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For many novice housewives, sterilizing jars causes certain difficulties: how to sterilize, which method is better to choose and how long should the procedure last? The answers to all these questions can be found later in the article. The information provided will certainly be useful for every housewife and will allow you to prepare jars for canning food for the winter as efficiently as possible.
General rules for preparing jars
Canning vegetables and fruits can be called a long-standing Russian tradition. Homemade products are always tastier and healthier than store-bought counterparts. That is why caring housewives try to preserve the products ripening in the beds and gardens as best as possible. And what a shame it can be when an insufficiently clean jar causes damage to seams that were created with your own hands with love and care. Such sad consequences can only be prevented by high-quality sterilization of jars. This can be done in several ways, but no matter which option the housewife chooses, she must follow some general sterilization rules:
- Before using the jar, you need to make sure that its neck is intact. Even a small chip can prevent the successful canning of vegetables and fruits.
- Seaming covers must be intact, smooth, without visible damage or dents. There should be an elastic band under the rim of the lid.
- Before sterilization, the glass container should be washed with a new sponge using baking soda or detergent. When washing, special attention should be paid to the neck of the jar, since this is where persistent dirt most often accumulates.
- Reusable screw caps should be carefully inspected before use. There should be no damage, scratches or traces of rust on their inner surface.
- During sterilization, it is necessary to apply the principle of gradually increasing temperatures. Sudden temperature fluctuations lead to damage to glass containers.
Having selected whole jars, washed them thoroughly, observing all the listed requirements, you can begin sterilization. There are several ways to carry out such cleaning, but most often housewives use sterilization of jars in a pan of water.
Boiling cans in a saucepan
It is convenient to sterilize small jars in this way: half-liter or liter glass containers. The thing is that sterilization involves boiling the jars in a large saucepan, where they can completely fit.
Having found the necessary pan and collected the pre-washed jars, you can begin to sterilize them:
- Place a piece of cloth on the bottom of the pan;
- Place the jars in the container with the neck up;
- pour cold water into the pan so that the glass containers are completely immersed in it;
- Containers need to be sterilized for 15 minutes;
- lids can be sterilized in boiling water along with jars.
This method of sterilizing jars is used by many housewives. It does not require special equipment and allows you to quickly clean the required number of cans. The only drawback of this method may be the lack of a pan of the required size.
Steam sterilization
This method of cleaning jars is one of the most common. To implement this, you need to use a pan (can be small) for boiling water, a metal grid and the jars themselves.
The steam sterilization process occurs as follows:
- Pour water into a saucepan and bring it to a boil.
- Place a mesh over an open pan of boiling water. You can use a gas stove oven rack, a metal colander, or something similar.
- Place jars on top of the grate upside down (bottom up).
- During the boiling process, condensation will accumulate on the inside of the cans, turning into large drops of water. As soon as the drops wash the entire surface of the jar, you can complete sterilization.
- The jars to be sterilized are carefully removed from the grill using a pot holder and, in the same inverted state, placed on a clean towel or piece of cloth on the table.
Depending on the intensity of boiling water, sterilization of jars can take from 6 to 10 minutes. Steamed jars and lids can remain clean on the counter for 2 days.
You can also sterilize steamed jars inside a pan.To do this, place a small grill or metal lids on its bottom so that the glass containers do not touch the pan itself. The jars are placed on a wire rack with the neck down, and a little water is poured into the bottom of the pan. During the boiling process, the steam will wash the inner surface of the glass container, thoroughly cleaning it. The advantage of this method is the fact that steam accumulates in the cavity of the cans, and does not increase the humidity in the room. If desired, the pan can be covered with a lid.
Sterilization of filled jars
You can sterilize not only empty, but also filled jars. This method is often used when preserving vegetable salads, lecho, adjika and some other products in small jars, the preparation of which is carried out using cooking.
Sterilize filled jars as follows:
- The hot product is placed in glass containers.
- The filled container is covered with a lid and placed in a pan with warm water. The volume of liquid should cover the outer surface of the can, but not fill its internal free space during boiling.
- You need to boil water for 15-30 minutes, depending on the volume of the container. For half-liter containers, 15 minutes is enough, for liter containers this time should be 25-30 minutes; three-liter filled jars will be quite problematic to sterilize in this way, so this method is used extremely rarely.
- After boiling, the jars are carefully removed from the hot water and rolled up.
There are many methods of sterilization.Most of them are based on the use of high temperatures, which can be obtained by heating an oven, steamer, microwave and other devices and devices. You can learn more about the various methods of sterilization by watching the video:
Conclusion
High-quality sterilization of jars is the key to successful storage of canned products. That is why, when preparing containers, you need to be extremely careful and attentive. Even before sterilization, you need to sort the jars, leaving only intact specimens with intact necks. Wash jars only with a sponge or brush, detergent or baking soda. Further sterilization should be carried out only in compliance with the above rules specific to a particular method. Improper sterilization can lead to product spoilage during storage or damage to the jars themselves.
