Boiling the jars before hand, not processing, just means clean jars ;)

You don't need a canner to process jelly (yes, safest), any saucepan or stockpot in your kitchen that has a lid, will let you submerge the jars by 1 - 2" of water will do. The jars should be on a rack, if you don't have a cake cooling rack that fits one of your pans/pots you can fold a dish towel in the bottom, just something so the jars are not directly on the pan surface or any hot spots. Canners have said they will even take extra canning rings, tie those together and put them in the bottom of the pan.

Boiling water bath for 10 minutes and you don't have to sterilize by boiling your jars first. Anything less than 10 minutes and you do need to sterilize the jars, clean and hot in that case won't do.

If you don't process the jelly-filled jars in some sort of pot full of boiling water for 10 minutes then you are not "canning". So the simple answer to your question is no.

What you are doing is making refrigerator jelly, jelly that MUST be stored in the fridge and on the shelf. The safety of that, when using dandelions since they are highly alkaline and the water is alkaline, all depends on the recipe you use and how much acid it has added to it. Most of the safe recipes call for adding a fair amount (like 1/4 cup) of lemon juice and lemon zest to the boiled and strained dandelion juice for safety purposes.

So (1) make sure to use an approved recipe, (2) do not make a big batch, make only a few jars, and (3) store in the fridge for no longer than 3 weeks.

Dave

In addition to what's been said above, you might also want to look into freezer jams/jellies.

Rodney

What Morz8, Dave and Rodney said :)

But if you want to make fridge/freezer jelly, then no, you don't have to worry about not having a canner. You do still want to make sure you have clean and sanitized/boiled jars though.

If you want to boil your jars to make them shelf stable, then yes, you must have a big pot of boiling water to do so. (Yes, I realize some will argue the low water or oven processing is good too, but I do not believe so). You don't have to have an actual canning pot- but it has to be a pot big enough to fully submerge the jars by at least an inch- and have enough space around the jars for them to be fully surrounded by water. For me, I use a 3 gallon stock pot a lot for smaller batch jars for processing. Like if I'm just doing 4-6 half pints I will use the stockpot. For bigger or taller jars I like to use a 5 gallon stock pot. I used to use an actual canning pot- but it was oversized for my stove, and not as deep as stock pots, so I was always having to adjust my water levels. And the stock pots have nice solid heavy bottoms for better even heating, unlike a canning pot. I still use a stainless steel trivet in the bottom of my stock pots to make sure there is water under my jars as well.

And hey... share the recipe you are using for dandelion jelly please.

The only thing I will add is that there is nothing sacred about a "canner" if you mean the big enameled steel pots that are specifically labeled as being for canning. They are great because they hold a lot of jars, have ridges on the bottom that allow good water circulation around the jars, and heat up quickly and efficiently due to being made out of heat conductive metal. However, it is the process of immersing and heating the sealed jars in a boiling water bath that insures the seal and kills the things that can cause spoilage. Whatever you use to create that bath, the key issues are covering the jars with an inch or more of water, and being careful that the boiling process doesn't cause your jars to rattle together and get broken or cracked. A tea towel will work, or you can use nothing and run the risk of something breaking, which is what I do and so far in 15 years I haven't had any breaking. But broken glass means ruined product and a safety hazard so I would try to avoid it. As for dandelion jelly, you do have to follow an approved recipe because you need the correct level of sugar and acid to prevent serious complications on dandelions. Dandelion jelly is like a lot of jellies, basically a sugar and lemon jelly with some flavoring of whatever. I make rose petal, lemon thyme and lemon mint jellies using a similar process.