How recipes are vetted

NCHFP

The National Center for Home Food Preservation publishes research-based, USDA-aligned processes for canning, drying, fermenting, freezing and more. This is the closest thing home preservers have to an official rulebook, and most recipes here are built directly from it.

USDA / FSIS / FDA guidance

Federal guidance — the USDA Complete Guide to Home Canning, USDA FSIS meat and poultry handling guidance, or FDA hazard guides for products like fish. Treated the same as NCHFP: tested, published and safe to follow as written.

Extension service guidance

Guidance published by a university Cooperative Extension office (often mirroring or adapting NCHFP/USDA material for a specific ingredient or region). Reliable, but check the linked publication for the exact process if you're unsure.

Tested publication

A named book from an established food-safety author (for example Marianski's Home Production of Quality Meats, or Ruhlman & Polcyn's Charcuterie). These are widely respected in curing and charcuterie, a space where NCHFP coverage is thinner, but they are not government-issued.

Manufacturer instructions

Guidance from an appliance maker (for example a Harvest Right freeze dryer manual). Useful for how the equipment works, but manufacturer instructions are not the same as an independently tested preservation process — follow them for equipment use, and still check NCHFP/USDA for the food-safety side (blanching, temperatures, storage life).

Community/Personal

Submitted by another home preserver, without a cited tested publication behind it. We show these clearly and separately — treat them as inspiration, and cross-check quantities, acidity and processing against a tested source before you can or ferment anything shelf-stable.

Unendorsed / no validated process

Recipes that say plainly that no USDA or NCHFP validated process exists for what's being done. We keep these visible because people search for them anyway, but we flag them so you know you're outside tested territory.

• Jar size and headspace — always match the jar size and headspace called for in the source, even if you'd rather use what's on hand.
• Processing time and pressure — these are never adjustable for taste or convenience, and our recipe scaling tool deliberately never changes them, only ingredient quantities.
• Altitude — use the altitude adjustment on each recipe; times and pressures both increase above sea level.
• "Source checked" date — when present, this is the last time an editor confirmed the cited publication still says what the recipe claims. Publications occasionally get revised; a missing date means it hasn't been re-checked against a live copy yet, not that it's wrong.

Electric pressure canning (multicookers with a "canning" button) is not currently endorsed by the USDA or NCHFP for canning, because most consumer models can't guarantee the pressure and temperature hold that tested processes rely on. We flag any recipe using this method with an on-page notice — use it for pressure cooking, not for shelf-stable canning, unless a tested process for your specific model exists.

Oil infusions (garlic-in-oil, herb-in-oil) carry a botulism risk because oil excludes oxygen while providing no acid or preservative barrier. NCHFP and FDA guidance say these should be refrigerated and used quickly, or acidified first — never stored at room temperature. We show a dedicated safety notice on any infusion recipe.

In both cases the recipe stays on the site — people look for this information whether or not we publish it — but we'd rather label the risk clearly than imply a method is tested when it isn't.