So if I did the jar upside down trick, & I hear/see the jars have popped - do I still waterbath jam?

M

mariadnoca

Moderator
So I just jumped into doing this today: boiled jars/lids/rings for 10 mins, and then went straight to adding the jam/preserves (to the hot jars). I turned the jars upside down and planned to waterbath them for 10 mins. However, I'm hearing the cans pop/seal. Do I still need to water bath these? I'm planning on giving them as holiday gift, so these won't/can't go in the fridge.

 
As a Master Food Preserver, I must tell you that you are too late to boiling water bath . . .

your jars of product as they are now.

Boiling water(BW) bath processing should be done IMMEDIATELY after loading your hot, sanitized jars (you boiled the jars in water and kept them hot till you needed to fill them).

What you did is called "open kettle" canning and is no longer recommended for any type of canned food product. Your jars may have pulled a seal, but to be completely safe, you should have BW bath processed them for at least 10 minutes.

I recommend that you store your jars in the fridge for safety's sake OR you can dump the product back into a pot and re-heat it to a brief, re-pack into clean, sanitized jars, apply NEW, hot lids and then boiling water process them for 10 minutes, if you are at sea level and the product are jams or jellies.

The open kettle method will put a seal, but a weaker seal than BW bath processing. This seal may break if the jars are stored somewhere too hot, or somewhere the temperature fluctuates too much. BW bath processing will give a hard, tight seal and will last probably till the lid rusts out.

I know, I know lots of people have been doing this for a long time, especially with jams and jellies and have never gotten sick, but my advice above is current with USDA Guidelines. And really, do you want to take a chance?

AND, you don't need a kettle called a "canning kettle (or pot)", you just need a pot with a rack in the bottom that will contain the jars and enough water to cover the jars by at least two inches, with "water slop" room to boil hard. And if you don't have a rack you can use a clean dishtowel in the bottom of the pot. It is not hard, you can do it!

smileys/smile.gif

 
Shoot. Live and learn...yes I am at sea level...Ok, so does this sound right....???

What happened here was I was trying to sanitized jars as I was making the jam. And I don't have a canning pot so was using one stockpot for jars and the other for jam. So filled hot jars in batches, then the first batch started popping before I got to the water bath part.

The stockpot can hold 6 jars max at a time, the jam made 10 jars worth.

So sounds like I need to:

1) sanitized another case of jars/lids/rings for 10 mins. and let them cool.

2) dump all currently filled jars into a pot and rewarm (cook?) jam (and I was so proud it set - this won't wreck that will it?)

3) fill only jars I can WB right away, so will need to do in batches

4) process jars for 10 mins.

Is this right or am I missing anything??

Also, do I need to do this right away? My back went into full spasm this am, but the peaches couldn't wait so I've been doing all this wandering around the kitchen looking like the Hunchback of Notre Dame. I'd hoped to take some meds, but if it can't wait...will power through it right away. I don't want to get this far and fail!

One day, some day, I will get this right.

 
My back would be in spasm too. I don't think you need to use new rings though, do you? I always

reuse the rings. Once you get a good seal, the ring makes no difference and I think lots of people don't even store with rings on.

It's a lot of work. Don't be dissuaded.

 
Ok, I've decided I am in need of Canning and Jammin' for Dummies (more questions)

Canning and Jammin' for Dummies: The Logistics Edition

So, I think I've had brain internet overfill on subject which has led to: now I don't know nuttin'

So in rethinking this, I checked my Small Batch Preserving Book. And it said, no need to pre-sterilize jars because the water bath will do that. I've been pre-sterilizing jars/ring/lids in a 10 min boil. Is this wrong?

It also said the jars (no mention of rings/lids) should be prepped in the canner with hot water before filling (maybe to prevent cracking?) with jam. Ok, I have a logistic problem here I need help with - I've got a 4 burner stove: 2 large/2 small; I've got 2 stockpots 1 for jars/1 for jammin'. If the jars need to be in hot water first, the pot only holds 6 jars, my jam makes more, can the jam sit warm on the stove while I warm one set of jars, then can right away, then move on to the next warm/can batch or is it I just can't make jam? (Seriously isn't there a better way than this jam/warm/can/start all over again process? Can I start with room temp jars?)

Gah, I feel like, what has this woman never seen a kitchen? See I told you I needed canning for dummies!

 
Deep, cleansing breaths. It only SEEMS overwhelming. Check it out,

The water bath process will NOT sterilize the INTERIOR of the jars. Boil them before using. (You COULD just FILL them with boiling water, then dump the water when your jam/jelly is ready, although the water bath will sterilize the outside , the whole point is to sterilize the entire jar before any food gets near it.)

Never, EVER, have I sterilized my jars THEN pre-filled with boiling water again to keep them from cracking. I take mine straight OUT of the boiling water, fill and seal. (Note: You can also run them through the dishwasher if space is an issue)

Why don’t you boil your jars and lids in the same container you’re going to be doing the waterbath? Ten minutes is not some miracle number, just a suggestion. While you’re working on jars 1-6, put jars 7-12 in the bath to boil. When 1-6 are filled and sealed, pull 7-12. Simmer 1-6 for 10 minutes, remove, put in 7-12. Repeat as needed.

By the way, if your lids are "pinging" before they get into the water bath, check the head room (the space between the top of the contents and the underside of the lid.) If it's too little (1/4" is the preferred distance) that may be why your lids are sealing prematurely.

 
Ok, that sorta was what I was trying to do....

only not. So if I sterilize and then take out one by one, fill, put back to water bath one by one...does it make a difference if they water bath for more than 10 mins? Because it would be hard to time/keep track of which jars are which in the boiling water. (I don't have a rack so use a towel which blows all over the place in the pot. I know, I know...sounds like I need a canning pot.)

Otherwise I suppose I could dump/heat only part of the current jars of jam, sterilize/can. Then do the next batch. However, is that what most folks do when they make jam? Leave it warm on the stove and can in batches? Would the heat do anything to the set? In this case I ended up make Aleta's Spicy Peach Preserves* (because they sounded easy), which didn't deal with measuring heat, in fact it said "bring to boil a few minutes" then comes off the heat when you add the pectin. I boiled for 5 mins and took it off the heat -- it set quite well (my big worry).

>> Also, what about the lids/rings? I'd been putting them in the pot for 10 mins with the jars to sterilize as well. Is that good/bad/wrong?

(I didn't think that book was right because it seemed to miss sterilizing the inside of the jars and that seemed wonky.)

*BTW this tastes fantastic, no wonder it's in T&T.

 
Yes, you could have just pulled hot, empty jars out of the bw bath and then just . . .

filled, slapped the hot lids on, put the rings on finger tight, then loaded them back into the pot you had gotten them out of. You could have left the empty hot jars in there while processing the filled ones also.

There is a really nice pictorial guide to canning soft spreads in the Ball Blue Book. It kinda makes it easier to grasp the process after you have read about it.

Ball Blue Books are cheap. You can get the most recent edition on Amazon, an' maybe get it a little cheaper used there also if you wish.

 
In response to some of your questions immediately above, let me fall into teacher mode:

" So if I sterilize and then take out one by one, fill, put back to water bath one by one...does it make a difference if they water bath for more than 10 mins? "

---No it does not matter if they are in the water longer.

"Otherwise I suppose I could dump/heat only part of the current jars of jam, sterilize/can. Then do the next batch. However, is that what most folks do when they make jam? Leave it warm on the stove and can in batches?"

---Yes, leave it warm and can it in batches. Just before you go to fill the next batch of jars, bring the jam briefly up to steaming, if not actually boiling and load it into jars while very hot.


"Would the heat do anything to the set? "

---It should not unless you bring it back to the boil and really boil it too long. What would probably happen is that you would have some VERY STIFF jam, probably hard to spread when cold.

"I boiled for 5 mins and took it off the heat -- it set quite well (my big worry)."

---I have finally learned to take the instructions in the commercial pectin packets with a grain of salted experience. With commercial pectin you can get TOO hard a jell, so if my fruit looks especially dry when I am prepping it I add more fruit, and/or a small amount of water or fruit juice. There is nothing worse than trying to spread hard jam on soft bread!

>> Also, what about the lids/rings? I'd been putting them in the pot for 10 mins with the jars to sterilize as well. Is that good/bad/wrong?"

---Generally you don't want to boil the lids. I just talked to a lady at a demo I worked at and she boiled her lids so long that the *sealing compound* boiled loose and off the lids!

---Place your lids and rings in a pot, cover the lids with water and bring to a brief boil and then turn off the pan and cover to have them wait for loading the jars.

"(I didn't think that book was right because it seemed to miss sterilizing the inside of the jars and that seemed wonky.)"

--As Steve said, if you are boiling the jars, the whole jar is getting sterilized/sanitized.

 
miscreant reporting in here...

I grew up with my grandma doing "one off" canning where she would put the jar on the stove and boil it. This past weekend I put up 9 pints of homemade catsup that seethed, bubbled, and reduced on the stove. I put it in the jars, scalding hot, and they all sealed to perfection. I boilded the jars and the bejezus out of the catsup, I plopped all of them into the big pot and gave them a second boil.

I'm happy. My grandmother didn't kill me so I do what she did.

 
Roz, this is what I have always done. This is the first time I put my jam jars in the pantry.

I'm still a little queasy with the whole processing idea, but realize canning has been around for decades.

 
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