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Hardly anyone will argue that the sterilization stage when preparing canned food for the winter is one of the most important. After all, thanks to these correctly performed procedures, you can be sure that your work will not be wasted and in winter your loved ones can enjoy really tasty and healthy products with you. This article tells about one of the most ancient methods of disinfecting dishes - sterilizing cans with boiling water. The main features and subtleties of this process are highlighted, as well as the advantages and disadvantages of this method.
Tools and fixtures
Housewives have been sterilizing cans in boiling water for more than 100 years. This is one of the most traditional ways to sterilize dishes during canning. Indeed, medical instruments for operations have long been sterilized in boiling water. And until now, this method allows you to get rid of most microorganisms known to science. What do you need to sterilize with boiling water?
First of all, you need a large pot. It is good if its capacity is about 15-20 liters. However, if you have a small number of small jars, then a 5-6 liter metal container will be quite enough. For work, it is convenient for the pan to have a wide bottom, that is, in terms of dimensions, its height should be significantly less than the diameter of its bottom.
For boil sterilization, you will also need to prepare some clean cotton towels.
To get cans and lids out of boiling water, it is very desirable to have special tongs. Moreover, for covers, these can be ordinary household tongs, in extreme cases, in their absence Lids can be neatly picked up with an ordinary fork. But for the safe extraction of cans, it is very desirable to have special forceps.
Usually they are two parts of light metal crossing each other like scissors, about 25-30 cm long. On one side, each part has handles in the form of rings, like scissors. On the other side of each piece, the metal part is bent in the form of a half-ring. When they are connected, they form a very convenient neck shape, with the help of which you can simply and safely grip the top of the jar and pull it out both empty and filled from boiling water.
It is especially convenient to use this device for sterilizing already filled cans, but it can also be useful for safely removing empty cans while boiling water.
Finally, you will need the glass jars themselves and their lids. It is their complete sterility that you need to achieve.
Preparation for sterilization
First, you need to prepare the required number of cans. Always select a little more cans than you need, as putting an extra can aside is much easier than starting the whole process over again.
It is not always safe to use sterilized jars the next day or even after a few hours - it is better not to risk your health.
All banks must be checked for cracks and possible chips. Indeed, even because of the slightest crack, the bank can burst during the heating process.And the chips on the neck will not make it possible to hermetically seal the jar, which means that your work may be lost. Banks, even with the slightest suspicion of mechanical damage, would be prudent to set aside.
Then the cans are washed thoroughly. If the pollution is strong, then it is better to use laundry soap when washing, and only then soda. Also, in case of severe contamination, you can soak all the cans in warm water with soda for several hours. Only then they are washed again with soda and rinsed thoroughly under running water.
Caps are usually new. When using reusable screw caps, make sure they are flat and free of chipped enamel. They are washed in the same way as cans.
Features of the process itself
Unfortunately, many believe that sterilization of cans boiling water consists only in the fact that the washed cans are installed on a wooden board and filled with half or even one third of boiling water. After cooling, they are used for canning. A similar simplified method may still suit you if you are going to store products in these cans that will be eaten within a week or two, and will be kept in the refrigerator.
For long-term preservation of food for the winter, this method of sterilizing cans is completely unsuitable.
Real sterilization is as follows. In a prepared container with a large volume, you set the number of cans, preferably with the neck up, which goes there entirely.
The pot with the cans is filled with water, and the cans must also be filled with water entirely. After that, the pan is put on high heat, and the water is quickly brought to a boil. The fire can be lowered a little and the jars are boiled for a certain amount of time. The very time the cans stay on fire in boiling water depends, first of all, on the volume of the can. How long should the cans be boiled?
Many even experienced housewives, using this sterilization technique, make a common mistake - they keep jars in boiling water for a very short time, 5-6 minutes, and believe that this is quite enough. Others do not share the boil time of cans depending on their volume - and any cans are boiled for 15 minutes. Both approaches are not entirely correct, because in the latter case, for small jars, no more than 0.5 liters in volume, only 6-8 minutes of boiling is enough.
- Banks with a volume of up to 1 liter need to be boiled for 10-12 minutes.
- If the jar has a volume of 1 to 2 liters, it needs 15-18 minutes.
- Banks from 2 to 3 liters require sterilization within 20-25 minutes.
- Finally, cans with a volume of 3 liters or more need to be boiled for half an hour or more.
The time of sterilization in boiling water is one of the main safety factors of the process, since how many minutes the jar is boiled depends on how guaranteed spores of various organisms will be destroyed on its surface.
Another important determinant of the safety of sterilization is how quickly, after being removed from the boiling water, the can will be filled with the necessary contents and tightened with the sterilized lid.
It is very important not to leave sterilized jars in the air for a long time. It is advisable to immediately after taking it out of the boiling water with tongs and pouring out excess water, fill it with a prepared vegetable or fruit preparation. True, before filling sterilized jars with fruit preparations, it is important to dry them well. However, a can taken from boiling water, as a rule, dries very quickly at room temperature. Place it with the neck down on an ironed towel.
The screw caps can be sterilized easily in the same container where the jars are sterilized. For metal lids, boil for 15 minutes. Special plastic canning lids are thrown into boiling water for just a few seconds, so it's better to use a separate container for them.
Advantages and disadvantages of the method
Of course, the method of sterilizing cans in boiling water has both advantages and obvious disadvantages. The advantages of the method include:
- Simplicity and versatility - a hot water container can be found in any home. Moreover, such sterilization can be performed even in field conditions on a fire in a pot, if there is such a need.
- The lids can be sterilized directly together with the jars - no separate dishes are needed.
- Ideal boiling water sterilization for small jars that fit easily into almost any pot.
But the method also has its drawbacks:
- The kitchen or other room in which sterilization is carried out is filled with hot steam, which is rather unpleasant, especially in the summer heat. Moreover, with a large number of blanks, the room risks turning into a real bathhouse.
- If the water used is quite hard, then all the salts will settle on the inside of the cans and then mix with your preforms.
Nevertheless, despite all possible difficulties, sterilization of cans in boiling water is still popular among housewives, due to its simplicity, especially in country and country conditions, where modern kitchen equipment is not always available.
