Summer is not over yet, but preserving your own garden goodies is just starting to get you ready for winter! The most important thing is to know how to do these kitchen tasks faster and more efficiently.

Here are tips from the experts at the Elektrum Energy Efficiency Centre for canning, jam making, drying and curing, as well as special labels for designing jars – so you can tell the treats in the jars apart from one another!

How to prepare jars faster and more easily

Before washing fruit, vegetables and jars, check that the tap is equipped with a water-saving aerator. An aerator mixes water with air, giving the feeling of a bigger stream, but reducing water consumption by 50%. If the water flow is white and foamy, the tap is already equipped with an aerator.

If you have a dishwasher in your home, use it to prepare the jars. The drying process in the dishwasher is carried out at high temperature, thus sterilising the jars. Thus you will use much less water, as a modern dishwasher uses only 6-8 litres of water per cycle. By contrast, that amount comes out of the tap in less than a minute.

However, if this is not an option, wash the jars in the hottest water possible and remember not to over-drain by adjusting the water flow during washing. Note that dishwashing detergent can only be rinsed completely from dishes with cold water. Once the jars have been thoroughly washed and dried, you can sterilise them in the oven at 150 °C for 15 minutes.

Remember! Do not use pre-used lids. A used lid is a used lid – the rubberised flexible plastic gasket inside is designed to seal the jar tightly, and if it is even slightly damaged, the effort you put into preserving it may simply be wasted, as the preserved goodies will start to spoil.

• To avoid unnecessary consumption of electricity when boiling

We recommend using pots of an appropriate capacity, with a thick base, covering the entire diameter of the heating surface or even slightly larger, so that the pots will not overheat the handles and no heat will be lost.

Use pot lids when boiling – both the contents will boil faster and you will use less electricity.

• For pasteurising preserves

We recommend using 20 or 25 litre boilers – you can put several jars in at the same time, so you don’t have to heat water in several small pots.

To use energy efficiently, start pasteurising by turning on the stove at maximum temperature until the water starts to boil, then turn down the heat to the desired temperature.

• For cooking jams

Berries, especially red berries, contain valuable antioxidants that protect the body from harmful free radicals that contribute to both disease and ageing. However, at high temperatures, these biologically active compounds break down or die, and other valuable substances, including vitamin C, are reduced. The loss of antioxidants is reflected in the colour of the jam – the darker and browner it becomes, the fewer valuable substances are left. For a healthy jam, it is recommended to only boil it for a short time, allowing it to foam, and then removing it from the heat.

For this reason, jam sugar is suitable, as it should be cooked for no more than 5 minutes after it has been added, compared with at least 10 minutes with ordinary sugar. Furthermore, studies of nutrition scientists have shown that long boiling breaks down the sugar added to the jam and produces hydroxymethylfurfural, an undesirable substance which is carcinogenic.

• Try something out of the ordinary!

Plum-chestnut jam

Ingredients: red plums – 1 kg, chestnuts – 200 g, sugar – 500 g, cardamom – 5 g, ½ lime peel.

Preparation: the plums are cut and blanched in boiling water for 30-45 seconds, the skins are removed and the stone is removed. Then dice 300 g of the plums and finely chop the rest. Boil the chestnuts until ready, clean them and dice them. The chopped plums are stewed with the sugar for about 25-30 minutes and then blended. Add the diced plums, cardamom, lime peel and chestnuts to the finished mixture and braise for a further 5 minutes.

• Running the stove hoods

To prevent damp in the home, the stove hood should always be switched on at the same time as the stove. Remember that when the stove hood is running, a window or door to another room should be slightly open to allow air to enter the hood. We recommend cleaning the stove hood filters in good time to ensure that the hood works efficiently.

Drying or curing fruit

Drying fruit, berries, vegetables and mushrooms in a natural environment requires several days, the right climatic conditions and special facilities, whereas the same result can be achieved several times faster in an electric oven or special dryer.

The best temperature for drying or oven-drying is around 40-60 ˚C and the contents should be stirred several times during drying to avoid loss of quality. We recommend setting the temperature higher – up to 90 ˚C – at the beginning of the drying process, and then reducing it to normal. Open the oven door slightly to remove moisture.

When using the dryer, we recommend slicing fruit and berries as thinly as possible – the thickness of the slices determines the drying time and also the electricity consumption. Drying times can vary from 6 to 20 hours, so the difference in electricity consumption is significant.

Download special labels for designing the jars

We encourage you to print them and stick them on the jars. This way, you will always know and be able to tell which jar is filled with what!