Ingredients
Equipment
Method
Prepare the Canning Equipment:
- Wash the pressure canner and the racks. Fill the pressure canner with about 3" of water (refer to the manufacturer's instructions for how much water to use in your canner.)
- Put the rack in the bottom of the canner and put the canner on the stove. Heat the water until it's hot but not boiling - about 140℉ for raw-packed jars and 180℉ for hot-packed jars.
- The jars and lids should be washed in hot, soapy water. Keep the jars hot while preparing the carrots by putting them in the canner.
Prepare the Carrots:
- Wash, peel, and cut the carrots. You can cut them in sticks, chunks, or slices. If you're going to cut them in slices, they really need to be at least 1/4" thick.
To Hot Pack Carrots:
- Put the carrot pieces in a stockpot of water and bring to a boil. Boil for 5 minutes.
To Raw Pack Carrots:
- Heat a stockpot of water to boiling. This will be the water you use for packing the carrots.
Fill the Jars:
- Remove a jar from the canner (or wherever you had them to keep them hot) and put it on a towel on the counter. For hot-packing, use a slotted spoon and put boiled carrots into the jars. Then ladle the cooking liquid into the jar, leaving a 1-inch headspace. For raw-packing, put the raw carrot pieces into the hot jars and ladle the hot water from the stockpot into each jar, leaving a 1-inch headspace.
- You can add 1 tsp salt to each quart size jar or 1/2 tsp to each pint jar, if desired.
- Using a bubble removal tool or silicon spatula, remove the air bubbles from the jars.
- Recheck the headspace and add more hot water if needed to maintain 1-inch headspace.
- Wipe the rim of the jars with a clean, damp cloth.
- Put the lid and band on the jar and tighten to fingertip tight (about how you'd put a lid on a jar of mayonnaise).
- Put the filled jar into the canner. Fill the remaining jars, one at time until all the carrots are used or all the jars are filled.
Processing the jars:
- Lock the lid onto the canner. Follow the directions that came with your canner for venting and bringing your canner up to pressure.
- Process the jars at 10psi for 25 minutes for pints and 30 minutes for quarts. Adjust for altitude if necessary, see notes.
- After processing is finished, turn off the heat and let the canner depressurize naturally.
- Once the canner has depressurized, remove the weight or vent cover and let the canner rest for 10 minutes.
- Open the canner and make sure the to lift the lid away from your face.
- Using a jar lifter, remove the jars from the canner and set them on a towel on the counter to cool for 12 - 24 hours.
- After they've cooled completely, remove the bands and check the seals.
- Label the jars and store in a cool, dark place.
- If any jars failed to seal, put them in the refrigerator to use within 5-7 days.
Notes
If you're canning in pints it will take about 11 pounds of carrots without the greens to fill 9 pint size jars.
Adjusting for Altitude for Canning Carrots - Hot Pack or Raw Pack
Altitude Dial Gauge
0 - 2,000 ft - 11lb
2,001 - 4,000 ft - 12lb
4,001 - 6,000 ft - 13lb
6,001 - 8,000 ft - 14lb
Altitude Weighted Gauge
0-1000 - 10lb
over 1000 - 15lb