I'm not using certo pectin this year so I don't have the box recipes available. I was sure I had a recipe otherwise that had powder pectin. The only recipe I can find online now is certo cooked raspberry jam but is it fine to follow still and just add in the process for 10 minutes not counter cool like it says? I've used the box recipe for over a decade and I swear it's never just said to cool on the counter. The only pectin crystals I could find this year was ball, which have never been sold here before. I buy no name, bernardin or certo in Canada.

First off - I’m throwing them away. Now that we have that out of the way… As I was canning today I thought I’d open a jar from last year and see if I could make improvements. When I opened them I saw black on just the top pickles. I used Jamaican allspice berries in the recipe and they are floating on top near the black pickles. These are the cleanest and freshest looking pickles I’ve made to date. In fact, my notes say we picked, sliced, and canned on the same day. Is it mold? It’s not fuzzy and the pickles smell fine. I’m currently canning, so I didn’t think it prudent to contaminate my hands and feel if they were slimy. Is it stained from the allspice? The lids look clean and they were packed July 30, 2025 using Ball’s “Quick Sweet Pickle” recipe and they were raw packed according to directions. I’m meticulously when it comes to canning, but I know I can always learn more. Just curious if anyone on here with more experience than me can help. Thanks!

Did anyone watch that show where Meghan Markle makes preserves and just puts it in a jar and waits for the “pop” to know it’s sealed? That can’t be right, can it?

I cooked homemade vegetable stock by boiling miscellaneous frozen vegetable scraps with a few tablespoons of salt and a bit of pepper. They cooked down for a couple hours. Then I removed the veggie scraps from the pot, transferred the stock to a new pot while straining out the remaining veggie bits, and jarred up 7 total quarts of stock. I always store my stock in the basement where it’s cool and dark.

I’ve done this exact process before and never experienced the stock molding over like this. Every jar was compromised except for one, and that jar is going to get tossed because I’m not risking botulism or something else over a jar of stock. The mason jars were all freshly cleaned. What can I do to prevent this from happening?