Picked up a 1958 book on home canning at a garage sale in Portland for 50 cents

Got it home and the first recipe says to seal jars with paraffin wax which I guess was standard back then but now everyone says that's a botulism risk. I tried one batch of strawberry jam that way and the wax cracked after two days in the pantry, so I trashed it all. Has anyone run into old canning methods in vintage books that are flat out dangerous?

2 comments

2 Comments

richard_west58d ago

Paraffin wax actually works fine for jelly but not for jam since the fruit solids let air pockets form under the wax.

nancy_green8d ago

Oh man, I remember my grandma using paraffin wax on her jelly jars back in the 70s. It always seemed to work for her but I never trusted it myself. @richard_west5 brings up a good point about the difference between jelly and jam though, I bet that's why my aunt's strawberry jam always ended up with mold spots on top. I actually found a 1943 canning manual at a thrift store that said to pressure can green beans for only 20 minutes, can you believe that? Everyone knows now that green beans need way longer to kill botulism spores. I keep old books around for the interesting recipes but I cross reference everything with modern sources before trying anything.