Canning butter

My garden has started to produce and I have been in a canning frenzy the last couple of weeks. As long as I am doing all this canning I thought I would try some things I had never canned before. I thought I would try to can butter. I have your canning book and it said to can in the bath water canner for 60 minutes but it looks like this is for making your own butter. Would these instructions hold true if I wanted to melt down some store bought butter and can that – 60 minutes seems like a long time for butter that has already been pasteurized, etc. by the dairy corporations? Thanks for your help

Laurie Andrews
Little Valley, New York

It doesn’t matter if it’s fresh butter or store-bought butter. They both process for 60 minutes in a boiling water bath canner. — Jackie

Tomatoes not setting fruit

My tomatoes are growing great and getting a lot of blossoms but none are turning into tomatoes! What is going on? The only thing I can think of is that the butterfly bush died over the winter so I’m not seeing as many bees in the area. What can I do? This spot has been great for tomatoes in the past and produced large amounts of tomatoes. HELP!

Robert Andrews
Tooele, Utah

Two common causes of tomatoes making blossoms that don’t set fruit are too much nitrogen in the soil (did you add a lot of manure/compost to that area since your last crop of tomatoes?) and hot weather, which causes many varieties of tomatoes to “blow” their blooms without setting fruit. If the heat is your problem, it will probably soon cool down enough for the tomatoes to set fruit. If it’s the nitrogen thing, you’ll probably have to wait until next year so the nitrogen level will reduce enough for tomatoes to set fruit. I’m fairly certain your lack of bees is not the problem. Tomatoes are easily pollinated by other insects and even the wind movement of the flowers. — Jackie

Water bathed chicken stock

I made homemade chicken stock then water-bathed it for 30 full minutes in quart sized jars. When I removed it the stock was still boiling in the jars. My husband said I have to destroy all of the stock because it was not pressure-canned. Is he correct?

Lisa McClendon
Round Rock, Texas

Unfortunately, you can not water bath any meat product safely. Sorry. I hope you didn’t do a big batch. (If you would have refrigerated it right after it cooled, you could have either re-canned it using a pressure canner or used it within a short time.) — Jackie