# What went wrong



## wally (Oct 9, 2007)

Last fall we made jelly that we put in baby food jars. Not sure of the sealing of the jars we used parafin wax to seal. We placed about 1/8" of wax on top of the jelly after it cooled we again put about 1/8" on top of the first wax..Making for a total of about 1/4". then we placed the original lids on the baby food jars..We went to open a jar and mold and something that looked like water was on top of the wax..needless to say all the jelly was thrown out
What did we do wrong ??? thanks, wally


----------



## Kmac15 (May 19, 2007)

Oh my goodness....where to start.
I would advise you to read the Ball Blue book for advice on safe canning practices. Or if you are using a commercial pectin you could read the instructions on the insert.

You may have heard that grandma used wax to seal her jams, but we now know that the practice isn't safe.


----------



## sbanks (Dec 19, 2010)

don't use commercial jars like that. They can't seal. Use canning jars with new lids.

This is what I have read everywhere.


----------



## judylou (Jun 19, 2009)

And using parafin for sealing hasn't been used for decades. I'm honestly surprised that you could even find it to buy to use. It never formed a perfect seal and the type of loss you experienced was very common. 

But most importantly you never processed the jelly to kill the bacteria and molds. One form of processing, either boiling water bath or pressure canning, is needed for preservation, for a vacuum to form. So your results may have been better if you had just immersed the baby food jars in boiling water for 10 mins and skipped the parafin all together. At least some of the jars might have sealed.

As others have said, you need to invest in proper canning jars and lids and a boiling water bath processor for your jams and jellies.

The Ball Blue Book is a good place to start but all of the information is readily available online too. Check out: http://www.uga.edu/nchfp/

And jams and jellies info: http://www.uga.edu/nchfp/how/can7_jam_jelly.html


----------



## Paquebot (May 10, 2002)

judylou said:


> And using parafin for sealing hasn't been used for decades. I'm honestly surprised that you could even find it to buy to use. It never formed a perfect seal and the type of loss you experienced was very common.


Our local True Value hardware store has paraffin in the home canning shelves. Also has rubber rings for zinc lids.

Martin


----------



## LonelyNorthwind (Mar 6, 2010)

I'm not saying anybody should, but I've been re-using any left-over store bought glass container with a rubber seal at least one more time for years. I only use them for jams & fruits but as long as there is still a continuous ring of rubber I've never had them not seal. I regularly re-use glass drink containers for juice, baby food and condiment jars for jams. It's easy to see the dimple in the center of the led when it's sealed and you know when you open it that it's sealed. You can feel that definite release and hear the air being sucked into the product when the seal is broken, it's even more obvious in commercial containers than home canning jars.
Fewer and fewer products are available in glass containers anymore. I'm glad I've saved the ones I have. Those old quart mayonnaise jars are still processing my berries & fruits every year. Cases and cases of them. I've never had one break, but I've sure had my share of canning jars break lately.


----------



## laughaha (Mar 4, 2008)

Commercial jars (with their corresponding lids) will seal just fine in a pressure canner. Check out the amount of wax on the lids- alot more than in new ball lids. It is VERY obvious if they come unsealed, which has never happened to me once sealed.

Most commercial jars (with rings and new lids) will usually not seal due to the rings not fitting on properly. Classico jars will fit reg mouth lids and rings fine and seal perfectly fine in both HWB and pressure canning. Old mayo jars (with new rings and lids) are AWESOME and I pick them up at yards sales usually for a nickle each. Go through the pressure cooker fine.

Most people who make jelly (myself included) HWB can them. Never tried the parafin, doesn't seem safe- too easy for something to happen to the wax.


----------



## Paquebot (May 10, 2002)

One thing wrong was how the wax was used. Supposed to be done all at once and minimum Â½"thick. You quite probably did not get a sufficient seal with the first layer and allowed lots of nasties to get in. By the time you added the second layer, it was already too late.

Martin


----------



## PixieLou (May 1, 2010)

Waxing jam is definitely an art. You need to get the wax to form a seal with the edge of the jar. If you can get the proper seal with the wax, it is just as safe as using a BWB. 

I don't wax anymore, but most everybody else I know who makes jam does wax. Wax is easy to find - I can get wax in the grocery store, but I can't get canning lids there.


----------



## Lucy (May 15, 2006)

You still don't get a vacuum seal with wax, just a seal to keep dust out, really. 
Personally, I would not risk posssibly wasting my jam with wax when I know the lids make a true vacuum seal when processed. Processing drives out the air, and that is what makes the vacuum seal. Plus, the molds and yeasts are killed during processing, unlike just putting a coat of wax on and sealing it all inside the jars. 
Not sure wax is that much cheaper, either. Considering a dozen lids are 99 cents on sale for regular mouth and about $1.50 for wide mouth.


----------



## judylou (Jun 19, 2009)

As to using commercial jars - sure, if they seal for you and if they are strong enough to hold up to pressure canning, fine. Especially for high acid foods there is no safety issues. Just a mess to clean up in the canner if one breaks.  As I said above, the baby food jars without the parafin IF they had been processed in a BWB would likely have been fine.



> Our local True Value hardware store has paraffin in the home canning shelves. Also has rubber rings for zinc lids.





> but most everybody else I know who makes jam does wax. Wax is easy to find - I can get wax in the grocery store, but I can't get canning lids there.


But those are sad commentaries on the state of home canning. That the demand is apparently still there for paraffin, that so many put so much work into it yet are content with the waste and poor results, that so many are so far out of touch with changes and progress in the science. 

And I'm not even talking about current the guidelines but about practices that were abandoned decades ago not just for safety reasons but for easier-to-do and higher quality results. I have to wonder what other hazardous practices they may be using.

If all the info was hard to find or if the Ball Blue Book cost $25 to pick up a new one it might make sense but it is readily available and costs $6.

Doing something the old ways because you have to is one thing but doing it just do it that way is a waste of time, foods, and $$$.

JMO


----------



## wally (Oct 9, 2007)

Thanks every one for your advise. Now that all the jars are cleaned we are going to try again without the wax and just using the orginal lids in a BBW process...wally


----------



## Terri (May 10, 2002)

My mother used the parrafin seal for years, without any trouble.

One thing that she did was to use extreme cleanliness: those jars were boiled before they were filled. 

After the jars were filled, she used a fresh paper towel that was slightly damp to clean the edge of the jars, not that they really needed it because she used a wide-mouthed funnel to fill the jars. The funnel had been boiled, of course! All jam equipment was. The damp paper towel was used because it would not have been comtaminated with childrens hands. Ever.

After the jam had set up a little the parrafin was gently poured in, and it was not too thick. Then the jar was rotated a bit so that the parrafin made very good contact with the inside of the jar and made a good seal. She needed enough parrafin to make a good seal but not too much or the seal would not stay.

Then, after this, they were kept at a fairly steady temp so that the glass and parafin did not expand and shrink. In other words she kept them in the cupboard while the canned goods with lids on them went to the garage.

She almost never had trouble, and she was feeding jam to 8 people for many years! But, you can see why she went to canning lids when we were older! It is so much less fiddly.


----------



## Kazahleenah (Nov 3, 2004)

judylou said:


> And using parafin for sealing hasn't been used for decades. I'm honestly surprised that you could even find it to buy to use.


Parifin is used for many things besides canning. I use it to soak an injured wrist in... it helps tremendously with the pain.


----------



## suitcase_sally (Mar 20, 2006)

What Terri said.


----------



## Lucy (May 15, 2006)

Paraffin for an injured wrist ? I had never heard that before. I thought people just used epsom salts for that.


----------



## Horseyrider (Aug 8, 2010)

Many years ago, when I was first learning to can, using paraffin was still an accepted way of putting up jams and jellies. So I did it that way too. But what really bothered me about it was that you'd get a good seal that was a booger to pry back out; and then, once you did, you had to deal with that sticky, slippery, awkward piece of paraffin, which never really covered the surface adequately again. Failure rate was high. I thought, why not just use a jar that has a lid? And if I had a lid, I might as well get one that seals right. 

But ohhh, you'd find beauties at the roadside stands in Amish country covered in paraffin. And they were so pretty.

Would I buy a jar of jam covered in paraffin now? Nope. Nor would I use paraffin for my home canned. I work so hard for that handful of jars; the less opportunity for waste, the better.


----------



## Evons hubby (Oct 3, 2005)

wally said:


> Last fall we made jelly that we put in baby food jars. Not sure of the sealing of the jars we used parafin wax to seal. We placed about 1/8" of wax on top of the jelly after it cooled we again put about 1/8" on top of the first wax..Making for a total of about 1/4". then we placed the original lids on the baby food jars..We went to open a jar and mold and something that looked like water was on top of the wax..needless to say all the jelly was thrown out
> What did we do wrong ??? thanks, wally


About the only thing I see that you did wrong was to throw away a lot of good jelly. The mold on top of the wax is really not an issue. I have to wonder how much perfectly good cheese has been thrown out over a spot or two of mold? I know my Yvonne will toss an entire round if she spies some mold somewhere, and I was quite upset with her for throwing out a perfectly good cured ham once because of the mold. She is getting better about it though, she now at least asks me before throwing out good food.


----------



## Terri (May 10, 2002)

*IF* the mold is on top of the parrafin, and *IF* the parrafin seal is intact, the jam is still good because of the intact barrier between the mold and the jam.

If the jam itself is moldy I will not eat it.


----------



## Lucy (May 15, 2006)

I still would not want to eat it if I only saw mold on top of the wax. Being in a high risk category makes me real cautious.


----------



## Terri (May 10, 2002)

She did not say that the mold was in the jam itself. She said that there was a puddle of water on top of the wax and mold on top of the wax. BIG! difference!


----------



## PixieLou (May 1, 2010)

And just make sure to cook your steak to medium-well and wear your seat belt at all times.


----------



## luv2farm (Feb 15, 2008)

I'm 42 years old and I have "spooned off" mold from the top of jelly all my life and then eat the remainer of the jar :runforhills: I have a whole mess of cousins who done the same thing...cause our Grandmother made enough jelly and jam for the entire family and passed it out to everybody. All her jam and jelly was sealed with parafin. We aint dead yet........:happy0035:


----------



## Lucy (May 15, 2006)

Perhaps you are not dead, but studies have shown that the mold can cause certain cancers and even types of arthritis. The mold is like a plant, what you see on top is like the flower and what you don't see are the roots that go all the way through the jam. 
Eat it if you want, but I am not going to do that. No thanks.


----------



## judylou (Jun 19, 2009)

Clearly if one had so little food to eat then eating moldy jelly would be better than eating nothing at all. 

But in any other situation one might want to do a bit of research into the various types of molds, how they grow, and how to identify the several deadly varieties. Most molds are fungi. And they grow in the form of multicellular filaments called hyphae or rootlets deep below the surface of the food.

Per CDC:

_Molds have the potential to cause health problems. Molds produce allergens (substances that can cause allergic reactions), irritants, and in some cases, potentially toxic substances (mycotoxins). Inhaling or touching mold or mold spores may cause allergic reactions in sensitive individuals. Allergic responses include hay fever-type symptoms, such as sneezing, runny nose, red eyes, and skin rash (dermatitis). Allergic reactions to mold are common. They can be immediate or delayed. Molds can also cause asthma attacks in people with asthma who are allergic to mold. In addition, mold exposure can irritate the eyes, skin, nose, throat, and lungs of both mold-allergic and non-allergic people. _

Are we really THAT hungry?


----------



## Terri (May 10, 2002)

There are two separate subjects here.

Mold does NOT grow into parrafin: it can only stay on top. If the seal is intact there will be zero mold contamination of the food.

Mold in food can and will grow into the food and through it: I would not eat that.


----------

