These are not metallic tasting!

Done with carrots, onions, herbs, and a light broth, these canned carrots will take your food storage up a notch with delicious and flavorful carrots that can then be used as a side, in soups or in sauces.

Here I go into tools you need, ingredients, and step by step instructions to get these carrots up on your shelf at home.

let’s dive in…

Pressure Canning Carrots & Onions, with Herbs, Recipe

Tools you Need

Pressure Canner
Quart sized mason jars (wide mouth works well), lids, bands
Stock pot to heat up liquid in

Ingredients

Makes 7 Quarts

6 pounds carrots, peeled, cut into slices
1 large onion, diced
1/8 tsp celery seed per quart
1/4-1/2 tsp of dried green herb per quart: thyme, parsley, oregano, etc (user’s choice)
1 tsp salt per quart
1 gallon of liquid: half gallon water and half gallon broth tastes best (can use all water or all broth, if you wish)

Instructions

Raw Pack Method

Set up your pressure canner according to it’s instructions, and place on medium high heat. Allow to warm up while you assemble jars. Also, wash jars in hot water, set aside.
Pour broth and water into your stock pot allow to come up to a simmer, while you cut your vegetables. Do not boil, or you risk cracking your jars.
Peel and cut your carrots. Fill your clean jar about 2/3 of the way with carrots or until all 6 pounds are even distributed to all the jars.
Peel and dice your onion. Fill the remaining room of the jar with onion leaving 1 inch headspace.
Add your celery seed, seasonings and salt to each jar. You can choose what green herbs you want to use; I used dried thyme and dried parsley.
By this time your broth/water mixture should be very warm. Pour broth over the vegetables, leaving a final 1-inch headspace.
De-bubble well. Wipe rims. Lid/bands on finger tight.
Load your pressure canner, per it’s instructions.
Following your pressure canner’s instructions, pressure can these pint jars at 10 pounds pressure for 40 minutes (adjusting for altitude).
Unload your canner per pressure canner’s instruction booklet, allow jars to cool on a dry tea towel for 12-24 hours undisturbed.
Check seals, wash jars, and enjoy!

Please note: Onions need the 40 minutes in the canner. Do not cut the time short according to the carrots even though they are the main star of the recipe.

How to use Canned Carrots & Onions

There is no metallic taste to these carrots unlike storebought canned carrots.

That said, these have a couple ways to be used:

Alone, as a side dish
Stirred into soups/stews
Pureed into sauces
Mashed and added to savory baked goods like muffins, biscuits, etc

Just note that these are precooked, aka already soft. No need to boil these, but the goal is to warm them up.

Any liquid leftover after serving is perfect for future soups or given to animals. Do not just wash it down the drain.

FAQs

Avoiding metallic tasting carrots? Many will state that the metal cans from the store cause the metallic taste in carrots. However, I have canned carrots plain at home, in my glass jars, and they still taste metallic. Here in this recipe, I believe the onion and broth help avoid any metallic taste. These carrots in this recipe are actually sweet and the carrot flavor is pronounced. I do not have specific scientific reason on why, but this recipe is NOT metallic tasting.

Jar syphoned? Liquid loss is commonly due to the jar being overfilled. If the jar seals, then it’s still good to store and eat later. The more important matter is to make sure the seal is good. Liquid loss will simply cause discoloration over time, but a bad seal can cause food poisoning.

That’s It!

You do not have to grow carrots to do this. In fact, at the time of writing this, I am not growing carrots in the garden and will be canning a years’ worth of them that I bought at the bulk store.

Another note, I have never tried to can purple, or yellow carrots. Only orange. If you try this, please come back and leave me a comment, because I would love to know how it turned out.

Enjoy!

-Chelsea, The Cottage Vegetable