…… Safety of canned jelly/jam?

[meandk0610]

My dad's wife recently gave me 4 small jellies/jams she had put up--strawberry jam, apple jelly, peach jelly, blueberry jam. Trouble is she did not water bath can them, she just poured the boiling food into hot jars, put the kids on, and left them on the counter to ping. This was about 2 weeks ago as far as I know. She followed the rest of the instructions on the liquid pectin package. Are they safe to eat? Is it too late for me to water bath them? Also, I don't have a rack to hold the cans apart. I have a glass top stove and just have a large flat-bottom stock pot with a low removale steamer base inside. I could also use a smaller stock pot for just those 4 half-pint jars, or if I can wait to do it, I could do some of my own and can them with the pint/half-pint jars I plan to do.

 

[summerthyme]

They're fine. They will be more prone to develop mold on top in storage, so use them up fairly soon. This (called the "open kettle" method of canning) was the standard method for canning jam and jelly for decades. But most of us who did it that way went to water bath processing them happily, as it gave us a much longer lasting product. And we've become aware that simply scooping off the visible mold doesn't always get rid of it all (or any toxins it might be producing) as it spreads via invisible tendrils deeper into the product.

I don't worry about holding jars apart with a rack, but it's necessary to keep them off the bottom surface of the kettle, to prevent risk of breakage.

Stash those four jars in the fridge and use them up in the next month or so. They'll be fine.

Summerthyme

 

[Kathy in FL]

Is your stock pot large enough to allow a upside down aluminum pie tin to sit on the bottom? If it is then easy peezy. Take an aluminum pie or cake pan ... the disposable kind ... and punch some holes in the bottom. This prevents air/bubbles from building up under it and the thing flipping. Put it in your stock pot upside down (bottom side up) and then set your jars on that to keep them up off the bottom of the stock pot during processing. Mom and I do it all the time.

 

[summerthyme]

The other thing that works well is a round cake cooling rack that fits in the pot. I've got several in different sizes, that I use in my smaller stockpots when only canning a few small jars...

Summerthyme

 

[kua]

I've also used a hand towel folded over several times to hold the jars off the bottom of the pan.

Open kettle canning with no water bath was used for many, many years. In fact, I have a government bulletin mailed to me from our Representative H. R. Gross in about 1962 or 1963 and no mention of a water bath was made when discussing making jams, jellies and preserves. Most of us used wax on top of the jars of jelly, etc, and that would never have withstood being immersed in boiling water. I do like the boiling water bath now and use it exclusively.

I agree that if you are worried about the safety of the products, just store them in the fridge and use them soon. Recanning them with new jelly is fine, too, but a lot of work for something that is ok just as is.

 

[vessie]

They'll be safe to eat, don't worry!

That is how my mother-inlaw Junebug from Tn. taught me.

The jars were heated in the oven and kept there, hot and steril until I was ready to fill the jars with the jam which had been boiling long enough to kill any bacteria so it was all sterile by the time I was ready to let the jars all sit on the towel on the couter til I heard the 'pinging'. V

 

[meandk0610]

Thank you, ladies! I was worried that she hadn't done something right (it was her first time canning anything) and that they'd be dangerous. I will stick them in the fridge and use them next. Thanks again!

 

[FireDance]

They'll be safe to eat, don't worry!

That is how my mother-inlaw Junebug from Tn. taught me.

The jars were heated in the oven and kept there, hot and steril until I was ready to fill the jars with the jam which had been boiling long enough to kill any bacteria so it was all sterile by the time I was ready to let the jars all sit on the towel on the couter til I heard the 'pinging'. V

Newbie question here: do you boil your jars first and then stick in oven? Also what temp is your oven? Thank you!

 

[vessie]

Newbie question here: do you boil your jars first and then stick in oven? Also what temp is your oven? Thank you!

I either wash them in the dishwasher or if you don't have one like I didn't have one when I was living in the 'Old Haunted Barn on Finnhill', I washed them up pretty good and then put them in a 250 degrees oven for over a half hour.

They were piping hot and needed to be grabbed from the oven with tongs. Only take out what your using so they are all hot when you need them for immediate use. V