ottawa foodies

i did a google search and couldn't find an answer. does anyone know if you can microwave food in a mason jar? i made a big batch of homemade chai tea and brought some into work. i was planning on just heating it up in the jar, so it would only be in there a couple minutes.
thanks!

hipfunkyfur, I have microwaved my jars without the lid of course and had no problems, sometimes use this method to sterilize jars when making a small batch of jams or preserves.

Yes, no problem at all with this. Though there are some caveats depending on what you have in the jar. If it is just a plain liquid then go ahead and fill yer boots.

If you have soup or chili or something thicker, heating in there can cause it to overflow (sometimes violently) if you are not careful.

And right now I'm rendering more fat, and stuck my 3/4 masor jar of congealed fat into the MW to melt it again and add more to it. Doing that you have to be very careful to only heat it enough to melt the fat but NO FURTHER. Because fat can get hot enough to crack the jar if you heat it too much (yup, learned that one the hard way)

But average foods that are water based - no issues with cracking.

Cakelady, that is absolutely brilliant! I never thought of using the microwave for strerilization but it makes perfect sense.

Cakelady - I too never thought of this method for sterilization... do you put water in the jars or just nuke them empty on high?

You'll bust your MW if you turn it on with no water in there - or so I've heard.

And your jars won't get hot in the least - that much is for certain

yes, put water in the jars to almost the top and let it boil up. Be carefull when taking them out of the microwave and i suggest you use oven gloves as the jars are very hot from the boiling water.

Duh...

Don't know what I was thinking... yes I do, somehow I was visualizing how people sometimes keep their sterilized items hot by putting them into a regular pre-heated oven.

I use the microwave to sterilize my kitchen rag after and before using it. This kills ALOT of stuff, trust me, I had a scientist help me with this.

Yup, that was reported in the media a couple of years ago butcher. I give my sponges and rags a good soak with water and toss them in for 2:22 and it does the trick. I'm all about the easy numbers on the microwave. Porridge is 5:55, or 9:99, depending on how much I'm making :-) (yes, you can do 9:99 on mine at least)