The Internet is full of bad advice on many things, not the least of which is home canning. The thing that ticks me off about so-called "rebel" canning (i.e. canning that, despite what folks say, is absolutely contrary to the science of home canning), is that influencers and authors are profiting off outright lies about it. I talk a lot about these lies and the science behind canning on this blog’s Facebook page, but not everyone is on Facebook, so I want to address this topic here, as well. 

Some will be angry that I call the points below lies. To be fair, the average "rebel" canner is a victim, but make no mistake about it, profit is the real reason "rebel" canning prevails. There are influencers who absolutely know better, but are more interested in profiting off ignorance than in protecting the health of you and your family. So yes, I'm going to stick with the word "lies."

LIE: People have been water bath canning vegetables and meats for 100s of years. 

TRUTH: While canning was invented in 1806, it was not widely practiced in the home until the Ball brothers began making canning jars in the 1880s. (The creator of canning, Nicolas Appert, canned commercially, and commercial canneries were a thing long before home canning was.) Literature from the late 1800s clearly shows that the basic science of canning was by then well understood: You could water bath can high acid fruits and pickles, and nothing else. Weird theories on how to water bath can low acid meat and vegetables didn’t come along until the 1910s, and were quickly shown false. 

Because I know most people won’t take my word for this, here's what period sources say about home canning. Do note that this is just the tip of the iceberg and for every source I cite , there are many. many others in my personal book collection or at Project Gutenberg (and similar sources) that confirm these facts.

For example, the 1887 version of Canning and Preserving by Mrs. S.T. Rorer only has recipes for high acid foods that are safe to water bath: fruit, pickles, and vinegars. In 1893, the Ayers Preserve Book likewise had recipes for fruit and pickles. In 1908, Household Discoveries, An Encyclopedia of Practical Recipes and Processes had a whole chapter on canning fruit, and another on making pickles. In the chapter on preserving meat, it covers fermenting, salting, curing, and canning...but not canning as we know it today. They advise readers to use the "aspic" (the juices - importantly including the fat - that come out when you cook meat) to cover meat in jars or crocks. In other words, they describe preserving the meat in fat, an old-fashioned way to make meat last a little longer in the larder. While they did put the meat in a jar, this is not truly canning, because the jars were never processed in a canner. For vegetables, the book recommends root cellaring, dehydrating, and pickling. In 1909, the very first Ball book came out, called The Correct Method of Preserving Fruit. As the title indicates, only fruit products were included. 

During this time period, it was independent scientists who figured out how canning actually worked (Appert didn't have a clue) and independent scientists, combined with scientists hired by commercial canneries, who came up with a set of guidelines to follow. These are the basic principles of canning we still follow today. 

"Food: Preparation and Serving," 1925.

The idea of water bath canning low acid meat and non-pickled vegetables popped up a wee bit in the 1920s or so. Unfortunately, it lead to a series of well publicized news stories about mass botulism poisonings that lead to death. (See the Zimmer family, the Hein family, and the olive outbreaks of 1919 and 1920 as just three examples.) At this time, commercial canneries, which were afraid of business drying up because consumers feared eating their food, worked together to iron out some better science. The guidelines that resulted became the guidelines the U.S. government began encouraging home canners to use. The government did no actual testing themselves. 

Even so, books aimed at homemakers of the era still clung to the idea that only high acid fruits and pickles were safe to water bath can. In 1925's Foods: Preparation and Serving by Pearl L. Bailey, the section on preserving vegetables and meat says the "easiest and best method" of canning vegetables is to use a "steam-pressure outfit." (That's what we call a pressure canner.) The author also mentions what she calls "the intermittent method:" "In this method, the vegetables are packed into clean jars and sterilized an hour or more for three successive days. This method necessitates the handling of jars many times, the use of more fuel, and several days' labor. Long-heating tends to produce too soft a produce when use for young or leafy vegetables...As we have learned, some bacteria are able to form spores, which are like seeds, that are not killed by ordinary boiling. Soon after the food has cooled, these spores germinate, when they may be killed easily by heating. A second cooling and a third heating, as in intermittent cooking, will render the vegetable absolutely sterile. The steam pressure cooker is the best canner for vegetables and meats."  

A 1940s root cellar.

In 1919, Georgina Spooner Burke documented that botulism spores survived the intermittent method (sometimes called "fractional" canning or "Tyndallization," after its inventor). By 1921, the method had been entirely discredited, as so many people had developed botulism poisoning after using it, and other scientists had shown in labs that the method did not kill off all harmful microorganisms. 

In 1932, Home Canning for Better Family Meals by Emma Sparks emphasizes that "the steam pressure canner" (i.e. pressure canner) "is a heavy aluminum or boiler-iron vessel...the great temperature obtainable with this type of canner makes it more dependable with the less easily kept products such as meat and nonacid vegetables." In 1942, The A.B.C. of Canning by Ruth Berolzheimer says, "All meats and nonacid vegetables should be processed only in a pressure cooker, in order to destroy the sporeforming bacteria." 

The Ball Blue Book from 1966 says, "All vegetables except those mentioned above," (which were tomatoes and sauerkraut) "and all meats, are nonacid...A pressure cooker should be used when canning nonacid vegetables, but some home canners prefer to use a water bath." A few paragraphs down, the editors make a stronger statement that "pressure cookers" must be used for nonacid foods in order to kill "certain organisms." But here comes the important part. The Blue Book states in bold lettering: "ATTENTION PLEASE! Boil canned vegetables (except tomatoes), soups, and meats fifteen minutes before tasting. Reboil those leftover from one meal to another...The purpose of boiling is to destroy any toxin that might be present." 

Books of this era state that pressure canning low acid foods is better in every way, and all emphasize boiling the contents of each jar for 15 minutes after opening it in order to kill toxin. In other words, they knew botulism toxin could grow in these water bathed jars and that it must be killed before being consumed. What they failed to mention (or perhaps didn't realize) is that opening a jar of botulism toxin spreads the toxin around your kitchen. The spoon you use to stir the food or ladle it into a pan is contaminated. The jar is contaminated, too, so when you wash it, you spread the toxin around. The soap and water you use to wash the jar doesn't kill the toxin, or wash it off the cook's hands, the sink, or the  wash cloth.

That is why today we save fuel, time, nutrition, and overall health by pressure canning low acid foods like meat and non-pickled vegetables. Can like our ancestors, friends! 

LIE: It’s safe because I’ve been doing it my whole life. 

TRUTH: This is called “survivorship bias.” The truth is, where poor canning methods are used, incidences of foodborne illness are higher. Italy is a great example of this. Remember, too, that most foodborne illness never gets reported and that in the past, foodborne illness was often misdiagnosed as disease. There are even reports of whole families dying of “stroke,” which clearly were cases of botulism poisoning. Finally, botulism poisoning is certainly not the only type of food borne illness that can cause serious harm. 

1941, when Eulia Smart was given a pressure canner by the feds and taught how to use it through an FSA program.

LIE: Foodborne illness is way more common in commercially canned food. 

TRUTH: This is a strawman argument; it compares apples and oranges. First of all, much less home canned food is eaten compared to commercially canned food - and home canned food is far less likely to get reported to the people who track such things (in the U.S., that's the CDC). Also, commercial canning is very different from home canning; they use different equipment that does very different things (including getting the food hotter and cooling it faster). 

LIE: It's only unsafe in the U.S.!

TRUTH: By this, "rebel" canners apparently mean that other governments do not have canning guidelines and that no one dies or gets sick from the food that is "rebel can." But just because you don't know about people dying or getting life-altering illness from botulism poisoning due to incorrectly home-canned foods does not mean it doesn't happen.

In 2023, for example, there was a case in France where a bar owner fed customers his incorrectly home-canned sardines. One person died and 15 others went to the hospital for botulism treatment. The bar owner was charged with involuntary homicide.

In all of Europe, home canning is most popular in Italy. And traditional home canning there consists of things we now know aren't as safe as they can be, such as home canning in oil and open kettle canning (where hot food is put into hot jars, which are then turned upside down until the lid seals; no processing in a canner occurs). Interestingly, Italy also has the highest rate of botulism poisoning in Europe. While of course not all cases are linked to home canning (36 cases between 1986 to 2022 were infant botulism, for example), there are confirmed cases directly linked to "rebel canned" home-canned olives, turnip leaves, and mushrooms.

In Poland, improperly home-canned meat is the most common cause of botulism poisoning, In Iran, home-canned cheese is to blame. In Vietnam, home-canned vegetable pate. In Canada, meat, vegetables, soup, and even a jelly have been recent causes. In all cases, incorrect procedures were used. I found all of these cases within 15 minutes, using an Internet search that referenced local news articles or scientific papers.

In addition, it turns out countries besides the U.S. do offer home canning guidelines, but not all countries require the reporting of cases of botulism poisoning. And, of course, botulism poisoning is just one type of serious food poisoning to consider.

"Unrationed abundance," Life Magazine, December 1943.

LIE: The government can’t tell me what to do!  

TRUTH: That's fine. But there's also good news: The government didn’t create canning guidelines. Iindependent and commercial cannery scientists did. As I already established in the first myth, above, commercial canneries figured out the science behind canning. Unfortunately, in the 1910s-20s, people began fooling around with water bathing low acid meat and vegetables and there were a number of serious botulism outbreaks. And that, my friends, is when the feds began in earnest to lay out guidelines - already established by commercial cannery scientists - for home canning.

and maintains it's seal is perfectly safe to eat. On this blog and its associated social media, I encourage home canning. But only if done correctly.

All these books have tested safe canning recipes.

 

LIE: Ball is owned by a huge corporation that just wants you to not can and instead buy their commercially prepared food.

TRUTH: It is true that Ball is owned by Newell Brands...but if their goal is to prevent people from home canning, they are doing a terrible job. Following Ball guidelines, you can literally can everything your ancestors did...and then some!

A meat canning demonstration of the Akron Home Economics Club in December of 1916.