topic Home Canners- Need advice in Kitchen

Home Canners- Need advice

Snik — Thu, 30 Oct 2014 13:05:25 GMT

I have been doing a lot of canning lately, and have noticed something- I have very hard water here, and use the old black with white speckles canning pot with a rack..When I am removing my jars, I am noticing a white mineral coating on the jars which is hard to remove, even with Windex (and I feel weird rubbing my jars with Windex)-

It is not so bad when only orocessing 5 minute, but when going 10 or more, it is very pronounced- When I drain the water I can see the white residue on the bottom of the pot s well..

My question is this: Could I ADD something to the processing water..vinegar, salt? to cut back the mineral deposits, or would that eat away at my lids?

Anyone else have this problem?

I hate giving away these unsightly, cloudy looking, and rough feeling, jars...

Thanks for any advice

Re: Home Canners- Need advice

Agent K — Thu, 30 Oct 2014 13:18:02 GMT

Sounds like you have VERY hard water. Installing a water softener or canning in distilled water would be expensive. Why not look up the Homesteading Today forum (not on Q, it's just a web forum) and ask the canning experts there about the vinegar?

Re: Home Canners- Need advice

KYToby — Thu, 30 Oct 2014 13:55:47 GMT

I cam occasionally -- usually in a pressure cooker. I know a number of people add a splash of white vinegar you the water to prevent mineral build up.

Re: Home Canners- Need advice

jaxs mom — Thu, 30 Oct 2014 15:29:57 GMT

You can add vinegar, but I've only heard that recommended for pressure canning not BWB. I have the same problem because I have really hard water. I just wipe it off the jars.

Re: Home Canners- Need advice

ahoymate — Thu, 30 Oct 2014 15:32:55 GMT

Why not call the Ball company who makes all the canning jars, pots, and canning utensils? Surely, they can answer this ? 4 U. Google is your friend

Re: Home Canners- Need advice

Scooby Doo — Thu, 30 Oct 2014 16:24:22 GMT

It could be a combination of both hard water and your old canning pot breaking down. I would buy a new pot. Then you can add about a cup of white vinegar to the boiling water. You can soak your empty bottles in a sink of hot water and vinegar before you use them.

Re: Home Canners- Need advice

Snik — Thu, 30 Oct 2014 16:24:33 GMT

Great advice.. Thanks!

Re: Home Canners- Need advice

Meeras — Thu, 30 Oct 2014 16:55:00 GMT

add vinegar for this

Re: Home Canners- Need advice

RedTop — Thu, 30 Oct 2014 22:39:42 GMT

If it bothers you that much, buy spring or distilled water to use in the canner.

Re: Home Canners- Need advice

Snik — Thu, 30 Oct 2014 23:09:21 GMT

On 10/30/2014 RedTop said: If it bothers you that much, buy spring or distilled water to use in the canner.

Obviously I thought of that.....It takes at least 3 gallons...and I woudnt want to re use it......I just want yo soften the tap water that I already pay for...I thought this might be something others had experience with,that's all...

Re: Home Canners- Need advice

Mominohio — Sat, 01 Nov 2014 23:42:15 GMT

We live in the country and even with a full house filter and water softener, I have the same problem, and the length of time you keep a canner going to heat the water, and process the food makes the lime build up worse.

Vinegar is the best bet, (white), and while most instructions tell you a tablespoon or two, I use much more. For my big canner, a cup or more. I have never had problems with it affecting the food or the outcome. If left go, this buildup will ruin your jars over time, make them cloudy and I don't think they come really clean inside after a time.

I also invested in a stainless steel canner, and I found I had less problem than when using the enameled one. And I try to change my water after each batch to help lessen the problem.

Re: Home Canners- Need advice

Snik — Sun, 02 Nov 2014 03:00:48 GMT

On 11/1/2014 mominohio said:
We live in the country and even with a full house filter and water softener, I have the same problem, and the length of time you keep a canner going to heat the water, and process the food makes the lime build up worse.

Vinegar is the best bet, (white), and while most instructions tell you a tablespoon or two, I use much more. For my big canner, a cup or more. I have never had problems with it affecting the food or the outcome. If left go, this buildup will ruin your jars over time, make them cloudy and I don't think they come really clean inside after a time.

I also invested in a stainless steel canner, and I found I had less problem than when using the enameled one. And I try to change my water after each batch to help lessen the problem.

Thank you VERY much! this is kind of what I was thinking, so nice to hear someone that has actually seen it!

Re: Home Canners- Need advice

jaxs mom — Sun, 02 Nov 2014 04:26:36 GMT

On 11/1/2014 mominohio said:
We live in the country and even with a full house filter and water softener, I have the same problem, and the length of time you keep a canner going to heat the water, and process the food makes the lime build up worse.

Vinegar is the best bet, (white), and while most instructions tell you a tablespoon or two, I use much more. For my big canner, a cup or more. I have never had problems with it affecting the food or the outcome. If left go, this buildup will ruin your jars over time, make them cloudy and I don't think they come really clean inside after a time.

I also invested in a stainless steel canner, and I found I had less problem than when using the enameled one. And I try to change my water after each batch to help lessen the problem.

How is it possible for the jars not to become clean inside from hard water when they are full of the food being canned and you say you haven't had issues from using large amounts of vinegar in the canning water, which implies that the canning water isn't getting inside the jars so obviously that can't reduce hard water stains?

Re: Home Canners- Need advice

Snik — Sun, 02 Nov 2014 05:53:03 GMT

because the mineral build up on the outside becomes so heavy and cooked on that it "becomes" part of the makeup of the glass.. Glass, is after all, a mineral itself...silica...

Obviously they can be come "clean" (sterile) on the inside.. but they will never LOOK clean on the outside, the minerals will actually bond and etching the glass...

Re: Home Canners- Need advice

Mominohio — Sun, 02 Nov 2014 14:11:33 GMT

On 11/1/2014 jaxs mom said:
On 11/1/2014 mominohio said:
We live in the country and even with a full house filter and water softener, I have the same problem, and the length of time you keep a canner going to heat the water, and process the food makes the lime build up worse.

Vinegar is the best bet, (white), and while most instructions tell you a tablespoon or two, I use much more. For my big canner, a cup or more. I have never had problems with it affecting the food or the outcome. If left go, this buildup will ruin your jars over time, make them cloudy and I don't think they come really clean inside after a time.

I also invested in a stainless steel canner, and I found I had less problem than when using the enameled one. And I try to change my water after each batch to help lessen the problem.

How is it possible for the jars not to become clean inside from hard water when they are full of the food being canned and you say you haven't had issues from using large amounts of vinegar in the canning water, which implies that the canning water isn't getting inside the jars so obviously that can't reduce hard water stains?

I'm not sure I understand exactly what you are asking, but I'll try to explain what I think you are looking for, (hope it is clearer than that film that gets on the jars!!)

I don't own a dishwasher, so when canning, to sterilize jars and keep them hot, I have to put them in a full canner (or very large pot) of boiling water with the jars full of water, and open and empty (of food). While the food to be canned is being heated and jars filled to put into the canner, those empty and waiting jars can be in the boiling water for awhile, and if there is no vinegar in that pot (and in the final canning pot as well), the film or cloudy build up that one can get on the outside of the jars will also get on the inside. It is a film that builds up like from the dishwasher I've seen on people's dishes who use dishwashers, overtime. That build up has a taste to it, and for me, I don't want it inside a canning jar (or outside for that matter) to affect the taste or the safety of the food over time.

Re: Home Canners- Need advice

Mominohio — Sun, 02 Nov 2014 14:19:19 GMT

Based on some of the questions and comments after mine, perhaps I should make more clear that the vinegar I use is placed in both the canner or pot that is sterilizing the jars, and the canner that the final filled jars go into for processing. I use it in both water bath canning (that is where I use more like a cup) and pressure canning, where I use much less, like maybe a quarter cup or less, because you use so very little water in pressure canning.

The jars that are sterilizing in a large pot or canner, are empty of food, full and covered completely with water and have about a cup of white vinegar in that water. I have never had the traces of vinegar that might be on those jars (after removed from the water and filled with food to be processed) affect the taste or quality of the final product.

Re: Home Canners- Need advice

jaxs mom — Mon, 03 Nov 2014 17:43:07 GMT

Ok that was why I was confused, you use two pots, one for the jars and one for the actual canning. In my many years of both BWB and pressure canning I've never used two pots. I always heat my jars in the pot I'm going to can in. And I've never had mineral build up inside the jars, only outside.

Re: Home Canners- Need advice

Sooner — Mon, 03 Nov 2014 22:04:00 GMT

You should contact you local water department or whoever supplies your water or a state agency that deals with water quality. Also, you probably have an extension office in your county or at your state agricultural university that can give you all the ACCURATE information you need. Please contact them to see if they can help.

Re: Home Canners- Need advice

Retreaded — Tue, 04 Nov 2014 00:28:09 GMT

Do you use a canning rack inside your pot? I was having the same issues and finally figured out it was my very old metal canning rack. I bought a new stainless steel one and haven't had any problems since.

Re: Home Canners- Need advice

Snik — Tue, 04 Nov 2014 02:21:12 GMT

My local water dept is the first to tell you we have very hard water! Not sure if Los Angeles County has an agricultural extension office, but I will look into it..although my canning pot and rack are "old style black porcelain with white speckles" they are new this season for me...I may have been leaving my jars in the sterilizing water too long...it is a lot worse on the " faceted" jars than on the smooth ones, BTW....