How to Can Oranges

We’ve been finding oranges on sale here and I wanted to preserve them for later. The girls love to snack on mandarin oranges and I enjoy them on my salads, so I wanted to share how to can oranges with ya’ll! You don’t need fancy canning equipment for water bath canning – canning bands and a large stock pot will do.

How to Can Oranges

Water bath canning is a less scary version of canning in my opinion. But, you do need to ensure that you’re canning your food safely and by tested recommendations. Knowing your altitude, what foods you’re wanting to preserve, and how to ensure your jars seal will help you safely can. Because of this, I will always link and recommend checking out the National Center for Home Food Preservation on these posts.

Foods that are safe to water bath can need to be acidic, which oranges are. Within their guides, they state that orange and/or grapefruit sections can be canned in plain water, citrus juice, or homemade syrup. Heavier syrups are recommended for more sour fruit, so I opted for a lighter syrup.

To water bath can, you’ll need:

• a stock pot that will allow 1-2inches of boiling water over your cans
• mason jars (I used pints)
• lids and bands
• bands or a rack to put in your pot
• plastic knife 
• towel or cooling rack to put your jars on after they’re done

You don’t want to directly set your jars on the bottom of your pot. This can break them and ruin your hard work!

I was able to fit about 5-6 mandarin oranges in each of my jars for your reference. So if you use regular oranges or grapefruit, you’ll probably fit about 2-3 depending on their sizes. I’m a list person and enjoy looking at instructions as lists. the National Center for Food Preservation has their instructions in a paragraph, so I hope if you’re a list person too this helps.

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Water Bath Canned Oranges

Prep Time: 30 minutes

Cook Time: 15 minutes

resting time: 12 hours

Total Time: 12 hours 45 minutes

Per the National Center for Home Food Preservation, oranges can be water bath canned safely. We opted to do mandarin oranges but regular oranges and grapefruit can also be canned.

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Ingredients

• 8 pint mason jars
• 8 lids & bands, prepare your lids per manufacturer instructions
• 6 lb mandarin oranges
• 1.5 cup sugar, for syrup
• 5 3/4 cup water, for syrup

Instructions

1. Fill your stock pot with water. Place bands or rack in then place mason jars in water. Put lid on and turn heat to high.*
2. Peel oranges and remove as much of the white tissue as you can to prevent a bitter taste.
3. In another pot, mix your water and sugar together for your syrup. Allow to boil without burning the sugar.
4. Once your stock pot is simmering, use your jar lifter to pull our jars one at a time.* Place on cooling rack or towel.
5. Fill halfway with orange sections. Pour syrup so it fills half of jar. Use your plastic knife to push away bubbles.
6. Fill other half of jar with orange sections. Your syrup will rise also, so give your jars a ½ inch headspace. Push out remaining bubbles.
7. Wipe rims with a wet towel to get off any food or syrup residue to help your lids seal. Place lids and bands, only tightening to "finger tight".
8. Place jar back into pot and pull out another jar. Repeating the above steps.
9. Ensure there is 1-2 inches of Process your jars according to your altitude and the National Center for Home Food Preservation's recommendations for oranges.
10. Once your processing time is over, turn off heat and take lid off of pot. Set timer for 5 minutes.
11. When the 5 minutes is over, place jars on cooling rack or towel, leaving 2inches between your jars to allow jars to cool.
12. Let jars sit, untouched, for 12-24 hours. This will help your jars seal.

Notes

Tips & Tricks

• Don't take my word for this, check the National Center for Home Food Preservation's site to ensure you're following safe canning practices. I have all their guides printed out and in a plastic, 3 prong folder I pull out and use.
• You stock pot can take awhile to heat up so I start it right away. Then I keep it at a simmer so I'm not adding my jars to a boiling pot.
• I keep my jars in my pot until I'm ready to fill them so they stay warm. I've broken jars from placing, what I thought were, warm jars into a simmering pot. But obviously they weren't warm enough! 
• Always prep your lids to your manufacturer's instructions. Some need to be boiled to help warm the seal and make it pliable for sealing.
• Finger tight means as tight as your fingers will allow without using your wrist to tighten.

Did you make this recipe?

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