Kilner Jar Gaskets?

Mr_Proctalgia

Do any of you lot know how to use them, I saw a box of 12 of them at the car boot recently (£2:j) Can you still get the rubber seals, are they as good or better than the Leifheit ones?

I can remember my mum filling them full of tomatoes and plums (not together) and seemingly boiling them till the glass was tender, the must be easier ways nowadays, any hints and tips would be useful.

squeaky

We have an older thread on Kilner jars and I'm pretty sure that the answer to at least one of your questions is in it.

What I'll do is merge the two threads together as soon as I find the older one for you.

Mr_Proctalgia

Thanks squeaky

squeaky

You're welcome Did the earlier posts help at all?

Mr_Proctalgia

Now I can get back in to forums once again :mad: Yes it helped a lot, google isn't very good for this subject and the site search also failed to pick up on "Kilner Jars" but hey ho, I know a lot more than I did before Thanks again

Ted_Hutchinson

If you need to know how to use kilner jars or any bottling technique then do ask.
However you first have to decide which method you think would suit you best.
There is an oven method. Whereby you allow the fruit to cook and come up to sterilising temperature in the oven.
A slow water bath method, in which the filled jars are put up to their necks in cold water which is slowly heated and kept at sterilising temparature for a specific time.
A hot water bath method filled jars put in warm water heated more quickly kept at high temperature for longer.
Pressure cooker method in which the filled jars brought to low pressure and held for short time with slow cooling.
As times are dependant on the fruit being processed and the amounts being dealt with it's more or less impossible to provide all the details for all fruits and all methods without it becoming rather tedious but if you could give an idea of what you might be considering I can fill you in on how I would deal with that fruit.
Remember you don't have to use specific preserving jars. Many commercial ready cooked sauces, pickles and fruit are sold in jars and lids which can be reused successfully in the home. You need a fairly wide top to get the fruit in and a lid that has a pop up section in the center lid that tells you if the contents have fermented. I found that my pressure cooker wouldn't take many proper kilner jars but using a couple of smaller sauce/pickle jars in between meant I could get a more productive load from each pressure cooking batch.

Mr_Proctalgia

Thats brill TH - It will be mainly tomatoes, some made into passata first, some whole skinned ones when I get started in earnest. I do have a 10 litre Tefal pressure cooker which takes 5 x 1lb jars (but also takes weeks to heat up too) in the past when I have made chutneys etc I have used old picked onion jars and merely brought them up to heat for "long enough" with the lids looose and tighened them when I could get back inside the cooker. Never poisoned myself yet BTW.

My main concern was whether there are "rules" about doing this method of preserving/canning as I was thinking about rather more long term storage of excess production instead of leaving stuff in the freezer that would be better kept by not being frozen.

Ted_Hutchinson

The following is from the St Michael Pressure Cooking book. 1978.
Here for Solid pack tomatoes they suggest adding 1tsp of salt and 1tsp of sugar to each 1lb and to improve the acidity a1/4 tsp of citric acid (you may find this in a health food shop or homebrew supplies or have to specifically ask your chemist and explain your reasons for needing it as it's an under the counter product) or 2tsp of lemon juice.
If your pressure cooker is taking too long to come to pressure check you are not using too much water. 900ml should be ample and use LOW pressure only. (check also your gasket isn't leaking, new ones are available from BOYES and Traditional hardware stores)
If you are using brine for the tomatoes then 1tsp of salt in 600ml 1 pt of water plus the lemonjuice/citric acid.
Tomatoes in brine should be kept at low pressure for 5 mins and solid pack (passata) 10 mins.
Bottles are not supposed to touch in the cooker so if they are a bit squashed I wrap a band of newpaper secured with an elastic band to provide a spacer.
It's recommended that you bring to pressure slowly (no problem with your cooker) and also cool slowly over 10 mins then tighten the lids and retighten again after 15 mins. Leave to cool overnight, If your using Kilner Jars you can remove the screw on plastic/metal bands and check the seal by lifting the cover. If you have any failures these can be frozen or used immediately, not usually worth reprocessing as the fruit will be overcooked.
Pop up lids can be checked by seeing if the centre section is fully depressed or if it snaps down if you touch it. You should be able to see there's a vacuum under it.

Smiley_Mum

If you are looking for kilner jars I came across this listing

http://www.fullmoons-cauldron.co.uk/glassware.htm

and this one for jars and rings, bit dearer though.

http://www.waresofknutsford.co.uk/products_level3.htm?cat1=preserving&cat2=Clip+Top+Jars

Mr_Proctalgia

Thanks for all that - Its all printed out now. Yesterday I went to IKEA they are selling Kilner type jars with "grolsch" type top seals, as they start at £1 each I'll get a couple and give it a go.