I am very new to canning and one of the first things I tried was this simple marmalade from a new Ball recipe book. The recipe called for 1/4” of headspace, like the jar on the left and all the others, but the jar on the right was my very last one to fill. There wasn’t quuuite enough to fill it so it ended up with about an 1” of headspace. It sealed like all the others. After cooling I just put it in the fridge and will open it soon. My question is, was that the right thing to do or could it have stayed on the shelf with the others? In the future should I bother canning slightly underfilled jars like this?
by SarcasticHulktastic
6 Comments
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If you have a jar that doesn’t reach headspace requirements, you should put it in the fridge and eat it first, don’t bother to can it. Headspace does have an affect of the effectiveness of the seal and the correct amount of air needs to leave the jar for it to be properly processed
Yes, you did the right thing here! Here is NCHFP’s explanation of this ([https://nchfp.uga.edu/questions/FAQ_canning.html#4](https://nchfp.uga.edu/questions/FAQ_canning.html#4)). I never bother to process jars that don’t have the right headspace I just throw them in the fridge to eat first.
I often keep one extra, smaller jar on hand when canning to deal with this. For example, I was canning pear butter in half pint jars, so I had one 4 oz jar on hand in case my last jar wasn’t enough to fill a half pint. It’s safe to process a smaller jar at the same minutes as you are processing the bigger jars, but you can’t size up.
I actually like having a partial jar for the fridge, especially if it’s something new, you’ll want a taste and to check on the set of it. Don’t bother wasting a new lid…I keep those plastic reusable ones around for that reason.
I always just eat the last jar first haha. It’s not really safe unless the headspace is right, and you’re planning to eat it anyway, so why not start there? 🙂
I do still process my last underfilled ones though as I’ve always thought the cooking time added there might impact the flavor/texture so I also kind of use it as a quality check in that regard.