Jeepers Posted January 26, 2012 Share Posted January 26, 2012 I bought some mild pickled peppers at Sams Club. I got 3 jars that are vat size. I want to re-can them into 1/2 pint or jelly jar size containers because I don't use them often and I want to share them with my son etc. So, how should I go about canning them. I'm pretty sure I won't have enough juice for each jar so should I just add some vinegar to top off the jars? Is water bath or pressure canning preferred? How long? I probably should have thought about this before I bought them. Link to comment
Andrea Posted January 26, 2012 Share Posted January 26, 2012 It's not really recommended. Sorry! Here's what Violet said in a previous thread: http://mrssurvival.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=40085 Recanning commercial products is not recommended. You will find that stated in the USDA guidelines. This is what it says: Is it safe to jar already canned food? Often people think that they can save money by buying larger containers of canned food, transferring the contents (or leftovers from the first use) to smaller jars and re-processing it. Others wonder if this is a way to save leftovers from any size can for a longer time than they will keep in the refrigerator. There are several problems with these practices: (1) We have no safe tested processes to do this. In some cases, the way the heat is distributed throughout the jar during canning will be very different if you start with already canned/cooked food than with fresh. Excessively softened foods will pack more tightly into a jar, or arrange themselves differently and the process time recommended for fresh foods will not be enough for the already canned foods. Underprocessing can lead to foodborne illness or at the very least, spoilage and loss of product. You definitely could not just transfer the food and "seal" the jar. You would need some heat treatment known to destroy any organisms transferred with the food. (2) The expense and time of recanning foods far exceed the cost savings of bulk or large-quantity packaged foods. To re-can food, you now add the expense of a jar and lid as well as the energy to re-can the food. (3) Most likely the quality of the food will be greatly reduced in canning the food for a second time. The heat of canning does cause loss of some nutrients, and a second round of canning will further reduce the nutritional value. Textural changes from heating will be added to those already produced. Without tested processes for re-canning foods, there is no way to know how to reduce the canning process and the default (although not a recommendation) is to process for the full time and temperature as if starting from scratch. When you consider you are not even saving money and resources, it does not seem worth the loss of food quality to practice this re-canning of commercially canned food. Our recommendation is to not plan to do this. Link to comment
Jeepers Posted January 27, 2012 Author Share Posted January 27, 2012 Thanks Andrea. Looks like I've got a peck of pickled peppers to eat. Soon. Link to comment
windmorn Posted January 27, 2012 Share Posted January 27, 2012 Wonder how they would do if you dehydrated them? Link to comment
etp777 Posted January 30, 2012 Share Posted January 30, 2012 If they're packed in oil of any kind, I wouldn't dehydratee them. I would try freezing some though and see how they do Link to comment
Jeepers Posted January 30, 2012 Author Share Posted January 30, 2012 They are just packed in vinegar. I bought them to put on sandwiches like Subway does. I suppose I could try to freeze some and see how they turn out. They are just small round slices of yellow peppers packed in vinegar. Link to comment
Violet Posted January 30, 2012 Share Posted January 30, 2012 Jeepers, they will keep in the fridge for a year. I would put in some smaller jars, just so no one contaminates the whole big jar with a fork,etc. Link to comment
Jeepers Posted January 30, 2012 Author Share Posted January 30, 2012 Jeepers, they will keep in the fridge for a year. I would put in some smaller jars, just so no one contaminates the whole big jar with a fork,etc. Ohhh, I can do that! Put them in the small 4 oz. jelly jars and store them in the empty veggie bin in the fridge. Thanks. Link to comment
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