foodperson.com

Yes, you should follow safety-tested recipes when you’re doing home canning, but don’t let novice canners’ paranoia about botulism discourage you trying this time-honored food preservation method.

Yes, there’s an outside chance you could poison yourself and your loved ones, but let’s put things in perspective.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported a total of 14 U.S. cases of food-borne botulism poisoning in 2004, a fairly typical number. No one died. In 2005, the number was 18, with two deaths. (Look at the CDC’s botulism surveillance reports for other years.)

By contrast, the CDC estimates 76 million cases of food-borne disease occur each year in the United States, and they result in some 325,000 hospitalizations and 5,200 deaths. Look to campylobacter, salmonella, e-coli O157:H7 and calicivirus as the chief pathogens. You’ll find them mostly in raw animal products, including eggs, and on foods that manure (even in microscopic quantities) might have touched.

Now, those are scary numbers, but you’d probably starve if you avoided all animal products AND food that may have touched manure.

What is more, most of those illnesses could be prevented by simple, safe food preparation: Wash your hands. Wash your food, especially food eaten raw. Cook animal products thoroughly, and use a thermometer to make sure. Put cooked or cut food into the refrigerator promptly. The CDC also recommends “avoiding consumption of unpasteurized milk, raw or undercooked oysters, raw or undercooked eggs, raw or undercooked ground beef, and undercooked poultry.”

By the same token, you need to follow the safety rules when it comes to canning. Yes, botulism can occur, and it can kill, and eating commercially prepared foods is no guarantee of safety, as the recent Castleberry recall attests. But it’s rare and can be avoided by following directions.

I say, if you like to can or want to try, go ahead. Use the USDA Complete Guide to Home Canning, which is free online and includes recipes as well as canning instructions and processing times. Or go with the classic Ball Blue Book of Preserving. (You could probably even cheat. I’ve talked to a lot of canners over the years—including ones who reuse lids and others who use paraffin to seal their jellies—and none of them had killed or sickened anyone. Still, I absolutely recommend following the rules.)

Do you eat raw oysters? Rare beef? Raspberries off backyard brambles without washing them first? Then go ahead, you risk-taker, get some jars and start canning!