Water Bath Canning ; Start Here

Is Water Bath Canning the Right Method for Your Food?

This is the first question to answer — Not all foods can be safely processed in a water bath. 

The Short Answer: It’s All About the Acid

Water bath canning is a safe processing method for high acid foods.

High Acid foods generally include:

• Most fruits
• Jams and jellies
• Fruit-based sauces like applesauce
• Pickled items (cucumbers, also pickled peppers, green beans, and more!)
• Some tomato products (more on tomatoes in a moment)

Low acid foods generally include

• Most vegetables
• Meat, broth, soup.
• Recipes that include vegetables or meat.

These all require pressure canning. You can read about pressure canning here when you are ready. (opens in a new window)

Why Does Acid Level Matter?

Here’s the important part. Clostridium botulinum, the bacteria that causes botulism, cannot survive in high acid environments. Boiling water (212°F at sea level) is sufficient to make high acid foods safe.

I don’t say this to scare you — I say it so that you understand why the rules exist. Once you get that, it all makes sense. I’ve got a more thorough explanation of botulism, home canning, and why you don’t need to be afraid.  

What About Tomatoes?

Tomatoes are a special case. They can be processed in either a pressure canner or a water bath depending on your recipe. Tested recipes will specify which method to use and may call for added lemon juice or citric acid.

Read more about how to can tomatoes here.

A Quick Note About Steam Canning

Steam Canning: Just a quick mention of steam canning here. It’s a great alternative to water bath for the same high acid foods. (Not low acid, those do still need a pressure canner.) It uses less water and less time, and I love it. If you haven’t heard of this, check out this page. I am recommending the steam canning alternative more and more.

Links to some water bath canning recipes 

• Jam, Jelly, or Other Sweet Spreads.
• Pickling Recipes: More Than Just Cucumbers!
• Canning Fruit

What Is Water Bath Canning?

Here’s how it works.

You fill canning jars with your prepared food, submerge them in boiling water for a specific amount of time, and allow them to seal as they cool. The heat kills spoilage organisms like molds, yeasts, and bacteria. 

What You’ll Need

Essential Equipment

Here’s what you need to get started. Links will take you to more information on each item.

• Water bath canner – or any deep pot (more on that in a moment)
• Canning jars – Make sure they’re in good condition
• Lids and screw bands – always use new lids; bands can be reused if they’re in good shape
• Jar lifter – not optional, trust me on this one
• Canning funnel– makes filling jars so much easier
• Ladle – very hand on occasion.
• General kitchen supplies depending on your recipe: towels, pot holders, pots, bowls, spoons, knives, etc.
• All ingredients called for in your recipe

Do You Have to Have a Special Water Bath Canner?

Good news!  No special pot required.  Any deep pot will work as long as:

• the pot is deep enough to have 2–3 inches of water covering the tops of your jars while boiling. 
• you have something to act as a rack to keep the jars off the bottom — a cake rack, a small piece of board, or even a layer of canning rings wired together all work.

Having said that, I do recommend getting a specialized canning pot. There are inexpensive options to get you started, and they make it much easier.

But don’t let equipment be the thing that stops you — start with what you have! A deep stockpot and rack work. 

Here is a canning set with a traditional black speckled canner and hand tools. 

Choose Your First Project

Before you pull out your canner, you need a recipe. And not just any recipe — a tested one.

Always Use a Tested Recipe

Tested recipes have been developed with safe packing and processing instructions. The USDA, Ball, and the National Center for Home Food Preservation are all reliable sources. (The recipes here on Simply Canning, in my video courses, and in the guide book, all come from safe tested resources.) 

Remember tested doesn’t just mean it’s been done by a lot of people with no problems.  These recipes are scientifically tested by experts in the field.  

You’ll see lots of recipes online.  They may be great… but they may not.  Don’t take a chance.  Here is an article that might interest you.  Are we on overkill?!  My thoughts on why I’m careful and why I’m not afraid! 

What Should You Make First?

Not sure where to begin? Here are my beginner-friendly recommendations:

• Most fruits make great starter projects with Applesauce being the easiest! Minimal ingredients and a simple process.  You practically can’t mess it up. 
• Jam or jelly is a great pick for first-timers. Strawberry jam is a classic for good reason it’s quick to make, and you’ll have beautiful jars to either enjoy or impress your friends with.
• Pickles are wonderful if you have a garden overflowing with cucumbers in summer. And pickles goes beyond cucumbers. Pickled beans, carrots or beets anyone? How about corn relish?

Water Bath Canning: Complete Step-by-Step Directions

Ready? Please refer to your individual recipe for specifics on the food you are working with. 

This particular page leads you step by step through the processing task.

There is more to canning than just processing.  How you pack the jar matters, the ingredients matter.  This should all be included in your recipe.  

• I’ve included notes and tips from my own experience throughout.
• Want a shorter version? There’s a printable checklist at the bottom of this post.

Step 1 — Gather Your Supplies

Get everything out and ready before you start. Nothing worse than hunting for your jar lifter mid-canning session! (been there, done that!) You’ll want:

• Canner and rack
• Jars, lids, and bands
• Jar lifter, canning funnel, ladle
• All recipe ingredients
• Kitchen towels or paper towels
• A non-metallic utensil or bubble tool for removing air bubbles
• General kitchen supplies will be needed depending on your recipe.  Towels, pot holders, pots and bowls, spoons knives etc.  

Step 2 — Prepare Your Canner and Jars

The goal is to have your canner and jars hot (not boiling) and ready to go when your food is prepped and ready to pack. So timing matters. Take a look at your recipe. As you do more projects you’ll get the feel for how long it takes for the canner to heat.  Occasionally a recipe will have a 2 day process. Orange marmalade for example. In that case you’ll obviously not start your canner until the second day.

Fill your canner about 1/2 full of water. This should be enough so that when you’ve added your filled jars the water level will rise and cover the jars fully.

Tip: Keep a tea kettle with hot water on hand in case you need to add hot water. With experience you’ll know how much to start with.

Heat the water until hot, but not yet boiling. You’ll bring it to a full boil later once the jars are loaded.

Wash your jars by hand or in the dishwasher. Check each jar for cracks or nicks on the rim. If there are cracks on the rim of the jar it will not seal.  

Do You Need to Sterilize Jars?

Usually sterilizing is not needed. Clean is fine.

If your recipe calls for 10 minutes or more of processing time (which most water bath recipes do), you do not need to pre-sterilize your jars. The boiling water bath takes care of that.

For recipes with less than 10 minutes of processing (some jam or jelly recipes), you’ll need to sterilize first. It’s not often, but worth knowing! Here is an article on how to sterilize your canning jars if you need to.  

Three Ways to Keep Jars Hot Until You’re Ready

You do want warm jars when you fill them — putting hot food into cold jars then into a hot canner can cause thermal shock and cracking. Here are my three favorite methods, in order of preference:

1. Place jars upside down in your canner rack above the water. As your canner heats up, the steam warms the jars. No extra burner, no extra pot. This is my go-to.
2. Wash jars in the dishwasher and simply leave them there until you are ready to fill.  Keeping the door to the dishwasher closed keeps in the steam and heat. Remove the jars as needed. 
3. Place jars upside down in a separate large pot with 2–3 inches of hot water.  Leave jars to warm. (I’ve read the tip to use a slow cooker on low with a few inches of water.)

Often people want to warm jars in the oven. It is common, but actually not recommended. Canning jar manufacturers say their jars are not to be used in an oven, even just to warm up.

Have clean lids on hand. I keep mine in a small bowl of hot (not boiling) water on the counter. This gives them a good rinse.

No need to boil them; in fact most lid manufacturers actually recommend against boiling. A simple wash is all they need. I skip the soap personally, but that’s up to you.

Step 3 — Prepare and Pack Your Food

Prepare your food according to your recipe. It should specify one of two packing methods:

• Hot pack means your food is heated — usually simmered for a few minutes — before going into the jar. Most jams, sauces, and cooked fruits are hot packed.
• Raw pack (sometimes called cold pack) means the food goes into the jar uncooked. This does NOT mean you skip processing! The jar still gets processed in the boiling water bath. Many fruits and some pickles are raw packed.

Some foods can be packed with either a hot or raw pack according to your preference.  Just follow your recipes suggestions.

Step 4 — Fill Your Jars

1. Fill jars leaving the headspace specified in your recipe. Headspace is the gap between the food and the top of the jar — usually 1/4 inch for jams and jellies, 1/2 inch for fruits and pickles. It’s important for a good seal.
2. Remove air bubbles by running a non-metallic utensil or bubble tool around the inside of the jar.  Move things around gently to release any trapped air bubbles.  A bubble tool is a special canning tool that helps with this step.  But I sometimes use a plastic orange peeler when I can’t find my bubble tool — it works great!
3. Wipe the rim of the jar clean with a damp tea towel or paper towel. Food residue on the rim can sometimes prevent a proper seal.
4. Place the lid on the jar and screw on the band until fingertip tight. Snug is fine — you don’t need to crank it down hard.

Step 5 — Load and Process

1. Place filled jars upright on the rack in your canner.  Water bath canners come with a canning rack. This rack is built so that it rests on the sides of the canner, keeping the jars above the water until you have it loaded and then you can lower it down. The picture below shows the jars lowered into the canner.
   If you are using a stock pot you can just place the jars onto some sort of a rack on the bottom of the pot as you work.  Use a jar lifter or you are almost certain to burn your fingertips.  Remember, the canner should be full of hot water at this point.
2. Add hot water if needed so that jars are covered by 2 inches of water. Use hot water to avoid dropping the temperature of the canner too much.
3. Once all jars are in the canner, put the lid on and bring to a full rolling boil.  Don’t start timing yet. 
4. Once boiling, START your timer. This is important — you do not start timing until the canner is at a full boil.
5. Maintain a rolling boil for the entire processing time. The water should be actively bubbling but it doesn’t need to be so hard it is splashing out of the canner. Adjust heat as needed during processing. Add boiling water if the water level drops.

Note on Altitude Adjustment: Processing times are based on boiling at sea level. If you live above 1,000 feet, you must adjust your processing time.

Any canning recipe worth using will have these adjustments.  More on altitude adjustments here. If your source doesn’t include altitude adjustments be suspect of the accuracy of the whole recipe.

Step 6 – Cool Down

When your timer goes off, how you handle cooling matters. Rush it and you risk liquid loss (siphoning). Drag it out too long and you risk flat sour. The goal is a slow, 2 to 3 step steady cool down but don’t leave things sitting indefinitely either. Learn more about siphoning and flat sour.

1. When your timer goes off, turn off the heat. Wait 5 minutes.
2. Raise the rack and jars above the water. The jars may still be boiling. That is normal, but it shouldn’t be boiling so hard that you can see food spurting out of the jar. If that happens just lower the rack back down and wait another 5 minutes before raising again.
3. Once you’ve raised the rack leave the jars on the rack and wait another 5 minutes. This lets the jars rest and reduces the pressure inside. As before, if they start spurting (they shouldn’t) wait a few more minutes.
4. Remove jars with your jar lifter and set them upright on a wooden board or thick towel.  (This prevents thermal shock and broken jars.) Remember the jars will still be extremely hot! Leave some space between jars so air can circulate. Keep them in a draft-free spot to cool to room temperature.

Now listen. Do you hear it? This is my favorite part. 

As the jars cool, the lids will pull down and seal. They make the best little ping sound. I will never get tired of that. It means everything is working! 

In case you don’t hear the ping, it’s ok. They don’t always make the sound. It is just cool when they do. (Superb brand canning lids actually sound more like a thunk.)

Resist the urge to press on the lids.  You want the seal to happen with no help from you. Leave the jars completely undisturbed for a minimum of 12 hours. Cool to room temperature.  I usually leave mine out overnight.

Step 7 – Check Seals and Store

After jars have fully cooled, now you can check the seals.

Press down on the center of each lid. A sealed lid will be sucked down and won’t pop up and down if you press on it. You should also remove the screw band and lift the jar by the lid edges. If the seal is good, that lid will remain in place.

If a jar didn’t seal:  Just put it in the refrigerator and plan to use it within a few days. It happens occasionally. Sometimes you know what happened, and sometimes you don’t.

For jars that did seal:

• Remove the screw band and wash or rinse the outside of the jar(they’re sometimes sticky).
• It’s a good idea to store the jars without the screw bands. (Check out more here on storing your jars.)
• Label each jar with the contents and the date — at minimum, the year

You might be thinking, do I really need to label it? I can see what it is. Trust me on this one. You might forget.

Plus you can do things like label with ingredients, or food type. What if you make applesauce three times this season from different apple varieties and want to know which you liked best? What if you find a mystery jar in the back of the pantry two years from now?

Just label it. Future you will be grateful.

Store jars in a cool, dark, dry place — a pantry works. A cool basement. Avoid areas with hot pipes, high humidity, or direct sunlight. Avoid freezing in the winter too. Don’t store in an unheated shed or garage.

Stand back and admire the colorful, gleaming jars of nutritious foods ready for your family. Water bath canning is so easy! 

What? You are tired?! Yes, but it is a satisfying tired, is it not?

Almost there!

We’ve covered a lot of ground so far. I’d like to address some frequently asked questions, and even answer a few questions you might not know to ask.

I’ve got a printable checklist/recipe for you at the end of this post.

Understanding Why It Works

You don’t actually need to understand the science to can safely, but my goal here is confidence.  And I find that knowledge often conquers fear.   Many beginners find it reassuring to know why the process works. Here’s a quick overview of what’s happening in that canner.

Heat penetration: As the jars boil, heat works its way through the contents all the way to the center of the jar. This heat stops spoilage organisms like enzymes, molds, yeasts, and some bacteria. Processing time in a recipe is important. You need enough time for the heat to reach the center of the jar heating the entire thing to the appropriate temperature.

Vacuum seal formation: Heat during processing causes the food and air inside the jar to expand. As the jars cool, the contents contract pulling the lid down and create a vacuum seal. That vacuum is what keeps air, bacteria, and spoilers out during storage. It’s also what makes that satisfying ping!

What’s Next?

You did it! Water bath canning is one of those skills that feels a little intimidating at first. Once you’ve got a batch or two under your belt, you’ll wonder why you waited so long.

When you’re ready to start: Browse beginner-friendly water bath canning recipes.

• Canning Fruit
• Jam, Jelly, or Other Sweet Spreads.
• Pickling Recipes: More Than Just Cucumbers!

Curious about other methods? Each one opens up a whole new category of foods to preserve:

• Steam Canning Start Here — a wonderful alternative for high acid foods that uses less water and less time. I love it.
• Pressure Canning Start Here — this is how you preserve vegetables, meats, and low acid foods.

Frequently Asked Questions

Never Lay Jars on The Side When Canning

Why Corn Relish Can Be Water Bath Canned (But Plain Corn Can’t)

Which is Better? Pressure Canning vs Water Bath:

Is water bath canning green beans safe?

Printable Checklist

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