Michelle, your flavored oil is fine in the refrigerator for that small amount of time. As for vinegars, I think Linda Lou had recipes for a whole bunch of those and they sounded really yummy. She sent them to me, I'll see if I can find them. Yes, the dark side is lots of fun and you got here just on time for the big marmalade making season. (grin) Ken forgot a couple of sizes of jars, though. Now Ball has a cute little tiny 4 oz. jar, perfect for jam for one or for babyfood. I do most of my tomatoes, sauerkraut and beef in quarts. The two quart or half gallon size is nearly never found and gallons aren't considered safe for canning anything but they are great for fermenting pickles or sauerkraut. Right now I have: 4 oz. = 1/4 pint 8 oz. = 1/2 pint 12 oz. = 3/4 pint 16 oz. = 1 pint 32 oz. = 1 quart 64 oz. = 2 quarts or half gallon 128 oz = One gallon In addition to canning I use canning jars for storage for rice, beans, barley, dried peas, dried fruits, chocolate chips, anything where I use part of a bag and then end up spilling the rest. Gardengrl sent me some cute little squatty 8 ounce vintage jelly jars that don't take screw on lids. They are from the era when paraffin was used as a sealing agent and they just have metal lids that sit on top of the jars. They're cute and match my kitchen so I have sea salt in one, red Hawaiian salt in another, gray Fleur de sel in a third and packets of Equal in a fourth. Amanda wants a couple to use at her house for Equal packets and she thinks one would be a great butter dish! Annie

Are thinking of Carol? Her screen name is readinglady. Ellie Topps book "Small Batch Preserving has many recipes and is a "trusted" source for current methods. Hope that is who you're thinking of... Deanna

You are getting worked up about generalized "rules" instead of considering reason. Like the "rule" concerning oil - things are canned with oil all the time - soups with meat, salad dressings, chili, I even canned some olive oil pickles one time from an approved recipe (it just had a little oil). The biggest concern I have when dealing with oil in a recipe is ensuring I clean the lip of the jar as much as I can before placing the lid. And your comment about "low acid veggies," something that makes up most pickle and relish recipes, and just about all get no more than BWB... just like those recipes, vinegar or another acid is used to reasonably increase the acidity as appropriate for canning at BWB temperatures. Think of something like ketchup or salsa, both of the pickling concept, and not all that different from caponata. And we all really WANT salsa to be thick - so it doesn't just run off our chips. I've even made a salsa roasting peppers and onions with a small amount of oil (like the caponata), and it is never a problem. When I'm doing pickling, I usually consider that I can include just about any vegetable combination, so long as my overall quantity is right, so long as my acid amount (vinegar, lemon or lime juice, etc.) is appropriate for the given quantity of vegetables. I stick with approved recipes, but what is coming from my garden at any given time does not always perfectly align with a recipe. So if I include more hot peppers in place of sweet peppers, or add in squash in place of cucumbers (or even an under-ripe watermelon), or include some green tomatoes, or some extra onions, or some okra - these are all low acid vegetables, and the acid that is being added, or sugar in some types of recipes, is designed to properly preserve the combination. So keep it in the fridge if you want, but if you properly canned it, how is it any different from the jar of Pace or Campbells in the pantry?

cooksnsews, although Canada has guidelines for canning and they are different in some instances than ours here in the states, they just don't seem to have the "oh my G*d, you're going to die if you do that" reaction to some old canning methods that we do here in the United States. For instance, I didn't water bath Chase's dill pickles when I made them for Dad Pickles get soft and mushy if they are BWB. I told Dad it wasn't recommended by the government agencies and he told me he was over 70 and would eat the blasted pickles the way he liked them, LOL. The reaction I got from my Canadian family members when Dad brought out homecanned dill pickles was something like "eh, you know they say you shouldn't do that any more". Here, even if I tell people how I canned them and what the ramifications could be, I will be chastised about poisoning my family and ebe told how those pickles should only be disposed of while wearing a haz-mat suit for fear of contamination. I think everyone should know the risks they are taking and then decide whether they want to take them. Being poisoned by jam is pretty low on the risk factor scale. As for water bathing jam, I've done it for years, Grandma even did it because she hated paraffin and found that lids were just so much more consistent. LindaC is the only person I know that still uses the stuff but I would eat her jam without a second thought, it's just not that big a danger. As I mentioned, I wouldn't conjecture about the chili sauce, because I don't know what's in it. Annie