I have just opened a new jar of apple butter. It was not very difficult to open at all, which surprised me. Perhaps I am paranoid, but there is also a little bit of dried apple butter under the lid of the jar. Does this mean that air got in the jar? I didn't can it myself or anything, so I have no idea when it was done. It smells fine, but that obviously isn't foolproof. Do I need to throw it out?
posted by itsonreserve on Sep 19, 2009 - 11 answers

Home canning filter: do I need to sterilize Mason jars/lids by boiling or oven or some other method if I'm using them for fridge pickles and freezer preserves, or am I okay just washing in hot soap and water? [more inside]
posted by rhoticity on Jun 30, 2009 - 10 answers

BotulismFilter: Should I eat this? [more inside]
posted by waltzing astronomers on May 12, 2008 - 23 answers

New mason jar lids have an orange gummy ring to help seal the lid on tight, but it smells very chemically (strong glue smell) and I'm afraid it may taint food that I put into the jars. Am I supposed to boil the lids before first use?
posted by bumper314 on Feb 2, 2008 - 6 answers

Is there a neat trick for stirring up natural/old-fashioned peanut butter? [more inside]
posted by climalene on Oct 28, 2006 - 25 answers

I have an errant .jar file that seems to hang from time to time. I would like to automate it's restart. I know how to perform a close or kill of a standard windows application, how is this done to a .jar file within the Java environment?
posted by kc0dxh on Apr 20, 2006 - 7 answers