Hi all, first time canner here. Yesterday I made apple sauce using a waterbath recipe (I made 8 quartz and added a 1/4 cup of bottled lemon juice). Processed it as per the recipe, with a boil for 20 minutes and left on a towel to cool overnight. A few of the seals on my jars didn't pop down, and a couple more I accidentally popped down manually while inspecting the jars last night 😬
I'm now wondering if I didnt get the boil hot enough. The water was bubbling with big bubbles right in the middle of the canner. The entire surface wasn't bubnling like I normally get with a rolling boil, but thought it might just be the jars getting in the way. The canner has a rimmed bottom and heated on my glass stove top, and I've read that can struggle to get a full boil.
This morning I took the screw tops off and inspected the seals. They all look good, and could hold the jars up by the seals. So maybe the sealed well, but I didn't get hot enough to remove all the air? What should I do? Reproccess today? If so I need to add to boil time because product is cold right? Or should I just toss and call it a learning experience.
I think I need to get a flat bottom canner or maybe a portable heating element for the future. Thanks!
by Practical-Bat-3670
1 Comment
If it’s within the 24 hr safety window, I would probably just decant them into freezer bags and freeze (maybe leave a jar or two in the fridge for immediate consumption). No sense going through reprocessing because you would need new lids. I always wait until it’s at a full rolling boil before starting my timer. You need to monitor while it’s processing because you don’t want it to be at a crazy boil either or you can lose too much of the water through evaporation and when it splashes out. Best practice is to never touch the centre of the lids until they have completely cooled down (it could lead to a false seal).