Sauce / Cordial bottles

When I buy bottles and jars I buy in bulk where I can for the cheapest of prices.  What I can save often buys those extra things that I would not normally contemplate.

Some of you will have read that I often bottle sauces, cordials, squashes, juices etc by hot water bottling using a baby steriliser. This effectively takes any excess air out of the bottle and stops the contents going off - so you end up with a much longer storage date as a result. There is not much room in one of these little pasteurisers and I have found that the inbetween sized hexagonal sauce bottles are ideal for providing appropriate amounts of sauce/cordial that can be processed efficiently and which you receive a reasonable quantity of.  

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here

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It is relatively easy processing the bottles in this way and much less clat than doing this in a saucepan on the stove.

After all when you are sterilising the milk for baby you are pasteurising the milk so it is safe.  This is all you do when you hot water bottle process.

You know where you heard this first - i.e. me.  I like to make things simple and I like things to keep safely for as long as I can.

For the past couple of years for the sauce bottles I have been using this company

 http://cwynnejones.com/store/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=1_2_37

and have been buying these

Here is the description

http://cwynnejones.com/store/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=1_3_38_6&products_id=41

 - you get 60 of these bottles for £15.72.  You need separate closures which they also sell 43 mm in bags of 100 which work out at £5.30 per 100.  I still have some left over from the last batch but I have a lot of things to do in the coming months.  I am therefore getting stocked up whilst I think about it. Shipping is about £7.50 and then VAT so that is somewhere near £30 but you do get 60 bottles which in the long run makes the bottle price cheaper in the long run.  I have always found their service to be very efficient and have had no breakages.  They also sell beekeeping equipment and wine and beer bottles at very reasonable prices.  They area family run firm and I for one have been very pleased with their service.  They also do preserving jars and jam jars in bulk buys.

I hope this helps you budding preservers out there.

Pattypan

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