If you have Kilner jars, or the same type of thing, please answer a question or two!

[jenandjess]

With visions of beautifully presented, home made chutneys and relishes, I bought some Kilner preserving jars. I didn’t realise that when full, you put the (sterilised) disc and lid on and then boil them for 30 mins to create a vacuum. Do you really have to do that? It seems such a faff! Will the comtents keep without the vacuum?

Thanks!

www.kilnerjar.co.uk/sterilising-jam-jars-hygiene

Erm yes

I don't do that but i sterilise them before filling them. They are then kept in the fridge and once opened should be consumed within a couple of weeks.

the extra boiing and stuff is more for bottling...when you have whole fruits/vegs in a brine/sugar solution

I think you can do it for other things but it's more of a belt and braces affair.

Thank you ... feel a numpty having never heard of boiling post filling. I do sterilise jars for my mncemeat and it seems perfectly fine so the Kilner instructions just caught my by surprise!

It’s the high acid and sugar content of pickles and chutneys that preserve them. As they are cooked they will be mostly sterile by the time you pack them into jars, but not 100%. In most of western Europe the ambient temperature is low enough most of the year that the risk of surviving microorganisms starting to ferment in the jars is quite low.

American preservers, on the other hand, have to cope with a wider range of ambient temperatures, so will typically boil things after packing to pasteurize them as well. Practices that are OK for a larder in Sussex are not necessarily OK in the Nevada desert.

Thanks for that explanation BlackForest ... i’d never given it any thought before!