Bottling in jam jars

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Bottling in jam jars
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oldish chris

Joined: 14 Jun 2006
Posts: 4148
Location: Comfortably Wet Southport

Posted: Tue Jul 15, 14 7:28 am Post subject:

wellington womble wrote:

NorthernMonkeyGirl wrote:

wellington womble wrote:

Canning is when something is heated and pressurised (pressure canners are just pressure cookers, only you can accurately measure the pressure in bars). My opinion is that this is the only safe way to preserve tomatoes in jars. Poorly bottled are a big cause of preserving related problems. Fruit with sugar is safe to bottle, because the fruit and the sugar are acidic. Vegetables without are not. Unless you can test the ph and know what the safe threshold is, it's a big risk. This is on the advice of my father in law, who is a food technologist by profession.

Thanks, for some reason I thought tomatoes were acidic / on the "safe" list?

I believe tomatoes are not nearly as acidic as they used to be, and they have been bred to be sweeter and less acidic over the years. I wouldn't do it personally with veg (I know tomatoes are technically a fruit. They are still a major cause of problems according to FIL. When I next see him I'll ask him for a reference)

Dear Wellington Womble, when you are next chatting to your FIL, could you ask a stupid question on my behalf? Having prepared some tomatoes for bottling, could I shove a gardener's pH meter in the juice?

Nick

Joined: 02 Nov 2004
Posts: 34535
Location: Hereford

Posted: Tue Jul 15, 14 7:39 am Post subject:
It should work just fine.

sean
Downsizer Moderator

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 42219
Location: North Devon

Posted: Tue Jul 15, 14 9:28 am Post subject:
Clean the soil off first though.

quixoticgeek

Joined: 23 Dec 2008
Posts: 296
Location: Canterbury

Posted: Thu Jul 17, 14 11:42 pm Post subject:

I got a very poor harvest of blackcurrants this year, 14oz vs 15lb last year. There are a few left on the bushes, that I hope still to get, but they are largely incidental.

I've made a syrup based on 1 cup of sugar to 1 cup of water (actually 3 of each). The fruit + syrup is now in the oven warming up slowly to 120�C. I may take it to 150�C there seems some conflict among the sources I can find as to what temp. Will give it 40 minutes at temp.

I've ended up with lots of spare syrup, which I'll freeze until the next surplus of fruit (probably the blackberries). Assuming it cools down any time soon...

Will update once I know this lot have (or haven't) sealed.

Julia

quixoticgeek

Joined: 23 Dec 2008
Posts: 296
Location: Canterbury

Posted: Fri Jul 18, 14 12:29 am Post subject:
Oops... Seems that they boiled over quite nicely, made a mess of the pan the jars were in. I took 20 mins to get upto temp of about 140�C, soaked there for 20 mins. Have just sealed the tops. Now to await the pop. [EDIT] Three nice loud pops, and the jars are all sealed. Time will tell how well they have preserved, but it's a good start. Julia

oldish chris

Joined: 14 Jun 2006
Posts: 4148
Location: Comfortably Wet Southport

Posted: Fri Jul 18, 14 7:44 am Post subject:

Confident that Wellington Womble will correct where necessary: the difference between canning and bottling, is that the canning process sterilises the contents, i.e. everything dead, and bottling pasteurises, i.e. most things dead. There are one or two microbes that survive the pasteurisation process, but the most dangerous of them don't like acid conditions. Non-acidic vegetables, e.g. carrots and beans, should not be bottled, and as there are alternative preserving methods, its not worth the risk. Tomatoes, apparently, are borderline. I haven't had any problems, but I don't do it very often.

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