[Nymphadora]

Can the clip top type kilner jar be used ok for whole fruit preserving?  Most methods use the other screw type top with the seperate disk.  If so, is the vacuum sealing bit done the same?

[rachelr]

clip top kilners were the original kilners and they have been around since my gran was little.

I have used them with many success over the years and would recommend them over the screw top ones. Even marks and spencer have brought a range of plastic ones they put pickles in.

good luck

[Nymphadora]

Thanks Rachelr

This may be a stupid question but if I take a clip top kilner jar and simply fill it with water, fasten down the lid, then turn it upside down - is it normal for the water to leak out?

Reason I ask is I saw someone on a site saying that the jars they had bought were cheap and rubbish and that they leaked therefore they would not form a proper seal.

[Ice]

Was the rubber seal in it's proper place?

[Nymphadora]

Yes seal in place correct, tested it only with cold water, so maybe its due to the contents not been warm, cooling and causing a vacuum.  Just wondered if there was anything wrong with the jars I had or if it was normal for jar of this type to leak with cold water inside.  I presumed the rubber seal would keep the contents inside.

[rachelr]

sorry i checked my glass and my plastic kilners and they do not leak with water? But my nana suggested wetting the seal before you close the lid.

[hamstergbert]

Out of a few dozen Kilner cheapo clones I obtained from a certain well known Swedish maze operator two failed the initial leak test.  Found that taking off the silicon sealing rings and letting them sit in just boiled water for a few minutes before refitting them to oven-warmed jars,  ouch, ouch, yaroo, seemed to sort it.

When filling them (including the 'fixed' ones) very, very  hot with hot jam I moisten the seals (both surfaces) and ensure the lids are given an extra hard bit of a press down to seat them and sit the breadboard on top of a batch suitably weighted.  When they cool they hold the seal fine - come opening the next jar it does take a bit of effort to overcome the 'magdeburg hemispheres' partial vacuum.

The 'real' Kilners with rubber seals never seem to fail or need fixing.

Increasingly though thanks to the heads up from members on the site, more and more of me jams go into jars that started live as ninepenny curry sauces - and the advantage of these apart from cheapness is of course that if yoy fill and seal nice and hot the pop up button in the lid is sucked down and provides the ideal safety check.