Do you have a lot of questions about the cooking time for your home canned goods? Can we consider low temperature cooking? How to properly sterilize jars? We have the answers!
First of all, let’s talk vocabulary! Cooking is different from sterilization and moreover the commonly used term sterilization is not very accurate. The appropriate but admittedly less common term is “heat treatment”.
The preparation of your home preserves is broken down into two stages: the cooking time of the food and its heat treatment time (pasteurization or sterilization). There is no standard heat treatment duration: it must be adapted according to your home recipes. It is during this stage that the temperature must exceed 100°C for sterilization, and be between 85 and 100°C for pasteurization which is necessary to eliminate bacteria. As you will have understood, low temperature cooking is therefore prohibited.
Please note that you can sterilize with pressure cookers: pressure cooker, pressure cooker, etc. and pasteurize with a sterilizer (or any other non-pressure device for which you can measure the temperature), you just need to clean the edges of the jars and use new seals or new caps, close them and carry out the heat treatment. To do this, the jars must all be immersed because it is the water that will conduct the heat; if this is not the case you will need to add water. Finally, although the taste of the food is not altered when stored in a jar, here is a small detail that will be important when you make one of the delicious Le Parfait recipes: the cooking of the food continues during the heat treatment, take this into account. Your turn now !
See our sections:
How to make your own preserves?
Le Parfait recipes
