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If you are still using a Blue Book from that era, it’s past time to update to the current edition, as the advice in the older one is severely out of date. ()Īfter that, Ball too dropped any support for home canning summer squash. Their last recommendations for canning summer squash appear to have been in the Blue Book reprint of 1999. Their recommendations were a mix of pressure canning or water bathing up to their 1947 edition (Edition X.) In 1953 (Edition 26), they switched to pressure canning only recommendations. The Ball Blue Book also used to have directions for home canning summer squash on its own. The USDA’s modern home canning division just does not guess and say, “Give it a whirl you might get lucky - or not.” So, since they can’t guarantee at what processing point it will become safe for everyone under all possible circumstances, they have withdrawn their instructions. So, given that it was proving problematic, and that not everyone was crazy about the resulting quality anyway, it doesn’t make the cut. And, owing to even less funding since then, there have not been the resources to re-tackle the topic, and consequently, there are currently no tested procedures that they feel confident in recommending to consumers as being 100% safe.ĭue to the lack of tested recipes, the canning of summer squash without the addition of vinegar (for pickling) is no longer recommended.” Schmutz, Pam H.
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They also had to triage: they didn’t have a zillion dollars in funding. If you’re interested, you can read more about that USDA review period. Attempts to reproduce the old process did not result in adequate heating to ensure safety.” Preserving Summer Squash. And, when they attempted to locate the paper records holding the data behind the previously recommended processing times, the documentation could not be found:ĭocumentation for the previous processing times cannot be found, and available reports do not support the old process. It’s not that it was proven unsafe: it’s that when they retested the old directions in the 1980s during a complete revision of the USDA guides, the results were not coming up consistently safe. “ History, Science and Current Practice in Home Food Preservation.” Webinar. It’s true that there used to be USDA-provided instructions for pressure-canning summer squash, but they were withdrawn in 1988 “Summer squash canning was removed from USDA complete guide ” - Andress, Elizabeth. Again, the high temperatures achieved in pressure canning are of no use if their sterilizing power can’t penetrate everywhere in the jar. In the mixture recipes, the presence of other solid vegetables that keep their shape guards against one solid moosh lump forming in the jar which would prevent even heat penetration from occurring. The issue is not that summer squash and zucchini are inherently evil it’s the unpredictable density when you process it all together by itself as a solo pack in a single jar, for which there are currently no recommendations that will cover all variables (and mistakes) to keep everyone safe. Muncie, Indiana: Healthmark LLC / Jarden Home Brands. 12īall has a recipe for pressure canned mixed vegetables which calls for zucchini. United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). That being said, summer squash and zucchini are safely incorporated as an ingredient into some pressure canning recipes.įor instance, the USDA 2015 Guide has a recipe for pressure canned Tomato and Zucchini. Accessed March 2015 at Exceptions to the rule The amount of squash filled into a jar will affect the heating pattern in that jar and may result in inadequate processing and an unsafe product.” Preserving Summer Squash. Slices or cubes of cooked summer squash will get quite soft and pack tightly into the jars. The Clemson Cooperative Extension explains, This means that the heat required to sterilize the food might not reach everywhere adequately inside the jar. The problem occurs because of how mooshed up and squished together summer squash and zucchini get: the extreme high temperatures in pressure canning cause it to disintegrate and compact together, which creates density issues in the jar, which makes heat penetration unpredictable. 3 History of home-canning summer squash.