Periodically someone gives me a jar of preserves.  Every preserves recipe in
the universe talks about how important it is to sterilize sterilize sterilize
everything, to prevent botulism.  There are an awful lot of complex procedures
you have to follow.  When someone shows up with a pretty-looking jar of
preserves, I don't know any way of telling if the preserves are safe to eat.
So I leave it in the fridge until I have a way to tell that it is safe.
Eventually, it gets to be a few years old, and at that point I can in good
conscience throw it out, unopened.

Recently I got brave and tried a recently-arrived jar of strawberry preserves.
They were tremendously yummy.  And I didn't get sick.  (Whew!)

What do you do when someone gives you preserves?  How can I tell if the ones
in my fridge are safe to eat?

Thanks!

14 responses total.

Per the Ball Blue Book, 1982 edition:
While the effects of "the spoilers" [i.e. molds, yeasts, enzymes, or bacteria]
can be serious, the home canner should not be unduly worried about them. ...
Providing the directions and precautions outlined in this book are followed,
food can be safely canned or frozen with little concern for spoilage.
...
Before tasting, check the food for signs of spoilage.  Indications that the
food has spoiled include broken seals, seepage, mold, gassiness, spurting
liquid when the jar is opened, sliminess, cloudiness and disagreeable odors.

Even if no signs of spoilage are obvious, canned meats and vegetables and
other low acis should be boiled for 15 5o 20 minutes before tasting.  Fruits,
which are acids, do not have the risk of botulism present as do low acid meats
and vegetables.  Even though it is not practical to boil fruits, they should
be carefully examined before eating.  All spoiled food should be destroyed
so that it cannot be eaten by humans or animals.

Ok, so what it says is "If you did everything this book said to, you're OK.
But check for these signs of spoilage anyway, just in case."  The problem is
that I don't think there's any way to tell if the person who canned the food
did what the book says to do.

(By the way -- thanks for looking that up.)

This item has been linked from Cookin 126 to Intro 80.
Type "join cooking" at the Ok: prompt for discussions of
fresh food, frozen food, and preserved food.

In other words, you can be worried about home-canned meats (not a problem for
Valerie, I'd guess ;) ), but jams/jellies/preserves are pretty hard to screw
up.  If there isn't mold already growing, I wouldn't worry about it.

I did a search on botulism on the web and found a lot of information but
not specific foods that are not subject to the infection. Tests such as
swelling of the can or loss of the vacuum in home canned foods are suggested.
The only infection of jams/jellies/preserves I have ever encountered are,
as Scott mentions, molds. 

My husband interrupted me as I was about to add my own $.02.   Herewith.
Actually (I speak as a *very* small-scale amateur, who has never happened
to give any preserves to Valerie) canning is not critically complicated
given the proper equipment, it just takes time & bother.  (If my family
didn't have the food allergies I might never do it again)  And when
canning sweet-fruit-things, sloppiness would probably result in a
broken jar or loose lid rather than spoiled preserves.

My personal guidelines: if any home-canned jar was not sealed airtight,
throw away the contents.  If the seal was tight & it looks OK, enjoy.
Refrigeration not necessary until opened, any more than with storebought
stuff -- although if you keep something around for two years before opening 
it, some cold temperatures might have helped the flavor.

A tactful way to check out the cook's trustworthiness would be to ask about
techniques.  Either boiling-water-bath (the usual) or pressure canning is 
safe for acid things like preserves.  And after going to all that work, 
he/she will probably be happy to talk about it.

Yep!  I always boil my jars andlids and make sure everything is super
clean...I have never had a problem with home canned stuff, but I don't can
meats.  Right now, I am getting canned stuff from a neighbors mother and
tossing most of the contents...only because I don't know when the stuff was
canned and neither does the neighbor...some of it still looks and smells and
even tastes good...but since we know the stuff is at least two or tree years
old...we are getting rid of it.  With my own stuff, I have used applesauce
and jellies that were several years old if the seals were still intact and
the stuff still smelled and looked okay...never had any problem...but usually
bad food will let you know it is bad!

Botulism is so toxic that the food may have no appearance or taste of
being "bad", but can still kill you. I do wonder if the usual "test" -
for a vacuum in the container (the lid not "popped", etc) - is a response
to botulism, or a more general test of spoilage, which might occur
simultaneously with the growth of botulism. The web pages were not very
specific about the details.

Re #6:
And a good way to keep molds out is to pour a layer of melted perrafin <sp>
wax over your jams/perserves/jellies.  When it cools, it forms an seal with
no oxygen for the molds to grow with.

Modern "Ball" jars and lids form a good vacuum seal.  All it takes is for the
stuff inside to start hot.  On one occasion, we made strawberry jelly with
the jars heated up in the oven, and boiling hot jam was dumped right in.  Not
a jar went bad.

Same here.  A friend and I made I think 12 jars and sealed them that way. 
We each took six.  None of mine went bad, but I just finished the last jar.
Now I've gotta make more.  :)

I made freezer jam once and only once.  You guys are way out
of my league.

i made freezer jam one too.
it didnt go bad, but it didnt really jell either.
it was then used as a topping for icecream, until we became tired
of it and dumped the rest.
a suzy homemaker i aint!

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