Help me save my jam!!

[the.fee.fairy]

I made lovely cherry plum jam in August.

All the jars were washed at a high heat in the dishwasher to sterilise them, then they were washed out with Milton to be sure, and then they were put in a hot oven before the jam was poured in.

I opened a pot today for my lunch...and it smelt like garlic. I tasted it...and i have Garlic flavoured Cherry plum Jam. I've got 12 jars of this stuff.

It must be something left over from the sauces that were in the jars before. Is there any way i can save my jam? I was thinking of getting some plums and reboiling it all with some fresh plums in it, but i don't really want to waste it all.

Help!

[Shirley]

How about making it into a plum sauce - chinese style and using it to cook with instead??

[the.fee.fairy]

ooh good plan.

I've opened 4 pots this morning desperately hoping one of them wasn't tainted in some way. All i wanted was some jam for my sandwiches!!

Is there anything i can do in the future to stop this happening? I thought i'd cleaned the jars thoroughly, but there seems to be something i've missed. Could it be the lids? Maybe the rubber seals are keeping the flavour of the sauces or something?

[Shirley]

It will definitely be the lids... either use different lids and make sure that you remember which lids have been used with savoury things... keep savoury lids for savoury chutneys etc..and the same for sweet stuff. You could try putting a bit of plastic (I know - sorry) inbetween the lid and the jam... I used a bit of a veggie bag on my elderberry cordial that I put into a pasatta jar.. it seems to have helped.

You can buy little kits of plastic stuff to cover jam jars too.. it shrinks as the jar cools to make an airtight seal.

[red]

prolly the lids yeh

spicy things .. the jars do seem to keep the flavour.. always worth a sniff of each clean jar. how annoying! but hte spicy sauce idea is a great one

[the.fee.fairy]

i'll have a look out for those sealing jar lid thingys.

Its quite irritating. Cherry plum is my favourite type of jam as well!!

I'll give the plastic between the lid and jam idea a go next time.

Going to try re-boiling all the tainted jam with some more fruit and sugar at some point to see if that makes a difference.

Still...at least there's marmite on the shelf still

[2steps]

I'd say it would be the lids too. I use the old plastic jam seals on my jars. there disks of cellophane you put over the hot jar and hold in place with a rubber band. then I put the jar lids on top

[Pilsbury]

Garlic, onion, chilli and curry, if the jars have ever had these in or the lids have covered them the taste and smell never seems to go, had an old 500g garlic puree tub in the shed that had been washed out in an industrial dishwasher about 4 years ago and everytime i open it it still wiffs of garlic.

[Shirley]

and anchovies!!!

I bought a kilner type jar of anchovies.... dishwashered it... smelt fine... as soon as I put the rubber seal back (also dishwashered) and sealed it the anchovy smell came back.

New seal might help on that one though...