CanningDates › Processing time adjuster
Adjust a recipe's processing time for your altitude
The numbers printed on a tested canning recipe assume a kitchen at 0–1,000 ft. Live higher and the water in your canner boils cooler — so a water bath owes the jars more minutes, and a pressure canner more pounds. Type the time from your recipe card, pick your canner, and the label fills in your numbers.
The time printed on your tested recipe for your jar size and pack style — before any altitude change.
Not sure? Look it up by ZIP or town.
Saved from your last lookup — .
BOILING-WATER BATH
- ELEVATION
- ≈4,800 FT
- RECIPE TIME
- 45 MIN
- ADDED TIME
- +10 MIN
- PRESSURE
- —
- PROCESS FOR
- 55 MIN
About 4,800 ft sits in the 3,001–6,000 ft band → add 10 minutes → 55 minutes total.
canningdates.com
canningdates.com — a tested recipe's time, adjusted with the published USDA altitude bands. Low-acid foods must be pressure canned.
How the adjustment works
Water boils cooler the higher you live, and every tested processing time was worked out against a known boiling temperature. A boiling-water bath can't get any hotter than boiling, so it makes up the difference with time — the published bands below add minutes to the recipe's tested time. A pressure canner makes it up with pressure instead: it raises the boiling point inside the canner back to the tested temperature, which is why the minutes never change but the pounds do.
Two honest caveats. If your recipe prints its own altitude table — many pickle recipes do — the recipe's table wins; those rows were tested with that recipe. And the pressure rows here assume the standard tested base of 11 lb on a dial gauge or 10 lb on a weighted gauge; a recipe tested at a different pressure carries its own table.
| Elevation | What to do |
|---|---|
| 0–1,000 ft | use the recipe's time as written |
| 1,001–3,000 ft | add 5 minutes |
| 3,001–6,000 ft | add 10 minutes |
| 6,001–8,000 ft | add 15 minutes |
| 8,001–10,000 ft | add 20 minutes |
| above 10,000 ft | no published time — use a tested pressure option or ask your county extension office |
| Elevation | Gauge pressure |
|---|---|
| 0–1,000 ft | 10 lb |
| above 1,000 ft | 15 lb |
| Elevation | Dial setting |
|---|---|
| 0–2,000 ft | 11 lb |
| 2,001–4,000 ft | 12 lb |
| 4,001–6,000 ft | 13 lb |
| 6,001–8,000 ft | 14 lb |
| above 8,000 ft | no published dial setting — use a weighted gauge at 15 lb |
Don't know your elevation? The altitude lookup finds it from your ZIP or town, shows your full adjustment card, and remembers the spot so this page can offer it back with one tap. Or browse adjustments by state and city.
Frequently asked questions
Why don't pressure-canning times change with altitude?
Because a pressure canner fixes the temperature directly. As you climb, water boils cooler, so a boiling-water bath has to make up the difference with time — that's the added minutes. A pressure canner instead raises the pressure until the inside of the canner reaches the temperature the recipe was tested at, so the minutes stay exactly as written and only the pounds move: a weighted gauge runs 10 lb up to 1,000 ft and 15 lb above that.
I'm right on the edge of a band — which row do I use?
Each band includes its top number: a kitchen at exactly 3,000 ft uses the 1,001–3,000 ft row. If your elevation reading is rough and could land either side of an edge, use the higher band — a few extra minutes or an extra pound over-processes slightly, which costs a little texture; the lower band risks under-processing, which costs safety.
My recipe prints its own altitude table — which one wins?
The recipe's own table, always. Many pickle recipes publish coarser altitude rows of their own, and those numbers were tested with that exact recipe. This page applies the guide's standard bands to recipes that state one time for 0–1,000 ft — if your recipe card already carries altitude rows, read your answer straight off the card.
What if my recipe was tested at a pressure other than 11 lb dial or 10 lb weighted?
Then use the recipe's own altitude table instead of this one. The pressure rows here assume the standard tested base — 11 lb on a dial gauge, 10 lb on a weighted gauge. Some published recipes (low-pressure fruit options, certain seafood) were tested at other pressures, and each carries its own table for exactly this reason.
Why does altitude change canning at all?
Thinner air. The higher you live, the lower the temperature at which water boils, so a jar in a boiling bath at elevation sits in cooler water than the recipe was tested in — and the tested minutes no longer deliver the tested heat. The published fixes are more time in the bath, or a pressure canner that pushes the temperature back up.
Can I just boil harder instead of adding minutes?
No. Once water boils, more burner makes more steam, not hotter water — at your elevation the bath simply tops out cooler than the recipe was tested in. The only published fixes are the added minutes in the tables on this page, or a pressure canner.
What do I do above 10,000 ft — or above 8,000 ft on a dial gauge?
The published tables stop there, so this page does too — it will say so rather than guess. The weighted-gauge table is the one that keeps answering: 15 lb at any elevation above 1,000 ft. If your recipe has no pressure option, your county extension office is the right call.