Thread: Preserving jars & caps

I wanna make some mango Jam while its in season, anyone seen Preserving jars, empty that is?

pretty sure I've seen 'em in the market here. Do you mean the Kilner type with the hinged lid and clip or the screw on lid with rubber seal?

Screw on type, the type with the rubber seal and hinge don't seal. Used the before and useless for the purpose.
The self sealing lid type like you buy Pasta sauces in would be great.

I'll have a look, no promises though. If they've got 'em, how many would you want?

About 20 I guess, if they are available near you they should be available in Udon as well, just don't seem to recall seeing them.
Our trees are groaning with mangoes, most go to waste which is a .. well.....a waste

I really dont know that you need the proper preserving jars. I make bread and butter pickles and tomato relish and just use old jars that I save.

You have to sterilize them by rinsing them with boiling water and putting them, upside down into a very slow oven (100 degrees) for about a half an hour until they are dry. Put the juice or whatever in them while they are still hot and seal immediately.

Try to use a very clean teatowel to handle them as you are putting them in the oven. Dont dry them with the teatowel, just transfer them to the oven without touching the inside of the jar.

Sure lil, and you will get good refrigerator life with that, but to preserve in ambient storage you need to eliminate any oxidation of the product which requires a hermetic seal.

Originally Posted by peterpan

which requires a hermetic seal

Which could be the problem with stuff from the market.

Originally Posted by peterpan

but to preserve in ambient storage you need to eliminate any oxidation of the product which requires a hermetic seal.

You may be right, but I make dozens of jars at a time and don't refrigerate them until they are opened and I forgot to add that you have to fill them to overflowing so that there is no air between the lid and the produce.

Try it and see. The other method is to pour melted beeswax on the top of the surface to seal them, but I have never done that.

I don't know why Thai's aren't into preserving so much.
I remember when I was a kid My mum was always preserving what ever was in season at the time. We had cupboards lined with the most delish , pears & peaches, guavas etc and all sorts of preserved vegetables, Home made Jams, When I go back to OZ pop down to the local farmers market to buy some homemade raspberry jam from this guy.

Paul Grainger
8 Devco Place Benowa
Gold coast

Where is the dribble smiley ?

Originally Posted by peterpan

I don't know why Thai's aren't into preserving so much.

Because they have fruit all year round?

I think preserving came from cold countries which had harsh winters when nothing grew or fruited.

Originally Posted by peterpan

don't know why Thai's aren't into preserving so much.

Because Thai have no logic, or logical thinking as that part of their brain did not develop, and they do not think anyway as it is frowned on by their betters, the HISO,
If you have a thinking population then you have trouble convincing them our way is better and that we have a right to fuck you out of your money and that you deserve to live like a dog.
Thats why some HISO opened a cannery that does can the stuff in season and you can buy it from Tesco, Makro, Big C, and carrefour but Thai do not have the cleanliness of person and the thoughts of disinfecting anything and the transmission of disease has not entered into normal Thai life yet.
Therefore the communal water glass at the water coolers in Dr. offices and Hospitals not only in private business prove that fact.
so it is better if Thai are not encouraged to do things that might kill great numbers of them thru Botulism, E-coli and Salmonella that would surely happen if they took up the art of home preserving past putting lightly salted fresh meat or fish out in the sun for the flies to shit on all day before eating it for supper.

PP i have seen the snap lid type in Tesco or Carrefor (sp) but not seen any screw type! (not read above advice) if you do it sucsessful (sp?) can i have one to try?
love you! kiss kiss

I have looked for Mason jars every place I've been and have never found them. Once you have these types of jars, then the only thing you ever replace is the lid when it gets too old to seal.

mason jar?

what's that Eli?

Originally Posted by jizzybloke

mason jar? what's that Eli?

KERR-MASON is the origional maker of home canning jars, lids and rings.
The jars came in large mouth and small mouth, but jar capacity was anywhere from half pint to gallon, which the lids and rings fit.
Once you bought the jars they were forever and kept just as one keeps heirlooms, and then every year new lids were bought and if the rings got rusty you could buy new rings as well.

Screw cap or snap cap?

Originally Posted by jizzybloke

Screw cap or snap cap?

There were 2 ring sizes and lids with a rubber kind of a sealing surface that went on top of the glass, the rings were threaded as were the jars, so in practise, you filled the jar, put on a lid and then just started the ring on to keep the lid from slipping but not down tight, set the jar in a water bath up to just below the rings, let it boil for an hour or whatever time was for the product, the heat would exhaust all the air out of the jar and when boiling stopped it would cause a vaccume on the lid, plus you would tighten the ring, then when the jars were cool you could take off the ring if you wanted to, but then the jars were set in shelves in the pantry where it was dark and cooler as the pantrys were usually well insulated with wall filling of sawdust a foot thick and then you would have enough stuff canned to last the winter.

But you always have to test for a good seal on the lid, tap with a spoon lightly and you hear it ping, good seal and safe food, or you hear a thunk, bad seal and it will rot so eat it for supper tonite.

Originally Posted by friscofrankie

That's the way grandma did it.

My nan did too, but I haven't.

But that is a seal, isn't it?

I have had a couple of jars of relish grow mould on top, but I think I may not have filled them right up to the top or they were the last ones I filled and the jars had got a bit cooler.

Originally Posted by friscofrankie

Originally Posted by Lily The other method is to pour melted beeswax on the top of the surface to seal them

Originally Posted by friscofrankie

That's the way grandma did it.

But that is only on jam or jelly that was preserved with the sugar that was in them and the wax or really it was parafine that has been used in the years I have been here was to keep the air away.

But Frankie and I can damn sure put up a winters supply of food and meat and fish in them Mason jars.

The pressure cooker was used mainly for meat and fish, altho water pack was suitable for meats, but fish and it was always safer to pressure can them, so you would pressure fish for 1 hour at 15 PSIG to process the product, which meant that you have a sea level temp in water pack of 212 deg F. where at 15 PSIG you have a temp of 259 deg F.
Thats the recommendations of Oregon Extension office when we used to can and sell smoked salmon, Shad and sturgeon.
for commercial use tho we used tin cans of the 1/2 pound size.

Originally Posted by blackgang

really it was parafine

You are right BG, it was paraffin wax, not beeswax.