Jam Problem

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northland

Assistant Cook
Joined
Mar 1, 2010
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1
My daughter in law made raspberry jam. According to the instructions on the pectin box. She did every thing right except the last stage was to put the jam jars in boiling water in canner and process 10 minutes. She laddle hot jam and then let them sit and cool down. The jars did pop and seal, but I'am wondering how safe is this. She has been doing it for 2 years now. I just found out. Can I reopen jam and just add new lids and process in canner for the 10 minutes or what to do?:chef:
 
If the jars were sterile to begin with you should likely be OK. The lids sealed so I think you're fine. I don't think I would reprocess them myself but others might tell you differently.
 
I never use the hot water bath unless they don't seal on the counter. I've been doing it myself for 10 years and I apprenticed under Mom for another 25.
 
The only thing you must remember if you don't go through the pasteurizing process (Boiling Water Bath) is that no bacteria, yeast, or mold spores have been killed and they will eventually grow in the jar, if present.

You won't die from a contaminated jar, but you could get sick depending on how good/bad your immune system is. Not all spoilage is visible.
 
I'm sorry to disagree with others, but NO, this is not safe. It is called "Open Kettle" canning and it's dangerous. The point of the water bath is not to seal the jars, but to sterilize the contents and the jars. 10 minutes of boiling at 212*F does that for high-acid foods.

I could take a jar of contaminated food, warm it up, put it in a hot jar and put a lid on it and as long as the lid and rim are clean, it will still seal. A seal doesn't mean it's safe. It means the decrease in the temperature has caused a decrease in the atmosphere inside the jar. It's the same reason you can take a peeled, hard-boiled egg and a jar with a small opening, drop a match into it and the vacuum with suck the egg inside. It's no different than using a FoodSaver.

Google "Open Kettle" canning. You've just gotten lucky so far. There is a reason that canning information is updated by the USDA and old practices are thrown out. Just because grandma did it that way and never poisoned anyone doesn't mean anything. Grandma also never buckled up in the car.
 
I'm sorry to disagree with others, but NO, this is not safe. It is called "Open Kettle" canning and it's dangerous. The point of the water bath is not to seal the jars, but to sterilize the contents and the jars. 10 minutes of boiling at 212*F does that for high-acid foods.

I could take a jar of contaminated food, warm it up, put it in a hot jar and put a lid on it and as long as the lid and rim are clean, it will still seal. A seal doesn't mean it's safe. It means the decrease in the temperature has caused a decrease in the atmosphere inside the jar. It's the same reason you can take a peeled, hard-boiled egg and a jar with a small opening, drop a match into it and the vacuum with suck the egg inside. It's no different than using a FoodSaver.


Google "Open Kettle" canning. You've just gotten lucky so far. There is a reason that canning information is updated by the USDA and old practices are thrown out. Just because grandma did it that way and never poisoned anyone doesn't mean anything. Grandma also never buckled up in the car.

Got the point i read this article in Google open kettle canning said that is it dangerous well , great idea ,
 
My grandmother sealed her jelly and jam using parafin wax. I remember it in jars, decorative glasses, even those little glasses that shrimp cocktail used to come it.

Would I not boil mine,no. If you are concerned I would just decline to eat the jam.
 
And of course the paraffin wax method of sealing as long ago been determined unsafe and not recommended.

I didn't say it was safe or recommended, I was just pointing out how things have changed from wax to open kettle to the current recommendations, including the jars used. I guess I wasn't quite clear. Personally I always put mine in a hot water bath and process, same for my tomatoes and pickles.
 
I'm sorry to disagree with others, but NO, this is not safe. It is called "Open Kettle" canning and it's dangerous. The point of the water bath is not to seal the jars, but to sterilize the contents and the jars. 10 minutes of boiling at 212*F does that for high-acid foods.

I could take a jar of contaminated food, warm it up, put it in a hot jar and put a lid on it and as long as the lid and rim are clean, it will still seal. A seal doesn't mean it's safe. It means the decrease in the temperature has caused a decrease in the atmosphere inside the jar. It's the same reason you can take a peeled, hard-boiled egg and a jar with a small opening, drop a match into it and the vacuum with suck the egg inside. It's no different than using a FoodSaver.

Velochic, I don't know what recipe the OP has used and I should likely have clarified that before giving my answer. My bad, sorry folks. However, I have never made jam that hasn't been boiled and then ladled into hot sterilized jars. I'm fairly certain that boiling the jam killed any germs that might have been in there. I also know that the amount of sugar I use in my jam inhibits bacterial growth. I always thought that was sort of neat so I did a bit of research on the subject. In case anyone is interested, here are two of the bits I read.

Link one

Link two WARNING...this one is about using sugar to help nasty wounds to heal and there are pictures.
 
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You are only partially correct and complete in your beliefs, which is what leads people down the wrong path. "Sterilizing" would be fine if it were in turn in a sterile environment, which it is not, so in reality pre-sterilizing is a wasted effort because the object is/can be immediately re-contaminated by everything around it, including the air.

That is one reason why the USDA/NCHFP no longer requires that jars be sterilized prior to filling when canning foods. Proper sterilization will occur during canning when the jars are under water (water bath) or in a steam vacuum (pressure canner).

And simple food cooking/boiling does not guarantee that all forms of bacterias, yeasts, fungi, etc., are killed, otherwise the experts wouldn't be compelled to go that special step of sustained boiling for a specific time while under water.

You can continue doing it 'your way', but its like not wearing seat belts in a car. Some day your luck just may run out. The more modern recommendations are safety recommendations and procedures that have been proven in a laboratory and in real life.
 
Mcnerd, I am not disputing any of that information at all. In Canada, we have similar sites and guidelines, we do not necessarily use all your information.

I do things differently based on my experience, research and recommendations from learned bodies. I do jam one way based upon some of my research. I certainly do not use the same process for something like say...applesauce or salsa. My process is different yet for pickling cucumbers. In the case of jam, if you eliminate nearly all of the microbes with initial sterilization and then seal your jars you should be OK simply because the growing environment is inhospitable. This is ONLY the case if your jam has a high concentration of sugar. Again, sugar makes is virtually impossible for any microbes you have left in your jar to grow. Here is another link that might be easier to understand. Its a bit like opening 3000 year old honey and finding it is still OK to eat.

Much of the canning information out there (in any country) is based on the lowest common denominator, and being safe across the board. Because not everyone uses enough sugar in their jam to make it an inhospitable growing medium, there are guidelines to make it safe.

We all make decisions based upon the information we process. I'm not trying to influence anyone, or to start any kind of pitched battle here.

I hope I've explained my comment now. I do apologize if anyone feels I'm suggesting something unsafe.

northland, I hope you do some more research and find out if you are OK, and I am so sorry to have hijacked your thread! :wacko:
 
In the case of jam, if you eliminate nearly all of the microbes with initial sterilization and then seal your jars you should be OK simply because the growing environment is inhospitable.

I don't want to be disagreeable again, but how can you know that you've not introduced any microbes? Your jars may be sterile and your jam boiling hot, but what about the rest of your equipment? The funnel, the ladle, the lid lifter, the knife to make sure the bubbles are eliminated in the jar... even the lids should only be simmered and not boiled and are therefore not sterile... not to mention your fingers that are getting the lid on straight.

After the lids are on the jars, the boiling sterilizes everything. I would simply not be comfortable knowing that not everything that touches what is going into the jar is sterile. It's just not possible to ensure this level of safety without the processing.

Also, honey is 100% sugar. Sure it can be preserved for millenia. What is the right amount of sugar to ensure that none of the microbes can grow, though? I'm sure there is a scientific threshold for this, but at home we can't test it like they do in the labs at commercial jam manufacturing plants. How can one know that they put in *enough* sugar. (And FTR, in our case, I only can low sugar jam, as it's one of the reasons to make our own, but that's neither here nor there in relation to your post about sugar as a preservative.)

It's not really that difficult to just boil the jars for 10 minutes. No different than cooking spaghetti. I just wonder why, with such an easy solution, anyone would not go that simple extra step for an extra layer of food safety. To each his or her own, but I'm just saying that I don't understand it. Like wearing a seatbelt... it's not really that much of an extra step for a very huge benefit of safety. ;)
 
Again I am going to be alone here, but I never sterelize jars for jams. Yes I do run them thru dishwasher right before pooring jam/jelly but that is it. I have some stuff seating for years. I made this raspberry jelly like 5 years ago, I just recently found couple of jars of it, it is a s good as new/fresh. And i do not even use pectin. Citric acid only.
 
velochic, I sterilize EVERYTHING that touches the jars and jam. OK, except my hands. That just hurts. ;)

And low sugar jam and high sugar jam are two very different beasts. I don't ever do low sugar jam (I only do raspberry jam because that is what we grow.) We could get into a huge discussion about how much sugar is enough etc and I could haul out all the stuff I've looked at etc etc, but it boils down to (and forgive the pun there) equal amounts of sugar and fruit. Again, there is no precise equation, but that seems to be the basics for preserving.

As to why I don't bother with the boiling and processing, 1) I don't believe it is necessary for my particular jam, and 2) I've wrecked a few jams that way and never wrecked any the other.

Again, purely a choice based on the information I have at my disposal. Your choices, and everyone elses are their own.
 
Of course, you're right, Alix, that everyone has a choice. I will openly admit that I am jaded by my past. My mother almost died from food poisoning from home canned food and my niece, who was 2 at the time also had an incident from high-sugar jam that looked and smelled perfectly safe. Perhaps I'm more cautious because I've seen first-hand what improper canning can do. I'm now safety's loudest advocate. I hope you never have to go through what I went through as an observer thinking my mother would die, what my family went through as the patients suffering, and most especially, what my sister went through feeling the guilt as the perpetrator of cutting canning corners. Perhaps I won't seem so harsh knowing my perspective. ;)
 
Velochic, how horrible. It certainly does give a different perspective. I hope everyone is OK now?
 
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