I've remembered!!!

[HeyWayne]

Ever since the weekend I've had a question I'ce wanted to ask on the vine, but every day I've forgotten what it is/was - until just now!

Back in the autumn, I made some courgette chutney and stored it in jars. The only jars I had available at the time.

The problem is, that some of the jars are really quite large (one of them was the big jar of pickled chillies - the kind you get in kebab shops).

My question (faint drum roll) is this;

Can I 'decant' from the larger jars into smaller ones?

There, that's it.

The reason for asking is that the large jars are too big for us to use - the chutney will probably go off before we get to use it all.

[Brengirl]

I can see no reason why not at all. If its pickle it's pickled however it is stored.

[Flummery]

If I were doing it I'd re-heat it and heat the new jars in the oven - in other words, re-sterilise it all.

However, I keep opened jars in the fridge - they keep for AGES! Also if you add a good dollop each time you make a curry it will hugely add to the depth of flavour - and use the chutney a bit quicker.

[organic]

I canned a load of curry paste that I made last year. It filled a 0.5l Le Parfait jar and I only ever used 3 desert spoons of it at a time. It kept for ages in the fridge with no signs of anything unpleasant and I didn't catch food poisoning.

Personally I'd be inclined to either follow Flummery's advice or just trust your eyes and nose to tell you if it's off. I'll happily ignore "use by dates" by a considerable margin - but if something smells off it's in the bein regardless of the date.

[pigletwillie]

I have a huge variaty of jar sizes but bought 3500 7oz ones last year which are an ideal size for chutneys, pastes and sauces. I found the 1lb jars just to big as we didnt eat the whole jar quickly enough.

If you want a few Wayne........ebay lol

[Alison]

We always have several jars of chutney and the like on the go, keeping them in the fridge after they're been opened. They'll quite happily keep for months on end so I'd not bother decanting as a) I couldn't be bothered and b) would have thought that there was a greater risk of contamination in the while rejarring thing