Baking and Canning in Jars

I have seen a post coming up a lot lately about cooking foods in canning jars in the oven. They are all over the internet.  Mostly cakes or other sweets. Trust me, there are plenty of sites that will tell you it is OK to bake or can in jars. There are also sites that tell you it is safe to water bath green beans. Just because it is on some website does not make it true or safe.  Every time I see a post I let people know it isn’t safe. After a conversation with a friend last night I decided it was time to do a post on the subject. There are really three different reasons not to put your canning jars in the oven.

The first reason is that heat penetration in ovens can vary and it is not the same as heat penetration in water. For that reason it is not considered safe by the USDA for us to can in the oven. There is a link posted below with this information.

The second reason is that cakes made in the oven pose the risk of giving you botulism poisoning. The link from Penn State explaining why is also listed below.

The third reason is that the Company that makes the jars, Bernardin, (they make Ball jars) says not to put any canning jars in ovens because they could shatter. The link from the company is also listed below.

I hope this clears the matter up. Don’t want to sound preachy, just want people to be safe.

http://extension.psu.edu/food/preservation/faq/canned-breads-and-cakes

http://nchfp.uga.edu/questions/FAQ_canning.html#7

http://www.bernardin.ca/pages/faq/33.php