Jars for preserving/pickling

[Notpetite]

Does anyone here do home pickling?

Are sterilised, used supermarket jam jars and their lids suitable?

Do I need to use Mason/Kilner jars?

Thank you for any advice.

I do my own pickled onions and only ever use supermarket jars with a screw lid, but I also put double clingfilm over the opening before the lid.

I use proper kilner jars for homemade passage though.

Sorry, what is homemade passage?

I just use old jam jars etc too.

We used old jars for ours. Sterilised in the oven, rinsed onions in the jar and then topped up with the hot vinegar and the lids screwed on straight away and it will seal itself. We found the rubber on the kilner jars degraded but that might be because we used cheap and old ones.

A book I got on fermentation probably applies here, it says that types of jars and even sterilising are not super important and a basic best effort clean is all that's needed. It says in addition to that to keep your solids submerged. Held down with something like a stone if necessary as the conditions of the liquid are hostile to bacteria due to lack of oxygen. Anything exposed to air on the other hand is fertile territory

A question for ShutTheDoorBabe.

Do you let the jars cool down for a couple of minutes once out of the oven?

So, you heat all of the pickling liquid? How hot is it when you put it in the jar?

Lol I didn't proof read - that's supposed to say Passata 🤣 😅

BTW I never heat the vinegar for the onions and haven't had any problems in the 10 + years I've been doing my own pickled onions!

I salt the onions overnight, rinse off next day then pack into clean jars and fill with cold malt vinegar, some whole peppercorns and a couple of dried chillies in each jar.

I save jars and use them. Never had a problem.

The biggest risk with home preserving is botulism.

The main rules to remember are that botulism cannot survive at pH below 4.6 or a temperature above 120 degrees Celsius.

Malt vinegar has a pH of 2.5 - 2.7.

I heat my jars (after washing) in the oven at 130 degrees for 20 minutes to sterilise them.

The only problem with reusing jars is that their heat tolerance is unknown.

If you are pickling you will need to make sure your lid is vinegar proof, this usually means it has some sort of plastic coating in the inside.

Whether to cool your jar or not depends on what pickling method you are using (hot or cold pickling) but as a general rule the jars and food should be at the same or similar attempt to avoid the glass shattering from thermal shock.

Don't put hot jars on a cold worktop, a wooden chopping board is usually fine.

No we use them hot, and yes, we heat all of the vinegar, with the sugar, dried chillies and other herbs. We've only ever had one jar crack and leak in all the years we've been making them.