You can safely reduce any recipe too large for your needs. Just keep everything in proportion and use the same size jars (or smaller) and processing time as the original instructions indicate.

I would be very cautious about using the canner manual, as the canner manufacturers are slow to update. Double-check with other sources before using.

Carol

Vegetables in most cases require a pressure canner, unless they are pickled. Fruits are usually higher acid and can be done in a boiling water bath canner. The only items of veggies that can be done in a BWB canner are tomatoes (actually a fruit), as well as cucumbers, but as most people know you must add an acid to properly can tomatoes, and the cukes are pickled in vinegar.If you plan to do jelly making and are using a boxed or bottled pectin. These recipes MUST be followed to the letter as they will not set if the proper cooking, and addition of sugar isn't done in the correct amounts.

I would be very cautious about using the canner manual, as the canner manufacturers are slow to update. Double-check with other sources before using.

I agree. I'll even go so far as to say ignore all recipes in the canner manual. Pick up a current copy of the Ball Blue Book - cheap paperback and sold wherever they sell canning supplies. It has better instructions on how to use your canner than the manufacturer's manual does and is full of approved recipes.

Then take your calculator and do proportionate reductions on those recipes. ;) If you have trobule post here and one of us can help you with it.

Dave

Would I still use the same amount of processing time with smaller batches? Or would it be less time?

Same times as full recipes. Processing times also vary depending on the jar sizes. Pints process a little less compared to quarts.

As Ken said (and I said originally) same processing time and same size containers or smaller. Never size up. The only difference is you have less yield total.

Carol

I wonder if you start with simpler things like plain green beans and tomatoes or tomato juice, you might get used to the processing and then the recipes will make more sense. You'll get used to how much gives you a full canner "load", like I know that a 2-gallon bucket of green beans will net me 4 quarts for the canner, just enough to fill my small one. Most things we just process until we're out of food, and it's best, of course, to have your canner full, but I've certainly processed just 2 or 3 jars in a 4-quart canner. If you're doing something like spaghetti sauce, change your proportions according to how much you have. Everyone occasionally has some brine left over from the pickled beets, and we usually toss it out because we're out of beets. Sure-jel jams and jellies are the only thing I can think of that would be critical in this way.

Actually I save my brines if I have a lot left. I just pour the rest, while boiling,into a canning jar add the lid, and its ready for the next round of pickles. I don't even process the brine itself as its not necesaary because there are no veggies inside. If you want to have very successful jelly making, without any disappointments, suggest the Pomona pectin. Its not dependent on lots of sugar and precise liquid to set like regular pectins. If your going to be doing pickles, get a few big jugs of white distilled vinegar. I need to get about 5 of them soon at either BJ's or Costco, before they both run out, like last year. My pickled beet brine is made like the sweet mixed pickles. I also add a few slices of onions to them. Small beets (smaller than golf balls) get pickled whole. Bigger ones get sliced. No beets this year for me, no room in the garden as I still have plenty of pickled ones left from last year and the year before. One lady told me they were very hard. I can't figure that out, as beets soften like everything else when pickled and processed. I also have to partially cook them to peel them before they get canned.

Okay, so just clarifying for myself here since some folks are saying 'smaller batches' and some are saying 'smaller jars.'

If I want to PC in smaller jars than are listed in the tables, I can do so and simply follow the same timing as for larger jars, is that correct? I know that in general that's the procedure, but I wasn't sure if there was any reason a very small jar shouldn't be used. (I called my county extension about this question and was told that if the jar size wasn't listed in the tables, they could give advice. That's the gov't.)

For context, what I want to do is can peppers into 4-oz jars. I use a lot of this product in various final recipes that call for a 4-oz jar of commercially-canned chiles, and I don't want leftovers if I don't have to. OTOH, if very small jars aren't a good idea, I'll just go with half-pints and either double the final recipe or use a few extra peppers in it if I think it won't make the recipe too hot.

Is there any reason I =wouldn't= want to go to a jar this small? Other than that they might end up overprocessed mush, that is?

Should I leave the headspace at 1" (which is what's called for in both pints and half-pints) even though I'm going to a very small jar?

Thanks for any advice!

Val

Here is a link that might be useful: the commercial product I'm trying to replace with my own home-canned product

No really, most any size jars are OK in a PC, except a half gallon. The bigger the capacity of each jar, the more canning time is needed usually. A PC can do things a lot safer, but if its a high acid food as the end product, you should have no problems canning smaller sized jars. 4 ounces is quite small, unless your only wanting a 'hint' of a taste. Also, the same size can be used in 4 different recipes if they are all prepared within a week or two. That gives you a tiny one ounce portion for each.

You can always reduce the jar size. (Your Extension agent needs further training, LOL.)

Keep the headspace the same.

A 4 oz. jar sounds perfect for canned peppers to use in recipes. No leftovers, no waste.

Carol

You are kidding, the extension office couldn't answer a little basic question ? That is sad.
Yes, you can always use a smaller jar than listed, just never larger. A larger jar would be underprocessed and be unsafe to eat the food. It has to do with heat penetration due to the density and acidity of a food. Some foods just don't conduct the heat enough to safely can them in larger jars than is listed for a food in a safe, tested recipe/method.
Sure, cut batches in half or whatever, as long as you do it in the same proportions of ingredients.
As was said, yes, always use the same headspace for the food you are processing called for in the recipe.