It's not --- quite easy, really. You have a big pot called a canning kettle (like these: http://www.pickyourown.org/canningsupplies.htm#canners) and you fill it to a certain mark with water, cover it, and bring it to the boil. You then sterilize your jars, lids, and rings in the boiling water, and then when you've filled and sealed the jars you boil the filled jars in it for a fixed period of time. And bob's your uncle.
That's the five cent version, but it's not a whole lot more complex than that, just details of how long and so forth. You can use a BWB for any acid food --- jam, pickles, chutneys, most fruit. If you want to put up veg, meat, or fish, you need a pressure canner.
I have six jars of strawberry-peach jam and seven jars of plum chutney cooling next to me right now, and am processing five more jars of chutney. (My canner holds seven jars at a go.) It all came out quite well. Fresh fruit, clean equipment, and a little time, and you can't really go wrong.
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That's the five cent version, but it's not a whole lot more complex than that, just details of how long and so forth. You can use a BWB for any acid food --- jam, pickles, chutneys, most fruit. If you want to put up veg, meat, or fish, you need a pressure canner.
I have six jars of strawberry-peach jam and seven jars of plum chutney cooling next to me right now, and am processing five more jars of chutney. (My canner holds seven jars at a go.) It all came out quite well. Fresh fruit, clean equipment, and a little time, and you can't really go wrong.