EntranceJam under an iron lid is warm hot to close. Sterilization of jars and the correct seaming of jam
jam is sweet dessert, which is a fruit - fruits or berries, boiled whole in sugar or honey syrup. And although jam has been brewed for, perhaps, more than one hundred years, in connection with its preparation, no, no, and various questions arise. Here, for example - pour jam into jars hot or cold?
Indeed, in order for the jam to turn out delicious and be stored for a long time, certain rules must be observed when preparing it.
Secrets of the right jam
A well-prepared jam should have the color and flavor of fresh fruits and berries that were used in its preparation. Such jam preserves the vast majority of vitamins, including a significant part of vitamin C. Jam can be stored for a long time due to the fact that it contains a large number of sugar - usually about 50%. In such a thick saturated syrup, microorganisms that cause fermentation or mold formation cannot develop. But if you put an insufficient amount of sugar in the jam, then it can easily turn sour. The same happens if you put it in poorly washed or wet jars. Or you do not follow the storage rules - for example, the room in which the jam is stored is poorly ventilated or turns out to be damp.
Jam is made from a wide variety of fruit berries, even from vegetables or nuts. It is only necessary that all these components be approximately the same maturity and the same size. You need to collect berries or fruits for jam in dry sunny weather, avoiding overripe or spoiled fruits.
Do you pour the jam into jars hot or cold?
The answer to this question depends on the way the jam was prepared. The traditional way- this is a long-term cooking of jam until thickened. Usually, the readiness of such a jam is checked by whether the drop retains its shape on the saucer. If it blurs, then the jam continues to cook for some more time. If it remains in its original form, then the jam is ready, it can be removed from the heat. Such jam is laid out in jars when cooled, and usually it does not require seaming. It is simply closed with polyethylene lids or closed parchment paper and tied with twine.
If the jam is cooked in an accelerated way, the so-called "five minutes" or if less sugar is put in the jam, for example, to reduce its calorie content, then such jam is poured only hot into pre-sterilized jars, and then rolled up with metal lids. Then the jars are turned over and the jam is left to cool in this form. For better preservation of jam, jars of jam are recommended to be additionally pasteurized. In other words, such jam requires mandatory preservation. Otherwise, it will not be stored for a long time. Preservation is also required for “raw” jam, which is, in fact, fruits or berries rubbed with sugar.
Properly cooked and closed for the winter, jam can be stored at home for up to two years or even more. If the jam was cooked or poured into jars incorrectly - for example, into unsterilized, poorly washed or damp dishes, then it will definitely ferment, become moldy or sugary.
How to determine that the jam was cooked incorrectly
Here are the main signs by which you can understand that mistakes were made when cooking jam:
- the jam changed its color, became too dark, and the aroma of the fruit left it - only sweet taste. This is a sure sign that the jam has been overcooked;
- berries or fruits are not evenly distributed in the syrup, but float to the surface or settle to the bottom. The settled fruits indicate that you put little sugar in the syrup, and it turned out to be too liquid. If the fruits are gathering near the surface, this indicates that you have not cooked the jam. In both cases, the jam can turn sour, so you need to eat it as soon as possible. Or digest.
The season for preserving fruits (vegetables and fruits) begins by mid-summer and ends, as always, in autumn. And we can enjoy the results of it all winter and even the next few years. But you should always remember that a low-quality lid / container / twisting technology can cause swelling and, as a result, irreversible spoilage of the product.
Causes of swelling / explosion of canned food:
Without going into details, in fact, problems arise either due to dirt that has got inside the container, or excess air. But if we analyze this issue a little more in detail, then the following factors are obtained, and they can lead to damage both individually and in combination:
- poorly washed or poorly sterilized vessels;
- low-quality lids that do not fit well to the neck and allow air to pass through;
- dirty covers;
- poorly processed product - undercooked berries, little sugar and other cooking errors.
Proper sterilization avoids food spoilage, so do not forget to wash each container with a washcloth with detergent, and then “boil” in boiling water for at least 2 minutes (you can steam or sterilize in the microwave).
But most often, all the same, difficulties arise due to covers, so their choice must be approached very carefully. Now in almost any hardware store (and not only) you can find several types at once - tin (the most familiar, but requiring special skills and even special equipment when using), metal screw, plastic. Each of these options has its own advantages and disadvantages. Gradually, screw models are gaining popularity due to reusable use - see the characteristics in more detail and, if you wish, buy Twist Off lids in the Dnieper http://istr.com.ua/products/dlja-konservirovanija/kryshki-tvist-off/.
Is it possible to roll jam with iron lids?
Yes, tin is great for this (because tin is cold rolled steel). A versatile and inexpensive lid allows you to twist whatever you want, whether it be salty or sweet canned food. But there are nuances: some are covered with a special varnish, others are sold without it. It should be taken into account that products made of unvarnished white tin should not be covered with acidic products, because they will oxidize tin, which gives an unpleasant "metallic" taste and dark color. Therefore, always choose yellow models so that during the preservation process you do not puzzle over which lid to use.
Better choice - varnished. Although they are more expensive, the risk of spoiling something is much lower. You can always check the quality of the varnish - it is not washed off with acetone and will even withstand scratching with a fingernail. The shelf life of this product is 3 years.
Screw models, or Twist Off, also belong to the category of iron covers, although such products look somewhat different, and there is clearly more metal in them - the difference in thickness can be seen even with the naked eye. They are also suitable for preserving jam, but the technology of use is different. They stand out from the background of "competitors" in that the expiration date is not limited to the state of the gum + there is no need for a seaming key. In terms of price attractiveness, the tin lid wins, but the difference is quite small, and, in principle, it does not hit the pocket. You can roll them up with anything. There is only one drawback - you need to choose cans ONLY with a suitable thread, but then you can use the product TWICE if the thread remains intact. It should be noted that you need to purchase goods that are varnished from the inside.
Is it possible to close the jam with plastic lids?
Yes, but it is worth remembering that they are prone to damage, they can give an unpleasant "plastic" smell due to the poor quality of the material. But the advantage of these products lies in the lower price and the ability to reuse, although this cannot be a good excuse.
THERMAL COVER - contrary to popular belief, it can be used not only AFTER depressurization. The technology is extremely simple and even primitive: hot water for 15 seconds and then pulled on the jar - done! It is with such that it is better to close JAM and COMPOTE. Also, after cooling, a small depression should appear in the center of the lid - this is an indicator of the vacuum inside the container.
The VACUUM model is a modern miracle. The price, of course, bites like a service shepherd, but it's worth it, since the service life is up to 200 times! You will also need a pump, which is also not very expensive compared to a regular wrench. However, the ease of use justifies everything! Before use - boil, and can be installed on ANY type of jar.
Is it possible to roll up kapron caps?
They are cheap and everyone has them, but they do not guarantee a sufficient degree of sterility and sealing, they are more used for “temporary” covering products, for a very short period of time from 1 day to 1 month.
HOW TO CHOOSE A ROLLING KEY?
There is no great assortment and variety, but still no one wants to make a mistake.
The snail key is a whole complex mechanism that consists of grooves and a spring along which the key probe moves towards the larger can clamp. And as a result, you can achieve the most uniform compression on all sides. For removal, the process is the reverse of the spin procedure, that is, unwind. Takes more time.
SEMI-AUTOMATIC key for rolling - very simple. It is only necessary to press the lid well to the neck and scroll a few times (5-11) until it clicks - this is an indicator of readiness.
There is also a special MACHINE for rolling up, its feature is 2 rollers at the base, which helps to perform the work more reliably.
AUTOMATIC key for rolling - does not require special skills and attention. There is nowhere easier: we put it on the lid and press the levers. Sits very tight, thanks to the springs. Absolutely anyone can cope with these, even those who try it for the first time on their own.
The main thing is good quality material and assembly each key, durable construction will last you much longer than a Chinese fake made of thin plastic. It will not be superfluous to evaluate your own strengths, because when there are a lot of products, and time is limited, your hands will simply get very tired of turning the mechanical key endlessly, especially if it is very tight.
Much also depends on cooking method what will be inside the bank. Jam should be cooked only according to proven recipes, since there are simply an infinite number of them, there are even delicacies from vegetables such as tomatoes, carrots, cabbage, eggplant, zucchini.
The choice is always yours - salt / sugar or completely close without anything in own juice.
Work in autumn and summer always pays off with delicious canned food on the table, which we love so much and regret when stocks run out ... So we always think ahead, do it in reserve, and enjoy the process, so that later we can listen to flattering reviews addressed to us about what good housewives (hosts) you are.
Fragrant pieces of fruit, neatly folded into a jar, filled with the sun, and so reminiscent of summer warmth ... What dessert could be better than delicious homemade jam, cooked with love and rolled up in beautiful jars? To properly make a sweet treat, you need to follow the recipe exactly, choose only the most the best fruits, containers, lids and adhere to the rules of storage.
How to cook jam, sequence of actions
The preparation of this dish is a slow and creative process, for this you can use any fruits and berries that are traditional for our region, or exotic ones, such as figs, papaya, mangoes. Fans of original cuisine opt for cucumbers, pumpkins, pineapples, oranges and even chestnuts and pine cones. The resulting product can be thick or thin, sweet or sour. Berries are boiled in the classic "grandmother's" method, rubbed with sugar, jam is made, caramelized and much more. In any case, these are fruits soaked in sugar or honey syrups, which retained the taste and useful vitamins of fresh fruits as much as possible.There are many recipes and types of how to make jam correctly, however, there are general rules and the subtleties that every hostess should know:
- The fruits are harvested in dry, warm weather, when they dry out from the dew. For the dish, the best specimens are selected, of the same ripeness, preferably slightly underripe, so that during cooking they retain their original shape as much as possible. They are carefully folded into a basket or bucket so as not to damage or crush. Fruit picked in the rain absorbs a lot of moisture and quickly boils. When buying berries in the store, carefully inspect them. Rotten, dented, stained can ruin finished product.
- Delicate fruits of strawberries or raspberries, collected with your own hands, can not be washed. All other fruits are washed in cold running water for several minutes. It is advisable to use a colander to remove dirt. After that, strawberries and currants are laid out to dry in an even layer on a towel, and only then they are stripped and the leaves are removed.
- When the components of the future delicacy are washed, they are cut, depending on the type, the bones are pulled out, the legs are separated, if necessary, blanched (drenched in boiling water).
- The most popular cooking option is boiling fruits in sugar syrup. To prepare the syrup, a certain amount of sugar is poured into the basin, poured with water according to the recipe, put on the stove, and, stirring, bring to a boil and completely dissolve. granulated sugar. After boil for two minutes and add fruit. The correct ratio of sugar and fruits is very important, the duration of storage and taste qualities dessert.
- Berries and fruits are laid in small batches so that they float freely in the prepared sweet mixture, boil for about 30-40 minutes over low heat and leave to stand. To properly cook jam, you need to use aluminum or copper pans and basins without rust, well washed. Use not recommended enamel pots- they give a bad aftertaste, and the food burns quickly even with intense stirring.
- Raspberries, strawberries and strawberries can not be boiled in syrup, but rubbed with sugar in a ratio of 1: 2 and left for a day for the natural release of juice, and only then boil.
- To obtain beautiful translucent ingredients, the food must be boiled and left many times in a cool place. It is necessary to ensure that when cooking, the fruit is completely covered with water. Those that float are pressed down with a lid. When foam is formed, you need to reduce the heat, remove the noise and continue to cook until a new foam forms, gently stirring with a spoon. When the appearance of foam decreases, this will signal that the boil is coming to an end.
- It is very important to be able to correctly determine readiness. For this, jam is scooped up with a spoon, and if it merges with a thick thin thread, and does not drip like water, then it is ready. At the same time, the fruits do not float up the pan, but are evenly distributed over the container, and after turning off the fire, the entire composition is covered with a film. The syrup is transparent, colored in a shade characteristic of boiled fruits - these are the main signs of readiness.
- The finished product is cooled and determined by banks.
What kind of lids to close the jam
It is not enough to know how to cook jam correctly. For his long-term storage it is necessary to properly prepare the container and pick up the lids, otherwise all the work may be lost. Food rolled up with iron lids can be stored anywhere, be it a cellar or a room with ordinary room temperature. These products can be purchased in bulk to save money - find out in detail how you can choose or buy metal covers in bulk http://istr.com.ua/products/dlja-konservirovanija/.Many housewives choose plastic lids due to their ease of use. Twist-off metal screw caps are also suitable, the assortment of which is widely represented on the modern market.
How to sterilize jam jars
Before sorting the finished delicacy into jars, they must be carefully prepared. First, rinse with water and soda from the inside and outside, then sterilize. Sterilization is the process of surface treatment, using high temperatures, to remove all bacteria. Do this with steam, over boiling water or in the oven, at a temperature of 100-120 degrees. Metal lids are sterilized in the same way. You can also boil the lids separately in water for 5-10 minutes.How to close the jam
Before laying out the dish, you need to make sure that the jars are well dried from the inside, otherwise the contents will quickly turn sour. The food is distributed in jars while it is still hot, and then rolled up with a lid and turned upside down, put in a warm place, covered with a jacket or blanket.How to store jars with metal lids
Most of the blanks should be stored in a warm, well-ventilated area, without sudden changes in temperature and high humidity or condensation.If little sugar has been used for cooking, in order to preserve its suitability for as long as possible, it should be stored in the refrigerator or in a fairly cool place.
To understand that everything is in order with the jar and it can be put in a far corner for use in winter, it is turned over. If the rim of the lid is not moistened and nothing leaks, then the container and its contents are ready for transportation and storage.
It is recommended to consume the product covered with screw caps within 6 months.
Jam is a favorite childhood dessert, you can eat it with a spoon, put it on bread, cover a biscuit, add it to pies, compotes or pancakes. This is a real supply of vitamins, which are so lacking in the cold winter.
Apricot and raspberry, blueberry and strawberry, cherry and currant, cranberry and gooseberry, grape and blackberry - each jam is delicious in its own way. To make it perfect, you need to follow certain rules.
And also - to know a few secrets, which will be revealed in this article.
Secret 1. Careful selection of raw materials
Ideal jam can only be made from fruits (berries, fruits, vegetables, and so on) of the same degree of maturity.
For example, if you take berries of varying degrees of maturity, then while the unripe one is cooked, the overripe one will already lose its shape - it will spread into porridge. This means that the consistency will turn out to be heterogeneous and it will be far from ideal. Therefore, when choosing berries or fruits for jam, preference should be given only to fresh fruits of the same degree of maturity.
How to determine the degree of maturity?
- immature fruits are uneven in color. You can use them only for making several types of jam - from walnuts, quince, pears, gooseberries, apricots;
- mature fruits are colored evenly, more intensely and brightly than unripe ones.
- overripe fruits, regardless of whether they are berries or fruits, are characterized by loose pulp and are most often deformed. They are best used for cooking, and so on.
Secret 2. Wash the fruit correctly
To make the perfect jam, the fruits must be washed properly.
If we are talking about delicate berries (strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, and so on), they must be washed very carefully so as not to damage them in the process. First, the berries are sorted out, cleared of leaves, twigs and other debris, carefully transferred to a colander. Wash under a tap with an aerator (or under a shower) for about 3-4 minutes. Leave the berries in a colander for 10-15 minutes - during this time the water will almost completely drain from them.
Fruits with a stronger skin are washed under running cold water.
Secret 3. Selection of dishes
The final result of all the work will directly depend on how correctly you choose the dishes for cooking - whether you will get the perfect jam or not.
More recently, housewives cooked jam in brass and copper basins. It was such dishes that were considered the best, but scientists have proven that this is not so. Copper is by no means an ideal material for making jam. The fact is that the composition of berries and fruits contains an acid that can dissolve copper oxides. Visually, it looks like a patina, in other words - a dark coating that appears on the surface of the pelvis. There is another reason why jam cannot be cooked in copper utensils - ascorbic acid is destroyed by copper ions. That is, jam cooked in copper utensils will be practically devoid of vitamin C.
Aluminum containers are often used, but this cannot be done categorically: under the influence of fruit acid, the oxide film on the walls of the dishes is destroyed, as a result of which aluminum molecules get into the jam.
Enamelware is ideal, you can still use stainless steel containers.
Important: can not be used for making jam enamelware if it has chipped enamel.
Basin or saucepan?
The answer to this question is simple - of course the pelvis! While a pot is more convenient, especially if you're cooking on a small stovetop, the basin is much wider than a pot of the same size. Consequently, the layer of jam in it will be thinner - it will warm up and boil faster, it will be easier to mix it gently. As a result, the jam will be thicker, at the same time, the fruits will not lose their shape and will not be digested.
In addition, at the end of the cooking process, jam (especially from whole fruits) is desirable do not mix so as not to damage the berries. But what if you still need to interfere? In a saucepan, this can only be done with a spatula or spoon, carefully immersing them in a layer of fruit, and moving along the bottom. But you can mix the jam in the basin without using a spatula: to do this, periodically shake the basin or turn and slightly shake it in different directions during cooking.
To jam not burnt, give preference to dishes with a flat thick bottom. If you're making jam in a saucepan, cook it in small portions, filling the dishes about a third - so the berries will boil evenly.
Choose pots with a thick bottom in our catalog, which includes offers from various large online stores. .
Sterilizer for jars triple Moskvichka
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Stickers for jars PICKLES AND MARINADE, 64 pcs.
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Single jar sterilizer Moskvichka
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Drain cover for regular jars Moskvichka Hostess Light lll-82
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Secret 9. Proper storage
How long can you eat delicious jam, to a large extent depends on its proper storage.Where to store jam?
For a long period of time, jam must be stored in sterilized glass jars, small volume (up to 2 l), rolled up with tin lids or corked with twist lids.
Important: When calculating the number of containers required for packaging jam, keep in mind that about 2 kg of jam will come out of 1 kg of fruit. AT liter jar fits about 1.5 kg of jam.
During the storage of jam, especially if it is stored at high temperatures or for a long period of time, sugaring may occur. So try not to keep it too long.
How long can jam be stored?
Jam with stones (cherry, peach, plum) - 1-1.5 g. The fact is that hydrocyanic acid, which is part of fruit pits, can become poisonous over a long period of storage.All the rest of the jam, if it is properly canned and stored properly, is about 3 years. It is during this period that vitamins and minerals will still be present in it. useful material. Further storage is also possible, but it does not make sense, since the benefits of eating such a product will be doubtful.
Storage conditions for jam
Store the jam in a dark, dry place at a temperature not exceeding +15°C.
During storage, jam may turn sour or moldy. This happens in several cases:
- it is cooked incorrectly: too much / little sugar is taken;
- there is not enough acid in the jam;
- it is digested;
- the jam is not hermetically sealed;
- the container has not been thoroughly dried.
It is impossible to give all the tips in one article, so I tried to select the most valuable of them:
- Strawberry jam will without bitterness, if 10 minutes before the end of cooking, add raw peeled carrots to it (carrots must be removed from the jam before packaging).
- To jam not candied, 5-10 minutes before the end of cooking, add a little citric acid to it.
- The jam will become thicker, if thickeners are added to it at the end of cooking (pectin, quittin, gelfix, and so on) About 5 g of pectin will be enough for 1 kg of berries.
- Burnt jam can be saved: as soon as you notice caramel clots on the shoulder blade, immediately pour the jam into another container. If you realized it in time, the finished product will not be bitter.
Here are a few more wonderful recipes:
- jam ,
In the yard it's time for berries, a lot of strawberries, raspberries begin to sing. When a good harvest and everything does not work out from the bush, the question arises of how to preserve this abundance and make preparations.
With berries, the most common option is to cook all sorts of goodies with sugar: jam, preserves, sweets and other goodies.
The main features of cooking
Sweet preparations from berries are divided into those that are boiled with sugar and those that are ground with sugar. Sugar is put in a ratio of one to one in the jam, which is boiled and two to one for the option with fresh berries. Jam that does not require boiling is richer in vitamins, especially vitamin C, which is destroyed during heat treatment.
In addition, if the boiling technology is chosen, it is necessary to decide how to cook in your own juice or in syrup. The choice depends on the berries and fruits from which the delicacy is prepared. If dry berries or fruits are selected ( chokeberry, dogwood, Walnut milky ripeness, etc.), then you can’t do without syrup.
What is the difference between jam, jam and marmalade
In jam, it is easy to guess from what it is cooked, berries and fruits retain their shape. Jam is boiled down so much that there are no whole berries, jam is a homogeneous jelly-like mass. But sweets, this is something between jam and jam, the consistency is jelly-like, but whole berries come across. Jam is a fruit or berry puree boiled with sugar.
There remains the last moment and the essence of our question, in what form to pour into banks. In jars, any of these dishes is poured hot. At least for a reason:
- hot is easier to work with, as soon as the sweet delicacy cools down, it will become much thicker and it will be very difficult to place it in a jar, in the case of jam it is almost impossible;
- hot jam, jam, etc. sterile, which will help to avoid trouble during storage, otherwise there is a possibility that the sweetness may ferment.
All these sweet goodies will be a good duet for the following dishes.