Jam out overnight - any good?

[renz]

Accidentally left out my preserves overnight and wonder if it's still safe to eat. I'm thinking yes, but hoped someone out there has more than a vague guess about this.

If it makes a difference, it's a commercial brand that does contain sodium benzoate. Everything else is fruit/sugar/pectin.

Thanks

[jinet12]

I always keep mine in the fridge, but growing up, my best friend's Mother, who was a very Southern Lady, NEVER put the preserves or jams in the fridge, and always kept them out on her kitchen table...They actually taste better at room temp, IMO...

[puppymomma]

My mother used to always refrigerate the peanut butter and jelly. I've totally rebelled and gone the other way. It's all much more easy to spread at room temp. I prefer my jams to not be cold. Could it be my sensitive tooth?

Meryl
http://theoccasionalcook.blogspot.com/

[chef chicklet]

There is probablly citrus (acid) and I know a lot of sugar. It is fine.

[Will Owen]

I'm pretty sure the only thing that can go wrong with even homemade jams or jellies is mold. We always just kept ours on a shelf when I was growing up, and if they were homemade we used the paraffin disk as the lid...and if they got a little moldy on top we'd just scrape it off and wash the lid. That was sixty-some years ago, and I've had no symptoms so far...

[Candy]

I leave them in the cupbpard for months. No Problem.

[Allstonian]

Absolutely fine - no problem. Depending on how quickly you go through a jar, you may not need to refrigerate it at all. I do because I'm a pretty infrequent consumer - if I don't keep my jams in the fridge they get moldy. But overnight should not do it any harm.

[AnnaEA]

They should be fine -- they'd be too sugary and too acidic for any nasty gazigglies to set up housekeeping in that quickly.

In fact, I think that the greater risk for leaving a preserves out is them drying up and getting stiff. That, and losing flavour.

[cheryl_h]

It should be fine.