Canning Carrots
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Canning carrots ready to add to a stew or soup. Or just heat, add some butter and sprinkle on a bit of cinnamon. Use a crinkle cutter for a fun look to your jars. And use the optional sweet syrup to make sweet carrots for a treat.
This page includes:
- Canning Carrots; Extended step by step explanation
- Hot Pack or Raw pack?
- Optional Sweet Syrup
- Pinnable Recipe Card
Tips and FAQ’s
Carrots are a low acid vegetable and must be processed in a pressure canner. This pressure canning page has more detailed information and step by step instructions.
Canning Carrots; step by step
Gather your canning supplies
- pressure canner
- canning jars
- canning seals and rings
- jar lifter and canning funnel
- large pot or blancher
- bowls
- large spoons
- sharp knife
- towels and dish cloths
Ingredients
- Carrots
- Canning Salt – optional
- Sweet Carrots
- Brown sugar
Wash carrots remove tops. Peel carrots. Cut carrots to the desired size. Carrots can be cut into lengths with small carrots left whole, or they may be cut crossways.
My suggestion is to not cut them too small. Carrots are cooked well in the pressure canner and they will get mushy if they are too small. Using a crinkle cutter makes your jars look very professional. Just for fun.
How to can carrots hot pack or raw pack??
Carrots can be raw packed or hot packed.
To raw pack fill carrots tightly into hot jars leaving 1-inch headspace.
For a hot pack simmer carrots gently for 5 minutes then pack hot into hot jars leaving 1-inch headspace.
Add salt if desired. 1/2 tsp per pint, and 1 tsp per quart.
Add boiling water to jars covering carrots and leaving 1 inch head space. Use a small plastic utensil or a bubble tool to release any air bubbles that might be trapped in your jars. Just run the tool down each jar moving things around gently so air will release.
Optional sweet syrup.
I used to can just plain carrots, but since I’ve tried this sweet variety… this is what I do most of the time now. Instead of plain boiling water add this syrup to your jars.
- 2 cups brown sugar
- 2 cups water
- 1 cup orange juice
Heat ingredients until heated through and melted. Pour over your carrots to one inch headspace. Careful it is hot! Oh goodness is it good. Processing instructions are the same. Simply substitute this for the plain water. (and you can choose to add salt or not.)
Wipe the rims clean with a paper towel or lint free cloth and place your lids. Which just means center the metal flat lid and screw your band down finger tight.
Processing instructions
Carrots must be processed in a pressure canner. To learn how to use your pressure canner check these pressure canning instructions.
Pints – process for 25 minutes Quarts – process for 30 minutes
Be sure to use the proper pressure according to your altitude. See the chart below. For more information see this altitude adjustments page.
Canning Carrots – Recipe Card
Canning Carrots
Equipment
Ingredients
- Carrots
- Salt optional
- Water
Instructions
- Start by preparing your jars and getting water in the canner heating. You want the canner hot, but not boiling, when the jars are ready to be processed. If you are new to using a pressure canner, see this article for full pressure canning instructions. This includes more detailed information and step-by-step instructions on how a pressure canner works.
For a Raw Pack
- Wash and peel carrots, removing the tops.
- Cut carrots into desired size.
- Pack raw carrots tightly into hot jar.
- Add salt if desired (1/2 tsp. per pint or 1 tsp. per quart).
- Add boiling water to jar, leaving 1” headspace.
- Remove bubbles, wipe the rim clean, and place on seal and ring. Place jar in the warm canner. Proceed to fill all jars. Process in a pressure canner according to the directions below.
For a Hot Pack
- Wash and peel carrots, removing the tops.
- Cut carrots into desired size.
- Place in pot, cover with water, and bring to a boil.
- Simmer carrots gently for 5 minutes.
- Pack carrots into hot jar.
- Add salt if desired (1/2 tsp. per pint or 1tsp. per quart).
- Add boiling water to jar, leaving 1” headspace
- Remove bubbles, wipe the rim clean, and place on seal and ring. Place the jar in the warm canner. Proceed to fill all jars. Process in a pressure canner according to the directions below.
Notes
Adapted from: The National Center for Home Food Preservation
Tips and FAQ
Growing Carrots
Here you all can have a little chuckle at the carrots I grow in my garden. We live where the soil is hard clay… not too conducive to picture-perfect root crops. But when I am growing carrots that are bred to be shorter and fatter, like the Danvers Half Long, I do get a crop… granted they are not too beautiful. In fact some of them are rather mutant looking. Tasty too.
Do I really need to Peel the carrots?
All official directions I find say to peel carrots. None of them mention just scrubbing without peeling. (official meaning from state extension services) This is because carrots are a root crop. The bacteria that can cause botulism can be found in the soil so it may be a higher risk. I used to just scrub my carrots real good…. but I made the decision to start peeling my carrots. Love that peace of mind. 🙂
Pin for Later
See what else you can do with carrots.
- Dehydrating carrots. – Learning how to dehydrate carrots is super easy and a good idea.
- Pickled carrots. – Pickled Carrots are a great colorful addition to any dinner table. I love the cinnamon flavor with the carrots in this pickling recipe.
Good Morning ! I know that certain veggies and fruits benefit from Hot packing (getting rid of all the air in them so they don’t float and you can get more in a jar). Do Carrots have the same benefit ?
PS. I come to your first when looking up canning recipes/instructions ! I Trust You more than any other ! :}
With Carrots I don’t think it matters. Carrots are not juicy so I don’t notice any packing difference myself. I might have to do a side by side comparison next time I can carrots.
Thank You Sharon. I cold packed them and everything came out fine ! :}
I’m growing carrots now
Can’t wait to can them. Thank you for the information.
The carrots with sweet sauce were super lightly sweet. Not sweet like candied would be though and now too sweet to use in savory dishes.
I would say go one way or the other for canning.
I do quite a bit of canning so your explanations were good, and I hadn’t considered adding syrup! I’ll work on it.
Have you ever eaten a raw carrot with the peeling on it? Have you ever eaten a baked potato peel? Sometimes you have to think more than listen.
Absolutely I have eaten potatoes and carrots with the skin. We eat simple boiled carrots with the skins. My potato salad even has the skins in them. I leave the skins on for mashed potatoes. I love all the nutrition in the peels.
But… for home canning you want to remove as much potential for bacteria as possible. The bacteria that can create issues with botulism is in the soil… by peeling you are removing more potential. Scrubbing is good… peeling is better.
It is not JUST botulism that dictates peeling. Texture and taste also are affected by NOT peeling. Stringy texture and a strong earthy taste will affect all carrots in a jar if left unpeeled.
Well, my carrots are canned. 5 pints sweetened carrots and 4 pints medallion carrots.
It seems that I have lost some liquid. The jars sealed. Will they be alright?
I’m used to canning in Washington State and have always used 15 lb weights. I noticed in your instructions that I should have used 10 lbs.
Could that be the problem?
Thank you.
Ah liquid loss is something that can be hard to determine just what the issue is. Check this article and see if it is helpful. Liquid Loss in Home Canning.
I’m the only one in my house that eats carrots. If I use half pint jars and process the same time as pints it shouldn’t be a problem, right?
Yes, that is the perfect way to handle it. Never go with a bigger jar than instructed but smaller is ok.
Carrots will be fully cooked when you can them. But they won’t be so soft they are mushy. Texture can sometimes be hard to describe. Some people really like their vegetables cooked ‘al dente’ or slightly crunchy. This will not be the case with home canning. If you like a little crunch, you should consider freezing your vegetables. Another option is pickled carrots. These will still be slightly softer than fresh as they are cooked but they will still have some crunch to them. Pickled Carrots