Home Canning Made Simple

I have to admit it, I have not always been a fan of canning. While I love preserving food, the canning process has many times seemed too arduous an undertaking in the midst of raising young kids, homeschooling, and taking care of a farm. After talking to many friends, I know I am not alone in my feelings, so I wanted to share a game changer in the hopes that you too can throw off any trepidation over home canning.

I started off where most people do, canning jams and jellies. This wasn’t too bad, but I still found the amount of time getting a giant pot of jars and water up to boil a hard sell on most days, especially since I really needed to do huge batches to make it worth it. Once I started pressure canning with my All American canner, I realized time was an ever more fleeting resource! I also found myself at a loss to allocate that time when I only had a relatively small amount to can (say a good deal on chicken at the store, or a batch of pear sauce from the farmer’s market). I just wasn’t typically filling my canners, and so it all felt like a pretty lame tradeoff. I also have never pressure canned without having some level of anxiety in the back of my head; keeping track of all those times is not my strongest skill.

It’s really my dad that solved my problem. As empty nesters, my parents don’t buy bulk anymore. But they have a strong desire to buy on sale and preserve. My dad was the one who taught me how to dehydrate, and how to vacuum seal to extend freezer life. And while I was the first one to start canning, as soon as he found something he wanted to pickle, he set out to make the process as pain free as possible. Last year he introduced me to the idea of canning in an electric pressure cooker instead of manually on a stove.

My first thought was “is it safe”? However, after some research I found that not only is steam (water bath equivalent) canning safe in pretty much any pressure cooker, there was a specific Instant Pot made for pressure canning. The possibilities opened up like the sky after a storm - canning on my counter while I prep dinner with electronics keeping track of everything sounded way more doable than the hubaloo that my typical pressure canning sessions were.

My dad sent me a very important vlog from Rose Red Homestead, in which Rose Ashworth tests the safety of pressure canning in the Instant Pot Max using proffessional research equipment. She is extremely thorough in setting up her tests and charting the data to see if safe canning temperatures can be reached at the center of her jars at her elevation using the Max. And I’m so glad that she did, because at the end of the day, when we put our money and time and effort into canning something for our families, we want to be sure it is safe. After watching her video (and a few others) I felt confident enough to give it a go!

So, here is the low-down. If you are someone who either a) doesn’t have a huge family but is still interested in food preservation, or b) likes to can intermittently, perhaps thoughout the week instead of devoting a whole day or more to giant batches, you may really like the Instant Pot Max. If you are someone who likes to press buttons and walk away and let an appliance do its thing, you may also really like the Max. The time convenience is phenomenal. At this point I’ve canned jams, sauces, juice, chicken, and salmon, and I am loving the trade-off. Turns out I actually like canning when I can rotate it into my daily schedule around the kids and the farm. It also has some extra features that are really useful, like being able to pre-sterilize the jars (while also heating the pot which lessens the overall canning time) and being able to set the elevation, an awesome feature that takes some self calculation out of the equation. And my favorite thing is that it SHOWS THE TEMPERATURE. This is a great feature for canning peace of mind. (For a more in depth understanding of how temperature affects food safety, check out Rose Red’s vlog linked above.)

There are some downsides, however, that I must point out. The main one is it cannot can anything larger than a pint jar. Now pints are our most used jar size, so that’s really not a huge issue for us, but I know you seasoned canners love the quart jar. Unfortunately, they simply don’t fit in the Max. It will however, handle smaller jars stacked (with extra trays), which is great for those smaller half and quarter pint jars. If your family uses or is able to adapt to the pint jar, this shouldn’t be too much of an issue.

Another point that can be either a downside or an upside depending on the situation - it only holds 4 pint jars at a time. Now with the ease of automation, I totally don’t mind doing several batches back to back; it’s kinda like doing several loads of laundry, you just get set up and then intermittently attend to the loads while going about your day; but if you want to do a whole lot at once, you are stuck with traditional canning pots. You can see how this may be beneficial for smaller preservation loads - particuarly if you are one to can leftover or extras. You can make soup for your family and throw the extra into 4 jars for long term storage, or buy chicken on sale and immediately can what you won’t eat for dinnr. Personally, I find this use makes up for any other inconvenience because it means I actually can way more, and am continually stocking our pantry shelves with home prepared food.

After all was tested I opted to pick up a second Max so that I could double up on our canning; at a price point of just over $100 I still haven’t spent as much as I did on my All American, and the Max gets weekly use. I don’t use them for pressure cooking, I already had a second generation Instant Pot for that, so these are dedicated to canning. Sometimes I have just one out, sometimes two running back to back loads, but either way I am dancing a jig over how much more simple and convenient it is compared to my old canning days. And while I’m holding on to my bigger canning pots for those occasional heavy duty days, I highly recommend the Max for anyone that is a reluctant canner like me.

Interested in getting your own IP Max? It appears they are currently out of production by Instant Pot, but you can still pick them up on Amazon here (affiliate link).