Canning bacon

I have canned bacon by chopping slices into chunks, lightly frying then pressure canning. I want to try canning strips next, but would like to put up half strips in smaller jars than whole strips require. Would I still process the full amount of time?

Judith Almand
Brandon, Florida

You process pints and half-pints of bacon for 75 minutes at 10 pounds pressure. (If you live at an altitude above 1,000 feet, consult your canning book for instructions on increasing your pressure to suit your altitude, of course.) — Jackie

Pepper rings

The pepper rings look beautiful. Could you please print the recipe on your blog?

Draza Knezevich

Sure thing:

HOT PEPPER RINGS

5 quarts whole Hungarian Wax or other hot peppers
5 quarts white vinegar
2 cups sugar
2 Tbsp. mixed pickling spices

Cut top off peppers and cut out seeds/membranes with paring knife. Use gloves as hot peppers have oil that will burn your skin/eyes/mucous membranes. Slice peppers into ¼-inch rings. Soak in ice water for 2 hours. Drain well.

Put pickling spices into spice bag and add to vinegar/sugar mix. Bring to a boil. Boil for 1 minute and make sure sugar has dissolved. Pack pepper rings into jars and ladle boiling pickling solution over peppers, leaving ½ inch of headspace. Wipe rim of jar clean and place hot, previously simmered lid on jar and screw down ring firmly tight. Process in a boiling water bath canner for 10 minutes.

Hope you like them as well as we do! — Jackie

Rusty canning jars

I have been canning for years and have yet to see this. I was given some wide mouth pint jars and there is an iron-rust residue in them. The providers of the same stored nails in them and they got wet and left a rusty ring around the bottom. How can I get rid of this? They are good jars I hate to throw them away.

David Williams

This is a common problem and there are a few things you can do. First, you can try steel wool soap pads. Thin rust comes off pretty easy with these. I shove ’em down in the jar with a wooden spoon handle and scrub them around with a bit of hot water. If that doesn’t work, you can try either CLR or Goo Gone. Both work pretty well and can be used for a lot of other things. If THAT doesn’t do the job, get some resin bed cleaner at a big box store like Lowes or Menards. It’s used for water softeners and is pretty darned quick to remove stubborn rust. I’ve also used SnoBol toilet bowl cleaner. It all depends on how thick/old the rust is. Take care not to scratch or scrape the jars as this can cause glass to break at the scratch mark. Good luck. — Jackie

3 COMMENTS

  1. I have used Bar Keeper’s Friend for years to polish copper boron pans, stainless steel pans, as a soak to take rust out of clothing, and to take rust out of our in canning jars. Usually found in the same section as comet cleanser scouring powder. It is pretty soft cleanser and doesn’t scratch like comet if you use light pressure. A paste put onto fire glass surrounds melts off the hard water and rust stains also. We rarely don’t have a can in our house.

  2. Cody,

    They’d need to be pressure canned but I don’t think the combo would work well that way. I’d just stuff the pickled peppers on use, instead. Wouldn’t take long.

  3. I have a question about the pepper ring recipe…if I used hot cherry peppers and stuffed them with proscuitto and provolone, do you think that they could be water bathed, or would they need to be pressure canned?

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