Sterilising Jam Jars is an important process in preserving. Sterilising removes all bacteria, yeasts, fungi, and organisms from the jar. This enables the food to remain fresh within the vacuum whilst preserving. You can sterilise Jam Jars using the following:

In the Oven

1. Heat your oven to 140c
2. Wash your jars and lids in warm soapy water. Next, rinse the jars well to ensure there are no traces of soap. Do not dry your jars!
3. Place a piece of baking paper on a baking tray and place your wet jars on it. Ensure that the jars aren’t touching each other.
4. Place in the oven and heat for 20 mins
5. Whilst the jars are in the oven, place your wet lids in a saucepan of water, and boil for twenty minutes.
6. If your Jam Jar hasn’t finished cooking once the twenty minutes are up, keep your jars in the oven with the door closed and keep the lids in the saucepan of water. Cold jars will crack or shatter if you put hot food/liquid in them, so you want to keep them warm.

In the Microwave

1. Ensure to remove any labels from the jar. If they are tricky to remove, soak them in hot soapy water beforehand.
2. Use hot soapy water to make sure that the jar is clean before the sterilisation process. Make sure all the washing liquid is rinsed off.
3. Place in the microwave (whilst wet) and turn on the microwave setting as ‘high’ (usually around 1,000 watts) for 30-45 seconds.
4. Carefully take the jars out of the microwave and place them upside down on a piece of absorbent kitchen paper to dry off.

*Never place any metallic parts in your microwave e.g., Jars with metal clasps, or jar lids with metal.