Bubbles La Tour

Congratulations on the blue ribbon for your cherry jam! What fairs do you enter, Jane? State? Regional? County? When you say "toppings," do you mean jam or do you mean something else? -Bubbles http://web.me.com/barbschaller

Floating fruit is the bane of every canner, I think, Jane. Best I can tell you is to slowly stir your jam for a full five minutes after you remove it from the heat. That may help. After cooking the jam, I pour it from the cooking kettle to a 3-quart pitcher, skim and stir, then pour into jars. I prefer the pitcher to a ladle and funnel for filling the jars; it's less messy for me.

Look up the 1-liter Quattro Stagioni jar by Bormioli; organizedliving.com has them. They are not inexpensive, though, at $4 each plus shipping. The Bormioli jars have lids with the plastisol compound for vacuum sealing. I use the jars for dry storage and like the bottle for lemonade. I don't can in them because I prefer Kerr jars. Syrup would be a fine thing to process in the Bormioli bottle. The organizedliving link shows the bottle with pickles in it. I think that's just funny! The opening is all of 2" in diameter. Your trick with the B-QS jars will be having spare lids for it. Look it up; I'm thinking it is exactly the bottle you are looking for although I wouldn't spend that kind of money for my own shelf storage. YMMV. A commercial packaging supplier will have lots of options for bottles and closures; their CS people are usually very helpful and may send a couple samples—Freund Container comes to mind. Good luck in the hunt and let me/us know what you find. -Bubbles

The recommendation against use with a smooth-top range is likely because the kettle bottom may not be flat. Sometimes the graniteware kettles have circular 'ridges' in their bottoms rather than being perfectly flat. And some have smooth bottoms that are concave. Both of those will take longer to heat and boil water than a kettle with a nice smooth and flat bottom. You won't be damaging the cooktop, assuming your stove's literature says it's okay for canning.

Personally, I think your best bet would be to use canning jars with a two-piece lid and ring closure. You might also contact the folks at the National Center for Home Food Preservation directly with your question. http://www.uga.edu/nchfp. Are you looking for bottles rather than jars for a specific reason?

Remove the rings/screw bands and wash the sealed jars to remove leaked jam. If you can pick up the jar by the edges of the sealed lid using your fingertips, your seal is good. Shelf storage should be fine and you will look at the contents when you open the jar to enjoy your jam. What kind of jam did you make? I've made three batches of Boozy Floozy Peach Jam and still have half a lug of peaches looking at me. ← Thanks for the reply. I washed the jars pretty shortly after they had cooled down, and only then realized that I probably should have separated out the ones that had visibly leaked. In any case, none of the lids came off when I tugged on them, so I'll just check for mold when I open them! (And warn anyone I give them to...) Oh, and it was straight-up damson plum jam that I made. Next week is grape jelly! ← Sounds like you're fine, Matthew. I have wild grape juice in my freezer for jelly. I picked those grapes myself! Today I froze plum juice for ~50 jars of plum jelly from my tree. Tomorrow will be cool; I may go through the plum mush (cooked plums) that are in the refrigerator (from the juicing process) for more plum butter or perhaps plum barbecue sauce. I have pictures of my jelly here: http://www.me.com/barbschaller in the Fair Fare blog. Some of the peaches may wind up at barbecue sauce, too.

Another life saved! Whew!

The rings may be superfluous, but at least you know where they are. I leave the rings loosely on the jars, some don't. And I wholeheartedly agree about cleaning the rings and lid; I don't wash the whole jar unless it needs it. Just my preference.

Umm, I gotta ask . . . why must one "remove very carefully from the water so they don't tilt"? I ask because 1) I recently canned a bunch of peaches and I know that they got tilted on their way out of the pot, and 2) I want to can heirlooms when they show up at the farmer's market, and I don't want anyone to get hurt along the way. Are my peaches ruined? And, what will happen if I tilt the tomatoes when it's their turn? ← Jars are put into and removed from the canner straight up so liquid doesn't get between the sealing compound of the lid and the rim of the jar, preventing a seal. I daresay your peaches are not ruined. If you're acidifying your tomatoes, you should be gold if your jars seal and you processed the correct amount of time. Salt is added for flavor and nothing else; you do not need to add salt.

Waterbath processing and steam pressure canning each have their appropriate uses. I would not stop using a boiling water bath for some things and a steam pressure canner is a MUST for other things. The National Center for Home Food Preservation has a fine site with tested recipes for a beginner or someone who's been away from preserving for a long time: http://www.uga.edu/nchfp. I wouldn't process sweet spreads under pressure; there is no need for it.

Remove the rings/screw bands and wash the sealed jars to remove leaked jam. If you can pick up the jar by the edges of the sealed lid using your fingertips, your seal is good. Shelf storage should be fine and you will look at the contents when you open the jar to enjoy your jam. What kind of jam did you make? I've made three batches of Boozy Floozy Peach Jam and still have half a lug of peaches looking at me.

Oh, Dear God in Heaven. I'll light a candle for you. Make that a bonfire.

Good morning, Zoë, I've been baking like a fiend for three weeks – seven or eight full batches of dough! I find that if I put my oven rack in the middle of the oven, my loaves get black on top (or very dark at the slashes. I've moved my rack down a level and the loaves color as I like them. I'm pleased with the baguettes I make but my boules seem to be just a touch underdone in the middle near the bottom crust. I've adjusted my oven temp to compensate for its being slightly off (checked with an oven thermometer); does the fact that I'm baking below the center affect that appearance of underdone. I've yet to bake a boule with the interior like the one I sampled at the book signing. That doesn't especially bother me because we like our loaves on the dense side but I am curious to know if I should be baking longer or if what I've attempted to describe is normal. May I have your comments, please. Thanks, Bubbles