Thank you Dave! I always look forward to your responses as well as others here. My main concern was the safety and I wouldn't be too concerned with the color unless it looked really bad. But each jar has been sealed properly and I am able to lift them by the lid edges. I dont know if this is common, but I find the longest part of the canning process is to actually fill the jars! LOL Maybe because I am doing peppers, but it is a challenge sometimes after packing the peppers and adding the solution, the peppers begin to float. And when I try to remove any air bubbles, then the peppers tend to come to the top so I push them back down and adjust the levels. Not sure if its because I am using cherry peppers whole? My first round was chilis and bananas and I cut them into rings. And I didnt remember this issue. Also the pint jars seem to have trouble standing upright in the BWB. sometimes they tilt and I adjust them. The rack that came with my BWB doesnt make sense really. It doesnt provide a nice flat area. Very weird.

When you say you reprocesssed it, did you take the lid off, reheat the brine (or was it still boiling hot) and start over, or just put the jar back in and process again with same lid? If you truly started over, it's fine. If same lid, you need to refrigerate and use in the next few days. Deanna

Pickles (the poster, not the product), hi. For reprocessing, while I have the contents dumped in the pot, I wash the jars again, and yes, new lids of course. For your situation of having a jar's worth left and wanting to start a new batch, if it's a new batch of the same thing, why not save it in a bowl and then when the second batch is ready, add the jar's worth back in, heat a few more minutes, and then fill all the jars? With jam I would just put the jar in the fridge to avoid having it set and then reheat (except with no-added-pectin jams, I guess you could leave those on low heat in a small pot on another burner while making the next batch). Actually with jam, I personally would feel comfortable doing open kettle (just letting it seal) and clearly marking that it's only for myself and that I will use it first--in which case, I would just put it in the fridge anyway. When you found mold in a jar, was it fuzzy, or was it just black stuff? Sometimes canned products will get black stuff on the lid, but it's just a dried-out or oxidized version of what's in the jar. If it was really mold, it is probably a bad seal. I had some peaches that no matter how many times I washed the outside of the jar, mold would grow along the threads. Never got inside, but sure was unappetizing (kept those for myself also). Melissa

gardengal - it is confusing I know but it helps to keep in mind that it is basically the difference between cooking safe foods and canning safe foods. And it isn't just air pockets. As I mentioned above it is pockets of un-acidified food. It isn't any small amount of cooking that may or may not be done prior to putting the food in the jar. It is the proper acid levels inside the jars and the proper processing of the food inside the jars that KEEPS the food safe over time during shelf storage. That pre-cooking or pre-heating is done to integrate the flavors just as you would when cooking, to kill some of the bacteria, and to heat the food so that it can be processed in as short an amount of time as possible. An over-simplistic example might be making pickles by heating the cucumber slices in hot brine for 10 mins. but then packing them in the jars with no added brine - just the pickle slices. Would they be safe to eat in 2 months? Check the NCHFP publications on "Ensuring Safe Canned Foods" linked below and the one entitles "How Canning Preserves Foods" for more details. Dave Here is a link that might be useful: Ensuring Safe Canned Foods