33 Best Canning Recipes

Canning and preserving vegetables and fruits as we transition into fall is a great way of making the most of your Summer harvest and ensuring you can enjoy seasonal products all year round.

If you’re not green-fingered and are using store-bought of farmer’s market vegetables and fruits, it’s also an affordable way of enjoying produce that is no longer in season and therefore more expensive.

Canning is a daunting prospect for most newbies, so we’re taking it back to basics with these 33 easy beginner-friendly canning recipes that you can make with confidence.

Keep scrolling for everything from apple butter to the best dill pickle relish recipe you’ll ever try – we promise.

1. The Best Homemade Salsa

If you were ever in doubt that your canned goods and preserves would sit untouched in the cupboard or fridge for months, this recipe alone should ease your worries.

With tomatoes now nearing the end of their season, this is a great way of ensuring no tomatoes from your last harvest of the year go to waste.

Use in sandwiches, nachos, burritos, or just as a dip with chips and chopped veggie batons.

2. Canning Strawberries

If you’re a regular grower of strawberries, you’ll know that it’s tough to keep up with how quickly they grow, and as they need eating within a couple of days, they can go bad quickly.

This recipe solves that problem by showing you how to preserve them as whole berries rather than making them into a jam as they’re most commonly preserved.

This is a great alternative to freezing them whole as when frozen. They can become quite watery.

3. Easy Pickle Relish

If you love relish (and let’s face it – who doesn’t?), you’ll love this recipe.

It’s quick and easy to make and is a great way to use up your cucumber harvest.

Loaded with spices such as celery seed, mustard, turmeric, and onion, it is packed with flavor and has a spicy kick.

Serve on hotdogs or in cheese sandwiches!

4. Homemade Pasta Sauce

Homemade pasta sauce is always superior to store-bought stuff.

This sauce, in particular, is also loaded with finely diced vegetables, meaning that it’s a great way to conveniently get your five-a-day into your meal without any real effort.

This recipe also helpfully includes instructions on how to sterilize your jars thoroughly.

Roma tomatoes are the best to use here for their sweetness, but any fresh tomatoes will work!

5. Raspberry Peach Jam

We warn you – it’ll be hard to go back to store-bought jam after you’ve tried this stuff.

The peaches give this jam a real point of difference as it helps to mellow out the sharpness of the raspberries and is a nice, comforting reminder of Summer, even in the colder months.

If you can’t get a hold of peaches, nectarines work just as well.

Our favorite way to enjoy this is drizzled over a bowl of granola and coconut yogurt! How would you use it?

6. Boozy Bourbon Cherries

This is one of our favorite home canning recipes both for its originality and for the fact that it’s laced with booze.

These are amazingly versatile and can be gifted around the holidays but can also be added to cocktails or added into brownies.

Whether you’re using them as part of another recipe or straight from the jar (oops), they’re absolutely delicious and dangerously moreish!

7. How to Can Green Beans

This is a canning 101 recipe that walks you through detailed instructions for how to can green beans in a way that retains their crispness and freshness.

All you’ll need is a pressure cooker and jars for your green beans.

Try adding them to potato salads or toss in garlic-infused olive oil and salt as a delicious side dish for serving ideas.

8. Jarred Minced Garlic

Imagine adding up the minutes you spend peeling and chopping garlic cloves across any given year. Yikes.

Then, imagine how much time you could save by jarring said garlic after mincing it in a food processor.

This is a no-brainer and will save so much time considering garlic is probably something you use in 80% of your home cooking!

9. Homemade Claussen Knock-Off Pickles

These pickles taste just like the ones you can find in stores (if not better) and are much more affordable.

Crunchy, garlicky, and completely addictive, these pickles are best made in a large batch as everyone in the house will be snacking on them at any given opportunity.

This recipe also states that no canning experience or specialist canning equipment is needed, making it a great beginner-friendly preserving recipe.

10. Carrot Cake Jam

If you’re a carrot cake lover, you need to try this recipe!

A warming spiced jam loaded with freshly grated carrots, apples, pineapple, and coconut, this jam is distinct in flavor and a great preserve for gifting.

This is a really original one and so if you need inspiration for how to enjoy it, try using it as a topping for pancakes, waffles, vanilla ice cream, or as a layer in a carrot cake!

11. Homemade Fig Preserves

Fig jam or fig preserves are a staple for this time of year!

We love figs in their natural state, but when turned into a jam or preserve, they can be enjoyed in so many different ways.

You could top oatmeal with a spoonful of this, serve with crackers and cheese, use in savory goat’s cheese tartlets or enjoy in fig rolls.

Whether enjoyed as part of a sweet or savory meal, fig jam is a must-have for this season.

12. Copycat Sweet Baby Ray’s BBQ Sauce

This American classic is so well-loved that we wouldn’t dare to call this a copycat unless it was pretty close to the original!

The main difference is that this version doesn’t include the high fructose corn syrup, which is a plus as we all know that as an ingredient worth avoiding.

The liquid smoke is the secret ingredient here which really adds that hickory smoked flavor!

13. Bourbon Bacon Jam

Loaded with bourbon, sugar, and bacon, this isn’t for the health-conscious among us, but as an occasional treat, this is a great one to have to hang around in the fridge for a rainy day.

It’s really simple to make and is an absolute umami flavor bomb.

Throw into a mac and cheese, use jalapeno poppers or serve with crackers for a salty kick that goes a long way!

14. Super Easy Hot Pepper Jelly

This really looks like red confetti flecks suspended in a thick, glossy jelly, and we don’t know if anything quite beats that.

This liquid (or jelly) gold can be served with just about anything but is great when used for appetizers, as a topping for chili, or used in cheese toasties.

This recipe calls for jalapenos as the main heat source, but if you really love heat and spice, you could switch these out for serrano or habanero peppers.

15. Canning Pineapple

With pineapple being naturally high in both acidity and sweetness, it’s the perfect candidate for canning.

This tastes so much more vibrant and delicious than store-bought canned pineapple and is worth making.

You can either use water, juice, or syrup as the liquid here, and they all work well.

If you opt for the juice, apple, pineapple, or grape juice, all work really nicely.

16. Apple Butter

With minimal ingredients, this (award-winning, no less) apple butter is really easy to make and makes it even easier. It’s made in the slow cooker.

If you’ve never tried apple butter or are unfamiliar with it, you can use it as you would use regular butter or nut butter on toast, or you can use it as you would use applesauce in baking.

If you love the flavor of vanilla, we recommend adding in a splash of vanilla extract, too.

17. No-Cook Strawberry Peach Jam

If you’re ever worried about using sugar thermometers when making jam or standing over the stove while jam thickens and reduces, this recipe should eliminate all of your jam-related fears.

You’ll need just 6 ingredients: crushed strawberries, finely chopped peaches, lemon juice, MCP Pectin, sugar, and light corn syrup.

It’s so easy, so delicious, and requires practically no effort.

Drizzle over sundaes, use as a topping for pancakes, or use to ripple through vanilla ice cream!

18. Canning Peaches at Home

This is a great beginner’s guide to canning peaches with lots of handy tips and tricks dotted throughout to help you along the way.

If you’re new to canning, this recipe makes it all so easy and far less overwhelming.

It also includes some really great links for recipes using canned peaches, including peach lemonade, peach galette, and raspberry peach cobbler.

You’re welcome.

19. How to Can Apple Slices

More specifically – how to can apple slices to keep them crispy.

It’s a real skill, but it’s foolproof if you follow this recipe to the letter.

Canned apples are often mushy, so this recipe is really refreshing as you can really make the most of leftovers from apple season and keep them just as delicious and crunchy as they were when they fell from the tree!

20. How to Make and Preserve and Pickled Beets

We don’t know about you, but beets really taste like a piece of home to us.

Pickled, they taste deliciously sweet and earthy with a really nice undertone of gentle acidity.

They’re also beautiful and rich in pigment, and they really liven up any dish both in color and flavor.

The recipe itself is ridiculously easy, and you’ll need just 4 ingredients: beets, white vinegar, sugar, and pickling spice.

21. Onion Marmalade

This golden-hued jammy onion marmalade is the perfect balance of sweet and spicy and is ridiculously easy to eat.

There are quite a few ingredients, but the finished result is well worth the effort, and this stuff can be enjoyed in so many different ways.

As a glaze for meats or fish, served onto baked camembert or mixed with sour cream as a dip, this marmalade is seriously addictive.

22. Raspberry Peach Freezer Jam

We’re huge advocates for canning and preserving, but for some of us, canning can be really daunting with risks of botulism and bacteria, so this recipe is for you if you’re hesitant.

It’s stored in the freezer in either mason jars or Tupperware, and so you don’t have to worry about bacteria growth and temperature management.

The recipe is really easy, and the only difficult part is not stealing spoonfuls of it as you’re jarring it.

23. Garlic Banana Peppers

If you’ve ever grown banana peppers, you’ll know that the plants have a huge yield, and so a preserving recipe like this one is a convenient one for ensuring none go to waste.

This is a great recipe to have in your preserving recipe arsenal, and these vibrant, acidic, and crunchy peppers are a great addition to salads, nachos, and sandwiches.

One of our favorite ways to enjoy these is to chop them and add them to burger sauce finely.

24. Mexican Pickled Onions

These pickled onions are so delicious and flavorsome and make a difference to any dish you sprinkle them over the top.

Did you know that pickled onions are a great source of folate, probiotics, and digestive enzymes?

So, as well as maintaining a happy stomach, they also help maintain a healthy one. Even more, a reason to make them and use them in every way possible!

What would you use these as a topping for?

25. Strawberry & Blueberry Jam

This jam is a nutrient powerhouse, packed with just as much flavor as it is antioxidants.

Deep and rich in purple hue, this jam is absolutely delicious and would make for a great gift.

This can be stored for up to 18 months in a cool, dry cabinet or cupboard if jarred as this post recommends, but we doubt it will last for that long!

26. Apricot Jam

We love this jam for its golden hue, delicious honey-like sweetness, and the fact that no pectin is required.

Pectin isn’t always easy to get a hold of if you live in a rural area, and so this jam recipe ensures that no one misses out on the small joy and satisfaction that making homemade jam brings!

This recipe is also lower in sugar than most other jams and can be used in savory and sweet dishes.

Used in tagines or grilled cheeses, this jam is seriously versatile.

27. Cranberry Pepper Jam

This is easily one of the unique jam recipes out there and is deserving of the many saves it has all over the internet!

Flecked with chilies suspended in a ruby-colored jelly, this jam is sweet, spicy, and makes for a great Christmas or

Thanksgiving gift for loved ones.

Try adding this to a goat’s cheese or brie and arugula panini, and thank us later.

28. Quick Pickled Green Tomatoes

If you’ve ever been tempted to throw away any tomatoes that have refused to turn red, let this recipe serve as a reminder that green tomatoes are just as delicious as red!

Save them from your compost heap and throw together this quick pickle instead and enjoy your late summer harvest throughout the winter.

Use them on a cheese platter or sliced thinly and added to sandwiches.

29. Pickled Brussel Sprouts

Hear us out on this one – we can almost see your eyebrow raise from here.

If you’re a Brussel sprouts avoider, it’s likely because of the smell that emerges from them as they’re cooking.

This recipe eliminates that questionable scent and is a great new way of enjoying this under-appreciated vegetable.

The garlic, lemon, and dill-infused pickling liquor adds flavor and will surely convert any brussel sprout hater!

30. Blackberry Jam

This is another ‘no pectin required’ jam recipe for those of us with canning nerves.

Blackberries are naturally really high in pectin, and so the process is actually really easy.

This recipe calls for sugar, but honey or maple syrup can easily be used in their place as although they are a lot sweeter than sugar, you need less in terms of quantity, meaning that the overall result is a little healthier.

31. Dill Pickle Relish

It’s everyone’s (surely?) favorite relish that is so much more delicious when it’s made at home than store-bought – we promise!

Store-bought pickle relish can often be overly sweet, so if you’re more of a savory pickle relish fan, you’ll definitely favor this flavor profile.

Flavored with dill seeds, mustard seeds, celery seeds, bay leaves, and garlic, this is packed with flavor and can be enjoyed on sandwiches, hamburgers, or added to pasta salads!

32. Canned Pickled Beets

Pickled beets are the taste of childhood for many of us, and as well as being totally delicious, they’re also packed with nutrition.

Loaded with fiber, iron, antioxidants, and folate, these beets are great on the nutrition front, but the preserving process also helps to intensify their flavor.

Remember to never deviate from these canning recipes and their exact measurements and ratios to avoid the risk of botulism!

33. Strawberry Jam

It wouldn’t be right for us to wrap this post up without the recipe we all think of when we think of canning and preserving.

A humble jar of strawberry jam is one of the most loved items in kitchens across the nation, and for a good reason!

This is the easiest, pectin-free recipe on the internet and is as delicious, spreadable, and silky smooth as it is easy to make.