Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Sticky Mystery

Today I finally tackled the pickled apple slices: Honey-ginger Pickled Apples. The only alterations to the recipe were that I used cider vinegar instead of sherry vinegar and I processed them for 20 minutes in the boiling water canner. I would also like to thank my other sister-in-law, who is visiting this week, for helping out. It is always nice to have company.

After I pulled them out of the canner I left them unattended for about 20 minutes. When I returned there was water, or something, all over the floor and the towel upon which they were sitting was soaked. All 4 jars were sticky. I can only assume that some of the liquid siphoned out before they sealed. They did seal. Which just adds to the strangeness. I have been trying to figure out why this happened:

1. I overfilled them? Unlikely. They had more than 1/2 inch of headspace each.
2. They weren't meant to can? Possibly, but really, it was basically syrup and a little vinegar, so I doubt that was the problem.
3. I took them out of the canner too soon? This is probably the likeliest scenario. Perhaps I should have let them sit in the hot water for about 5 minutes before taking them out.

So, note to self, let things rest and don't be in such a hurry.

3 comments:

  1. I am a little concerned about these. Now the apples are not submerged in the syrup since there is less syrup in the jar and the apples are floating. And the texture looks odd. I guess maybe that's a reason not to process them...

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  2. The last time I took the jars out of the canner right after processing was the last time I'll ever do that. Cherry juice squirted all over the counter. Leaving the jars in the pot for an additional 5 mins after processing seems to make the difference. It's really frustrating to have put so much work into something and then have it go haywire.

    I don't think floating fruit is so much an issue; not so sure about liquid siphoning after processing.

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  3. Yeah, that had to have been it. We'll see when I open them. I guess the other thing to do would be to hot pack the apples rather than cold pack, then they wouldn't float so much and maybe not look so mushy.

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