What to Record in a Canning Log
A canning log should capture, for every batch: the date, the food, the tested recipe you followed and where it came from, the method, jar size and count, headspace, your altitude, a lot number, and the seal result. Together those fields let you trace any jar on your shelf back to exactly how it was made.
Most home canners start with a notebook and stop keeping it by August. The log falls apart because it asks for a paragraph when it should ask for a checklist. Decide once what a complete entry looks like, keep it to fields you can fill in while the jars are cooling, and the record stays complete through the whole season.
The fields worth recording every time
These are the fields that answer a real question later. If a field would not change a decision six months from now, leave it out.
| Field | What to write | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Date | The day the batch came out of the canner | Anchors rotation and every best-by date you work out later |
| Food | Specific enough to tell batches apart, such as "dill pickles, small cukes" | You will put up the same food more than one way in a season |
| Recipe source | Publication, edition or year, and page | The most useful field in the log; it is how you repeat or verify a batch |
| Method | Water bath, pressure, ferment, pickle, dehydrate, or freeze | Determines how the jar is stored and how it should be judged later |
| Jar size and count | Size and number of jars filled, such as seven pints | Feeds your pantry inventory directly |
| Headspace | What the recipe called for and what you actually left | Lets you connect seal failures and siphoning to technique |
| Altitude | The altitude you processed at | Tested processing is adjusted for altitude; recording it shows which adjustment applied |
| Processing details | The time and setting copied from the recipe in front of you | The log records what the tested recipe specified, never a figure from memory |
| Lot or batch number | A short code such as 2026-014 | Ties the physical label on the jar back to this entry |
| Seal result | How many jars sealed and which did not | Turns a one-off annoyance into a pattern you can act on |
| Notes | Where the produce came from, ripeness, yield surprises, how it tasted | Next season this is the part you will actually reread |
Record the source, not just the recipe
Write down where the recipe came from every single time: the publication, its edition or year, and the page. Tested guidance is revised, and two editions of the same book can differ. A log entry that says only "green beans" cannot be verified by anyone, including you, whereas one that names the source can be checked against current guidance at any point.
The same applies to substitutions. If you changed anything about a tested recipe, that belongs in the notes as a deviation, not folded silently into the entry. Knowing what you changed is what makes a batch reviewable later.
How to number your batches
Use a sequential lot number per year, such as 2026-001, 2026-002, and write the same code on the jar label. It takes a second and it is the only thing that reliably connects a jar in your hand to a line in your log.
The payoff shows up in the bad cases. If one jar from a batch looks wrong, a lot number tells you instantly which other jars came out of the same canner load on the same day, so you can set all of them aside together instead of guessing.
Log the seal result while the jars are still on the counter
Record how many jars sealed and which ones did not, as soon as you check them. An unsealed jar is not shelf-stable, so follow your tested guidance for what to do with it and write down which option you chose.
Over a season this column is worth more than any other. A run of failures clustered around one jar size, one lid batch, or one type of food is visible in a log and invisible in memory.
Close out the season with a short review
At the end of the season, total the jars by food and compare against what you actually ate. Two questions do most of the work: what ran out first, and what is still sitting on the shelf untouched. Next year's plan writes itself from those answers, and the review takes about ten minutes if the log was kept as you went.
Doing this in Putby
Putby's jar log is built around these fields. You record a batch in seconds with the food, method, jar size, yield, headspace, altitude, lot, and dates, then tap a one-tap seal check to mark which jars popped. Every batch flows straight into a living pantry inventory with jar counts, canned-on and best-by dates, and an "Eat me first" rotation list, and the whole history exports to CSV. It is local-first: your records stay on your phone, with no account and no cloud.
Keep the log without the notebook
Putby records a batch in seconds and turns it into a living pantry inventory, printable jar labels, and a full exportable history. Local-first, offline, no account.