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Home / Water bath canning: step by step / Improvised Canning Rack / Bottom Trivet

Improvised Canning Rack / Bottom Trivet

When you are water bath canning, you want something on the bottom of the pot as insulation / padding for several reasons:

  • To encourage proper water circulation;
  • To get even heat so that the food in your jars doesn’t get scorched at the bottom of the jars;
  • To stop excess heat going straight to the jar and cracking the glass;
  • To stop the jars from banging about overly and into each other.

You can improvise a rack with twist ties and extra screw bands (Tip! choose first the old banged up and rusty ones.)

  • It’s best to use screw bands for regular mouth-size (70 mm) jars, which will hold up all size jars. Though it really just depends on the size of the jars you want to hold up and the size of your pot and what width of screw bands you have access to — in Europe and New Zealand, you may only have access to the wide mouth 86 mm screw bands such as Leifheit and Perfit;
  • Arrange them with all the tops facing up, so that the top rims provide more support structure for narrower jars;
  • Tie the rings together a bit loosely, so that it’s easier to manoeuvre the ring structure into place and smooth it out;
  • Just be sure that pot is still tall enough to cover the jars with 2 to 3 cm (1 inch) of water ( or 5 cm / 2 inches if the processing time will be longer than 20 minutes.)

waterbath rack DIY

Use canning tongs to place and retrieve the jars.

This contraption won’t last forever; it will eventually rust out, but it should get you through a bit until you figure out a more permanent arrangement.

Some people, however, say they prefer this arrangement to the canning racks that come with the old style speckled granite ware water bath canners. They say those racks are often challenging to use because:

  • Jars seem to fall through the spaces provided: they only really securely hold quart / litre jars. Anything smaller tips over or falls through;
  • The racks have flimsy handles that are supposed to rest on the pot edges and hold the rack safely above the boiling water while you load the jars in, but they often instead fall in with a big kerplop in the air of scalding water;
  • When it doesn’t fall in on its own, the idea is that you are supposed to be able to use the handles to lower it gracefully down into the surging water but as soon as you lift one handle off the edge of the pot, the other comes loose and kerplop.

Other things typically suggested that you try as bottom insulation if they will fit into your pot:

  • a cake rack;
  • a pressure cooker insert;
  • a metal trivet;
  • a steaming rack;
  • a folded dish towel.

Many report in frustration that a folded dish towel just flaps all over in the boiling water and it’s hard to get it to stay in place to put the jars on it.

waterbath rack DIY

Perhaps better than canning rings tied together is an inexpensive metal Chinese dumpling steaming rack. These should cost no more than a few dollars in Chinatown or at a Chinese grocery store.

An inexpensive metal Chinese dumpling steamer rack can be used as a canning
rack in a pinch. Use inverted for added height.

You may wish to try a search on Amazon for more permanent ideas for canning racks.

Farm to Table Dual Canning Rack, Nylon, Quart or Pint Sizes 11.5 x 11.5 x 2
Farm to Table Dual Canning Rack, Nylon, Quart or Pint Sizes 11.5 x 11.5 x 2
Price: $21.19
Price Disclaimer
Ball® Home Canning Discovery Kit (by Jarden Home Brands)
Ball® Home Canning Discovery Kit (by Jarden Home Brands)
Price Disclaimer
Progressive International PL8 Cooling Canning Reversible Stainless Steel Rack
Progressive International PL8 Cooling Canning Reversible Stainless Steel Rack
Price Disclaimer

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. pennie wolfe rose

    November 04, 2023 at 8:23 pm

    Thank you for this useful hack! Excellent advice that works.

    Reply
  2. Elinora M.

    July 24, 2022 at 8:34 pm

    Thank you for this! I cannot find my canning insert, and goodness knows I have a ton of rings, and even some twist ties! Perfect!

    Reply
  3. Lynn

    August 14, 2021 at 8:42 pm

    I’m using the dish towel method right now. Thank you so much for the great idea

    Reply
  4. Karen Hamilton

    August 04, 2020 at 6:57 pm

    Great article! This couldn;t have come at a better time for me. Bought one of those canners mentioned and found that the half pint jars fall through. Thank you so much for the great tips!

    Reply
  5. josette

    July 22, 2020 at 8:16 pm

    That is Brilliant! Thanks for posting it!

    Reply
  6. Andrea

    September 01, 2018 at 10:19 pm

    Do I need to use the trivett in the bottom of my instant pot for canning tomatoes and salsa?

    Reply
    • Healthy Canning

      September 11, 2019 at 6:27 pm

      No, because you should not be using your Instant Pot for any canning at all. See this advisory against canning in multi-cookers.

      Reply
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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“THE preservation of fruits and vegetables by canning is now an exact and known science. Our grandmothers, and even our mothers, were content to lose entirely many quarts of fruit each year; and they were never surprised to find a layer of mold on top of each jar. Science has made wonderful advances, however, and in these days any woman can preserve fruit and vegetables without the loss of a single jar or a trace of mold.”

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