Karenpie on 7.31.2009

Hi Jenn! In case my email didn’t go through, here’s the answer: a water bath is just a fancy way of saying you’re going to boil the jars of rhubarb in boiling water.

Whenever you preserve things, you need to take an extra step in ensuring the stuff in the jar remains safe to store and eat – even though you’ve just boiled the heck out of it for 20 minutes! So, when you’re getting ready to can something, you not only have your pot of oh, let’s say RHUBARB cooking on the stove (!!), you also have;

1. A little saucepan of simmering water, holding your clean lids (the flat parts you put on the canning jar – “bands” are the things you screw on after you put on the lid). And . . .

2. A big canner pot (have you seen the black enamelware pots,10-12 qts. in size, sitting by the jars, lids, pectin, etc on the canning aisle? This big pot is full of simmering water and your EMPTY, clean pint jars are submerged in it, ready to be filled with rhubarb.

Once you’ve cooked the rhubarb, you pull the jars out, one at a time, empty the hot water from them, fill them with rhubarb and put on lids/bands. Then you return them to the boiling/simmering water as you finish filling them. Once they’re all filled, you put a lid on the big black pot, up the heat so the water is boiling and boil the rhubarb jars for 5 minutes. That’s a water-bath, my friend.

If you’ve never canned before, all the little steps can be somewhat intimidating (at least it was for me!). The Ball Blue Book – located by all the canning stuff in your local store (I get my stuff at Walmart), is an EXCELLENT guide. It gives pictures and detailed instructions.

Also, if you click the “related link” up above, next to the ingredient list, you’ll get the whole thing, complete with pictures and smarty pants commentary, on my blog. Good luck!