Sterilising Your Agee Jar
Oven method
Wash jars thoroughly in hot soapy water, rinse and drain. Place on oven racks with space between jars and heat from cold to 120°C for 10-15 mins. Immediately before use, carefully remove from oven, place on a clean wooden board, newspaper or tea towel and pour in your hot preserve.
Microwave method
For a small batch of 2-3 Jars Wash jars thoroughly in hot soapy water, rinse and drain. Fill jars with cold water leaving approximately 12mm head space and microwave on high power until the water boils (approx. 2-3 mins). Immediately before use, carefully remove from the microwave and discard the water. Place on a clean wooden board, newspaper or tea towel and pour in your hot preserve.
Hints on Home Preserving using the Overflow/Open Pan method.
Note: Although the simplest and most commonly used method, the overflow method is not suitable for vegetables or other low acid produce. Vegetables must be preserved using the pressure cooker method where the temperature is greater than 115° C
Important: Before starting the preserving process visually inspect the consistency of unused seals. In rare cases the seal compound may not have formed correctly during manufacture and may not form a good seal. If there is any doubt, do not use the seal.
1. Sterilise Agee Jars using the Sterilising Your Agee Jar instructions.
2. Top and Edges of Agee Jars should be smooth with no cracks
3. Sterilise and soften Agee Seals by placing in boiling water for 3-5 minutes immediately before use
4. Keep jars warm in the oven until ready to use.
5. Prepare your jam, relish, sauce or fruit in syrup following the appropriate recipe instructions.
6. While hot pour or spoon the finished product into your jar until it flows over the top.
7. Remove air bubbles with knife slid down the side of Agee Jar and rotated.
8. Ensure rim of jar is free from pulp/pips/seeds etc
9. Slide Agee Band up hand and place Agee Seal on Agee Jar using the same hand, making sure the Agee Seal is central and seated evenly against the top of the Agee Jar. While keeping pressure on the Agee Seal, slide the Agee Band down your hand and screw down firmly by hand. Do not use bent or rusty bands.
10. Let the full Agee Jar cool for at least 12hrs before removing band and stacking away. DO NOT TIGHTEN BANDS AGAIN AFTER PROCESSING. If the domed centre of the lid is down and stays down when pressed, sealing is successful. The band may be safely removed.
11. Store jars in a cool dark place until required.
As a general rule for fruit syrup
- Light 1 cup sugar to 3 cups water
- Medium 1 cup sugar to 2 cups water
- Heavy 1 cup sugar to 1 and half cups water
Failures
Most failures are caused by the band not being screwed on tightly enough, by seals not being placed against the lip of the jar properly or by under processing.
Fruit preserving times
Overflow & Open Pan Method
Type of Fruit
|
Type of pack
|
Time in minutes after adding fruit to boiling syrup
|
Apples
|
Hot
|
20
|
Apricots or Peaches
|
Hot
|
20
|
Berries
|
Hot
|
15
|
Grapefruit or Lemons
|
Hot
|
15
|
Grapes
|
Hot
|
20
|
Guavas
|
Hot
|
15
|
Kiwifruit or Tamarillos
|
Hot
|
20
|
Loquats
|
Hot
|
15
|
Mixed Fruit
|
Hot
|
20
|
Nectarines or Feijoas
|
Hot
|
20
|
Pears or Plums
|
Hot
|
20
|
Quinces
|
Hot
|
40+
|
Rhubarb
|
Hot
|
15
|
Tomatoes
|
Hot
|
20
|
|
|
|
This method must only be used for fruit. Fruit must be firm and ripe. Not over ripe.
Hints on Home Preserving using the Water Bath method.
Note: The water bath method is not suitable for vegetables or other low acid produce. Vegetables must be preserved using the pressure cooker method where the temperature is greater than 115° C.
Important: Before starting the preserving process visually inspect the consistency of unused seals. In rare cases the seal compound may not have formed correctly during manufacture and may not form a good seal. If there is any doubt, do not use the seal.
Water Bath
Any large metal container may be used for a water bath preserver.
1. It must have a meal plate/trivet to stand the jars on inside the boiler approximately 20mm off the bottom.
2. It can be heated by gas, stove element or electric jug type element.
Hot Pack
The washed or peeled fruit is boiled for 3-5 minutes immediately prior to packing into hot jars.
Cold or Raw pack
The fruit is peeled and/or washed thoroughly and packed into warmed jars. Note: With cold pack methods as the fruit cooks up slightly, it is easy to end up with 25% or more liquid at the bottom of the jar after processing. To minimise this effect, put together the fruit, almost squashing it in but leaving a 12mm headspace.
As a general rule for fruit syrup
- Light 1 cup sugar to 3 cups water
- Medium 1 cup sugar to 2 cups water
- Heavy 1 cup sugar to 1 and half cups water
To preserve without sugar
Use fully ripe firm fruit hot pack method, top up jars with hot water and process in water bath as normal.
To keep fruit from Darkening
1. Preparation
Drop apples, apricots, peaches, pears etc. into a solution of 2 tablespoons salt, 2 tablespoons vinegar to 4 litres of water as they are pared, cored, peeled or pitted. Leave in solution ideally no longer than 40 minutes then rinse the fruit before packing.
2. In the Jar
½ teaspoon Ascorbic Acid to each quart. Sprinkle over the fruit just before capping jar.
Method
1. Sterilise Agee Jars using the Sterilising Your Agee Jar instructions.
2. Top and Edges of Agee Jars should be smooth with no cracks
3. Sterilise and soften Agee Seals by placing in boiling water for 3-5 minutes immediately before use
4. Keep jars warm in the oven until ready to use.
5. Pack jars with fruit leaving a 20mm space from the top by either hot pack or cold pack method below.
6. Cover fruit with hot to boiling water, syrup or brine leaving 12mm headspace.
7. Ensure the top of the jar is clean.
8. Place seal and band on jar and tighten firmly by hand. Do not use bent or rusty bands.
9. Place the jars into a water bath (see hints below) and cover with water allowing 50mm of water above the tops of the jars. Cover with a lid and bring to the boil.
10. Boil for the specified time in the table below. Note; these times are approximate only.
11. Once the cooking process has been completed, remove jar from boiling water and stand on a folded Agee tea towel to cool slowly.
12. Let the full Agee Jar cool for at least 12hrs before removing band and stacking away. DO NOT TIGHTEN BANDS AGAIN AFTER PROCESSING. If the domed centre of the lid is down and stays down when pressed, sealing is successful. The band may be safely removed.
13. Store jars in a cool dark place until required.
Water Bath method, approximate time in minutes after water bath is boiling
Type of Fruit
|
Type of pack
|
Pints
|
Quarts
|
|
|
200-600ml
|
600-1200ml
|
Apples
|
Cold Raw
|
Not recommended
|
Not recommended
|
Apples
|
Hot
|
20
|
20
|
Apricots or Peaches
|
Cold Raw
|
25
|
30
|
Apricots or Peaches
|
Hot
|
20
|
25
|
Berries
|
Cold Raw
|
20
|
20
|
Berries
|
Hot
|
15
|
20
|
Figs
|
Hot or Cold Raw
|
85
|
90
|
Grapefruit or Lemons
|
Hot or Cold Raw
|
10
|
10
|
Grapes
|
Hot or Cold Raw
|
20
|
20
|
Guavas
|
Hot or Cold Raw
|
15
|
20
|
Kiwifruit or Tamarillos
|
Cold Raw
|
20
|
25
|
Kiwifruit or Tamarillos
|
Hot
|
20
|
20
|
Loquats
|
Hot
|
15
|
20
|
Mixed Fruit
|
Hot
|
20
|
25
|
Nectarines or Feijoas
|
Cold Raw
|
25
|
30
|
Nectarines or Feijoas
|
Hot
|
20
|
25
|
Pears or Plums
|
Cold Raw
|
25
|
30
|
Pears or Plums
|
Hot
|
20
|
25
|
Quinces
|
Hot
|
85
|
90
|
Rhubarb
|
Hot
|
10
|
10
|
Tomatoes
|
Cold Raw
|
35
|
45
|
Tomatoes
|
Hot
|
15
|
20
|
Failures
Most failures are caused by the band not being screwed on tightly enough, by seals not being placed against the lip of the jar properly or by under processing