Bernardin Canning Recipes (Canada)
Bernardin is Canada's home-canning standard. These are our recipes that follow the Bernardin method — jams, pickles, tomatoes, and more — each citing Bernardin or Health Canada and sized in metric Bernardin jars.
Bernardin is Canada's home-canning standard — the metric jars in every Canadian kitchen, the SNAP lid system, and the Complete Book of Home Preserving that most tested Canadian recipes trace back to. If you're searching for Bernardin recipes, you're looking for the safe, Canadian way to put up jam, pickles, and tomatoes, in the jar sizes the recipes are actually written for.
The recipes below follow the Bernardin method and are based on Bernardin and Health Canada sources, not on US tables that use the wrong jar sizes — each recipe defers the exact minutes to your Bernardin edition and points you at your altitude band, because the printed time holds up to 305 m, and a good deal of Canada sits above that. New to the method? Start with the water-bath canning pillar and a first strawberry jam batch — and if you're stocking your shelf, here's how Bernardin, Mason, and Kerr jars compare.
One honest note: HarvestGuide.ca is an independent preserving guide, not affiliated with Bernardin. For the canonical recipe collection and the official processing charts, get the Bernardin book or bernardin.ca — then use our guides for the Canadian-first walkthroughs, troubleshooting, and altitude notes around them.
- water bath canning
How to Make Strawberry Jam in Canada (Bernardin Method)
Strawberry jam three ways — the Complete Book's traditional long-cook at page 21, its apple-pectin method at page 24, and the commercial-pectin route.
- water bath canning
How to Make Raspberry Jam in Canada (Seeded or Seedless)
Canadian raspberry jam — Tulameen, Saskatoon, BC, Ontario raspberries. Seeded or seedless via food mill, pectin and no-pectin paths, altitude-adjusted.
- water bath canning
How to Make Haskap Jam in Canada (Honeyberry)
Haskap (honeyberry) jam, Canada's earliest summer berry. Freezer-jam and water-bath methods, the bottled-lemon-juice acidity rule, and a firm set.
- water bath canning
How to Make Strawberry-Rhubarb Jam in Canada (Bernardin Method)
Canadian strawberry-rhubarb jam, the Complete Book's tested recipe at page 30 — equal strawberries and rhubarb, powdered pectin, altitude-adjusted.
- water bath canning
How to Make Apple Jelly in Canada (Both Bernardin Routes)
Canadian apple jelly, both ways the Complete Book publishes it: the liquid-pectin route and the no-added-pectin route, with altitude-adjusted times.
- water bath canning
How to Make Dill Pickles in Canada (Fresh-Pack Method)
Classic Canadian dill pickles, fresh-pack and water-bath canned. Cucumber selection, brine ratio, the four crispness tricks, July timing.
- water bath canning
How to Make Bread and Butter Pickles in Canada
Canadian bread-and-butter pickles — sweet, sour, mustardy slice pickles with onion. The brine ratio, the salt-soak, 1 cm headspace, altitude-adjusted.
- water bath canning
How to Make Pickled Beets in Canada (Bernardin Method)
Canadian pickled beets — spiced vinegar brine, peeling the cooked beets, 1 cm headspace, altitude-adjusted water-bath times. Heritage Prairie recipe.
- water bath canning
How to Make Corn Relish in Canada
Canadian corn relish — corn, peppers and onion in a measured vinegar brine, with what Bernardin publishes for corn relish and where ours differs.
- water bath canning
How to Can Tomatoes in Canada (Bernardin Method)
Water-bath canning for Canadian tomatoes — the lemon-juice acidification rule, headspace, jar sizes, altitude bands. Bernardin and Québec.
- water bath canning
How to Can Plain Tomato Sauce in Canada (Bernardin Method)
Smooth, strained tomato sauce — the September staple. Equipment for de-seeding, the acidification rule, why plain sauce is safe and pasta sauce isn't.
- water bath canning
How to Can Salsa Safely in Canada (Bernardin Method)
Salsa is the exception to the no-water-bath-mixed-recipes rule — but only with a Bernardin-tested ratio. The acidification math and what not to change.
- water bath canning
How to Make Apple Sauce in Canada (Bernardin Method)
Canadian apple sauce: the variety choice, peel-on vs peel-off, sweetened vs unsweetened, Bernardin headspace, altitude-adjusted water-bath times.
Related guides
Frequently asked questions
- Are these the official Bernardin recipes?
- No. HarvestGuide.ca is an independent Canadian preserving site, not affiliated with Bernardin. Our recipes follow the Bernardin method and cite Bernardin or Health Canada, but for the canonical recipes and processing times, use your Bernardin Complete Book of Home Preserving or bernardin.ca.
- Why does everything use Bernardin jars?
- Bernardin is the Canadian home-canning standard, and its jars use metric sizes (125 mL, 250 mL, 500 mL, 1 L) that every tested Canadian recipe is written around. US "half-pint / pint / quart" jars hold slightly different volumes, so matching the jar to the recipe keeps the processing time correct.
- Where do I find the exact processing times?
- In your Bernardin edition. Each recipe defers the exact minutes to the tested Bernardin source rather than restating them here, and reminds you to add time or pressure for your altitude band.
More preserving topics
- Canadian Jam & Jelly Recipes
- Canadian Pickle & Relish Recipes
- Preserving Tomatoes in Canada
- Preserving Apples in Canada
- Canning & Preserving Equipment in Canada
- Canning Troubleshooting in Canada
Or browse the full articles index.