Oven heating for bottling?

[paulslund]

I"m one of those that normally lets their syrup settle in the fridge for a week and then decant and freeze instead of hot packing.

I searched and haven't found any threads on this, but has anyone used their oven to heat full jars of syrup before sealing them?

I'm thinking once the clear syrup is decanted into my jars, I could put them in the oven at 190 for about an hour, check the middle bottle to ensure they've all hit 190 then cap them and let cool on the counter.

It's not "oven canning" as I see it.

Is there any downside to doing this? Would there be some evaporation loss thus making the syrup thicker? Should the lids be on (loosely) to prevent evaporation, and then tightened once removed from the oven for cooling?

Just throwing out some crazy thoughts.. :-)

Paul.

[Pdiamond]

I do warm my mason jars in the oven, not at that high of a temp. Are you talking about using regular glass syrup containers? I suppose you could do a test of a couple and see if it works, that seems feasible to me.

[JoeJ]

You should be heating your glass in the oven to at least 185. The University of Maine did some research on occasional mysterious mold in glass bottles that had not been heated but the syrup was bottled at proper the temperatures. What was found was that especially in small bottles, within seconds, the cold bottles quickly dropped the 185 degree syrup way down below 180 degrees, thus allowing possible mold growth. Their simple solution was to heat the glass bottles.

Joe

[stoweski]

Thanks for the info, Joe!
The past couple of years I’ve gotten mold in a few of my glass bottles. Even though I warm them prior to bottling I guess I’m just not getting them hot enough. I figured if I knock the chill off of them I’d be fine.

[paulslund]

The occasional time I've hot packed I have warmed up the jars or bottles in the oven...big or small.. but yes I've heard that smaller glass jars cool off very quickly and can affect proper sealing of the jars..

I'm just curious if anyone takes their cold, settled, syrup and decants into jars, then puts them in the oven to get the syrup to proper hot-packing temperature..

Thanks!
Paul.

[Ed R]

I've never used the oven to reheat syrup but I have decanted filtered cold syrup into canning jars, then use a large stock pot on the stove top as a water bath to heat the syrup to over 180. That's not my normal canning process but it worked good when someone at my church gave me 4 pints to can for them. I didn't have to get my canner sticky that way.

[Sugar Bear]

The occasional time I've hot packed I have warmed up the jars or bottles in the oven...big or small.. but yes I've heard that smaller glass jars cool off very quickly and can affect proper sealing of the jars..

I'm just curious if anyone takes their cold, settled, syrup and decants into jars, then puts them in the oven to get the syrup to proper hot-packing temperature..

Thanks!
Paul.

Try marking a line when the cool syrup goes in the bottle ... put the cap on loosely ... heat to 190 in oven ... let cool ... see if you loose anything on the line. significant moisture loss should show on the line. Syrup would be on the outside of the bottle.

Cap on tight when going in the oven has an assortment of possible failure issues with pressure build up. And of course you would never vacuum seal on cool down.

[paulslund]

Try marking a line when the cool syrup goes in the bottle ... put the cap on loosely ... heat to 190 in oven ... let cool ... see if you loose anything on the line. significant moisture loss should show on the line. Syrup would be on the outside of the bottle.

Cap on tight when going in the oven has an assortment of possible failure issues with pressure build up. And of course you would never vacuum seal on cool down.

That's a good idea re: the line on the bottle.. I'll try that if I try this method. And I agree keeping the cap loose is the only way this would work to seal the jar..

[Sugar Bear]

That's a good idea re: the line on the bottle.. I'll try that if I try this method. And I agree keeping the cap loose is the only way this would work to seal the jar..

Let me know what you find on the line.