt or non-bitter, non-clouding salt sub to the jars. Otherwise, the potatoes can come out quite bland all the way to the core, which no amount of salad dressing coating the outside of the potato chunks can compensate for.
Follow this link for the procedure for canning potatoes including red potatoes.
Cooking with canning
Kimberly
Can I can sliced potatoes to be used in scalloped potatoes? Or maybe even sliced potatoes with sliced onions?
Healthy Canning
No, because slices would pack differently into the jars and that would impact heat distribution during processing, and need to be tested for. The good news is, there’s a better and easier way to do it. See dried potato slices here: https://www.healthycanning.com/dehydrated-potato-slices
Donna B.
I see quite a few videos with people canning red potatoes with the skins on them. Is this safe. I did a batch with the skins and now I am not sure after reading that potatoes have to be peeled. The second bath I peeled.
Healthy Canning
When a canning recipe says peel, peel. It reduces the bacterial load going into the jar. The people making those videos are doing so from a state of ignorance of what the science is, and are doing no one a favour.
Brenda
I agree. Always follow directions from your canning book
Denise
I am confused about peeling. Doesn’t the pressure canning kill all of the bacteria (botulism spore)? That is the purpose is the way I understand. Are there documented studies showing where leaving the skins on shows failure?
Healthy Canning
The tested processing times were arrived at based on the assumption that users would have followed the prescribed preparation steps to reduce the bacterial load to a given level before the actual canning process starts. See here: https://www.healthycanning.com/why-you-have-to-peel-some-vegetables-for-home-canning/
Peggy Thurman
Is It possible to can potatoes without a pressure cooker? I read somewhere that you can ut the potatoes in a jar seal them tight and put them in the oven is this method goos
Healthy Canning
No, a pressure canner is absolutely required to can potatoes. If you don’t want to pressure can, consider dehydrating them. It can be a high quality product. Here’s directions for dried potato slices.
Jeanne
Can other waxy potatoes be used for canning? Such as new potatoes. The way to determine a waxy potato is it’s thin skin. So can you can a thin skin potato other than a red blis.
Healthy Canning
Absolutely. We said red potatoes because many North Americans aren’t yet familiar with the term “waxy potatoes”. Any waxy potato can be used.