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In the autumn season, when vegetables ripen en masse in the garden, thrifty housewives strive to preserve them as best as possible for the winter, preparing various salads, lecho and other snacks. Many recipes for such preparations require additional sterilization after the jars have been filled with the finished product. More often, this measure is used if the product does not contain a large amount of preservatives - sugar, salt, vinegar, hot pepper. Additional sterilization allows you to remove absolutely all microorganisms that, one way or another, can get into even a clean jar and cause fermentation. You can sterilize filled jars in various ways. We will try to provide a detailed description of each of them later in the article.
Sterilization in boiling water
This method of sterilizing filled jars is the most common. To implement it, you do not need to use “outlandish” kitchen appliances or special devices. You just need to use a gas or electric stove and find a pan of the required size: its height should be greater than the height of the jar.
Sterilization of jars with blanks in a saucepan should be carried out as follows:
- Place a wooden, metal stand or piece of cloth on the bottom of the pan.
- Place the filled jars in a container and place the lids on top.
- Pour warm water into the pan 1-2 cm below the neck of the jar (to the shoulders). The water should not be cold or hot; sudden changes in temperature can cause the glass container to burst.
- It takes enough time to boil the water to evenly heat the entire contents of the jar. The sterilization time may be indicated in the recipe. If there are no exact recommendations, then you can use the general principles of sterilization. So, a half-liter jar should be boiled for 10 minutes, containers with a volume of 1 and 3 liters should be boiled for 15 and 30 minutes, respectively.
- After boiling, seal the sterilized jars with winter preparations tightly with lids.
When sterilizing jars, it is necessary to take into account not only the boiling time, but also the recommended temperature. For example, fried salads or peas are recommended to be sterilized at temperatures above 1000C. Such conditions can be created if the water in the pan is salted. So, a 7% saline solution boils only at 1010C, to get 1100It is necessary to prepare a 48% saline solution.
Due to its simplicity and high efficiency, the method of sterilizing filled jars in boiling water has become very widespread. It allows you to quickly destroy harmful microflora inside containers and preserve food for a long time.
Sterilization in the oven
You can get high temperature to destroy harmful bacteria and fungi in the oven. The method involves gradually heating the cans. You can carry out sterilization in the oven as follows:
- Cover the jars, pre-washed and filled with the finished product, with lids (not tightly) and place on a wire rack or baking sheet.
- Heat the oven gradually to the required temperature (from 100 to 1200WITH).
- Warm up the jars for 10, 20 or 30 minutes, depending on the volume.
- Carefully remove the jars from the oven using oven mitts.
- Preserve the prepared product.
The method is excellent for sterilization in cases where it is necessary to obtain a high temperature of more than 1000C. However, when using it, it is necessary to regularly monitor the increase in temperature in the oven. The thing is that excessively high temperatures inside the oven can lead to damage to glass containers.
You can sterilize filled jars in the oven of a gas or electric stove. This procedure is perfectly demonstrated in the video:
Comments from an experienced housewife and a clear example will help every novice cook prepare food for canning correctly.
Using a microwave oven
Having a microwave oven in your home allows you to sterilize jars in another way, which can be described in several points:
- Place jars with preparations in the microwave evenly over its entire area.
- Turn on the microwave at maximum power and bring the product to a boil.
- As soon as the preparations in glass containers begin to boil, the power must be reduced slightly and the jars must be heated for another 2-3 minutes.
- Carefully remove hot jars from the microwave and preserve.
Unfortunately, using a microwave does not solve the issue of sterilizing lids for sealing winter preparations, since the metal elements inside the microwave cause it to break. Therefore, during sterilization of jars, additional care must be taken to clean the lids.In this case, they can be sterilized separately in a container with boiling water.
Sterilization or pasteurization
Due to their inexperience, many novice housewives do not understand the difference between pasteurization and sterilization of jars. At the same time, some recipes advise pasteurizing containers filled with preparations. The differences between the two procedures must be clearly understood.
Pasteurization involves processing containers and products in them by heating up to 990C. High temperature and lack of boiling allows you to destroy harmful bacteria and partially preserve vitamins in winter preparations. You can pasteurize jars in a saucepan on the stove or in the oven. In this case, the pasteurization time must be doubled in comparison with conventional sterilization, and the temperature must be reduced to 86-990WITH.
It is recommended to store pasteurized products in a cool and dark place. In warm conditions, bacterial spores remaining after processing can intensify their activity and spoil the workpiece.
Conclusion
You can sterilize winter preparations in any way, and it is difficult to select the best or worst option from the total number. Each method has its own advantages and disadvantages and features.At the same time, the result of heat treatment will be positive only if the housewife takes into account all the important points and maintains the required temperature and heating duration recommended for high-quality sterilization of the available volume of products.
The article is really useful information! I really liked it because the most important things are stated correctly and briefly. I was interested in the sterilization time for jars of vegetables of different sizes.
Article with useful information. Especially take into account that I made blanks for the first time