{"id":4246,"date":"2014-09-01T03:00:41","date_gmt":"2014-09-01T07:00:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/JackieClay\/?p=4246"},"modified":"2014-09-01T03:00:41","modified_gmt":"2014-09-01T07:00:41","slug":"q-and-a-ball-canning-lids-pruning-apple-trees-with-fire-blight-wine-yeast-and-canning-butter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/JackieClay\/2014\/09\/01\/q-and-a-ball-canning-lids-pruning-apple-trees-with-fire-blight-wine-yeast-and-canning-butter\/","title":{"rendered":"Q and A: Ball canning lids, pruning apple trees with fire blight, wine yeast, and canning butter"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ball canning lids<\/strong><\/p>\n

I was reading on the internet where Ball has changed their procedures on their new canning lids. It seems that you no longer simmer the lids. To do so, now often causes a poor seal as the rubber thins out. Have you heard this?<\/em><\/p>\n

Lorraine Rezentes<\/em>
\nFloyd, Iowa<\/em><\/p>\n

Ball says that their new sealing compound “performs equally well at room temperature as it does pre-heated in simmering water (180 degrees Fahrenheit). Simply wash lids in hot, soapy water, dry, and set aside until needed.” I haven’t heard anything about heating them causing the sealant to thin and cause poor seals. Nor does Ball mention it. — Jackie<\/p>\n

Pruning apple trees with fire blight<\/strong><\/p>\n

Thoroughly enjoy your blog postings with Q & A. Please remind the person pruning apple trees with fire blight to disinfect any\/all tools that they use for pruning. We had to do this after each section of a tree. Also, the pruner’s hands, gloves, clothes should be washed and disinfected.<\/em><\/p>\n

Arleen<\/em><\/p>\n

Very good idea, Arleen! Failing to do this may result in spreading the disease. — Jackie<\/p>\n

Wine yeast<\/strong><\/p>\n

Is there a way to dehydrate and preserve wine yeast (actually cider yeast) from one year to the next? Each year I buy dry commercial wine yeast for that year’s apple crop, but I’d rather not be dependent on it. During fermentation (using the commercial yeast) I have a large population of the perfect yeast cells; Is there a way to take a sample of them and dry and store them so I can use them next year? Relying on “wild” yeast to do the job is risky and unpredictable.<\/em><\/p>\n

Jonathan Goodson<\/em>
\nBeverly Hills, California<\/em><\/p>\n

I’m sorry, Jonathan, but we don’t use alcohol and I don’t make wine. Are there any homestead winemakers out there who can answer his question? — Jackie<\/p>\n

Canning butter<\/strong><\/p>\n

I recently read in your book “Ask Jackie Pressure Canning” about canning butter. I canned some Amish salted butter in a water bath for 40 minutes and the finished product came out grainy and separated. It was also really soft almost to the point of runny. Any ideas why this happened or how the problem can be corrected. The canned butter also had little to no taste.<\/em><\/p>\n

Wynn Speck<\/em>
\nSun City, Arizona<\/em><\/p>\n

When you can butter, you should heat it enough to drive off most of the residual buttermilk in the butter (the liquid), which is watery and will cook away when you slowly heat the butter past melting. Unless kept in a cool location it will not be hard just like butter must be kept cool or it will melt at warm household temperatures. The separation occurs when you don’t heat the butter enough (be careful or it will burn!). Also, as the jars cool after processing, if you gently shake them it will redistribute the leftover buttermilk so it is less apt to separate. I process my butter in a water bath canner for 60 minutes. The grainy texture is like any butter that has melted and re-solidified; it can’t be helped. But canned butter usually tastes great but perhaps the salt in the butter transferred to the buttermilk and the butter had very little salt. Try mixing a bit of salt with the butter to see if it improves the flavor. — Jackie<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ball canning lids I was reading on the internet where Ball has changed their procedures on their new canning lids. It seems that you no longer simmer the lids. To do so, now often causes a poor seal as the rubber thins out. Have you heard this? Lorraine Rezentes Floyd, Iowa Ball says that their […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,9,13],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/JackieClay\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4246"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/JackieClay\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/JackieClay\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/JackieClay\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/JackieClay\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4246"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/JackieClay\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4246\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/JackieClay\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4246"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/JackieClay\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4246"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/JackieClay\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4246"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}