Quick chutney questions

rhosynbach

i have started using recipes as guide lines,as long as you use the right quantity of the important ingredients, like vinigar for preserving, you can swap similar ingredients like dried fruits and different fruits around, if i swap cooking apples for eating i adjust the sugar around
good luck

Dinah93

Hi everyone,

Hope someone can offer me some advice. I was given a huge glut of apples from a colleague, and I decided to make some apple and date chutney I can give to the neighbours as token Christmas pressies. I ordered some jam jars, lids, wax circles etc from lakeland and I'm all ready to go. However I'm troubled by one word in the recipe - at the end it tells me to top each jar with a waxed disk and seal the jar. Does seal just mean screw on the lid, or is there something else I need to do to make sure it lasts the 9 months the recipe says it will?

Thank you! xxx

Kevie192

By seal they literally mean screw the lid on... But if you jar the chutney when it's still hot, add the disc and then put the lid on then the contraction of the chutney as it cools will create a proper seal on the lid. If you use old jars, the disc on top of the lid will be sucked back in. This helps it to keep

zippychick

Hi Dinah

this thread on wax circles may also help. You can as far as I know use greaseproof paper instead

Hope it goes well, and I will merge this later
Zip

Dinah93

Thanks Kevie that's great, should be fairly simple then (she hopes!). Will read that thread later zippychick, thank you

stiltwalker

Hi there,

Good luck with the chutney venture hope you and your neighbours enjoy the results. For Jams and jellies you can just use the wax circles and then cellophane and a rubber band over the top to keep the dust out but you need a vinegar proof lid for chutneys - I don't use circles for that, just screw the lids on as long as there are no metal bits of lid showing through on the inside that can corrode you are fine.

HTH

minimooch

A week or so ago I made a batch of onion marmelade. I've stppped using wax discs for jam on advise I got somewhere, probably here. Anyway I forgot to use them with the chutney . It has high vinegar content, so think I should have. Do I need them? And if so, if I open the jars, add a disc , will it ruin the sterility ? Should I just leave alone ?

Thanks all.

kippers

I don't use wax discs in chutney either...i just put the chutney in sterilised jam jars.

blondieliz

Hi MSEers!

I have recently found out that I am expecting so am making this Chrismas as frugal as possible.

I have decided that I am going to be making some Jams and Chutneys for gifts and I need some advice.

Where can I get cheap jars etc? I have already asked family etc but to no avail. Also, how long roughly do these things store? I have read about steralising jars, do you steralise lids too? If so - how?

I'm sorry for all the questions, I just want to get it right and I am a bit excited to be honest!

Any tips will be greatly received.

Thanks xx

Linda32

Hi,

I'd see how much the jars are in Wilkinsons first, then how many if any you can get from the £1 shops. Failing that, I've read on here that you can go to Sainsburys/Tesco etc find the cheapest cheapest chutney/jam, buy these and decant contents into something else, use as something else, freeze if you can or dare I say it [STRIKE]pour it away[/STRIKE]

The jam/chutney would be about 25p I guess, so there you have a jar for 25p

Someone will have a better idea than this, I'm sure

If you do do this then use the jam jars for jam and the chutney jars for chutney, its not the done thing to swap them around.

Sterilising is much simpler, when you come to bottling the chutney/jam, put your oven on very low, wash jars in hot soppy water, and put in oven to dry for 10 mins or so.
Then, and this is important, put the hot jam in the hot jars, do not put hot jam into cold jars.

Wash the lids in the same way but don't put these in the oven.

They will keep for about a year, down to the amount of vinegar/sugar.

HTH