Cooking jam: there is no need to turn the jars upside down

Created: 07/01/2022, 11:30 am

By: Ines Alms

It's a myth that you have to turn jam jars upside down after filling them.

The main thing is clean, that's the motto.

And thoroughly.

Munich – Anyone who has ever preserved fruit will know the golden rule that you fill the previously boiled jam jars, close them quickly and turn them upside down for a short time.

That's not wrong, but it's also not necessary if you pay attention to a few things regarding hygiene and preparation.

Cooking jam: there is no need to turn the jars upside down

It is not necessary to turn over the cooked jam if you work hygienically.

(Iconic image) © Westend61/Imago

The point of turning it over is to kill any bacteria or mold spores that are on the lid or on the upper edge of the glass with the boiling hot jam mass.

As Anja Schwengel-Exner from the Bavarian consumer center reports to Bayerischer Rundfunk (“BR”), this is not absolutely necessary: ​​“It depends a bit on how hygienic you work.

If you've boiled the twist-off jar, so sterilized it, and done the same with the lid, it really isn't necessary.”

When you canned fruit, it is therefore primarily important to sterilize the jam jars and the lids, i.e. to make them aseptic.

There are several methods of sterilization, but the classic way is as follows:

• Place or set the jars and lids in a large pot of water to cover and boil for 10 minutes.

• Remove the utensils from the pot with tongs and place them on a clean kitchen towel.

  Fill the jars with the fruit mixture as quickly as possible and seal immediately.

• Another option, especially if there are large quantities of glass, is to sterilize the glasses in the oven: heat the glasses, which have been briefly rinsed with boiling water, in the oven at 135 degrees Celsius for 15 minutes.

  The lids must be boiled separately.

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In addition, the fruit mass in the pot should not just be boiled up briefly, but heated up for a few minutes to ensure that any germs are killed.

By the way, did you know that under food law one only speaks of jam when citrus fruits such as lemons, oranges or tangerines are used?

In all other cases one speaks of jam.

But in the colloquial sense, a homemade strawberry jam with three ingredients also tastes very delicious.