Reduce, reuse, recycle, right? Many of us strive to do things in that order, and one of the best things to reuse is glass jars. You can buy things in bulk with them, ferment things in them, store leftovers, make yogurt, etc. Glass is totally non-reactive, doesn't hold odors, and lasts forever.
However, as good as glass jars are, their lids can absorb odors from food, especially from things canned in them. Pickle and salsa jar lids have particularly strong odors. These flavors will assert themselves into whatever food you put in them - trust me. These jars tend to be great shapes for re-using, which makes this all the more frustrating. After a couple recent rounds of pickle-flavored yogurt, I abandoned hope that repeated batches would rid the lid of it's flavor, and started researching ways to solve the problem.
I found my answer in the book Cooking For Geeks by Jeff Potter. He has a section on "Fat Washing". He was talking about fat washing alcohols, to either remove unwanted flavors, or to infuse flavors from fat into alcohol (think "hot butter rum" or bacon whiskey). I knew from reading other cooking books that many flavors (and vitamins, for that matter) are fat or alcohol soluble, and don't dissolve into water.
So I did a little experiment. I put some lard into a pickle lid, put it on a rack on top of the wood stove, and kept it there for two days. Then I wiped the excess off and washed the lid clean. And guess what? It totally worked! There was no noticeable pickle smell remaining. And no lard smell either. I've since used this technique for salsa lids as well, with the same result.
I'm not sure if the warming step is necessary for other oils - lard has to be warm to stay liquid, but it may be that if you used an unsaturated vegetable oil, you could do this at room temperature. It stands to reason that hotter oil could absorb more flavor, however. I also don't know if it really needs two days for it to work. And I'd like to try alcohol-washing, using vodka or everclear instead of fat.
What I do know is that now I can reuse my glass jars without fear of creating pickle-yogurt. Or salsa-raisins. Or...you get the picture.
However, as good as glass jars are, their lids can absorb odors from food, especially from things canned in them. Pickle and salsa jar lids have particularly strong odors. These flavors will assert themselves into whatever food you put in them - trust me. These jars tend to be great shapes for re-using, which makes this all the more frustrating. After a couple recent rounds of pickle-flavored yogurt, I abandoned hope that repeated batches would rid the lid of it's flavor, and started researching ways to solve the problem.
I found my answer in the book Cooking For Geeks by Jeff Potter. He has a section on "Fat Washing". He was talking about fat washing alcohols, to either remove unwanted flavors, or to infuse flavors from fat into alcohol (think "hot butter rum" or bacon whiskey). I knew from reading other cooking books that many flavors (and vitamins, for that matter) are fat or alcohol soluble, and don't dissolve into water.
So I did a little experiment. I put some lard into a pickle lid, put it on a rack on top of the wood stove, and kept it there for two days. Then I wiped the excess off and washed the lid clean. And guess what? It totally worked! There was no noticeable pickle smell remaining. And no lard smell either. I've since used this technique for salsa lids as well, with the same result.
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| Lard melting in a lid on the wood stove. |
What I do know is that now I can reuse my glass jars without fear of creating pickle-yogurt. Or salsa-raisins. Or...you get the picture.
