There is much debate online about waterbath verses pressure canning, especially with “low acid” foods. My experience has been through the Amish. They do not have internet, nor do they know about most of the books out there that talk about the canning process. This has been a process they have handed down through centuries of time tested know how. When I was canning bologna with my Amish friends the other day, I asked them “Do you know what botulism is?” they never heard of it. Well, I take that as a good sign. If they never heard of it, that means no one has ever experienced it nor died from it and the Amish literally can everything. Hundreds of thousands of Amish people, and no one died from it. That is a pretty good statistic. They can low acid foods in a water bath, covering the jars by one inch on the tops of the jars and boil them for up to 3 hours depending on what it is they are canning. My mentor, Rosa Bontrager, is a 70 year old Amish woman who grew up in a family of 18 children and raised 14 of her own. They canned everything from potatoes, green beans, apple sauce, to meats. I asked her once, why 3 hours for green beans, and she said, “I am not sure exactly why, but that is what mom did.” They have a saying: “When in doubt throw it out.” That means to them, if the seal is broken, the color is off, or the smell is funny, it should be thrown out immediately.
It is not that they are fools, or that they are unlearned. They know so much, and I value their expertise, but some of you out there are very scared. Scared about botulism. If you have a pressure canner, use it. I have two, I do use them from time to time, but I am still using water bath mostly. Not because I am stupid or naive. I just trust in this time tested way. I do realize that as with everything in life, I am taking a risk by not pressure canning my food.
I will not publicly recommend water bathing your low acids because someone may try it and maybe they will do something wrong, store it in the wrong way, and get sick. Then they will blame it on my advise. I would feel terrible that someone thought it was my fault they got sick. If you choose to do as I do, you do that at your own risk. I am documenting this today and it will be on file. If you can not afford a pressure canner, you can choose to water bath everything, like the Amish do, at your own risk. Like I do.
This is how you water bath can:
First you fill all your clean jars to the neck of the jar (about 1/2″ from the top) Never over fill, that will cause problems as well. It is very important to wipe the opening of the jars very clean, any speck of matter can cause the jars not to seal. Then you can boil your lids. Place the lids on top of the clean filled jars. Next, you will screw the rings on very tight, as tight as you can make them.
Place all of your filled and tightened jars into your water bath canner. Now you can fill the canner with water. Just pour enough water in to fill all the way over the tops of your jars, so this will be a lot of water. Then you cover the canner and turn the stove on. When you hear the water boiling, you start the timer. Some things like jams, tomatoes, apples, pears and other high acid foods, are only boiled for 10-40 min. If you are canning low acid type foods, like meats, green beans, and potatoes, you would boil them for about 2 hours for pints and 3 hours for quarts. Turn off your heat when the time is up and cool them. Always wash your jars with hot soapy water after they are cooled off and remove the metal rings. If you fail to wash the cans, especially meats, and forget to take the rings off, you will have a mess later. The jars will have some oily residue on them and in a root cellar after time, the oils will get rancid and mold but the inside of the jar will be fine. It is just plain gross to grab a oily, messy jar in the dark cellar. Yuck. I like to keep things nice on the shelf so when I show people, they do not freak out. They are already skeptical about how I water bath the meats, the mossy outside of an unwashed jar really makes them nervous. You remove the rings because they will actually begin to rust to the lids and they become very hard to remove later. You can tell if your jars are sealed by the popping sound as well as visually by the lid sucked down and on there tight. If the lid is bulged or loose, you need to refrigerate it right away or can it again. Sometimes things do not seal because there is an imperfection in the glass opening. If it is chipped in any way at the top, they will not seal. I use those damaged jars for dry food goods storage. I do not throw them out.
35 thoughts on “Water Bath Canning”
The botulism toxin is deactivated at 185°F if kept there or higher (boiling) for 10 minutes. Also,a concentration of about 10% salt will effectively prevent germination of Botulism spores in your canned food. So if you take step to kill the toxin (boiling for 3 hours) and make sure you have enough salt (i find my self using more salt in canned dishes just due to absorption), I’d say you should be good. Obviously sense check (see, smell, look) before using, but I’d say that applies to everything you can pressure or waterbath.
Anna becuz Amish don’t believe in electricity doesn’t mean they live in the fantasy world. My mom live in the depression era. 18 brothers and sisters. She picked cotten in louisiana at the age of 5. She got 2 pennies a bag. When it rained she got a nickel. They never any kind of fancy equipment or electricity. She grew up canning. She taught me to can. Never trust a book by it’s cover. Most kids and adults today wouldn’t know how to start a fire outside. Make detergent or wash clothes by hand if we had an apocalypse I at least would know how to survive. Thanks to the Amish for teaching us all of this knowledge.
You can boil something all day long and it will never get over 212 degrees. Botulism spores are only killed over 240 degrees. That is scientific fact, not an opinion. Low acid foods should be pressure canned to be safe.
So it begins with all the people who follow the government. Don’t you people understand. Pressure canners aren’t even allowed in a lot of countries. Amish people. My past relatives. Have canned anything and everything. Just by hot water bath canning. Stop scaring people. I have never pressure can ever and never will. Keep canning people
I agree with you Ruthie my family was Mennonite and when I was a kid helping mom in the kitchen canning all summer we used a water-bath although my mom canned green beans for 4 hours but none of ever got sick from food and rarely from anything else for that matter thank you for posting . Mom did get a pressure canner in the mid 80s and she did it because it took less time grandma never used one because of all the horror stories about the kids flying off and such. 🤣I myself have used both but I am going back to water-bath method I don’t feel like the food is overcooked like it so.etimes feels in a pressure canner
Thank you Ruthie for that comment !!
I have a question about water bath canning…before I heard all the fear mongering I canned several pints of vegetable soup in a water bath. Now Im concerned if I processed them long enough. Can you tell me what length of time should pints be processed this way ?
I really look forward to hearing from you regarding this….I don’t like the thought of throwing it out but I’m concerned about the timing.
Deborah
This was a great article! I appreciate you being brave enough to suffer the trolls. So many people won’t share valuable info because they’re afraid to be attacked…. such a shame. Anyway, I’m glad I found your awesome page!
Can someone tell me why water bath over pressure canning? It takes a lot longer. What is the benefit?
I can give you my reason for waterbathing sometimes over pressure canning….. my grandmother used to waterbath everything she canned and it seems to me that the color in vegetables is brighter and texture is more crisp. I’m waterbathing corn now and the color comes out so much more yellow. When I pressure can corn, it looks washed out and tastes a little overcooked. That’s just me though. I definitely do both depending on my mood.
Hi. I knew you must be able to water bath vegetables but couldn’t find any information until recently. Is it a general rule to water bath low acid vegetables like carrots for 2 hrs in rolling boiling water. Look forward to your reply. Thankyou. Lillian.
I have read several places to can low acid vegetables you use a tablespoon of vinegar and you can process for 2 hours if you dont use the vinegar you have to process 3 hours.
I’m in a group on fb that everybody water baths everything they can. All meats should be canned for 3 hours. I’m getting ready to do glazed carrots and bath them for 2 hours. I did green beans with water bath and timer set for 3 hours. I’m deathly afraid of a pressure canner. I’ve seen what happens with those. I will NEVER use one. Everything I can is wb
What group is that?
My mom always said n did the same thing. Dont eat right out of the can. We always got it good n hot in a boil. Usda also say you cant can dairy. But i see a lot of canned milk on the shelf at the store. Maybe thats magic milk. Kinda like those brown cows that give chocolate milk too.
How long do you hot water bath turnips
I am not Diane but every thing is the same 3 hrs for quarts. Most amish usually don’t use pints as they have large families. I use my instantapot for pints. (I know it isnt approved for it) put a towel or mat in the bottom to protect the jars. I rinse my jars in hot water from the instantpot. Fill jars. Then add splash of vinegar to the water to keep it from clouding up the jars n water to about 1/2way up jars. Put jars in (mine holds 4). Put lid on vent OPEN. Salute function until rolling steam. CLOSE vent set to 75 for my meats. Cool naturally. I work whole its going. Hope that helps!
Same here hun. I was raised on homemade canning what my mama did. I’m still here. And besides back in the days of old people in the 30s and 40s didn’t even heard of a pressure canner or a water bath canner. They have to grab what they had to use to get there canning done. So people of today needs to hear the old folks talk. What they had to do to live.
Love your site! Glad I stumbled upon it. Some people need to use the common sense and brains that the good Lord gave them, and keep their negative comments, opinions, etc., to themselves. If y0u don’t like what she wrote, just keep it moving along folks. She is only sharing her knowledge and experience. Get your own website and post what you’d like. I personally water bath can all the time and have for years, and we are all healthy, happy and sassy! God Bless y’all. 💗
I realize this post is old, but I am leaving my comment in case. Just because we don’t hear about botulism and the Amish doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist. They may not know what is sickening them or killing them. They only complete an 8th grade, very basic “3 Rs” based education, so their understanding of science terminologies may be lacking. Also, every Amish community is different, but they tend to have an almost fatalistic view of the world. This means they often don’t take normal preventative safety measures. The very conservative Amish here won’t use slow moving vehicle signs, have normal fire prevention/alarm systems, or use safety shields in their pallet lumber sawmills. Every year my community has Amish buggy fatalities, houses/barn fires, and serious injuries in their manufacturing facilities. They don’t change or adapt their safety measures, because of their near-fatalistic views. They may also have failed to adapt with food safety for these same reasons.
Also, please note that the Amish store near me sells pressure canners, as does the well-known, Ohio-based Lehman’s store. It seems at least some Amish use and recommend pressure canners quite willingly.
They aren’t foolish, they will sell things that people will buy even if it’s not something they use personally, like pressure canners that they don’t use, but will sell to you for 300.00 while they use their 20.00 pot. I trust the knowledge and wisdom over the Amish over the greed and lies of the USDA, aka, government
If I water bath sliced carrots do I put raw cold sliced carrots into hot jar, and pour in boiling water? Then put jars in boiling water in canner for 3 hours? Also I think I read when you are going to eat foods that have been wb you have to boil 10-15 minutes. Is this correct?
If you are canning sliced carrots you have to water bath them for three hours if using quart jars you can boil for two hours if you use vinegar in your recipe.
Oh, how I wish I could find their old recipes! I’ve got the antique Kerr and Ball books. I learned from the old Kerr book and if I hadn’t moved to FL, I would still be using them for Waterbath.
I got a pressure canner because it is so hot here and it takes less time and I don’t use Air Conditioning. It stays hot at night during the summer, which is usually when I do most of my canning.
That sounds like a really good way to do it in your conditions. Way to go. Happy Canning!
Look at my reply above. I dont have ac either n just 2 of us so pints work great. Try ur instantapot.
Thankfully science is a real thing, and being ignorant of it doesn’t change the fact that botulism is a serious danger and kills so many. While their way of life has a romatic appeal of days gone by, there is something to be said for learning and growing- especially where ones heath is concerned.
Are their any special recipes that you need to follow or can I just can my own recipes ?
Botulism is real . It’s preventable.. It kills people every year in the USA. This spring in Ohio there was a church function that was a pot luck. Several people were hospitalized, some died. Please use a pressure canner and learn tested and safe ways to preserve food. It’s much faster to use a pressure canner, and they are very safe to use. If you don’t know how or are afraid to use one, there are very caring groups on Facebook. God bless and happy canning.
My mom learned how to can from the Mennonites’. We canned all kinds of veggies , fruits, made apple sauce apple pie filling we make salsa spaghetti sauces canned tomato’s and so on, for over 40 years. Water bathing process. Never have we had an issue. No one said botulism isn’t real , but not everything that was used and still used today unsafe. You use your brain and commonsense, broken seal, moldy smell, throw out. I love canning. We have already made tons of jam and salsa , zucchini relish and plenty more stuff to can. Happy canning be safe,
How long do you water bath pints of pinto beans/chicken?
The Ohio church where this happened is not one the of Amish or Mennonite communities and therefore possibly may not have been as schooled in the safety of cooking home canned foods as those of the Amish and Mennonite communities. To completely kill all botulism in a low acid canned food and thus render it perfectly safe, one must simply rapid boil the food in an open (no lid) container for a minimum of 10 minutes (I prefer 15 minutes), and that is per the USDA’s website. Such an easy thing to do to make low acid water bath canned foods as safe (or even safer) than pressure canned food. But skip this simple but vitally important step and you risk becoming seriously ill or worse. My grandmother boiled all canned foods (even store bought – just in case) before tasting them, as that was how she was raised. People nowadays are accustomed to just opening a lid and popping the contents in the microwave to heat it through. And how many people do you know have ever opened a store bought can of green beans and sampled a bean right out of the can? Such shortcuts cannot be taken with water bathed canned goods.
In the pre-1945 official canning guides I have there are bold type warnings all throughout the booklets saying: “WARNING – You must boil all vegetables (except tomatoes) and meats canned at home 10 to 15 minutes in an open vessel before tasting or using. Never taste home-canned vegetables and meats until they have been boiled, so as to destroy any toxins that may have formed in the jar.”
Skip this simple step and you risk your life and the lives of your loved ones. Follow it, and you can safely water bath can most anything. 🙂
Thank you for posting this information. 👍
Yes that is exactly it we always boiled everything like tomatoes green beans and meat for 15 mins and that also includes store bought cans of food no exception to that rule . Thanks for posting that
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