Food Preservation

Anyone who cooks for their family at home wants to serve food that’s not only tasty but safe to eat as well. Access a wide range of useful and informative resources from Penn State Extension. Find out about home food safety, canning, freezing, and preserving meat, vegetables, fruits, jellies, jams, and spreads, together with tips on harvesting and preserving herbs and spices, and home cheese making.

Food Preservation Methods

There are many different ways you can preserve fresh produce, such as canning, drying, and freezing. There are a good deal of food preservation myths and unsafe practices that have been used in the past, but when done correctly, preserving is a great way to store excess food, so it can be enjoyed all year round. How much do you know about canning and freezing, for example? Would you like to learn more? Would you like to try making your own cheese at home? It’s easier than you think and can be fun for the whole family.

There’s a lot of science behind the art of preserving food. The exact timing and temperature combinations during the canning processes, for example, ensure the destruction of microorganisms that may be present in the filled jars. By using tested recipes, you can ensure you’re following the correct procedure. With canned food, storing the finished products correctly is equally important.

Penn State Extension can help you learn all you need to know about safe food preservation, canning, drying, and freezing. A number of workshops are held, covering topics such as preserving tomatoes and salsa, pressure and water bath canning, drying, and fermenting pickles and sauerkraut. There’s also the "Let's Preserve" fact sheets detailing methods for processing fruits, vegetables, and meats.

How to Preserve Fruits, Vegetables, or Meat

All types of food can be preserved for longer-term storage. Meat and poultry, for example, can be preserved by canning, drying, or freezing. One of America’s most popular snacks, jerky, can be made at home. If you hunt game for the table, food safety is a fundamental part of the process, and proper techniques for handling meat start in the field.

There are recommended methods for home preservation that apply to fruits and vegetables too, whether you choose to pickle, freeze, can or dehydrate them.

Making Jam, Jelly, and Spreads

If you’d like to try making jams and jellies at home, learn the science behind recommended methods for making and processing jam and jelly at one of Penn State Extension’s Home Food Preservation workshops. On this site, you can find specific instructions on how to preserve and make jams and spreads for any fruit you have in your garden.

Drying Food Preservation

Meat, fruit, and vegetables can also be dried. Not only are dried foods tasty and nutritious, they’re also easy to store and use. Food dehydrators can be used to speed up the drying process, or they can be baked in the oven if you want to make jerky at home, for example.

If you want to know more about drying as a method of food preservation, Penn State Extension runs hands-on drying training workshops. As well as learning about recommended methods for preserving meat, poultry, vegetables, and fruit, you’ll also be introduced to drying herbs.

Canning Food Preservation

Canning is a preservation technique that’s been practiced for many years; however, we have learned much more about the science behind safe canning methods in recent years. We’ve also come to understand that canning is possible using less sugar.

If you’re going to be canning your extra produce this summer there are several factors to bear in mind. Selecting the most appropriate canning or processing method ensures all harmful bacteria are destroyed, for example. As well as choosing the method, you also need to make sure you’re using the appropriate canning equipment. Creating a good seal is a fundamental part of the process because it prevents air and microorganisms from re-entering the jar and re-contaminating the food inside.

Freezing Food at Home

If you want to preserve high quality frozen foods, it pays to understand the freezing process. Different food freezes differently. The processes for freezing fruits and freezing vegetables are not the same. Vegetables, for example, generally need to be blanched before freezing. Freezing herbs, on the other hand, works better for some herbs but not others.

There’s been an increased interest in home food preservation in recent years. However, myths and unsafe food practices are still being passed down. Penn State Extensions Home Food Preservation: Freezing Foods workshop can help you learn about the science behind safe home food preservation.