Inverting jars for canning?

JustMe 5/12/2012, 10:41 pm

I've only done freezer jams, so I've been reading a lot of books about canning in order to try it this year.

One method I came across in Steve Dowdney's Putting up more: a guide to canning jams, relishes, chutneys, pickles, sauces, and salsas was to flip the jars upside down to create the seal. The book was written in 2011, and the author runs a business selling jams, jellies, and the like.

http://www.ehow.com/how_7680160_invert-jars-seal-jam.html

That's similar to what is explained in the book, though he also mentioned piercing a hole in the middle of one jar and taking the temperature of the that item to make sure everything else gets up to the proper temperature.

This method confused me because I'd only read about the hot water bath or the pressure canning method, so I quickly returned the book to the library.

Is this a common way to can?

Gena575 5/12/2012, 11:50 pm

This is, IMO, a very unsafe way to preserve food. You'd probably not get ill from high acid, high sugar things like jam. In my kitchen, I'll do it the Ball Blue Book way. Another good, safe source for recipes and methods is the National Center for Home Food Preservation. http://nchfp.uga.edu/

**camprn** 5/13/2012, 7:42 am

Ditto, although it is most likely jellies will be fine with this method, I take no chance if at all possible. I prefer to have a bit more insurance that my preserved food will have a lower risk of infecting me with botulism by following processing methods of hot water bath or pressure canning. I follow the Blue Book.

acara 5/13/2012, 7:54 am

Turning jars upside down (while they cooled) was always a way to help them seal, after you took them out of the water bath & made it easier to detect a popped/bad seal (wax seals)......but not a stand-alone technique???

My grandparents used to can (even meat) in the way you are describing (put it in a hot jar, put it in piping hot, top it and flip it), but that technique has been revised & improved for a lot of years now.

Best bet is to go by Ball's bible, or Gena575's recommended site.

littlesapphire 5/13/2012, 8:25 am

When I learned to can jelly several years ago, the box of canning lids and jars suggested this method. However, since then they have decided that inverting your jars as a means of sealing them is unsafe practice and is no longer recommended.

JustMe 5/14/2012, 9:23 pm

Thanks. I've been referring to the 5th edition of Putting Food By. It says not to invert the jars, which is opposite of what that book says.

The book was written in 2011, so it would seem that it's current but I'll follow what the Putting Food By book says for the boiling water bath method.

Danni 5/15/2012, 4:36 am

That is how they can here in Poland. At first I was really confused but it does work.

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