7 of My Favorite Canning Equipment

Canning season is in full swing at our house.  I’m so grateful my garden is flourishing this year but very busy preserving or preparing all that we are harvesting. Today I have my favorite canning equipment to share with you.

We’ve been eating a lot of our fruit and vegetables!  While I will freeze some of the yearly harvest, I mostly rely on canning to preserve it.  I’ve been eyeing this freeze-dryer, and I have heard so many positives about this company but I’m just not quite ready to make that investment.  Maybe next year.

So back to my canning, today I’m just taking a few minutes to share with you 7 of my favorite canning supplies and tools that have really helped me put up a lot of produce in a small amount of time.  These are all worth checking out and I think you’ll find they help you to up your canning game…

7 Favorite Canning Equipment to Up Your Canning Game

1. Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving – This book is BY FAR the best canning resource I have!  Over the years, I’ve collected quite a few canning books at garage sales. This book has been recommended by some of my favorite YouTubers, friends, and other blogs.  I finally bought a copy this year and I must say, I’ve been so happy with everything I have canned in this book.  So far this year, I’ve canned the Cucumber Sandwich Pickles, Tomatillo Salsa, Chunky Mustard Pickles, Raspberry Juice, and Green Beans.  The pickles and salsa have all been absolutely delicious (but I think they will only get better with time).
2. Tattler Reusable Canning Lids – The canning lid shortage last year had me scrambling to find more lids.  After what happened last year, I decided to buy a bunch of the Tatler reusable lids.  This year I’ve canned 95% of my jars with these lids and have had great success! I have only had 2 jars (out of over 75) that did not seal properly which were probably due to user error.  The best place to buy these is through Tatler (linked), which offers free shipping and bulk packaging for the very best price.
   Here is one of my favorite gardening/homesteading YouTubers I like to watch, demonstrating how to use them,
   https://youtu.be/KbxXvDDIsb0and 

Amish Waterbath Canner – My regular, enamelware canner can only hold up to 7 quarts at a time.  This year, I got an Amish Waterbath canner, which can hold 15 quarts at a time!  You can buy a shelf to put in the canner and process 30 pints at a time.  This is a HUGE timesaver when I’m processing a big batch.  I still use my enamelware canner (that I got at a garage sale for $0.50!) for all the smaller batches of water bath canning.

3-Burner Camp Stove – The camp stove is pictured above and it serves a dual purpose for us, camping and canning.  The weather has been sweltering here this summer so I most often use this stove to run my canners.  It’s been a big help in keeping our A/C at a normal level and keeping the heat outside.  For camping, we bought a reversible griddle, (which covers 2 of the 3 burners so we can still cook in a kettle on the 3rd burner) and this cover.   As you can see from the photo, there is a windshield to help with keeping your flame up when the wind is raging.  It burns super HOT and boils the water very quickly.

Steam Juicer – I love this steam juicer for fruit with small seeds or pits.  We picked wild raspberries in the hills a few weeks ago and my steam juicer extracted the juice without having to deal with jelly bags.  This steam juicer is perfect for grapes, chokecherries, currants, and I plan to try out my rhubarb with it and see how that works.

Pressure Canner – If you’re new to canning and plan on canning low acid foods (like green beans and corn) you’ll also need to get a pressure canner.  I’ve used my Presto 16-quart stovetop pressure canner for years and it’s never failed me.  I recently got my grandma’s 1940’s National Canner No. 7 canner (also in the picture), which I replaced some parts on and spruced up some since.  I hope to share how I rehabbed and tested this family heirloom to make sure it was safe and worked correctly in another post.  But needless to say, I have years of experience using a regular pressure canner.  (NOTE:  You CANNOT use an instant pot pressure COOKER to preserve food safely)
Last year I decided to experiment with this electric pressure canner.  I thought maybe an electric canner would be easy to use without heating up our home.  While this particular model has great reviews on Amazon, I have to say that I was only mildly successful.  Mostly, I just found the instruction wonky and not as clear as I needed.  I may give this one more go before I pass it on to someone else.

Chopper Tools – Now I can’t say I love this french fry cutter, but I will say, it’s a huge time saver.  I don’t use this for french fries though, I have used it plenty of times to dice up onions, tomatillos, and cucumbers for my chunky mustard pickles.  All you need to do if you want to dice is slice your fruit/vegetable to the right thickness and run it through the cutter.
Mostly, I use my Salad Master Stainless Steel Manual Food Processor that I have had for many many years.  This is the nearest equivalent I could find online and it looks very promising.  I use my slicer at least weekly throughout the year.

That’s it.  Those are my favorite tools that have been a huge time saver and worthwhile.  If you have a favorite mandoline or other canning tools, I would love to hear your recommendations!

Blessings,