any one with experience canning peaches please tell me if a few days after you do it,will there be air bubbles in your jars. After reading and rereading my Ball Canning book and the book that comes with pressure cooker I find no refrence to this but i thought when you can it taked all the air out of the jar.I thought I did a very good job on following directions.Not so sure now. thanks-Tress

-- tress (tress59@aol.com), September 12, 1999

Answers

There can be bubbles. Check to see that the lids are tight. Don't forget to remove the screw on bands and wash the jars good before putting away.

Taz

-- Taz (Tassie@aol.com), September 12, 1999.

What you did wrong was,you didn't get the air out before you did the canning. What you must do is after you fill the canning jars is use a, plasic knife or some thing like it ,push out the air bubbles watch the side of the jar there will be little bubbles going up the side of the jar, when they stop put lid on then finish the rest.

-- Henri (bneville@zebra.net), September 12, 1999.

All you want to know almost about anything is on this site, I have no part in this site it just is the best infornmation site I have ever found,just to this site follow the forum sites,http://forums.cosmoaccess.net/forum/surival1/prep/library

-- Henri (bneville@zebra.net), September 12, 1999.

Grrrr! I am still glaring at my peaches whenever I pass them and am still undecided whether to chuck them out! Another odd thing that happened is that when I filled my jars with light syrup they looked fine but after I did the water bath the peaches all crowded up to the top and now I have 2-4 inches of syrup at the bottom with a whole bunch of peaches crowded at the top! It's really kind of funny, but I don't think I can get up my courage to eat them. It's been a week and I'm really afraid of botulism or something. Grrrr...

-- citygirl (citygirl@idirect.com), September 13, 1999.

Re: Bubbles - shouldn't hurt anything as long as you followed processing times and other instructions carefully AND lids sealed quickly (like, 5-15 minutes usually) after being set out of canner to cool.

City girl: Are we still talking about those peaches that only got processed for 10 minutes? If so, give it up - cut your losses and start over. If they are not very old they are probably safe to eat immediately but why risk getting sick when you can buy cheaply at the store or start over. In the future if you discover your mistake the same day you can "re-process" the water bath or pressure canning according to the PROPER time. It is too late to do that safely now. Sorry for the disappointment but count yourself among the few that strive to learn a new skill! One day you will look back at this and laugh (but only if you are not eating THESE peaches).

Don't chance it.

-- Kristi (securxsys@cs.com), September 13, 1999.

P.S. City girl,

It is not unusual for the fruit to "float" at the top after canning, in my experience. Bye for now! :)

-- Kristi (securxsys@cs.com), September 13, 1999.

Kristi

Thanks for the advice. Yes it's those same *%@# peaches! You are more or less telling my what my instincts are also saying. You know, the friend that makes the peaches and has done them this way for 20 years only gives them a three minute water bath.

What makes me extra leery of these peaches is that I boiled the lids too long - the instructions said 5 minutes and I lost track of time. Actually I don't think I'll try again this year because I work full time and have very little time to do these bulk jobs. Guess I'll rely on canned fruit for this year.

Thanks again all!

-- citygirl (citygirl@idirect.com), September 13, 1999.

Hello again City girl!

Yes, I know some old folks who have canned alot of different ways, even scraping mold off top of the food if need be. I just believe there is a reason the books recommend the extra time. My microbiology studies (1 class) taught me that there are some tough bugs out there. Of course, I would suspect that if you grow and pick your own fruit there is less risk of contamination by bad bugs (I am picturing others with dirty fingernails from scratching WHERE?! or sneezing/coughing and then picking/handling the peaches I bought.). Yech! Look on the bright side - you did learn how to do this and you won't make the same mistakes when/if it matters. I am still working on my cooking skills over anything but my gas range - burning too many meals!...... I keep practicing while replacements are easy to get!

-- Kristi (securxsys@cs.com), September 13, 1999.

If your peaches have tight lids, have enough sugar in them, then they should be fine. After eating home canned peaches all of my life, I am still here. And this includes teaching my City born wife to can. Peaches are very hard to mess up unless the lid just does not seal and then you get mold or yeast infection and just throw those jars away. I remember my mother making jell with wax lids, and we would scrape the mold off before eating. Peaches very often will settle to the top of the jar and if the peaches were boiling hot when you put them in the jars and your jars were clean, then they should be fine. Canning peaches really is a low risk food. Now meat, well that is another story.

PS I just made the most wonderful cream cheese from the milk and cream my cow gave me last night. Yes, she is Y2K ready.

-- chicken farmer (chicken-farmer@ y2k.farm), September 13, 1999.

Wow - cream cheese so fresh! Ummm - I didn't cook the peaches. Just put the slices in fresh (peeled of course) and added light syrup. This is what my friend does. Is this wrong? I think I'll just throw the darn things out. Thanks for the encouragement everyone.

-- citygirl (citygirl@idirect.com), September 13, 1999.