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.
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.
Canning sweet potatoes
This is a walk-through of the USDA procedure for safely home pressure canning sweet potatoes
Ingredients
Instructions
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Wash potatoes. Leave skins on.
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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.
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Let cool until you can safely handle them.
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Peel; discard peel (or reserve for another non-canning use such as stock).
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Chop into roughly 3 cm (1 inch) cubes.
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Pack into half-litre (US pint) jars or 1 litre (US quart) jars.
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Leave 3 cm (1 inch) headspace.
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Top up with clean boiling water (such as from a kettle, for instance), maintaining headspace.
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Debubble, adjust headspace.
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Wipe jar rims.
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Put lids on.
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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.)
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Processing time: Half-litre (US pint) jars for 65 minutes OR 1 litre (US quart) jars for 90 minutes.
Recipe 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.
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) | 65 mins | 10 lbs | 15 lb | |
| 1 litre (1 US quart) | 90 mins | 10 lbs | 15 lb |
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.
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.
Nutrition
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: 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.
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
Barb
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
Healthy Canning
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.
Jan
Can I can my sweet potatoes with lite sugar water?
Thank you, Jan
Healthy Canning
You could if you wished. The sugar would basically count as a seasoning.
Cathy Hughes
What if I didn’t cook the sweet potatoes before canning,? They should cook throughout and maybe they wouldn’t be mushy
Healthy Canning
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.
Sandra Gossage
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.
Healthy Canning
Directions for pressure canning sweet potatoes are above.
Myra Owens
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.
Bob Taylor
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!!!
Healthy Canning
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/
Sherry Herry
I like to make sweet potato biscuits. My grandma introduced me to them years ago. They are so good.
Healthy Canning
Do you use home-canned sweet potato to make the biscuits with, or start from fresh sweet potatoes?
Sherry Herry
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.
Laurene K Kristofferson
My brother canned sweet potatoes and they don’t have a good taste. He uses the correct time.
Cindy schaeffer
What is the length of canning for 1/2 pint jars (10lbs pressure -450′ altitude)?
Healthy Canning
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/
Debbie
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?
Healthy Canning
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.
Sherry Pence
I have shortened the time on a lot of stuff and it is ok
Healthy Canning
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.
Carol
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.
Pauline Burkey
I NEED TO KNOW HOW LONG TO COOK SWEET POTATOES IN WATER BATH. HE DOES NOT HAVE PRESURER COOKER.
Healthy Canning
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. :}
Michael Jones
what if you add acid?
Healthy Canning
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.
sgs
You can buy a good pressure canner “off season” for a few dollars.