Benable — create shareable lists of things you recommend!
E.g., products you love, local businesses, travel recs - you can add anything to a Benable list!
How a Glass Lid Canner Stopped Me From Anxiously Lifting Lids Mid-Process
27
items Every canning season I'd hover over my pot, crack the lid to peek, lose steam, mess up my seal timing, and end up with jars that didn't pop. If you're the nervous canner who can't stop checking — someone who's lost a whole batch of salsa because you ...
Sections
9
Glass Lid Water Bath Canners That Let You Watch Everything
Canning Jar Sets That Actually Seal Right
Lid and Band Replacements So You Stop Reusing Old Ones
Jar Lifters and Tools That Save Your Fingers
Thermometers and Timers for Precise Processing
Pectin and Acids for Proper Preservation
Glass Lid Water Bath Canners That Let You Watch Everything
Burned my hand lifting a heavy metal lid for the fourth time in one batch — then realized canners with glass lids existed and I'd been suffering for no reason.
Grab this if you're the type who peeks at your jars every two minutes — the glass lid sits flush and you can see the rolling boil without losing a single degree of heat. Wish someone had told me about this three summers ago.
Granite Ware 21.5 Quart Water Bath Canner with Rack
Switch to this when you're tired of babysitting your stovetop burner. Set the timer, watch through the window, walk away. For anyone canning after work who doesn't have two hours to stand in the kitchen staring.
Ball FreshTECH Electric Water Bath Canner
Use this one if your old speckled enamel canner is chipping into your water — stainless won't rust, won't chip, and that glass lid means you finally stop second-guessing whether you're at a full boil.
Cook by McSunley 21.5Qt Stainless Steel Water Bath Canner
Canning Jar Sets That Actually Seal Right
Half my first batch didn't seal because I was using random jars from a yard sale. Learned the hard way that not all glass is canning glass.
Keep a case of these on hand before stone fruit season hits — nothing worse than having ten pounds of peaches ready and zero clean jars. The regular mouth fits standard lids so you're never scrambling for weird sizes.
Ball, Glass Mason Jar, 32 Oz. Quart, Regular Mouth 12-Count
Toss your chunky salsas and relishes in these — the wide mouth means you can actually get a ladle in without making a mess all over the rim. Perfect for anyone who jams thick stuff and hates wiping rims twenty times.
Kerr Wide Mouth Pint Glass Mason Jars with Lids
Snag these for juice and whole tomatoes when you're processing in bulk. Fair warning — they take up more vertical space in your canner, so measure your pot depth first. Learned that one the annoying way.
Ball, Mason Jars, 64 oz, Wide Mouth, 6 Pack
Lid and Band Replacements So You Stop Reusing Old Ones
Reused a lid once, thought it sealed, opened the jar in December and tossed an entire quart of green beans. Never again.
Ditch any lid that's been used before — the sealing compound only works once, and a failed seal in the pantry months later is genuinely heartbreaking. Stock up now while they're not sold out like they were in 2020.
Ball Wide Mouth Lids with Bands, BPA Free, 12 Count
Pair these with your wide mouth jars and run your finger across each lid before use — if there's any dent or warp, throw it out. Cheap insurance against losing a whole batch of pickles.
Ball Wide Mouth Lids with Bands, BPA Free, 12 Count
Try these if the wastefulness of single-use lids bugs you — they're BPA-free, you just need to learn the slightly different tightening method. For the eco-conscious canner who processes fifty-plus jars a season.
Customer reviews for Tattler E-Z Seal Reusable Canning
Jar Lifters and Tools That Save Your Fingers
Reached into boiling water with kitchen tongs exactly once. The jar slipped, water splashed, I had a blister for a week. Proper tools exist for a reason.
Get this before your first batch — the rubber grip actually holds the jar securely instead of letting it wobble and splash boiling water on your wrist. For anyone who's been improvising with barbecue tongs and regretting it.
Ball Secure-Grip Jar Lifter
Grab the whole kit — funnel, lid lifter, bubble remover, jar lifter — because hunting through your utensil drawer mid-process while everything's boiling is pure chaos. Keeps you moving without stopping to improvise.
Norpro 599 Canning Essentials Set 6 Piece
Use the magnetic lid lifter from this set and you'll wonder why you ever fished lids out of hot water with a fork. Seriously, it's the one tool that made me feel like I finally knew what I was doing.
Ball 3-Piece Canning Utensil Set For Preserving
Thermometers and Timers for Precise Processing
Guessed my water temperature once using the ‘does it look like it’s boiling' method. It wasn't. Three jars didn't seal.
Clip this to the side of your canner and stop guessing — you need a sustained 212°F for water bath processing and eyeballing steam isn't reliable. Especially critical if you're at any altitude above sea level.
Taylor Kitchen Digital Deep Fry Candy Thermometer
Keep this running on the counter so you know exactly when your processing time ends — the alarm is loud enough to hear from the next room. For anyone who's ever wandered off and overprocessed a batch of jam into rubber.
ThermoPro, Meat Thermometer, TP-16, Large LCD Display
Snag a dedicated timer so you stop using your phone and accidentally resetting it when a text comes in. Sounds silly until you've lost track of time and pulled jars out five minutes early.
KitchenAid Digital Single Event Magnetic Timer
Pectin and Acids for Proper Preservation
My first jam was basically fruit soup because nobody told me pectin matters — and my pickles went soft because I skipped the citric acid step.
Use this for your strawberry jam and it'll actually set instead of turning into expensive pancake syrup. Follow the recipe exactly — pectin is not a freestyle ingredient, trust me on that one.
Sure Jell Original Premium Fruit Pectin, 1.75 oz Box
Switch to this if you want low-sugar jams that still set properly — regular pectin needs a mountain of sugar to work, and this one doesn't. Perfect for anyone whose family complains the jam is too sweet.
Pomona's, Pectin, 3 Pack, 1.1 oz Boxes for Making Jams
Toss a measured amount into your tomato jars — tomatoes hover right at the safe acidity line and this pushes them into safe territory. Way easier than squeezing forty lemons, and it lasts forever in the pantry.
Watch Review - Milliard Citric Acid on Amazon Live
Rack Inserts and Pot Accessories for Better Batches
Stacked jars directly on the pot bottom my first year. One cracked from the direct heat. A two-dollar rack would have prevented that.
Keep your jars lifted off the bottom — direct contact with the heat source cracks glass, and a cracked jar in your canner means fishing out broken glass from boiling water. Don't skip this.
Granite Ware 21.5 Quart Water Bath Canner with Rack
Grab this if your old rack is rusting — stainless holds up season after season and the handles fold up so you can lower all your jars into the boiling water at once instead of one at a time.
Stainless Steel Canning Rack, Flat, by Victorio Vkp1056
Try this collapsible version if storage space is tight — it folds flat and slides into a drawer. For anyone in a small kitchen who can't dedicate a whole shelf to canning season gear.
Prepworks Stainless Steel Canning Rack, Silver Pot Jar
Labels and Storage So You Remember What You Made
Found a mystery jar in my pantry last March — no label, no date, no clue. Opened it, sniffed it, still couldn't tell if it was pear butter or applesauce. Labeling takes ten seconds.
Stick these on right after processing — they dissolve in water when you wash the jar later so you don't spend twenty minutes scraping adhesive. Write the date and contents while you still remember what went in there.
Ball Dissolvable Canning Jar Labels: Box of 60
Use these if you want something that peels off clean without soaking — handy for gift jars where you don't want the recipient fighting with sticky residue. Pair with a Sharpie and you're done in seconds.
Avery Removable Print/Write Color Coding Labels
Keep a dedicated Sharpie in your canning drawer — writing directly on the lid is the fastest labeling method and it survives the pantry shelf for a full year. Just remember to mark the DATE, not just the contents.
Sharpie Permanent Markers, Fine Point
Books and Guides That Kept Me From Poisoning Anyone
Winged a recipe from a random blog once and then read that improperly canned low-acid foods can grow botulism. Bought a tested recipe book that night.
Get this before you can a single jar — every recipe is lab-tested for safety, and it covers water bath and pressure canning. For anyone who's been cobbling together Pinterest recipes and hoping for the best.
Customer reviews for Ball Complete Book of Home
Pair this with the original if you want more modern recipes — the jalapeño jelly and bourbon peach butter recipes alone are worth it. Written for people who actually want to eat what they preserve, not just survive on it.
Ball Book Of Canning & Preserving: Over 350 Recipes
Snag the free PDF or grab the printed version — this is the actual government safety standard that every reliable recipe traces back to. Dry reading, sure, but it's the reason your grandmother's canned goods didn't make anyone sick.
Resources: USDA Complete Guide to Home Canning