No, there are no safe, approved recipes for canning caramel sauce at home that I know of.

Blue Book did have one for a praline syrup if that would interest you....Not buttery and rich like the caramel, but then - no dairy allowed in home canning.

BB Praline Syrup recipe

2 cups dark corn syrup
1/2 cup water
1/3 cup brown sugar
1 cup pecan pieces
1/2 tsp vanilla

Combine syrup and water in a saucepan. Add sugar stirring frequently
until dissolved. Bring to a boil; boil one minute. Reduce heat, stir in
pecans and vanilla; simmer 5 minutes.

Ladle hot syrup into hot jars leaving 1/4" headspace. Adjust two piece lids. Process 10 minutes in boiling water bath.

"I'm interested in canning unconventional food items. "

Unfortunately the safety guidelines associated with home canning do not really lend themselves to canning unconventional items. Such items often include prohibited ingredients that can easily compromise safety when stored in an airless vacuum like canned goods. Commercial canning process that allow for the canning of such items is far different from home canning.

Further unless a USDA tested and approved recipe exists for the particular food then the type of processing needed and length of time required is unknown.

Dave

I tried the praline sauce - it's okay, but mostly tastes like the sugar/corn syrup that make up so much of the content. I don't think I'll make it again. I also would love to find some "unconventional food items" to can that would make great gifts...

Canning "unconventional food items" is dangerous enough. But then "giving them as gifts" to unsuspecting friends and family? That's a good way to potentially lose friends and family. Do you understand the many well-documented risks associated with that goal?

If you are looking for canned gifts then for the health of the recipients, stick with one of the many lab approved and tested recipes available.

Dave

Look through the Ball Blue Book or NCHFP website ( http://nchfp.uga.edu/how/can_home.html ) at the available approved recipes and especially the variations listed at the end of some recipes. I find quite a few of the recipes are "unconventional" to me.....unconventional in the sense that I've not thought of using those combinations or those foods, not that they are unsafe to can. With the variations listed, you can safely tweak the recipes a bit and get even more flavor combinations.

Dried herb mixtures might be another direction where you could make safe and unique gift items. And unlike canning, you can create your own recipes and not risk anyone's health.

Oh my goodness. All the nay Sayers out there!! Our grandmothers canned EVERYTHING and still do. Guess what? They are still alive!! You can can just about anything. I do recommend pressure canning for most of it. All the hype about industries do it st higher temps or add extra ingredients to do those. Nope. Read your labels! Anything you can't identify or buy? Not usually!! Pressure can most of your "unconventional"

stuff at 15lb for 75-90 min and it's safe!!

No, not all of them are still alive. Only the lucky ones.

My science is I pressure can't and waterbath at home and always have. So did my grandparents. I am pretty sure I would remember a botulism incident. To each his own. You can your way, I can mine. Promote yours, don't care. I will promote mine with education. I have worked in the food industry my whole life so I am well educated. Vinegar and salt keeps things from germs. High heat and pressure prevents bacteria growth. Storing in cool places keeps bacteria out. Sanitizing jars keeps bacteria out. If you educate yourself on botulism and canning procedures, both will tell you what to do and not to do. Sorry you have to live a canning police lifestyle. 262 people contracted botulism last year in the USA. Of that 262, 28 were foodborne. 60% of this was commercial foods. 15% was infant foodborne from formula (commercial) 2% was from canning. The rest was random. Pretty low stats I would say. That was probably from someone who did not follow basic safety procedures. I advocate SAFE canning and education, not fear tactics.

Safe canning and education is what is advocated here as well and the source of both is the standard approved USDA Canning Guidelines that are based on extensive lab research.

http://nchfp.uga.edu/publications/publications_usda.html

But your approach and statements such as "Vinegar and salt keeps things from germs. High heat and pressure prevents bacteria growth. Storing in cool places keeps bacteria out. Sanitizing jars keeps bacteria out." reveals a real lack of understanding of those safe canning guidelines, much less how they have changed over the decades.

I hope your luck continues to hold.

Dave

Thank you, thank you, thank you Dave. Please keep saying it over and over. People don't realize that part of the reason procedures have changed is that ingredients have changed. They haven't had a problem, so they think it's ok. Some new person comes along, believes what they read and it's a disaster. I can hundreds of jars a year, but still consider myself a novice. I never accept or buy home canned goods from anyone unless I know that that person cans safely and properly. And I would not ever give or share anything I've canned as a gift if I didn't know I had followed an approved receipt exactly.

If you're a new canner, looking here or elsewhere on the internet for advice and recipes, please heed the warning from Dave.

Thank YOU Heavens123. When people make such broad, misleading, and untrue claims such as those above I can feel sorry for them but I can't allow their lack of knowledge to impact on others who may read it.

Dave

I am an advocate of knowing your risk. You want to take it, take it, but saying "no one has died yet" is like putting your baby on the back seat instead of in a car seat. We did it when I was a child and I didn't die, but I sure wouldn't do it with the grandbabies today. I want the best and most current information, based on sound science and testing. I want the safest and best equipment and recipes, and just because it was good 50 years ago doesn't make it the best today. We've learned a lot in 50 years. Take that current information and current science and current testing and current equipment and then I get to decide which risks I think are so miniscule as to be acceptable to me, and which are risks I don't care to take. Giving gifts of food to adult members of my family with good immune systems is one thing, giving them to babies, the elderly, the immuno-compromised? That's taking a chance with someone else's life, not your own.

In addition, there are different levels of risk. Pickles with 50/50 ratio of vinegar to water? Homemade jam? Things with enough vinegar or high acid fruit products properly processed are relatively low risk. Something that will be boiled for 10 minutes, like tomatoes in a batch of chili? Probably OK too. Salsa? Well, now, you've hit on a sore spot. It isn't heated before using and it contains varying amounts of low acid vegetables. If I didn't know the process and the recipe, I wouldn't be eating it.

So, bottom line is that there are no "food police". There are only guidelines. They are not laws and they are not rules. Each person is free to make their own decisions regarding the consumption and preservation of home-produced products. I can only hope that each person also receives complete, current and accurate information to use while making that decision.

Annie

I very much appreciate the sound advice this forum gives. It's the only place I go for canning advice outside the Ball Book and NCHFP. Everyone has to assess the risks and do what they feel is best...and that's why I never accept canned goods from people unless I know them and know they follow the guidelines as well. Otherwise, if I know them well enough to decline, I do so. If the social situation is more delicate, I thank them very politely and dispose of the product safely.

There is a Facebook group called Rebel Canners. You will find all sorts of unconventional canning recipes. They are fearless.

I would assume that people who think it necessary to take such risks will find risks to take and others to encourage them to take them. I tend to have a healthy respect for things that can kill me and life is risky enough without wilfully attempting to poison myself over caramel sauce or chowder. A little fear is a good think, I think, it keeps me from doing things like driving like a maniac or playing Russian Roulette or taking a ride on my 2,000 pound bull. I might get away with those things, others have, but I think it's past my risk threshold. So, can it if you like, I'll pass.

That's the strange thing about some of the "cowboy canners". We will say "do it if you want to, it's your risk to take, although we don't recommend it". They'll argue forever that it's fine, it's safe, and everyone should do it their way. They are absolutely right and everyone else is absolutely wrong and you WILL be convinced of that.

Annie

Well said Annie!

Dave

Totally agree, Annie. If it weren't for the fact that "rebel canners" are advocating their unsafe canning methods (or perhaps I should say methods that aren't proven to be safe) I would find it funny how upset and sometimes belligerent they get.

Rodney

Yes they do get hostile and sometimes even abusive don't they? Often refer to many of us as "Nazis". Their approach is their choice of course, their risk to take, but such prejudicial labels have no place in discussions about home food preservation.

Yet they seem unable or unwilling to explain why they are so intolerant of differing opinions.

Dave

Many of us can many things the govt has not tested. We just do not want to deal with the cyber bullies after you admit something that upsets some. Some seem to turn into Karens the minute they hear that you are a * rebel canner* LOL so we keep quiet to avoid the drama.

I don't find that anyone here bullies anyone else, but we will argue our point when we are told we are wrong, we are worriers, we are trying to be "police", that we are sheep that will follow any rule, no matter how trivial, that we are government patsies who don't have the sense to realize that it's all a big government conspiracy to control us. We do encourage people to know the risks they are taking. Yet, as soon as someone says that's it's not tested and that no tested or proven safe recipes exist, the insults begin.

I tend to be more of a rebel than many here, maybe even most. I use recipes that haven't been tested and/or approved, I used old commercial spaghetti jars for canning long before the NCFHP said it was acceptable (although not optimal), I used to use paraffin until I realized how much "product" I lost to mold and spoilage, but I don't hesitate to eat jelly canned by a friend who still insists on using paraffin. I still can rutabaga although the guidelines have been removed from the Ball Blue Book because I know it was a quality issue and not a safety issue. I used to open kettle can dill pickles for my Dad because that's the only way he liked them, although I did explain that it wasn't proven to be safe. Then I shut up and used the recipe he gave me. But I have upped the acid in my salsa recipe more than once to comply with government guidelines because I don't heat it, I eat it from the jar. I follow the guidelines when canning soup and I learned that canning noodles gives you a big jar full of mush in addition to being discouraged for safety reasons. I can over 1,000 jars of various products annually and have been canning since I was a child small enough to stand on a kitchen chair and peel tomatoes, so at least 60 years. I have seen guidelines come and go, as well as changes in cooking methods and taste preferences. I remember that steam canners were "not approved" for a long time, and now they are (for certain recipes). Heck, when I started canning no one would have thought of canning enchilada sauce, now I do it every year, but nearly no one cans rutabaga anymore.

So, you see, I'm comfortable with stepping outside the guidelines, but I'm going to explain the risks and let each person decide whether they want to take those risks. I also recognize that just because it's available commercially doesn't mean that I have the equipment to reach the heat or pressure levels that big corporations use for processing their products.

Some risks are miniscule, others are much greater, and I am a proponent of letting adults be responsible for their own actions and decisions. I'm still not going to pass those risks on to children, my friend on chemo, my 85 year old not-so-healthy mother. That, in my opinion, is uncaring and shows no respect for the individual circumstances of others. And again, I'm certainly not going to take unnecessary risks because I just HAVE to can caramel sauce for Christmas gifts or don't want to spend the extra 30 seconds it would take to add cream to my chowder when I'm reheating it.

To each their own, but if you are doing something that is untested, tell me that it's untested. I can do my own research and decide whether I want to take the risk or not. And, if you give me a jar of caramel sauce I'll smile sweetly, thank you politely and when I get home I'll throw it away, thus wasting both your time and your ingredients. And that's my choice. Call me a "Karen" if name-calling is acceptable in your circle of acquaintances, and it seems to have become more and more socially acceptable, unfortunately. However, I'll refrain from personal insults because that is what my moral compass dictates.

Happy canning!

Annie

Wow, this post was 3 years ago and the comments came back around. I admit, I was a tad harsh in my comments. I still can crazy things though. I follow mostly the rules, but I do can milk and butter. Those things come in a can in the stores. How is it more safe for a professional company to can it in metal of all things but its not safe for us to do it in jars? Same with Ghee or clarified butter. It is classified safe in a glass jar at the store for $11. And caramel sauce..... Ghiradelli. It is in a plastic container. It is not even truly canned. If you read the label, it has whey in it. That is milk. Or it has heavy cream in it, which is the fat from milk. Still dairy either way. But its safe to put it in plastic (Which cannot even take the temps of pressure canning) and yet it is safe. But caramel is not allowed in a glass jar with 15lb pressure? Where is even the logic in that? I am just pointing out some faults in some of the canning guidelines. It is obvious that some things need pressure canned and some don't. It is obvious that you need to get acidity right on root vegetables because that is where botulism is found the most. I am not so crazy that I water bath can meat. I only pressure can it because I do want to protect my family. I pressure can root vegetables as well.

Can it if you like, you don't need to convince me that it's safe, you only have to convince yourself. If you are comfortable, do as you wish.

As I have said, commercially available products are processed with equipment that the average person doesn't have access to or can't afford. They can heat things to higher temperatures or at greater pressure than can be done at home and so are able to preserve things that the average home preserver cannot. Not only does the product have to reach a certain temperature, it needs to reach it within a certain time and maintain it for another particular period of time. Very thick or dense items can be problematic, as the heat may not penetrate to the center for a long enough period of time or quickly enough to avoid spoilage or toxins.

Other things just aren't tested, so there is no way of knowing whether they are safe or not. Other things are not recommended because of quality, like that rutabaga. It gets "strong". People don't like it. The recipe goes away. It's not unsafe, but the quality suffers.

Some of the canning recommendations break their own rules. The NCFHP has a recipe for 3 bean salad that calls for oil, but you aren't supposed to can "fats". I leave the oil out because I don't like the final product, but it's tested and safe. There's also a recipe for lemon curd that calls for butter and egg yolks, although it's recommended that you use it within 3 months because it separates and discolors. Again, a quality issue. But it's been tested for safety at specific times and temperatures, it's not a "I guess that's going to be good" time or process. The fact remains that there are no caramel sauce recipes that have been tested and found to be safe for home canning. Maybe it is OK, but how do you KNOW? Simple answer is that you don't know, you just think it is, or guess that it's OK. If that's enough for you, then can away, but if I can't guarantee it's safe, I'm not going to tell other people that it is. I'll tell them I don't have any way of knowing and let them decide for themselves.

So, do as you wish. Lots of people take risks. They do shark diving and bull running and free climbing rock faces hundreds of feet off the ground. Some die or are horribly injured, others survive. Whatever risks you are willing to take are yours to take, whether it's canning or riding bulls.

And, if you're really set on canning caramel sauce, the closest I found was this. I love pears, so it sounds really good to me, but it's not actually caramel, there's no cream. Close, though, and contains only high acid fruit (pears are 3.5-4.6 pH) and sugar, along with some vanilla.

Pear Vanilla Caramel Sauce from Food in Jars

• 2 pounds ripe pears
• 2 teaspoons vanilla bean paste
• 1 teaspoon sea salt
• 3 cups granulated sugar
• 1 1/2 cups water

1. Prepare a boiling water bath canner and four half pint jars.
2. Core and chop pears. Place them in a blender with the vanilla bean paste, salt, and 1/4 cup water. Puree until smooth. You should have between 3 and 3 1/2 cups pear puree.
3. Combine sugar with the 1 1/2 cups water in a sauce pan. Place over medium-high heat and simmer for 15-20 minutes, until the sugar reaches between 250°F and 290°F and darkens to the color of an old copper penny (the higher the temp, the more assertive the caramel flavor). Do not stir the cooking syrup. Instead hold the handle and gently swirl the pot to move things around.
4. Once the syrup has reached your desired temperature, remove the pot from the heat and stir in the pear puree. It will bubble and spatter, so take care. Stir puree into the sugar and return the pot to the heat. Continue stirring and cooking, until the pear caramel sauce reaches between 215°F and 225°F (the higher the temp, the thicker the finished texture will be). As you stir, take care to really work the bottom of the pot, so that the caramel doesn't stick and burn.
5. Remove caramel from heat and funnel into prepared jars. Wipe rims, apply lids and rings, and process in a boiling water bath canner for 10 minutes.

Annie

If you want to try thinking outside the box and be supported instead of intimidated come check us out promise if you dare to think outside the box you won't be disappointed https://m.facebook.com/groups/canningrebels/permalink/1798937243600103/