How to Sterilize Your Jars for Preserving

An easy method using your oven.

Everybody loves pickles: they not only spice basic dishes up, but are also a great way to reduce food waste by simply pickling your leftovers. What’s so fantastic about pickling is that it’s super easy to do at home. However, a no-go is unsterile jars, as bacteria will quickly spoil your pickles that otherwise could last up to months.

This is why today, we show you how to sterilize your preservation jars in a few simple steps — in the oven. Of course there are a couple of ways you can sterilise your jars. Some people boil them in water for 10 minutes which is ok but it does have a drawback in that you are limited to however many jars you can fit into your pan at a time. In the oven, you can do a lot more containers at once.

Here’s how to sterilize your jars in the oven

1. Pre-heat oven on about 140 degrees for 15 minutes.
2. In the meantime, clean the jars thoroughly in soapy water and rinse well with warm water to remove any soap leftovers.
3. Place the cleaned jars on a baking sheet and place in the oven. Leave in the oven for 10 minutes by which time the jars should be completely dry.
4. The lids can be sanitized at the same time as the jars, however, jars that have rubber seals will need the rubber removed before sanitizing as they will perish. Boil any rubber seals separately.
5. Remove the jars from the oven and watch out not to burn yourself (use a clean cloth, for example). Fill the jars while the liquid AND the jars are still hot — this is important so a good seal can be formed. Remove any air bubbles and seal.

Enjoy your pickles, chutney or jam!