Look up ‘hot pack canning’. You have to keep everything (jars, lids, contents) above 180 degrees. We do bourbon caramel sauce & hot sauce that way.
Later my friend @Auspicious; I’ll be armed with my own armada of information. Please realize that I’m not advising or advocating others use my methods. Am simply sharing my canning experiences, as you are yours. I do no pressure canning, so basically jam and jelly are the only things I can without putting in a water bath. All else I check with the latest safety information. It used to be you could make a cooked apple pie filling, and put in a water bath, using cornstarch as a thickener. That has been found to be unsafe, and there’s a different product that can be used, although I don’t remember the name at the moment. I always use the special order safe stuff. I’m not cavalier about food safety.
As to reusing commercial jelly or jam jars - it works for me, and has for about 33 years. I’m sure there’s been a little lobbying on the part of Ball, Mason or Kerr to get that particular word out.
Let me ask you this - do you follow manufacturer’s instructions about how much product to use, in the case of dishwasher soap, laundry detergent or whatever? I don’t, because they want you to use the maximum amount. Hello!, and duh.
We’ll continue on this later, I need to investigate an engineering flaw on my instant pot.
Peace and have a good day.
Thanks @JoeBabbitt, I rest my case for now.
ClearJell
Thanks again, that’s it! Also something I don’t usually find in my usual grocery stores @JoeBabbitt.
Here’s yesterday’s blackberry picking. We now have 16 cups of seedless purée for jam, and an additional 12 cups for cobblers. The berries produce through September, so we’ll be getting more.
Triple batch of seedless blackberry jam from Friday’s blackberry haul. Same SOP’s.
It’s a beautiful color, but hard to tell in the jar.
Ooh, just beautiful @BeefeaterRocks! H and I just talking about figs the other night. We do have a tree that we hope may produce next year. I’ve never worked with them enough, or had enough but to just eat them fresh. They’re hard to find in markets around here.
I have a Desert King, it produces nicely on the So. Oregon coast, if the critters will leave the fruit alone.
If you don’t mind saying, where are you in Southern Oregon @BeefeaterRocks?
Brookings, I’m north of town and two miles from the coast.
Lovely!
There’s a prolific fig tree in the back, but no one here eats figs (other family who visit do, but… pandemic).
Anyone have a trusted fig preserve recipe? Thinking I could turn the figs into that to send around - more easily that shipping figs themselves. Like the fancy stuff eaten with cheese.
Yes, I know Brookings, and have been there. It’s where people go to buy RV’s, cars and the like to avoid paying state sales tax, right? It’s definitely a beautiful part of the world. Have many friends in Southern Oregon now, and we all stayed in a great VRBO in Bandon, a couple years back. Good to know where you are. Have you had a hot summer this year, or does being so close to the coast moderate that a lot @BeefeaterRocks?
Wow! Soo many! Do they tend to ripen around the same time, or over the summer?
I used to have Desert King and a Black Jack, and I had to choose…I chose the Black Jack because it stays smaller, but this year hasn’t been good for them, and I can’t figure out why.
These were from last year in September, and from July 2017. Also a Jar of Edna Lewis’ preserved figs, a recipe I highly recommend, given how it lends itself to procrastination.
@Saregama I made a fig mostarda that was different than your ordinary fig jam. I quite liked it.
I’m thinking of making some jam this year, all the recipes I googled seem pretty much the same.
I’m not sure, we get a lot of shoppers from Crescent City. This summer has been pretty mild, very few 80, 90 degree days. I’m far enough back from the coast that we avoid a lot of the fog and temperatures are usually higher than in town.
@shrinkrap They tend to ripen around the same time. Picture was taken in 2017 when I had a bumper crop, this year not so many. I get a second crop but they are too late to ripen. I prune it back every other year so I can keep the figs within reach, almost. I also have a Brown Turkey and a Genoa, they both set fruit too late to ripen. I almost got Brown Turkeys last year but the rains came a couple of weeks too soon. I’ll check out the recipe, thanks.
Thank you!
Ooh so pretty! And might appeal to fig lovers - I could see that in a bowl with a scoop of ice cream (not my bowl, but…)