Mason jar storage

[Wood burn]

I'm thinking of bottling my maple syrup in mason jars this year . How would I go about doing this so it will keep and not go bad on me ? Every other year I just use plastic jugs and put them in the freezer , but freezer space is pretty limited this year .

[tbear]

Pour hot syrup (180°) into clean sterilized jars. Clean jar rim with damp cloth. Place clean flat lid on jar and screw the band on, not too tight, just finger tight. Some folks turn the jar upside down for a few minutes to help sterilize the lid. When you hear the lid pop or ping (the center button will suck in) the jar is sealed. Have fun! Ted

[maplerookie]

You would do it the same way as canning jelly. wash your jars.. rinse your jars.. put the jars and new lids in a boiling hot water bath for a cple of minutes pull them out ..dump all the water out. then add your 185 degree syrup... make sure you wipe off any dribble on the rim,,, then put on your new mason lids screw on the top ta da ...your syrup is canned. let them cool you will hear the lids pop down.. store in a cool dry place.. will keep for a long time.

[Ausable]

Another way - Have Maple syrup ready like already suggested. Put lids and rings together and stagger - stack in a sauce pan - cover with water and bring to a boil (ready when at boil so shut off burner). Have clean jars ready and submerged in a sink of hot water. What we do is dump hot water from jar into sink and place jar in small sauce pan (to catch spilled syrup - if any) and fill jar with syrup (leaving small air space) - Use metal tongs to grab a ring and lid from sauce pan (attach to jar and tighten) We set jars full of hot syrup on towel on counter to cool and seal. Use care when canning - because everything is very hot. As long as they seal they keep for many years. Hey! If a jar of syrup should loose its seal put in fridge and use yourself. The lids they make today seem to have less sealer on them and in my opinion - do not work as well as the once did. ------Mike------

[Drew Pond Maple]

I used mason jar my first year( 3yrs ago) and didn't even sterilize it, and still good today.
Must of just got lucky.

This year I'm using alot more mason jars for the syrup to give away to friends and family to save on costs.

[G&D MapleSurgaring]

I just put the jars in the oven on low heat to get them warmed up and then pour the 185 degree syrup in the jars and turn up upside down for a few minutes. It works for me and the syrup is still good from last year.

[Drew Pond Maple]

I just put the jars in the oven on low heat to get them warmed up and then pour the 185 degree syrup in the jars and turn up upside down for a few minutes. It works for me and the syrup is still good from last year.Great idea Ben. Putting the jars in the oven is real simple and effective

[Drew Pond Maple]

Not sure if anyone has tried this, but my father makes home brew and uses some kind of tablet that he puts in water to sterilize the beer bottles

[Mikeh]

What head space is optimal for canning with mason jars? That's the distance between the top of the syrup and the top of the jar. When canning veggies I know it's important to get that right.

Also, when I tip mine over to get the lid hot, sometimes they burp out air (and syrup) which sometimes messes up the seal. Do you wait a while before tipping them over? I do pre-warm the jars in the oven and pre-heat the lids in a sauce pan.

thanks!

[bowhunter]

Fill them almost to the top. Screw the lid on tight before you tip them over and make sure you tip them hot so you sterilize the top of the jar and the lid.

[Mikeh]

Thanks Bowhunter! I'll try that this weekend. I'm guessing I wasn't tightening them enough...

[RollinsOrchards]

Mikeh - always use NEW lids on the mason jars. Each lid is good for ONE time use. Even a new jar might have the lid "stuck" on and you could bend it or tear the gasket trying to get the lid off. New Ball brand jars have the lids stuck on now, so I loosen the rings and pour hot water over them (My steam hood provides a steady supply) and let the lids pop off by themselves.


I have sometimes packed hot 185* syrup into cold jars and lids and it worked fine, but I prefer to have the jars and lids in a pot of simmering water and pour 185* syrup into a hot jar, apply a hot lid, tighten the ring down fairly tight and hold the jar upside down while i take two steps to the cooling shelf.

For what it's worth: I never wipe the rim of the jar with a damp cloth. I figure that introduces bacteria and whatnot. A little bit of syrup to help seal the jar can't hurt. Jars that I dribble a lot onto the threads I allow to seal and then remove the ring and wash the threads.


As maplerookie said: Store in a cool dry place. It is ALSO important to have a DARK place. Syrup will darken over time when exposed to light, and glass lets a lot of light in.

[Mikeh]

Thanks for the info BH and RO, we'll try all that out. First boil should be this weekend. Woo Hoo!

[Sweet Shady Lane]

Been putting it in jars from the start and that was seven years ago and never had a problem yet , Just wash, rinse and dry the jars, then fill them so there's about 1/2 inch of space left, put the caps on, screw lids on and turn them over for a few minutes. After they cool down I put the in the fruit cellar.

[emo]

The last couple years instead of boiling the jars, run the jars through a high temp rinse in a clean dishwasher, boil the rings with new lids, and remove the jars from the dishwasher as needed. My wife has a canning funnel that sides inside the neck of the mason jar to keep the lid and the threads clean of whatever is being canned. I fill the jars to the bottom of the neck. I tighten the ring down on the lid, but I do not turn the jars over. Once the ring is tightened down, do not try and tighten the ring, this can cause the lid to loose its seal.

[jrm]

This is my first year sugarin' and yesterday I made roughly 3.5 qts of syrup. I have water-bath canned in the past. Why is it that syrup doesn't require a traditional water-bath for the extended shelf life? Yesterday I bottled into narrow-necked bottles and one half-pint mason jar -- I just re-bottled when I saw the niter that managed to make it through my filtering.

I heated the syrup to 190. Heater my jars and lids. Packed into 2 narrow-necked bottles with new lids and they are cooling on their sides. I packed 2 half-pint mason jars full and they are cooling, one more half-pint mason jar about 3/4 full which will go in to the fridge. I will wait for the mason lids to pop. If they don't get the vacuum seal are they still safe to store non-refrigerated? Is there a way to know if the narrow-necked "syrup jars" are vacuum (or properly) sealed?

[jrm]

This is my first year sugarin' and yesterday I made roughly 3.5 qts of syrup. I have water-bath canned in the past. Why is it that syrup doesn't require a traditional water-bath for the extended shelf life? Yesterday I bottled into narrow-necked bottles and one half-pint mason jar -- I just re-bottled when I saw the niter that managed to make it through my filtering.

I heated the syrup to 190. Heater my jars and lids. Packed into 2 narrow-necked bottles with new lids and they are cooling on their sides. I packed 2 half-pint mason jars full and they are cooling, one more half-pint mason jar about 3/4 full which will go in to the fridge. I will wait for the mason lids to pop. If they don't get the vacuum seal are they still safe to store non-refrigerated? Is there a way to know if the narrow-necked "syrup jars" are vacuum (or properly) sealed?

In the time it took me to clean-up my bottling stuff, change laundry, write my post, and head back to the kitchen, those full mason jars sealed. :) My basic question still stands, though. Thanks.

[Cabin]

In the time it took me to clean-up my bottling stuff, change laundry, write my post, and head back to the kitchen, those full mason jars sealed. :) My basic question still stands, though. Thanks.

Niter! A water bath brings the contents back up to 212(or the local boiling point of water). When I can anything I first place the jars in the stove and heat them to 250 degrees for 30 minutes then let them cool down still in the stove to canning temp.

[lpakiz]

Fill the clean jars with cold syrup. Place in water bath canner and insert the probe from a digital thermometer into one of the bottles. These thermometers are available for $16-20, with an alarm function.
Turn on heat and watch the thermometer. When the contents of the bottle is 185-188, pull them out and install pre-heated lids and rings. Turn on side if you think that is necessary. I usually do. Done.

[happy thoughts]

Why is it that syrup doesn't require a traditional water-bath for the extended shelf life? .

For a couple of reasons. First it's boiled for a*long time at temps well above the boiling point of water. It is virtually sterile except for bacterial endospores. Anything that survives the long high temps will not be able to grow within proper density syrup because of the high sugar concentration which will draw out water from cells and cause them to die.


I will wait for the mason lids to pop. If they don't get the vacuum seal are they still safe to store non-refrigerated?

No. Unsealed jars allow air to enter. With air comes microorganisms including mold spores which may grow on the surface of the syrup. Treat unsealed jars like you would an open jar and keep refrigerated or frozen. Or reprocess, rebottle and reseal..

[jrm]

Niter! A water bath brings the contents back up to 212(or the local boiling point of water). When I can anything I first place the jars in the stove and heat them to 250 degrees for 30 minutes then let them cool down still in the stove to canning temp.

Aha. So any time the syrup gets back to a high enough temp, more niter is going to form. In of itself, is it problematic to have small amounts of niter in the syrup? I refiltered/bottled as I wondered if it would give an off taste, or a grainy texture, when ultimately used.


For a couple of reasons. First it's boiled for a*long time at temps well above the boiling point of water. It is virtually sterile except for bacterial endospores. Anything that survives the long high temps will not be able to grow within proper density syrup because of the high sugar concentration which will draw out water from cells and cause them to die.


I just returned home and saw that the 3/4 filled mason jar sealed. When I've canned, I know that much air space is problematic. In this base, base on your comments above, could that partially filled, sealed jar be kept unrefridgerated? (In reality, that one is going in the fridge anyway for "immediate" consumption.


Fill the clean jars with cold syrup. Place in water bath canner and insert the probe from a digital thermometer into one of the bottles. These thermometers are available for $16-20, with an alarm function.
Turn on heat and watch the thermometer. When the contents of the bottle is 185-188, pull them out and install pre-heated lids and rings. Turn on side if you think that is necessary. I usually do. Done.

That's a cool wayto do it. It saves a few of the steps that I did, following my method for canning.

[Cabin]

For a couple of reasons. First it's boiled for a*long time at temps well above the boiling point of water. It is virtually sterile except for bacterial endospores. Anything that survives the long high temps will not be able to grow within proper density syrup because of the high sugar concentration which will draw out water from cells and cause them to die.



No. Unsealed jars allow air to enter. With air comes microorganisms including mold spores which may grow on the surface of the syrup. Treat unsealed jars like you would an open jar and keep refrigerated or frozen. Or reprocess, rebottle and reseal..

Isn't there a chance of steam from the water bath thinning the syrup??

[happy thoughts]

Isn't there a chance of steam from the water bath thinning the syrup??

Possibly but I don't know. I think you may have me confused with another poster. I've never canned syrup in a water bath. One problem I see with that method is how to fill the jars to minimize headspace. Minimizing headspace is important for prolonged shelf life. Syrup expands and contracts with heating and cooling. When I hot pack at ~185*F, I fill containers to about 1/4 inch from the top and always expect a fair amount of shrinkage on cooling. Filling jars with cooler syrup and then heating it will make the syrup expand in volume some so leaving more headspace on initial packing would be needed. I'm sure it will work but would not be my own way to do it.


could that partially filled, sealed jar be kept unrefridgerated?

If it's sealed, I'd say yes but it's shelf life could be shortened. I'd use it first.

[lpakiz]

To address the headspace issue: Fill the jars only to a safe depth. When the temp probe reads about 180 or so, take a squeeze bottle of syrup and "top-off" the quart jars. At 180, virtually all the expanding has taken place. And yes, IT DOES expand a LOT! So start a little low, and top off at 180, it still has time to heat the last syrup adequately. On several of my first batch's, I used the squeeze bottle to REMOVE syrup, to prevent over-flows.

[Marvel26]

Fill the clean jars with cold syrup. Place in water bath canner and insert the probe from a digital thermometer into one of the bottles. These thermometers are available for $16-20, with an alarm function.
Turn on heat and watch the thermometer. When the contents of the bottle is 185-188, pull them out and install pre-heated lids and rings. Turn on side if you think that is necessary. I usually do. Done.

I was going to ask about the use of an oven to bring a small batch up to 185 but I saw this thread so I thought I would revive it with a question.

Ipakiz, have you used your method of the cold syrup/water bath to 185 in fancy glass, such as basquaise bottles? I'm wondering if the fancy style glass can take the heat over the longer time like the mason or ball jars which are made for this type of use?

Regards,

Rob

[Sunny]

Does it matter how long you need to wait to can the syrup? Is there a point where it would be safer to freeze it?

[lpakiz]

You can wait a month or 6 weeks, but after that, you are risking mold.
And in answer to Robs question above, the painted scenes DO NOT survive this method. The bottle is fine, just the paint dissolves.

[Sunny]

Thanks! So much to learn...