Karen Ward

Onions are a staple ingredient in many recipes. Their savory flavor often is the finishing touch to your favorite meal. Canning and preserving onions leaves them soft but flavorful. Keep these onions in your pantry as an important ingredient for your favorite recipe. Canning and preserving low-acid foods — such as onions — requires pressure canning to kill microorganisms that are harmful if not destroyed before ingesting the food.

Home cooks who live at high altitudes may be used to adjusting recipes; high-altitude adjustments apply to home canning, as well. Canning food safely requires your filled jars to be processed at a specified temperature or pressure level for a specified amount of time. If you live at altitudes higher than 1,000 or 2,000 feet above sea level, adjust your canning recipes for food safety.

Keep safety in mind whether you're water-bath canning or pressure canning. By canning foods safely, you can prevent kitchen accidents and food spoilage. Increase your chances for successful canning and maximum safety by following these guidelines: Used recipes made for modern-day canning (about 2000 or newer) and follow them exactly.

If you plan to can, freeze, or dry your food, you'll need some special tools. The equipment involved with canning or preserving food is designed for efficiency and safety, so be sure you to use them. If you have these pieces already, great! If not, add them to your shopping list: Tongs: Have tongs ready for lifting hot foods out of boiling or simmering water.

This at-a-glance guide shows how to preserve foods by canning, freezing, and drying. People have been preserving food for eons. Newer, safer food preservation techniques and equipment enable you to stock your pantry or freezer with delicious, healthy foods. Pick your preferred method — water-bath canning, pressure canning, freezing, or drying — and follow these basic instructions.

Each tomato variety has its own color, flavor, and texture. When preparing canned tomatoes, choose tomato varieties that boast good canning results on the tomato plant’s tag or use a proven Heirloom variety. Some other tomato varieties that work well for canning include Ace, Amish paste, Homestead 24, and Rutgers.

Peaches, apricots, and nectarines are flavorsome fruits, and by canning them yourself you can save a lot of money. Prepare canned peaches, apricots, and nectarines using a light syrup so that you can enjoy the full flavor of the fruit. Apricots make a sunny-flavored addition to winter meals. They make a great substitute for apples in an apple crisp recipe, too.

You can preserve foods inexpensively by using canning, freezing, or drying techniques. Modern-day food preservation methods, such as water-bath canning, help you can and preserve with ease. After you understand the basic procedures for a food preservation method, you'll just need to concentrate on preparing your recipe.

Food spoilage is the deterioration in canned or preserved food that makes your food unsafe for eating. Mold, yeast, bacteria, and enzymes are the spoilers. Ingesting spoiled food can cause a wide range of ailments, depending on the type of spoilage and the amount of food consumed. Symptoms vary from mild, flulike aches and pains to more-serious illnesses or even death.