Canning yams (or sweet potatoes) is a simple way to preserve them for year-round use. Grab a jar off the shelf and you’ve got a killer side dish or the beginnings of an unbelievable homemade pie.
Sweet potatoes are a staple in my household, and one of my family’s favorite healthy treats. Rich in minerals and low on the glycemic index, they’re a delicious addition to any dinner plate.
The thing is…they’re expensive!
Most of the year, sweet potatoes sell for $2.50 to $3 a pound here in the north country. Prices drop quickly in November and December, and you can pick them up for as little as 69 cents a pound.
Stocking up on sweet potatoes is one of the ways my family saves money on our grocery bill, planning ahead in December for the rest of the winter’s eating.
Canning sweet potatoes mean I have cooked and ready to eat food on my pantry shelf, and I don’t have to worry about spoilage.
Even better? My kids know how to pop open a jar and heat them on the stove. A little preparation on my part means they’ll make their own dinner, which is a lifesaver on busy weeknights.
Yields for Canning Sweet Potatoes
The National Center for Food Preservation says that you’ll need 2 1/2 pounds per quart or 17 1/2 pounds per canner load of 7 quarts (weighed before processing). I’ve always found their estimates high, and always end up with a good bit of food leftover once the canner is packed.
I found it was more like 2 pounds or 14 pounds per canner load of 7 quarts.
Once processed, that 2 pounds of fresh sweet potatoes ended up being about 1 1/4 pounds of cooked, peeled, and chopped sweet potato per quart jar.
For pint jars, I needed a smidge over a pound of fresh sweet potatoes per jar. Once processed, I was able to pack about 2/3rds of a pound of sweet potato chunks into each pint.
The total amount needed is obviously going to depend on how efficient you are at peeling the sweet potatoes, and how much trimming needs to be done to remove any imperfections within the yams.
I’d suggest having roughly 14 to 16 pounds of raw sweet potatoes on hand for a 7-quart batch, and 9 to 10 pounds for a 9-pint canner batch.
(I use a 30 quart All American Canner, which is an extra-large double-decker canner. I do batches of 14 quarts at a time, thus I’m making a double batch with about 30 pounds of sweet potatoes.)
Nearly 30 pounds of sweet potatoes, or enough to can 14 one-quart jars.
Liquid for Canning Sweet Potatoes
Sweet potatoes can be canned either plain water or syrup.
Obviously, the healthier option is to use plain water, but unfortunately, it’s not the tastiest. Sweet potatoes will leach a lot of flavor into the water, and lose some of their sweetness.
If you plan on canning sweet potatoes in water, you’ll likely be a bit disappointed at how bland they taste.
Personally, I like to can sweet potatoes in an extra light syrup, which mimics their natural sweetness. It’s not going to make them sweeter, it’s mostly just going to prevent their natural sweetness from being lost in the canning liquid.
To make the extra light syrup:
- For a 7 Quart Canner batch ~ Mix 10 1/2 cups water and 1 1/4 cup sugar.
- For a 9 Pint Canner Batch ~ Mix 6 1/2 cups water and 3/4 cups sugar.
Of course, you can also choose to candy the yams and use anywhere from light all the way up to heavy syrup. You can find the measurements for each syrup level here.
For a more natural canning liquid, feel free to use either honey or maple syrup, which will add flavors that compliment the sweet potatoes. Personally, I love canning with our own homemade maple syrup.
When canning with honey or maple, use only about 3/4 as much as you would sugar, as they taste much sweeter in the finished canned goods.
Preparing Sweet Potatoes for Canning
Before canning, sweet potatoes need to be cooked. This helps drive off the air within their tissues and prevent it from expanding and breaking them apart in the canner.
Believe it or not, pre-cooking the sweet potatoes (and most foods when canning) will actually result in finished canned goods that hold together better and are of better quality.
For sweet potatoes, that means boiling or steaming them whole for 15 to 20 minutes before peeling and slicing.
I put a steamer basket at the bottom of my large 5-gallon stockpot and packed it nearly full with 14-15 pounds of sweet potatoes. That was just about right for a 7-quart canner batch.
If you don’t have a pot that big, you’ll need to work in batches.
Once the sweet potatoes are steamed, allow them to cool just enough to handle and then peel away their skins. Chop them as necessary so they fit neatly into the canning jars.
(Small ones can even be left whole, but all of mine were much too large, so I went with 1-2” pieces.)
Pack the prepared pieces into canning jars, leaving one-inch headspace.
Sweet Potatoes Packed for Canning
How to Can Sweet Potatoes
Once you’ve prepared the sweet potatoes and packed them into jars, it’s time to get the canner pre-heated and prepare the syrup.
Add 2-3 inches of water to the bottom of your pressure canner, along with the bottom trivet, and bring the water to a low simmer. (Or follow the instructions on your canner, as they can differ slightly.)
In a separate saucepan, mix the sugar (if using) into water and bring it to a boil.
Pour the boiling water or syrup over the sweet potato pieces, maintaining a 1-inch headspace. Be sure to remove any air bubbles trapped within the jars, then adjust the headspace to maintain 1 inch.
Adding Syrup to Sweet Potatoes for Canning
Seal the jars with 2 part canning lids, and then load them into the pre-heated pressure canner.
Place the lid on the canner and tighten the lid shut, but don’t put on the canning weight just yet. The canner needs to “steam off” for 10 minutes with the stove on high heat to completely fill the chamber with steam.
After 10 minutes have passed, place the canning weight on the canner and bring it up to pressure. Once at pressure, process the jars for 90 minutes for quarts and 65 minutes for pints.
The total pressure will depend on altitude and whether you’re using a weighted or dial gauge pressure canner. I’m using an All American Pressure canner, which is a weighted gauge, and I’m just below 1000 feet, so I can sweet potatoes at 10 pounds pressure.
See the table below for altitude adjustments for canning sweet potatoes:
Are Yams the same as Sweet Potatoes?
A quick note…in the US, we often use the term “sweet potatoes” and “yams” interchangeably. Sometimes, “yams” just refers to that well known holiday dessert where sweet potatoes are candied and topped with marshmallows for an over the top sugar bomb treat.
Technically though, yams are an entirely different vegetable.
Yams are a starchy vegetable that’s more like yucca root, and they’re not sweet at all. You’d be hard-pressed to find any true “yams” in an American grocery store.
That said, there’s plenty of interesting veggies available in grocery stores these days, especially in the cities. Be sure you’ve got “sweet potatoes” rather than yams.
They should be sweet fleshed, though they come in many different colors. Most commonly, you’ll find orange-fleshed sweet potatoes, either Jewel or Garnet varieties.
Sweet potatoes also come in white, like Japanese sweet potatoes. Occasionally you can even find purple sweet potatoes from heirloom growers, though that’s rare outside of farmer’s markets around here.
All of the ones pictured below are sweet potatoes, though two of them were sold as yams in the store.
All of these are actually types of sweet potato, though they’re often labeled “yam” at the store. From left to right: Japanese, Hannah, Jewel, and Garnet.
The difference at this point is pretty technical, and they’ve been called yams in the US for ages. If you want to say, “Hold on mom, I’m canning yams” when she calls right in the middle of your processing day, she’ll definitely know what you mean.
(Important Note ~Though this method works for both orange and white sweet potatoes, there is a different method for “regular” or “Irish” potatoes. Here’s where you can find instructions for canning potatoes, which have a much shorter process time in the pressure canner and different pre-canning preparation steps.)
Canning Sweet Potatoes
Pressure canning sweet potatoes is an easy way to preserve them for year-round use. Once canned, they're shelf stable and ready to eat at a moment's notice. Just heat and serve, or prepare them in your favorite recipes.
Ingredients
- Sweet Potatoes
- Water
- Sugar (optional)
Instructions
- Place sweet potatoes in a large stockpot and steam or boil them for 15-20 minutes.
- Turn off the heat, remove from the pot and allow them to cool until they're no longer too hot to handle.
- While the potatoes are cooling, prepare a pressure canner by adding a few inches of water to the bottom, along with the canning trivet, and bring it to a low simmer on the stove.
- In a separate pot, prepare a canning syrup (see notes) or plain water, and bring it to a boil.
- While the canner is heating, peel the sweet potatoes. Their skins should come off easily with your fingers now that they're partially cooked, but you can also use a knife.
- Slice the sweet potatoes into a uniform size and pack into canning jars leaving 1-inch headspace. (Very small sweet potatoes may be peeled and canned whole).
- Pour the boiling water (or canning syrup) over the sweet potatoes in the jars, still maintaining a 1 inch headspace.
- Debubble jars, adjust headspace, wipe rims and seal with 2 part canning lids.
- Load the canning jars into the pressure canner and cap up the lid.
- Allow steam to vent for 10 minutes to ensure that the chamber is completely full of steam, then apply the canning weight and bring the pressure canner up to pressure. (10 pounds pressure at sea level with a weighted guage canner, see notes for other canner types and elevations.)
- Process the sweet potatoes at pressure for 90 minutes for quarts and 65 minutes for pints.
- Once the canning time has elapsed, turn off the heat and allow the canner to cool to room temperature (and 0 pounds pressure).
- Once cooled, unseal the canner and remove the jars to a towel on counter. Check the seals and store any unsealed jars in the refrigerator for immediate use.
Properly canned sweet potatoes with intact seals should maintain quality store at room temperature on the pantry shelf for 12-18 months.
Notes
Yield - The total amount of sweet potatoes needed will depend on how efficient you are at peeling the sweet potatoes, and how much trimming needs to be done to remove any imperfections within the yams.
As a rough estimate, I'd suggest having roughly 14 to 16 pounds of raw sweet potatoes on hand for a 7-quart batch, and 9 to 10 pounds for a 9-pint canner batch. (A bit over 1 pound per pint, or two pounds per quart.)
Canning Syrup - Sweet potatoes may be canned in water or syrup (extra light to heavy). I'd personally suggest using extra light syrup, as it helps prevent their natural sweetness from being lost to the canning liquid. For "candied" sweet potatoes, choose light syrup (or medium syrup, but I warn you, that's a bit over the top).
To make the extra light syrup:
- For a 7 Quart Canner batch ~ Mix 10 1/2 cups water and 1 1/4 cup sugar.
- For a 9 Pint Canner Batch ~ Mix 6 1/2 cups water and 3/4 cups sugar.
For other syrup measurements, see this table of syrups for canning.
Pressure Canning Recipes
Want to keep that pressure canner running? Here are a few more autumn-inspired pressure canning recipes:
Fall Preserving Recipes
Looking for more tasty ways to preserve the harvest this fall?
M
I also love sweet potatoes. However, I find the taste is best if I bake them until they are soft through, then peel, chunk, and can them. I hope this article inspires many more canners to have sweet potatoes on their shelves.
Ashley Adamant
I was honestly thinking that too, dry roasting in the oven might carmelize the sugars in them and make them taste even better. Haven’t tried that variation yet, but good to know!
Susan
I canned sweet potatoes a few years ago, very easy but when I finally opened a jar they were good then there was an after taste that we did not like, tried several other jars, same thing now it is possible I mixed sweet potato with yams that is the only thing that I can think off. I have asked other canners with no response hopefully you may be able to help. I will try just a few pints this year & see if they are okay because they are one of our favorites.
Administrator
I haven’t ever experienced that so I can’t say for sure what might cause that.
Deborah S Hood
Can you only use pressure canner for these? You cant use water bath?
Ashley Adamant
Correct, these must be done with a pressure canner.
Suzanne
This looks so good! What a great way to keep your garden produce fresh for longer!
Vanessa
Thanks for sharing! Can I freeze sweet potatoes?
Administrator
You sure can. Here is an article from the National Center for Home Food Preservation with instructions. https://nchfp.uga.edu/how/freeze/potato_sweet.html
Connie
My sweet potatoes after they were canned and sealed and resting the potatoes seem to be ubsorbing the syrup. Does yours do this.
Administrator
Do they have less liquid in them than they did when you first took them out of the canner or is it just less than when you put them in the canner?
Gerri Lopez
My canned sweet potatoes that I canned yesterday has lost all syrup except about 2-3 inches in each jar. I’m not understanding why and are these still good to use or store away??? I also didn’t have any luck with canning blackberries, which I added a question on your blackberry recipe as well. I’m not having very good luck here, can you please give me a possible idea of what’s going wrong?? Don’t know if I need to reprocess the sweet potatoes or if they are ok to keep. Alittle help here is appreciated.
Administrator
It sounds like you may have had some siphoning. There are a couple of different reasons why this might happen. The food should still be fine to eat but you will probably notice some discoloration in the food that is above the liquid.
Gerri Lopez
Thank you for answering. Much appreciated
Sharon Buzzell
Why am I unable to print this recipe?
Administrator
You should see a print button in between the picture and the ingredients list on the recipe. If you click on that button it should pull up a printer friendly recipe in a separate tab on your computer.
Cody T.
Great write up! Getting ready to try this weekend. I’ve never pressure canned before, so this will be a learning experience.
Thanks for the great article!
Administrator
You’re very welcome. So glad you enjoyed the post and good luck with the sweet potatoes.
Jen
Hi. I’m super new to canning. What pressure at just above 4000 ft elevation?
Would it be 15 lbs?
I have a bunch of leftover sweet potatoes from thanksgiving.
Thanks!
Administrator
There is a great chart in the article that breaks it down for you based on your altitude and which type of canner you’re using. Table 1 is for a dial gauge pressure canner and table 2 is for a weighted gauge pressure canner.
Donna
Can I bake my sweet potatoes instead to save syrup for canning?
Administrator
One of the readers actually commented saying that she likes to bake hers, peels and chunks them and then cans them. Let us know if you decide to give it a try.
Cindy
I bought an All American pressure canner recently, and I’m brand new to pressure canning. Will it work to cut raw sweet potatoes into “fries” and can them or would they turn to mush being cut into strips instead of chunks?
Administrator
I haven’t personally tried them that way so I couldn’t say. Feel free to try it out and let us know the results.
Patsy Deaton
I have lost almost all the syrup in my jars. You stated that there might be some discoloration above the liquid. Is those potatoes safe to eat?
Administrator
As long as the jars were processed correctly then they are safe to eat. Discoloration is not a safety issue.
Debbie
Can you add pumpkin pie spice in the light syrup for sweet potatoes?
Ashley Adamant
Yup! Enjoy!
Susan Hughes
I am canning sweet potatoes and I love cinnamon. Can I add cinnamon to my syrup mixture.
Administrator
Yes, you should be able to add cinnamon without any issues.
Susan Chapen
My altitude is 1020 feet above sea level. The pc chart in your article above for pints shows 65 minutes for dial gauge but 15 lbs pressure for weighted gauge.. Can you explain the difference between these 2 gauge types?
Administrator
The reason for the discrepancy is that the weighted gauges only work in 5 pound increments. Your weight typically has an option for 5, 10, or 15 pounds and the dial gauge moves in 1 lb increments. Since this recipe requires 11 pounds of pressure then you would need to go up to the 15 lb weight on the weighted gauge. Here is a post about pressure canning for beginners which can explain in greater detail. https://practicalselfreliance.com/pressure-canning/
Tracy
Is it safe to can these in 1/2 pints?
Administrator
You can always safely use smaller jars than what a tested recipe calls for.
H.A. Melton
I don’t pre-boil but rather, water bath for 3 hours. Any problem with this process?
Also, I have been told they will spoil the result of a water bath. Have you any insight on this? Thanks.
Administrator
I would follow the recommended cooking and processing times. These are the methods that have been tested as safe.
Carmen Hartigan
I followed this to the letter and even though I just bought my sweet potatoes and they seemed firm, 20 minutes made them absolute mush! I’m canning them anyway but disappointed that they may not even be edible after.
Administrator
Did you boil or steam them whole before peeling and chopping?
mortinoregon
I need a year around supply of Pumpkin for our Pup. I make his food. Have you canned pumpkin? Thinking in the fall, buying, peel, cut in bite size pieces some liquid jar up and pressure can. with out salt. I make 30 day supply of meals and freeze. II would add this to the pan of cooked , pack in bags and freeze.
Any thoughts? I know sugar Pumpkins are for pies so just use reg ones. I do add sweet potatoes to the master mix, but pumpkin is recommended. Thanks.
Ashley Adamant
Yes indeed, canning pumpkin is just fine (so long as it’s chunks, not puree). Here’s the instructions: https://practicalselfreliance.com/canning-pumpkin/
Megan
I just used your recipe and it came out perfect. 9 lb does equal 9 pints. The light syrup was perfect. Thank you so much for sharing this recipe!
Administrator
You’re very welcome. So glad you enjoyed the recipe.
Rita Taylor
I canned my sweet potatoes according to your recipe and they turned out beautifully. Question, the next day the liquid was a little cloudy. Do you have any suggestions as to what I did wrong? Thank you
Administrator
I’m so glad you enjoyed the recipe. It’s most likely just extra starch from the potatoes. As long as they were processed properly, they should be fine.
Erin
Can I water bath my jars? I don’t have a pressure canner?
Administrator
Sweet potatoes are a low acid food and therefore must be pressure canned to be preserved safely.