Reddit reviews Ball Utensil Set for Preserving - for Safe and Easy Prep and Filling of Jars

I'd highly recommend a canning book from a reputable source, for instance the Ball Blue Book or Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving are some very, very good places to start. I'd also recommend starting with water bath canning, and after you're comfortable with the mechanics venturing into pressure canning if you feel like it. Until you are very confident, don't deviate from the recipes at all. No extra ingredients, no halving or doubling recipes (especially jam, pectin's a finicky thing), and no subbing different sized jars. Once you get the hang of it, you can start to fudge a little bit, but at first I'd definitely play it safe and stick straight to the recipe; this is more fussy than regular cooking. Water bath canning is only for high-acid foods, and even tomato sauce recipes for canning require extra lemon juice, so definitely follow your recipe.

As far as equipment, technically all you really need are a pot to hold the jars as they boil, something to pull the hot jars out of the water with, and some kind of rack to keep them off the bottom of the pot (extra canning rings placed along the bottom, a cake rack, whatever works). Nothing else is technically needed, though I tried this method with just the extra rings and with spring-loaded tongs and made quite a mess, then immediately sprung for some toys.

I'd recommend this kit, the polypropolene basket doesn't melt even during long canning sessions and it's small enough to use in an eight or ten quart pot, which a lot of people already have at home. To make sure your pot's big enough, put a jar in the pot and make sure it could be covered with at least an inch or two of water. Taller pots are obviously more helpful than lower, wider ones. The kit comes with three jars, which is okay, and the recipe book it comes with scales down a lot of their most popular recipes so you can just make a few jars to test them out.

I'd also recommend a canning funnel, and a jar lifter. Something to measure headspace is also handy, there's a little plastic doohickey for that (looks like this) but if you don't mind keeping a plastic ruler around, it's not required. A set like this would definitely cover all your bases.

Keep in mind that while the jars and rings are reusable, the lids with the sealing compounds are not. If you feel a canning binge come on, be sure to buy an extra little box of just the lids because you'll be upset if you run out!

Good luck!! I'm still a novice canner myself, and I've only ever done water bath canning, but I've already got taco sauce, jams, jellies, pickles and canned fruit (I love canning pears!) under my belt so I've got at least a little bit of a clue!

What I always suggest is to first decide what you're going to can, how much you will be canning at one time and what size jars you will be canning in.

These are important to know because, as others have said, jellies, jams, fruits, pickles and properly acidified tomatoes can be done in a water bath canner, while vegetables and meats must be pressure canned.

Knowing what size of jars you are going to be using makes a difference in what size of canner(s) you will need. If you're canning for a family, you will likely need to use quart sized jars. But if you are a single person or a couple, you will probably only want to do pint jars.

Too, it's customary that jams or jellies are canned in half-pint jars although it is perfectly acceptable to do them in pints if you will use that much jam in a reasonable amount of time once it's been opened. Large mouth jars (both pints and quarts) and their lids are more more expensive than the regular mouth jars. However, meats and things like whole pickles or pickle spears almost require large-mouth jars.

The jar size also matters because some canners don't work with larger sized jars. Also, very large canners will accept two layers of jars which is great for canning many jars at a time but time and energy wasting to use for small batches.

To get started water-bath canning, the only must haves are:

1. Jars
   
2. Lids and rings
   
3. Stock pot or canner (with lid) at least 3" deeper than your jars
   
4. Jar lifter
   
5. Trivet to keep the jars from touching the bottom of the pot (a layer of extra jar rings works brilliantly for this)
   
   The most affordable places to buy these supplies are going to be somewhere local to you. None are very expensive at all. Some water-bath canners come with a rack inside them, which is both a trivet and a jar lifter itself. New boxes of jars come with lids and rings. The rings (also called bands) are reusable, the lids are not, but anywhere that sells the jars will have more lids. Walmart, Target, K-Mart, Lowes, Home Depot, ACE Hardware and places like that will have nearly everything you need for water-bath canning.
   
   As for pressure canning, you will need:
   
   
6. Jars
   
7. Lids and rings
   
8. Jar lifter
   
9. Pressure canner (equipped with lid, gasket, weight, gauge & trivet)
   
   I highly recommend that you read up and shop around before buying a pressure canner. They are somewhat of an investment at between $70 and $400. When you're ready to select a pressure canner, come back and ask and I know everyone around here will help you decide what's right for you. The inexpensive canners are very good but there are also very good reasons to buy a more pricey one and it takes a whole post in itself to discuss them!
   
   Something inexpensive and very nice to have is a little canning set like this no matter which method of canning you do. These tools will be safer to use rather than winging it and will save you infinite amounts of time and frustration. I've seen these same sets at Walmart for something like $8-$10.
   
   I hope this helps!

Under $10

Under $20

$$$ I have this guy on my own wishlist! It's good for canning low-acid items like green beans and beets and etc.

As a bonus, here's a fun book: Put 'Em Up. I have it and it's great! Also, you can make things like jam with little sugar by using pectin, or if you aren't into jams and preserves, you can pickle things and can sauces. It's just generally awesome.

Ball even makes a kit that comes with a perfectly fitted funnel and a few other canning accessories, for a fraction of the cost of this one. The funnel size is nice, I can get my fingers through it to pack tobacco down as I fill a jar. The other accessories are nice if you do canning.

Check out the sidebar, it has all kinds of info! This is the go to website for all things canning, I only trust tested recipes (meaning I don't do some mashed potato recipe I found on someone's blog).

I have only water bath canned before, but I have heard that All Americans are the way to go for pressure canners though there are cheaper options depending on how much you plan to do.



There are a couple things I always suggest for people who show an interest in canning.

Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving

A small tool set

I would start with reading about safe canning from this site. Make sure since you do not have a pressure canner, you are only doing things that are high acid, like pickles and jams. That site has a ton of info on all that sort of stuff.

You can can with any large pot you can fit your jars in with something under (can be a canning rack, some rings put together, or people have even used a folded towel) just to keep the jars from the bottom to prevent breakage, and 2 inches over the top of the jars with a bit of room for the boiling water. Anything to pick the jars up out of the hot water is very helpful. If you can spend another 10 bucks or so, you can get a kit like this one that has the lifter, lid magnet, and funnel. You can usually find them at places like Ace hardware, wal-mart, Tractor Supply....if not, a butter knife works good to get the bubbles out of jars, and just a good ladle and steady hand works in place of the funnel. You might have to make something work with grill tongs or something to pick the jars out of the water.

I started with Pickles. Salsa is a good one to start with too. Lots of people do jellies and jams and such, but I have never due to not really being able to use sugar due to a diabetic.

Please read up on safety though especially since you do want to gift a lot of these, make sure you do the times properly for your elevation.

It seems daunting at first, but it is so much fun and very addicting.

Here is the mobile version of your link

I have a pickling kit that has special tongs for mason jars.
This is what I bought, you can get them at walmart thought, thats where I got mine.

Regular tongs will of course work, but make sure you have a great grip as to not drop anything lol!

Here is the desktop version of your link