Canning Apples for Food Storage

5 from 2 votes

Canning Apples for Food Storage

Canning apples is a great way to preserve the fresh flavor to enjoy throughout the year. Learn how to home can plain apples slices, quarters, or chunks for your food storage shelves.

Prep Time30

Cook Time30

Total Time1

Course: Canning

Cuisine: American

Keyword: canning apples

Servings: servings

Calories: 90kcal

Author: Grow a Good Life

Ingredients

13 1/2 pounds baking apples
6 1/2 cups water
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup bottled lemon juice (optional to prevent browning)

Instructions

Prepare the canning equipment:

Wash your jars, lids, screw bands, and canning tools in hot soapy water. Rinse thoroughly to remove all suds. Set aside to air dry on a clean kitchen towel.
Place the canning rack into water bath canner, place jars in the canner, and add water to cover. Bring the canner to a simmer (180˚F) for 10 minutes, and keep hot until you are ready to fill them.

Make the syrup:

Add the sugar and water to the large saucepan and bring to a boil over medium-high heat to dissolve sugar, keep warm.

Prepare the apples:

Fill a large bowl with about a gallon of cold water and lemon juice if using (or use Fruit Fresh - follow directions on package).
Wash the apples well under clean, running water. Peel, core, and cut the apples into halves, quarters, or slices. Add the apple pieces to the bowl of water as you work.

Heat the apples in the syrup:

Drain the apples and add them to the sugar-syrup pot. Cover the pot, raise the heat, and bring the pot to a boil, and boil for 5 minutes. Reduce the heat to low and fill the jars.

Can the apples:

Spread a towel on the counter. Use your jar lifter to remove a warm jar from canner, drain the water into the canner, and place on the towel. Keep the rest of the jars in the canner so they stay hot.
Use your canning funnel and ladle, to fill the warm jars with hot apples and top off with the syrup leaving 1/2-inch headspace.
Run you bubble popper through the apples to release air bubbles, and wipe jar rim with a clean, damp kitchen towel.
Place a lid on the jar, and screw the metal band down fingertip tight. Place the jar back into the canner, and repeat with the remaining jars.
Once all the jars are in canner, adjust the water level to two inches above the tops.
Cover the canner and bring to boil over high heat. Once water boils vigorously, process pints and quarts for 20 minutes at altitudes of less than 1,000 ft. Adjust processing time for your altitude if necessary. (see notes below)
When processing time is complete, turn off the heat and allow the canner to cool down and settle for about 5 minutes.
Lay a dry towel on the counter. Remove the cover by tilting lid away from you so that steam does not burn your face.
Use the jar lifter to remove the jars from canner and place on the towel. Keep upright, and don't tighten bands or check the seals yet. Let the jars sit undisturbed for 12 to 24-hours to cool.
After the jars have cooled for at least 12 hours, check to be sure lids have sealed by pushing on the center of the lid. The lid should not pop up. If the lid flexes up and down, it did not seal. Refrigerate jar and use up within a few days.
Remove the screw on bands and wash the jars. Label, date, and store your jars in a cool, dark place and use within 12-18 months. Yields about 9 pint of apples.

Notes

This recipe is for canning pint jars of apples. If you are canning quarts, you will need about 17 1/2 pounds of apples for a full canner load of 7 quarts. The processing time is the same for both pint and quart sized jars.

This is a tested safe canning recipe from the USDA Complete Guide to Home Canning and So Easy to Preserve books. Changing the recipe may make the product unsafe.

All times are at altitudes of less than 1,000 ft. Adjustments must be made for altitudes greater than 1,000 ft. Adjustments must be made for altitudes greater than 1,000 ft. Processing time for altitudes of 1,001 – 3,000 + 25 minutes, 3001 – 6,000 feet = 30 minutes, above 6,000 feet = 35 minutes.

Nutrition