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Home / Seasonal Winter / Canning sweet potatoes

Canning sweet potatoes

Filed Under: Seasonal Winter, Vegetables Tagged With: Sweet potatoes

Canning sweet potato 001

You may home can either variety of sweet potato: the orange, or the white.

You need around 1 kg (2.25 lbs) per 1 litre (1 US quart) jar.

In 1930, the Ball Blue Book advised that “some of the best varieties for canning are the Nancy Hall, Triumph and Southern Queen.” [1]Ball Blue Book. Edition O. 1930. Page 14. While supermarkets will never be able to tell you what variety they are selling you, those able to try their hand at growing their own might be able to procure those varieties.

NOTE: Home canned sweet potato will be very soft. See note below. Really, they are perhaps only suitable for using as a purée, or in a pie. If that’s not acceptable to you, freeze them.  They can be successfully frozen for up to 6 months, after being partly cooked first. Don’t try to store them long term in the refrigerator. They hate being refrigerated, preferring a dark cellar around 13 C (55 F), which not many people can supply any more as basements are far warmer.

Contents hide
  • 1 The recipe
  • 2 Canning sweet potatoes
    • 2.1 Ingredients
    • 2.2 Instructions
    • 2.3 Notes
    • 2.4 Nutrition
  • 3 Reference information
  • 4 Source
  • 5 Nutrition
  • 6 To serve home canned sweet potato
  • 7 Canned sweet potato is very soft
  • 8 Freezing sweet potato instead
    • 8.1 Frozen Sweet Potato Balls
  • 9 Cooking with home-canned sweet potato recipes

The recipe

Jar size choices: Either half-litre (1 US pint) OR 1 litre (1 US quart)

Processing method: Pressure canning

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) 65 minutes; litres (quarts) 90 minutes.

Print

Canning sweet potatoes

This is a walk-through of the USDA procedure for safely home pressure canning sweet potatoes
Course Side Dish
Cuisine American
Keyword Sweet Potatoes
Prep Time 1 hour hour
Cook Time 1 hour hour 30 minutes minutes
Total Time 2 hours hours 30 minutes minutes
Servings 1 varies
Calories 226kcal

Ingredients

  • sweet potatoes
  • water

Instructions

  • Wash potatoes. Leave skins on.
  • Boil or steam in their skin until a bit soft. This should take 15 to 20 minutes, depending on how big they are, and how many you have in the pot at once.
  • Let cool until you can safely handle them.
  • Peel; discard peel (or reserve for another non-canning use such as stock).
  • Chop into roughly 3 cm (1 inch) cubes.
  • Pack into half-litre (US pint) jars or 1 litre (US quart) jars.
  • Leave 3 cm (1 inch) headspace.
  • Top up with clean boiling water (such as from a kettle, for instance), 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 65 minutes OR 1 litre (US quart) jars for 90 minutes.

Notes

The reason you don't peel them first is because raw sweet potato will turn an unsightly brown in the air very, very fast.
Mashing the sweet potato is unsafe; the density causes heat penetration issues in the jar during processing.
The cubes of sweet potato are expected to be at least luke-warm going into the jars. (So, if you prepped them the day before and overnighted them in the fridge, you need to heat them up again somehow such as in a microwave before starting the canning process.)
If you have small sweet potatoes, you don't need to cube them; you can just quarter them.
Optional per ½ litre (US pint) jar (double for litres / US quarts): 1 tablespoon lemon or orange juice (some say can help prevent darkening; others say it just adds an interesting flavour.)
When you go to use these, drain them. Consider saving the drained water and freezing it in a tub for use in soups, etc: it makes a wonderful broth.

Nutrition

Serving: 250g | Calories: 226kcal

Guidelines below are for weighted-gauge pressure canner. See also if applicable: Dial-gauge pressures.

Jar SizeTime0 to 300 m (0 - 1000 feet) pressureAbove 300 m (1000 ft) pressure
½ litre (1 US pint)65 mins10 lbs15 lb
1 litre (1 US quart)90 mins10 lbs15 lb
Canning Sweet Potato Camote

White variety of sweet potato, that usually has purple skin (aka camote, in Spanish)

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.

What is the shelf life of home canned goods?

Sweet-Potato-Home-Canned

Source

Potatoes, Sweet – Pieces or Whole. United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). Complete guide to home canning. Agriculture information bulletin No. 539. 2015. Page 4-16.

Potatoes – Sweet. In: Ball Blue Book. Muncie, Indiana: Healthmark LLC / Jarden Home Brands. Edition 37. 2014. Page 115.

Sweet Potatoes. In: Kingry, Judi and Lauren Devine. Ball / Bernardin Complete Book of Home Preserving. Toronto: Robert Rose. 2015. Page 392.

Sweet potatoes still in skins

Nutrition

Serving size: 250 g, drained (about one half of a ½ litre / US pint jar, if 500 g went into the jar.)

sweet potato canned nutrition

Per 250 g: 226 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.

To serve home canned sweet potato

Expect to serve this basically as mashed sweet potato.

Drain (tip! freeze liquid in a tub for use in a soup.) Mash with a potato masher or a fork — it’s very soft and almost no force will be required.

Mix in if desired butter, sour cream, seasonings of your choice. Zap in microwave until piping hot, 3 to 4 minutes. Serve hot.

You can also use home canned sweet potato for a sweet potato pie. Drain, mash and use as called for in the pie recipe you are following.

Use in any recipe that calls for mashed sweet potato.

Canned sweet potato is very soft

Canned sweet potato is very soft! Don’t shake the jars!

It ends up so soft that if you shake the jars, it will simply and completely dissolve within seconds in the canning water.

Immediately below is a photo of jars of sweet potato that were transported by knapsack.

There was nothing to do but use them as a base for a sweet potato soup.

Canning Sweet Potato 005

Freezing sweet potato instead

If that kind of softness is unacceptable to you, consider freezing them instead. The National Center for Home Food Preservation provides the USDA’s directions for freezing sweet potato in halves, sliced or mashed.

Frozen Sweet Potato Balls

So Easy to Preserve [2]Andress, Elizabeth L. and Judy A. Harrison. So Easy to Preserve. University of Georgia Cooperative Extension. Bulletin 989. Sixth Edition. 2014. Page 312.  gives this recipe for Frozen Sweet Potato Balls (to be clear, this is indeed for freezing only, not canning):

To prepare and freeze:

Make mashed sweet potatoes. Form into balls. Brush with melted butter or margarine. Roll in crushed cereal flakes or finely chopped nuts. Freeze balls on baking sheet before packaging in rigid containers or freezer bags. Fill air spaces with freezer paper.

To serve:

Bake on greased baking sheet at 350 F (175 C ) to at least 165 F (75 C) [Ed: they mean internal temperature], about 25 to 30 minutes. They should be steaming hot before serving.

The recommended storage time for these in the freezer is up to 1 month.

Cooking with home-canned sweet potato recipes

Pork Pie with Sweet Potato Crust

Sweet Potato Dip

Canning sweet potato 002

References[+]

References
↑1 Ball Blue Book. Edition O. 1930. Page 14.
↑2 Andress, Elizabeth L. and Judy A. Harrison. So Easy to Preserve. University of Georgia Cooperative Extension. Bulletin 989. Sixth Edition. 2014. Page 312.
Tagged With: Sweet potatoes

Filed Under: Seasonal Winter, Vegetables Tagged With: Sweet potatoes

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Addy

    November 28, 2024 at 5:28 am

    Hello, I am wondering if there is a safe/approved way to can the sweet potatoes in a light simple syrup instead of water for infused sweetness?

    Reply
  2. Terrence

    September 24, 2021 at 4:53 pm

    I think I will stick to prebaking and seal a meal bagging to the freezer
    For squash and sweet potatoes
    Thanks for sharing other ideas

    Reply
  3. Jen

    September 09, 2021 at 5:49 pm

    Canned/steamed/ soft sweet potatoes make a fantastic base for a dairy free and healthier chocolate pudding. You just need a good blender or food processor. A little milk of choice, a healthy dose of cocoa powder, and a sweetener (I use maple syrup) a little melted chocolate. And blend. It’s so rich. Thevegan8 has a few good recipes. Try it, you’ll be pleasant surprised. My hubby exclaimed it tastes just like regular chocolate pudding! LoL

    Reply
  4. Jamie Pizer

    November 07, 2020 at 7:51 pm

    Can you add cinnamon to the sweet potatoes before canning?

    Reply
    • Healthy Canning

      June 21, 2021 at 12:22 am

      Yes. See: Safe tweaking of home canning recipes

      Reply
  5. Barb

    November 06, 2019 at 5:37 pm

    I want to can mashed sweet potatoes for baby food. Can you explain why ‘Mashing the sweet potato is unsafe; the density causes heat penetration issues in the jar during processing.’
    Thank you

    Reply
    • Healthy Canning

      May 19, 2020 at 11:48 pm

      Exactly as written, “the density causes heat penetration issues in the jar during processing”. It’s the work of seconds to open a jar canned correctly, drain it and mash it. No one wants to give an infant botulism.

      Reply
      • Jan

        September 09, 2020 at 4:49 am

        Can I can my sweet potatoes with lite sugar water?
        Thank you, Jan

        Reply
        • Healthy Canning

          September 21, 2020 at 8:48 pm

          You could if you wished. The sugar would basically count as a seasoning.

          Reply
  6. Cathy Hughes

    October 21, 2019 at 4:58 pm

    What if I didn’t cook the sweet potatoes before canning,? They should cook throughout and maybe they wouldn’t be mushy

    Reply
    • Healthy Canning

      October 22, 2019 at 9:27 pm

      The USDA directions were tested for safety presuming that the directions would be followed. If you don’t follow all steps, all bets are off.

      Reply
  7. Sandra Gossage

    March 06, 2019 at 5:46 pm

    Can you pressure can sweet potatoes like you would an Irish potato? I cut up my Irish potatoes and cut in one inch pieces. I preboil a few minutes and then put in jars and proceed to can them.

    Reply
    • Healthy Canning

      September 09, 2019 at 1:55 am

      Directions for pressure canning sweet potatoes are above.

      Reply
  8. Myra Owens

    March 15, 2018 at 1:02 pm

    I have used this method and time (90 minutes for quarts) for several years and they come out perfect. I use them for casseroles, pies and fried hand pies. In my opinion its the way to preserve the sweet potato. It is also much easier to prepare Sweet Potato dishes when they are pre canned.

    Reply
  9. Bob Taylor

    January 08, 2018 at 3:28 am

    we did a large batch of sweet potatoes – pressure canned according to the recipe, not understanding the end product would be pretty mushy – not good for any regular cooking. we are looking for suggestions/recipes on how to use up all this sweet potato mush – any suggestions or pages we might check out for suggestions?
    this was a large disappointment for us – sweet potatoes are the only potatoe my wife can eat because of dietetic restrictions – double rattss!!!

    Reply
    • Healthy Canning

      February 09, 2018 at 11:02 pm

      I do three things with it. (1) Mix with home canned squash, carrots, turnips, etc, then mash with some sour cream and seasoning, reheat and serve as a wonderful vegetable mash. (2) Drain well and use to make a sweet potato pie filling. (3) Empty contents of jar, water and all, into a food processor, whiz and then add to pot and use as the basis for starting a cream sweet potato soup with.

      Here are directions for freezing, you can see if that is more appealing: https://nchfp.uga.edu/how/freeze/potato_sweet.html

      You can also dehydrate them to make items such as sweet potato chips, etc: https://www.excaliburdehydrator.com/wp/recipe/veggie-chips/

      Reply
    • Sherry Herry

      September 26, 2020 at 8:41 pm

      I like to make sweet potato biscuits. My grandma introduced me to them years ago. They are so good.

      Reply
      • Healthy Canning

        September 26, 2020 at 9:58 pm

        Do you use home-canned sweet potato to make the biscuits with, or start from fresh sweet potatoes?

        Reply
        • Sherry Herry

          September 26, 2020 at 10:15 pm

          I have used sweet potatoes that I grew, pureed, and then frozen as well as starting from fresh potatoes. I have never canned any sweet potatoes, but I imagine it would be the same.

          Reply
    • Mindy

      November 17, 2023 at 3:04 pm

      I love sweet potato casserole, and that’s the main reason I canned. I use the recipe with pecan streusel. Yum!

      Reply
  10. Laurene K Kristofferson

    March 27, 2017 at 8:22 pm

    My brother canned sweet potatoes and they don’t have a good taste. He uses the correct time.

    Reply
  11. Cindy schaeffer

    December 17, 2016 at 10:30 pm

    What is the length of canning for 1/2 pint jars (10lbs pressure -450′ altitude)?

    Reply
    • Healthy Canning

      December 18, 2016 at 2:25 am

      Hi Cindy, the rule of thumb is that when you use a smaller sized jar that the recipe talks about, you use the processing time for the next biggest size up. So, in your case, using 1/2 pint jars, you will be using the processing time for pints as that is the next tested size up. Here’s information about that so you can understand / memorize this rule of thumb for the future. Help that helps. https://www.healthycanning.com/jar-sizes/

      Reply
  12. Debbie

    August 22, 2016 at 2:58 am

    I did my sweet potatoes exactly to the recipe and they came out soft when I owned a jar. Why did mine turn out too soft? Can I can in less time in pressure canner?

    Reply
    • Healthy Canning

      August 22, 2016 at 5:20 am

      Hi Debbie,

      You can never, ever, ever reduce processing times in a pressure canner on any recipe. In fact, the times are already reduced — when they were developing the processing times, they decided to rely on proper cool down methods as part of the lethality needed. That allowed somewhat shorter processing times which saves people cooking fuel costs, etc. Otherwise, they would have had to require longer processing times even if you can believe it. So, no, we can’t reduce processing times, they are already exactly what is required to sterilize the jar. In canning, we are sterilizing not cooking.

      Sweet potatoes do come out very soft, that’s just the nature of them when canned, for better or worse. I had a note at the bottom of the page about that, but I’ve now strengthened that note, and added freezing alternatives for those to whom that kind of softness isn’t acceptable.

      I’ve also added usage suggestions. There’s a million and one recipes that call for mashed sweet potato. Think of it this way — you can now make those recipes on the spur of the moment without paying an arm and a leg for sweet potatoes out of season, having to go to the store in all weather to buy them, and then, having to run the oven for close to two hours sometimes to bake a sweet potato to get it soft enough to mash for a recipe. So having it to hand, fully ready to go, is a real blessing. We’d love to hear of ways you think to use them — we’re going to use some in a Sweet Potato Pie as soon as the weather cools allowing oven use again.

      Reply
    • Sherry Pence

      October 15, 2016 at 1:40 am

      I have shortened the time on a lot of stuff and it is ok

      Reply
      • Healthy Canning

        October 15, 2016 at 9:30 am

        Hi Sherry, how they develop processing times is they inoculate jars of sweet potatoes with spores representing botulism spores — the spores are so dangerous they aren’t allowed to work with them directly. Then they test to see how long it takes to kill those spores in all spots of a jar with heat. They do the test over and over again, to make sure they have reliable lengths of time to kill every last spore in every possible location of the jar, because all it takes is one spore left alive to wipe out a small town, and this advice is going out to hundreds of millions of people. They also don’t go any longer than is needed, either, as preserving the maximum amount of nutrition is also part of their mandate. So that’s how they arrive at recommended lengths of process time.

        If jars are underprocessed and are fine, it doesn’t mean the recommended processing times are too long — it means those particular jars luckily had no botulism spores in them. Long may your run of luck hold.

        Reply
      • Carol

        October 02, 2020 at 6:08 pm

        Botulism is not seen or tasted but it is very real. You are playing with your life! Reducing times is not a safe practice. The correct time and pressure is needed to kill bacteria that cause food poisoning. Please do not eat that which has not been properly processed. Discard it.

        Reply
  13. Pauline Burkey

    June 29, 2016 at 9:27 pm

    I NEED TO KNOW HOW LONG TO COOK SWEET POTATOES IN WATER BATH. HE DOES NOT HAVE PRESURER COOKER.

    Reply
    • Healthy Canning

      June 29, 2016 at 10:52 pm

      Sweet potatoes can only be canned with a pressure canner. If you don’t have one, cook them fully by method of your choice, pack in baggies or tubs, and freeze. If someone tells you you can water bath them, they are talking through their hat. You have to get the jars to 240 F to make them safe; boiling water will never go above 212 F even if you boil them till the cows come home. :}

      Reply
      • Michael Jones

        October 18, 2016 at 3:00 pm

        what if you add acid?

        Reply
        • Healthy Canning

          October 18, 2016 at 9:39 pm

          You would have to add enough acid to turn cubes of sweet potato into pickles that would then neutralize botulism spores and prevent them from germinating and releasing their deadly toxin. So the liquid in the jar would need theoretically to be a brine of at least 50% vinegar, if not more, that is 5% or higher in acidity, but you’d have to test to see if the 50% ratio was even enough to penetrate the dense, hard sweet potato cubes to pickle them right to the very core where botulism spores could be sheltering. To be clear, that is just theoretical to show why even if one wanted to make sweet potato pickles, it would need lab testing.

          Pressure canners are cheap now, and will save you a fortune in energy costs to boot. The heat of pressure canning is the only way to actually kill those botulism spores right dead.

          Remember, you can always also bake sweet potato, mash it, and freeze it. https://nchfp.uga.edu/how/freeze/potato_sweet.html

          But you do NOT want to seal improperly heat treated sweet potato in an air-free jar, or any botulism spores present will have a field day, and Lord pity the poor soul that is fed that jar.

          Reply
          • sgs

            October 16, 2019 at 9:39 pm

            You can buy a good pressure canner “off season” for a few dollars.

If you need FAST or relatively immediate canning help or answers, please try one of these Master Food Preserver groups; they are more qualified than we are and have many hands to help you. Many of them even operate telephone hotlines in season.
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