Bail closure canning jar help!

[elieugene6]

I wish to use for my pumpkin butter but for the life of me I cannot remember how to use them. It has been 20 years since I saw my grandmother use one. I have the jars and the rubbers. I know the basics but what I need to know is does the wire get closed before putting in the water bath or after? I am leaning towards before.

 

[ImStillMags]

If the rubbers for those jars are as old as the jars they may not seal properly. You might want to see if you can find new rubbers or else put them in gently simmering water and then remove the pan from the stove and let them 'bloom' for a while to rehydrate the rubber seals. Plus the boiling water will sanitize them.

Are you speaking of the hinged lid jars? I'm not sure which ones you are talking about.

There is information on home canning all over the web. You might want to Google the type of jar you have and see if you can
find any information on it.

Those older jars were phased out for a reason. They are great collectibles, but I'm not sure I would trust them today.

 

[elieugene6]

No the rubbers are actually brand new. I ordered them online. Unfortunately I can't find the information I am looking for. I have done so many searches. It is the glass canning jar that has a wire on the side. You put on the rubber gasket and the glass lid. Arrange the lid so that the wire fits in the notch and then push the attached wire down to tighten.

 

[Sportsterjeep]

Pumpkin butter must be pressure canned at 10 lbs pressure for 30 mins because it is a low acid food. Those wire bail canning jars should not be used in pressure canning. To be safe, pressure can your pumpkin in approved jars and save the wire bails for something high acid, like fruit jam.

 

[elieugene6]

Ok, thank you the recipe said to water bath can I didn't know. Do you at least know how to use the jars? I am just going to have to freeze this recipe because I don't have a pressure canner. I am making grape jelly as well. Would I be able to use them for that?

 

[Sportsterjeep]

Yes, you can use them for grape jelly. Snap the bails shut and put them in the water bath, that will give you your seal. In the old days, jelly was sealed by pouring melted wax on the top of the jar, no lid was used. This worked great except for mice chewing through the wax to get to the jelly. They could do this because the fruit was high acid, and the sugar added helped too. Get a good canning book that's new. I recommend either ther ball blue book or Jackie Clay's canning book. Jackies book can be found at backwoodshome.com. You can use old family canning recipes, you just need to check the newest processing times and methods before canning, better safe than sick.

 

[elieugene6]

Thank you so much. Yeah my grandmother used to make jelly using the wax. I loved when she would open the new jars because there was always some jelly stuck to the lid that I was allowed to lick off. It tended to be thicker and reminded me of candy. lol. I plan on getting a canning book. This recipe came off the internet and used splenda mixes to sweeten. Guess I better keep an eye on it. I knew veggies needed to be processed in pressure but thought that due to the amount of lemon juice added to the recipe that it would be ok for water bath maybe the original poster did to that or one of the old school people. Pressure canner is on my xmas list. My dad keeps trying to tell me its ok to do veggies. Me I personally say better safe than sorry. If it was just me it would be different but I have 2 kids to think of.

 

[Pelican49]

Quote:
All I know is I want your jars!

 

[SparksNV]

I'm new to canning but found the Ball canning book to be easy to use. If you live at a higher altitude you will need to increase your time. I had to add 10 min (we are at 4800-5000 ft above sea level).