I canned the Herbed Potatoes from the All New Ball Canning book. The recipe said 2 1/2 pounds of potatoes for 4 pints. I doubled it. This is one of those infamous raw pack potatoes recipes.
I just realized that I weighed the potatoes correctly before peeling, washing etc and cut into 2 inch-ish chunks.. but somehow I filled only 7 jars… I had two chunks left over and was like.. huh.. ok I’ll just toss those two. Maybe because they are wide mouth jars?
How much trouble am I in here for being one jar short?
(Today was a marathon canning day and I think I just.. spaced on this)
by PirateJeni
4 Comments
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Perfectly normal – do not sweat it
Hi there — as long as you followed the other measurements in the recipe (ie liquid, salt, spice, etc) and pressure canned according to the instructions, I don’t see a reason they’d be unsafe.
Even with accurate weights, things like shape of the pieces and packing technique can impact the total output.
I hope this helps!
I contacted Ball for clarification on this recipe a few years ago, primarily because NCHFP states that you *can’t* raw pack potatoes, which is what Ball has you do. Ball said that since they specify the ingredients as 2½ lb. (1.25 kg) white potatoes **PER** 2 (1-QT.) or 4 (1-PT.) jars, they want you to divide the 2½ lb between the specific number of jars, you are expected to do the math. So, if you were using quarts, you would weigh out 1 1/4 lbs for each jar. Thus, the jars would only be about 1/2 full of potatoes and then filled with liquid (yours look fore full than that). This method provides enough liquid to heat the raw potatoes thoroughly.
Personally, I’m unwilling to do that math, so I just use USDA’s hot pack recipe and add seasonings (green goddess blend being my favorite).
Edit to add: the reason you shouldn’t raw pack potatoes like you can other vegetables is because heat is slower to transfer through starch.