Blackberry season is basically over, the apples are piling up, and if you’re anything like most people who make a batch of jam or chutney once a year, you know the moment it goes wrong. It isn’t the boiling. It’s the bit at the end, when you’re tipping a pan of molten fruit into a row of jars with a ladle and half of it runs down the outside of the glass.

That drip matters more than it looks. Jam on the rim of a jar can stop the lid sealing properly, and a jar that doesn’t seal is a jar that goes mouldy on the shelf in November. Wiping every rim with a hot damp cloth works, but it’s slow, and you’re doing it while the jam in the pan is setting.

A wide-mouth jam funnel is the fix, and it’s very simple. It sits in the neck of the jar, the ladle goes into the big bowl at the top, and the jam goes straight down the middle. The rim stays clean.

Metal, not plastic

The one worth looking at is Delove’s three-piece set, which has been on Amazon for a few years and has thousands of ratings behind it. You get a large wide-mouth funnel, a smaller one, and a little umbrella-shaped strainer that drops into the funnel. Delove says the funnels fit both wide-mouth and regular jars, which covers the Kilner and Bonne Maman jars most of us end up reusing.

Plastic funnels exist and cost less, but jam comes off the heat well above boiling point, and I’d rather pour that through metal than through thin plastic. These are stainless steel, so they cope with hot and cold, don’t pick up the colour of beetroot chutney, and go in the dishwasher afterwards. They also stack inside each other, so they take up about as much drawer space as a cereal bowl.

The strainer is the least essential part. It’s a perforated disc, handy if you’re pouring flavoured vinegar or oil with whole spices or herbs you want to catch. It won’t strain pips out of raspberry jam, so don’t buy it expecting that.

A couple of things that help

Warm the funnel along with the jars when you sterilise them. A warm funnel means the jam keeps flowing rather than thickening at the neck. And fill to just below the bottom of the funnel’s spout, then lift it out and check the level. You want a small gap under the lid, not jam touching it.

It’s also a surprisingly good way to fill jars with dry stuff: rice, lentils, sugar or flour from a big bag into a storage jar without a sprinkling of it across the worktop. So it doesn’t just come out once a year.

Delove Stainless Steel Canning Funnel Set with Strainer, 3 pieces (Amazon)