six-point socket II said:
And I'm hitting myself on the back of my head for never thinking about cooking a BBQ sauce and Weck'ing it.
Thinking about your Surfix... please be gentle with your head [wink]
I have this red sauce I make, but it can't be preserved for long.
Now you got me interested, both in the sauce and the reason why it can't be preserved.
Can you be a bit more specific on the single amounts of the ingredients & cooking time. Would love to try this!
It started with
this recipe some years ago, then the ketchup (I used Heinz in the original version)
got replaced, then tomatoes who were out of season
got replaced, finally the sugar water can replaced with increased levels of sugar, acid (both lemon and vinnegar) and spices. Cooking time is needed to reduce the tomatoes toward a more sauce like consistency (do
not use sauce thickener or your glasses
will spoil), you can trade time needed to get rid of the excess water by increasing the manual labor (continuous stirring at high heat).
Should you (or anyone else) venture into Weck for the first time, here's what I can recomment:
Get the
WECK-Einkochbuch and
actually read it front-to-back prior to doing anything. It isn't that long but contains important information that will make you unhappy should you ignore it.
You also
want the glass lifter,
this funnel works great for Rundrand 60 glasses and
that one for Rundrand 100 ones. Also I recommend to obtain enough
plastic lids to have one tightly closing each glass that had been pulled open but not yet eaten clean concurrently, multiply that estimate by two to have enough so half can take a trip through the dishwasher while the others are in use.
For the rubber rings I would suggest to order about 10-20% surplus, while they can be reused in general... their lifespan isn't unlimited. Order more rings in case you have kids
and don't forget to order the clips, you need two for each glas being in the pot concurrently (the clips are removed after cooling), order twice the amount in case you want to go into mass production (so you can prepare one load while another is cooking).
For the cooking pot I can somewhat recomment
this one (the tap is cheap plastic, but easy to replace) that works nicely so far (except the original tap, that didn't tap fast enough for my liking).
Also order an
extra grid with the pot (that one matches the linked pot above) as it allows you to process another layer of glasses. In case you pick a different pot: You want one where the timer starts to run only after the target temperature has been reached, a nice loud alarm for 'done' is a plus so you won't have to babysit it. The kind of pot I linked allows for 17 Rundrand 60 glasses per layer:
[attachimg=1]
My preferred glasses are Rundrand 60
Zylinder 340ml (allowing for 2 layers in that pot, height wise),
Sturz 160ml (3 layers) and
Sturz 50ml (4 layers, in theory).
I also highly recommend the 'original' Weck shop that is the target of my links (for all except cooking pots as these are overpriced) as it's the closest one can cut away any middlemen, both delivery chain length and price wise (most others advertise the glasses without the lid, don't get fooled) - plus they deliver in cardboard boxes that close tightly enough to store empty glasses cleanly and secure, are sturdy enough to last you a good while when treated with care and fold down nicely while 'their' glasses are in use.
Hope this helps, in case there are questions... feel free to ask.
