# Do you keep a canning notebook or detailed notes?



## happydog (May 7, 2008)

How do you keep track so when you open a particularly good batch of something you can remember how you did it? If you can, say peaches, and some you canned by the Ball instructions and half you tried something different, surely you don't write notes on each jar? 

It's my first time canning a whole cow and I'm not sure how detailed to label the jars. Usually I can SEE what's in a jar so I just jot the month/year on it. But the beef pretty much looks the same in each jar and I'd like to know which was the stew beef and which was the sirloin or roast. And which jars I added a little seasoning to.

Just curious how ya'll do this. 

Also, I'm using Tattler lids so I don't use labels at all anymore, I use a Sharpy marker right on the jar. Black for light foods and silver for dark foods. This works pretty well but I'd love to hear of any other/better ideas.


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## Danaus29 (Sep 12, 2005)

Love my Sharpie!!!!! Comes in many colors and cleans right off the glass with a little baking soda and scrubbing.

I wish I had saved my seasonings ingredients and portions when I canned apples last year. They were horrid as canned apples but make really good pancakes and ham glaze.


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## po boy (Jul 12, 2010)

I use a permanent marker on the lid. Mark month and date. If I can several varieties of beans peas etc, I also note the variety. Also keep excell spreadsheet, just to keep up with how much i do..


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## rancher1913 (Dec 5, 2008)

If it's a new recipe, I make only a small batch (learned that lesson early!). I then write in the cookbook what it is like (too salty, mushy, etc). Top of jar has label and date only.

Moldy


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## donnam (Sep 27, 2005)

I usually write on the jars and I also have used labels on the lids (not tattler type). I keep all of my canning, freezing, and dehydrating recipes and notes in their own notebook. I make alot of detailed notes on each recipe or set of instructions. If something turns out great this year, I want to be able to do it again next year. I track how much we can, freeze, and dehydrate as well. Some years I haven't done enough and don't want to repeat that. Hope this helps.


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## Pelenaka (Jul 27, 2007)

My Ball Big Book Of Canning is a well worn copy with pencil notations in the margins, ingredients crossed out subbed in with others, recipes highlighted in yellow, and postit notes to mark new canning adventures. 
On the jars I write new next to contents. Later if we don't enjoy then I make a notation next to the recipe.

Hw r u liking those tattlers ?


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## jwal10 (Jun 5, 2010)

We have a canning and freezing book. Been doing it so long we know what we like but try a few new things every year. Keep track of how much we did and the "recipes". We also keep track of what is left each year and what years are left. If we have a lot of something to can we might use 2-3 different "recipes" and keep only the best one. We don't can a lot of "stuff" most is basic. Whole and diced tomatoes, tomato juice, salsa, green beans, wax beans, dill pickles, bread and butter pickles, a lot of fruit, tuna, salmon, stealhead, halibut and chicken. Canning is expensive now. We freeze, dehydrate, cellar, have a springhouse and a smokehouse too....James


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## Jeepgirl86 (May 18, 2012)

I keep a notebook with how much I have canned of everything, I have a notebook for my garden (what grew, what didn't, how much, etc). My Ball book has all my notations for what I have canned (what to try again, what not). I have OCD when it comes to my notebooks! lol


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## Speckledpup (Dec 3, 2004)

I put a number on the lid with a sharpie when they come out of the canner or PC (but could be on the jar since you are using the tattler lids) I then write the number on the recipe and place that with them. Mostly I do pickes and relishes for DH, this way he can make notes on how he likes them. 

I have all my recipes on me laptop and don't want to have that in the kitchen so I print out the recipe and that goes to the kitchen. Nothing like getting simple syrup on the laptop. lol


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## 7thswan (Nov 18, 2008)

I put the date on the lid. Mark B for beef and V for venison.H for honey instead of sugar. M for mild salsa , stuff like that. I can tell pretty much what is in each jar by looking. I kept notes on how much I canned of what for about 3 years just out of curiosity. I do write notes on the pages of all my cookbooks, even for bread ect. When I give something away,I'll write more info on a sticker ,put on the side of the jar.


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## PaulNKS (Jan 11, 2009)

Using my Sharpie, on the lid I write the item and the year it was canned.

I don't normally add any seasonings other than salt when canning. If I open a jar of meat, I add seasonings as I use it. I found that when I tried to can with seasonings, I was limited in what that jar could be used for. 

As far as fruits, I always can them in their own heavy syrup with no water added. I also never add any other seasonings. For example, I do not can apple pie filling. I can apples. That way I'm not limited on what I can use that jar for, even if pie filling is versatile.


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## suitcase_sally (Mar 20, 2006)

rancher1913 said:


> If it's a new recipe, I make only a small batch (learned that lesson early!). I then write in the cookbook what it is like (too salty, mushy, etc). Top of jar has label and date only.
> 
> Moldy


As I sit here looking at my canning shelf full of various mixtures. TSYork's spaghetti sauce, taco sauce, Peruvian sauce, another spaghetti sauce, sauces, sauces, sauces. If I only put a date on them, I wouldn't know what's what because they look so much alike. 

I use those little round colored labels you get in the office supply section of the store. I put the date and the contents on the label and stick it on the lid. In my canning book I write my opinion of the contents and any changes to the recipes. The Ball book is noted, IMHO, for not giving enough juice to make some recipes, so I make notes to that effect.


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## marinemomtatt (Oct 8, 2006)

I keep a notebook/canning recipe book, thought I was doing good until I opened a pint jar of Dill Pickles, loved the flavor, went through my book and didn't find the recipe...Relish? Yes. Fresh Pack Dills (in qts.) Yes. Bread N Butter, Yes. Dills in Pints dated 08-11-2013, NOOoooooo!
I don't recall what recipe I used...Ball? Jackie Clay? HT forum members recipe?
The only thing I have figured out is that I made my own pickling spice (MIL thinks she tastes Cloves in the brine, she says the brine tastes like her grandmothers pickles from the 1940's and 50's).
In the jar there are mustard seeds, dill seeds and Garlic cloves...along with the little cucumbers. Maybe a little sweeter than the fresh pack dills.

LESSON? WRITE EVERYTHING down!!!!! Boohoo!


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## PlicketyCat (Jul 14, 2010)

I use wax pencil on the tattler lids and sharpies on metal lids and the jars themselves. Since DH & I have a couple opposing food allergies, I have separate recipes for similar things, and have to at least mark down whether something is mine or his in addition to basic contents and date. That way he doesn't accidentally grab the mole sauce with real chocolate, and I don't grab the pasta sauce with eggplant. I have a few things that I make every year the same way, and I'm planning to get some of those pre-printed shrink-wrap labels for those and reused the pre-labeled jars every year.

I have notes, deletions and subs in my Ball book; and if I find a recipe I like better than Ball's, I print it out and tape it over the Ball recipe with photo corner tabs (so I still check the Ball recipe underneath if I want to). If one of the Ball recipes was completely yucky, I mark a big red X through it so I know to never be tempted to make it again. There are a couple recipes (esp. condiments) that I like to make in addition to Ball's for variety, so I printed them out and stuck the page in the binding next to the appropriate entry in my Ball book with a few dabs of rubber cement. I have to tie my Ball book shut now, but it's simpler for me than having multiple cookbooks. Maybe one day I'll cut all the pages out and put the whole shebang in a binder instead 

I also keep Excel spreadsheets of what I planted in the garden, the harvest yields, how much I canned or dehydrated and which recipes I used, with any notes. At the end of the yer, I print it out and stick it in my garden journal. I do the same thing for livestock, hunting and fishing and those get printed out and stick in my farm journal. I also like to do a quarterly price sheet of how much those items (both raw and processed) cost to buy at the 3 major groceries in our area, so I can see how much I'm saving doing my own... AND so that I can claim food replacement costs on my homeowners insurance.


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## happydog (May 7, 2008)

:bow: Plickety, I want to be just like you when I grow up.


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## PlicketyCat (Jul 14, 2010)

happydog said:


> :bow: Plickety, I want to be just like you when I grow up.


Hyper-organization is one benefit of being autistic with obsessive-compulsive tendencies :thumb:

Honestly, while I enjoy cooking, I hate the grind of cooking totally from scratch everyday. Canning and preserving let's me tackle most of the "cooking" all at once so I can make a seasonal project of it, and then I only have to grab a few jars or packages for daily eating. Keeping detailed notes helps keep me focused and motivated (a major problem with us Aspies at times) because I have a record of the benefits and effort.


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## Melesine (Jan 17, 2012)

I do two things, permanent marker the lid with the date and a short description and I keep notes in a journal. I don't mark my tattler lids though, instead I use a label that can be peeled off.


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## calliemoonbeam (Aug 7, 2007)

I have recipes from so many different books, off the internet, from friends, etc., that I keep a binder. I do make notes such as how well I liked it, whether the yield came out matching what the recipe says, whether it needs more or less of something, etc. If I don't like (or really hate) a recipe, I never throw it away! I keep it and make the notation so that I never make it again by accident, lol.

Like marinemomtatt noted, I make a note of which recipe I used. I like to try multiple different recipes for the same thing and then decide which one I like the best, so if I didn't label them I'd never remember which recipe I used!

I use round paper labels that I print off the internet for the jar lids. They're a little bigger than the office supply type so allow me to make better notes on the individual jars and they're cute (I give a lot to my son and his friends and my neighbors). I can put any special directions on there for them, and the cost is comparable to store bought labels.

I'm like Sally, I make so many things that look similar, it would be really hard to tell some of them apart without labels, especially for the people I give them to. I can a lot of simple single ingredient type things, but I also can a lot of complete or near complete meals in jars, so this becomes especially important. I know a lot of people say that's a waste of time, but I have health issues and never know when I'm going to have a bad spell, so it's nice to know that no matter how bad I feel I can open a couple of jars and have a complete home cooked, hot meal ready in 10-15 minutes. 

Though now that I'm using Tattlers and plan to use more and more in the future, the labels have to be soaked and scrubbed off, so I may try PlicketyCat's wax pencil idea on those, thanks PC!  Of course, I won't be giving my Tattler lids out, so will continue to use the paper labels on the others.

I'm not as organized about it as PC, but I do make a note in my gardening binder if I need to plant more or less of something, depending on how much of it I use during the year, though I don't think I'll EVER have too many tomato products, lol! 

I also have binders for dehydrating and freezing with the same sorts of notes. I've also recently been expanding into sprouting, fermenting and curing meats, so have started binders for them too. Otherwise, I'd never be able to keep up with everything!


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## PlicketyCat (Jul 14, 2010)

calliemoonbeam said:


> Though now that I'm using Tattlers and plan to use more and more in the future, the labels have to be soaked and scrubbed off, so I may try PlicketyCat's wax pencil idea on those, thanks PC!  Of course, I won't be giving my Tattler lids out, so will continue to use the paper labels on the others.


Wax pencil normally comes off with hot soap water, but sometimes the really dark colors need to rubbed with a little WD40 or mineral oil. Medium blue and medium green seem to be the best balance between legibility and easy removal.



calliemoonbeam said:


> though I don't think I'll EVER have too many tomato products, lol!


I thought that once... until the year all my tomatoes had bumper crops. Even giving away bgs of fresh and boxes of canned, my poor pantry was filled to bursting with sauce, diced, stewed, salsa, chili, soup, juice, powder, ketchup, BBQ sauce, sun-dried, smoked. I literally didn't need more of some of those for over 2 years!! I had every single pot and bowl in the house going in rotation and was picking tomato skins and seeds off all my kitchen surfaces for months afterwards :hair


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