I just finished up my second annual canning weekend. Three of us were busy in the kitchen. We bought tons of tomatoes, onions,apples and peaches. We made a 3 in 1 recipe that makes BBQ relish, sweet and sour sauce and chutney. We then tackled a salsa recipe.
Our biggest limitation was the lack of a large burner so we could use an additional canner. (Wishfully thinking I should have gone for the 48″ cook top during renovations). We also managed to burn two pots. The cheap stainless one from IKEA cleaned up well, but would bubble up out of control when stirred. The enameled Le Creuset pot did not clean well; the enamel came off with scrubbing. But it held heat really well and cooked much faster.
I also had two jars explode. It was the last three jars of salsa. They were put into the small canner and the bottoms blew out. Not sure what that happened. The rings were still finger tight, so not sure that was the cause.
Canning is a lot of work, but the results are totally worth it.
