Reddit reviews Ball Home Canning Discovery Kit (by Jarden Home Brands)
We found 4 Reddit comments about Ball Home Canning Discovery Kit (by Jarden Home Brands). Here are the top ones, ranked by their Reddit score.
Ball Home Canning Discovery Kit. Hardware MiscellaneousManufacturer: JARDEN HOME BRANDSManufacturer part number: 1440010790Introductory home canning kit eases a novice canner into it with a trail set that makes use of existing kitchenwareIncludes an illustrated, simplified instruction book with recipesAlso includes polypropylene rack with separate, fitted lifter that works in standard stockpots and 3 Pint jarsEfficient, low-cost way to learn canning, which could save money and broaden supplies in the long run
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!
The cash layout for equipment to get started is pretty small if you're not getting a pressure canner (I've been canning for years and I'm just now thinking about getting a pressure canner). If you get one of these, you don't even need to buy a canner as long as you have a deep stock pot. It's also really common to find canning equipment at Goodwill or garage sales.
I'm a big fan of jalapeno jelly and tomato raisin chutney. Both are really tasty and versatile, so we eat them a lot, and also really impressive for taking to parties as an appetizer with some cream cheese and crackers.
Edit: Kind of a long shot, but are you comfortable saying what area you live in? I'm planning to replace my canner with a larger one this month. If you're in the Portland, OR area you can have the old one. I think shipping it would probably cost more than buying a new one locally if you're not close.
It is a lot of money for a water bath canner with limited capacity. Ball sells a small batch kit with a little basket and canning tools for under twenty bucks. It fits in a regular stockpot and comes with a few jars and tools. If the automatic one also did pressure canning recipes I could possibly see it being an ok purchase, but all the stuff I've read makes it out to be a glorified water bath canner.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B003ENB1KI?pc_redir=1408853157&robot_redir=1
She's describing a water bath canner — a lot of things can be canned this way (it's the only kind of canning I've ever done).
Some things (low acid, like meats/stews) require a pressure canner to be canned safely.
For water bath canning, Ball makes a starter kit that has a lot of the tools/gadgets (funnel, tongs, a cheesy plastic rack), and it comes with some jars and a recipe book. I've seen it at Wal Mart. I started with this, and soon realized I wanted to can more than 3 jars at once, so bought a big stockpot and a round cake rack, like she describes.