u/TheAstroThere

Can botulinum develop in my homemade strawberry jam over night?

Can botulinum develop in my homemade strawberry jam over night?

This might sound stupid but I'm really anxious and I'm going mad ocer it. I made some strawberry homemade jam, used obviously strawberries, lemon juice and sugar, left to macerate for 7 hours and let it boil for 30 minutes until it was 108°C (or 226° Fahrenheit). This was my first time making jam at home and I followed an online recipe.

The fact is, I'm really scared of taking botolinum after all the things I read about it, mainly because I didn't sanitized the jar pretty well, I left it in the oven at 100°C (or 212° fahrenheit) for about 6 minutes for the jar and 4 for the cap, not so good.

Before doing all the oven thing I initially put hot water on the jar, but didn't use soap because it finished. I pratically never uded that jar before and was sitting in a lone spot already closed.

So, I took the jam still hot and put it in the jar fast and then closed it as fast as I could (maybe it's worth mentioning the jar is one of those with a hook to close it) and I let it cool at room temperature upside down for about 20 minutes and then into the fridge. There's like 3/4 of the space in the jar empty.

I only have to leave it overnight and then I would use it in the morning to make a good ol' tart, but it's basically the middle of the night for me right now and I couldn't sleep thinking I could get botulinum or some other shady shit for little care put into all the jar thing, I'm losing it, I don't want to die for a tart. I searched on Google and other posts on reddit but it's just making my anxiety stronger, I thought about dumping everything worried that it could be "contaminated" or something. I could take a photo if it's required (also I think I burnt the jam a bit).

This is probably really stupid and maybe I'm overthinking but it's my first time doing these rhings and the fact I probably have some compulsive problems doesen't help. I would be grateful if you could help me, seriously, I'm lost.

u/TheAstroThere — 2 days ago