Canning Pineapple | How to Can Pineapple

To prepare the fruit

1. Lay the fruit on its side. Cut off the top with a sharp knife.
2. Place the fruit upright on your board. Slice down vertically to slice off the skin. Once it’s peeled, slice off the bottom.
3. Cut out all of the eyes. The seeds can be left in. Be sure to cut out all the eyes; they are a choking hazard for young children. (Experience talking here.) Use a sharp paring knife to cut them out.
4. Cut the fruit into quarters. Slice it down vertically to remove the core. Save the cores.
5. Cut the fruit into bite-sized chunks.

How to can it - water bath

1. Get your water bath canner on the stove and start to heat it. Add the jars so that they will be warm when you add the fruit to them. Note: Once the jars are filled, they will need less water to cover them, so when you add the jars before processing, be sure that the water only covers them by 2 inches so that the pot doesn’t boil over.
2. Add cut or sliced fruit to a large pot. Barely cover with water. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Once it’s boiling, reduce the heat and simmer for about ten minutes.
3. Add the pineapple cores to a large saucepan and barely cover them with water. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for about 30 minutes. This will make pineapple juice to cover them with.
4. Notice that after cooking the chunks, the water that you added resembles pineapple juice. For this reason, we don’t recommend buying commercially prepared juices. It’s a great money saver just to use water.
5. Load the chunks into the jars using a slotted spoon. Leave a ½-inch headspace.
6. Ladle the cooking water, juice, or hot syrup into the jars, preserving the headspace.
7. Remove air bubbles using a bubble tool, plastic or wooden chopstick, or knife.
8. Wipe the jar rim clean with a damp paper towel.
9. Center the lid on the jar using your lid lifter.
10. Screw on the bands fingertip tight. Load the jars into your water bath canning pot.
11. Process the jars for 20 minutes for quarts or 15 minutes for pints for altitudes under 2000 feet above sea level. Adjust for altitude. (See recipe notes below for adjustments.
12. Once processing time is done, remove the pot from the heat and carefully open the lid and move it partially off the top of the canning pot. Let it rest like that for 5 minutes.
13. Then remove the lid and allow the jars to rest another 5 to 10 minutes in the canning pot.
14. After resting, remove the jars onto a kitchen towel placed on your counter and let them thoroughly cool for 12-24 hours, undisturbed. You may hear the lids pinging sometime in the next hour. This is music to a canner’s ears. It is due to the reaction of the lids being sealed to the jar.
15. Check the seals. Press down in the middle of the lid. If it flexes up or down, the jar is not sealed and should be refrigerated and used first.
16. Then remove the bands. Gently pick the jar up by the lid to further check the seal. Again, if it is not sealed, use it first.
17. Label jars with contents and the date. Store in a cool, dark space.