Home Canning: Home Canning

Food preservation was not new when Mason invented his “fruit jar” (1858), but it had never achieved the relatively safe and durable vacuum seals of home canning. Incidentally timed to coincide with the new availability of inexpensive sugar, it offered average homemakers their first opportunity (economically) to put up a year’s supply of summer products for winter use. In addition, the process was simplified by the use of the popular cookstove and such adjunct implements as canning kettles, racks, wide-mouth funnels, and lifters.