The Pickle CRisp is the same as food grade Calcium Chloride. I have provided a link to BULK FOODS, who sell it far less than Ball, and always have it in stock. Boiling water, should be mildly boiling, not rapid, not a simmer. YOu can remove the jares about 1-2 minutes after the heat is off. They make nice wire racks that can hold a batch of jars at the proper height (need two inches of top water!). You lift two wire handles and the rack and all jars are out in a second. If not, they have cheap, curved, jar tongs with rubber grips that grab each jar just below the thread bead and they lift out effortlessly.

Congrats! ;) Not sure about the towel in the bottom of the pan though - very risky so best to go with something metal. Invest in a proper rack to find something metal like a cake cooling rack that fits in the bottom. You can make a bottom-of-the-pot rack with extra jar bands. Just arrange them on the bottom of the pan (latch them together with bag ties) and set the jars on top of them.

Agree with Ken - simmer isn't enough - needs to be actually boiling but you don't need a violent roiling boil.

Keep up the good work.

Dave

Good job Joy! Each time gets easier. :)

I made some more Bread and Butter pickles tonight, but these are the fridge type and must be eaten in 3 months. I also did 4 pints of string beans in the PC but one can didn't seal. They'll be eaten with dinner tomorrow. I checked the lid and jar rim and couldn't see any defects.

Way to go, Joy! Don't worry about small batches because its best to start out that way rather than be overwhelmed. I've been canning for a long time and I don't try to do two different recipes at the same time. Some people might, but I'm more comfortable doing just one at a time. The people on here really are great and will always help in any way possible. Happy Canning!

Thank you all for your responses and encouragement!

Since I probably didn't boil them at a rapid enough rate, should I eat them soon, put in fridge,..? I processed for 10 minutes and I think it was a bit above a simmer (there were some bubbles, I think the towel prevented much of the water movement). These were an experiment, so I do not plan for them to sit on the shelf for a year or anything like that. I would like to let my family sample them without the fear of making them sick.

Thanks again!!

joy, good for you!

I wouldn't worry about the safety of your pickled products because of your simmer. If the water was boiling, and the lid on, it was at the boiling point or near enough. And pickles are about the safest thing you can can, with their high acidity.

Nothing wrong with using a towel on the bottom, either, with a full load as you had so everything fits nicely. I've tried it with a half-full load and it was a bit awkward---the parts of the dishtowel floated around, bumping the jars and knocking a few over. But I hadn't wanted to pay for a rack till I had tried canning and was sure I wanted to invest in equipment.

Some folks have had luck with wiring some rings together to make a rack. I found a cake-drying rack at the dollar store that fit my pot.

Even after several years of occasional canning, I find I'm not really organized to do two recipes at once without feeling awfully harassed. Best I can manage is sometimes to separate out yellow tomatoes into their own pot for a pretty all-yellow sauce with the larger pot of red ones cooking at the same time on the next burner.

But, hey, one thing at a time is a good way to go about life, I guess!

Happy canning.

Zabby

You can smash a cheapo pie pan relatively flat to use as a rack underneath the jars too. Even foil all smooshed up works in a pinch....takes a lot though.

Tip: If you don't have a "full load", just place some empty jars full of water (no lids or rings) to fill up the extra space and keep your full jars from tipping over.

Deanna

Joy, I still use a doubled-up towel a lot of the time because I haven't found a rack just the right size. I have one that will hold up all the jars, but it doesn't go to the edges, so sometimes the jars lean off the sides of it instead of staying level.

One reason you want a full boil is that what you see at the beginning is not actually a simmer, it's air bubbles escaping from the jars. But I agree that your pickles are probably fine as long as they're sealed.

I prefer to do each recipe individually and process separately. It's not that much more fuel for a 10-minute processing time, since the water stays hot in between. It's just so hard to get everything going together, and you will overcook your pickles if you let the first-jarred sit in the canner while you finish fixing the second recipe to process them together. I do clean up and begin preparing the second batch while the first is processing.

Congratulations, hope you love your pickles!

Melissa

Joy, here's a link to a page from the NCHFP that provides good directions for using a boiling water bath, including the recommended wait time (5 minutes) when processing is done. As mentioned, you need a definite boil.

Since you're concerned about the safety of a less than full boil, you can either re-process the pickles (within 24 hours) or you can refrigerate. Either is fine. Given the small size of the batch, I'd go with refrigeration.

You're doing great! It's just a bit of a learning curve at first.

Carol

Here is a link that might be useful: Using Boiling Water Canners

Thanks all for the comments and tips!

I couldn't stand it any longer and had to open a jar this evening to see how they tasted. I know I didn't get the full effect - but they were pretty darn good! I was concerned because I didn't have any fresh dill and had to substitute dill seed and dill weed. Still pretty good.

Tonight my cousin gave me 4 large sacks of sweet corn. Corn venture starts in the morning!!

Thanks again.

Good for you Joy! What are you going to do with the corn? I love a good corn relish, but as we get such good corn around here I'd like to do something else with it too.

I would love to try to do corn relish sometime. We are leaving for the beach this afternoon, so I spent ALL day yesterday putting up corn. I froze 10 quarts of cut corn and maybe double that in whole ears (I was so tired of cutting corn). And I gave a lot away to family. It was ALOT of corn! But I'm very greatful - it was free.