canning

[shotman]

well done this for many years and many have too.
today I canned some tomatoes
took out of cannier and sat on counter to cool.
a ring blew and got 1/2 jar of 250* tomatoes on me . look like a spotted tiger.
just a warning they were new rings

[41 mag fan]

Was it the ring or was the jars canning or mayo jars? i've had that happen but it was due to the mayo jar breking. Looked like I had chicken pox for several days.

[Trey45]

Cold pack or open pot canning? Both have their dangers, although I've never heard of or seen a ring blow apart. I did cold pack tomatoes just a couple weeks ago and had a Ball jar break in the hot water bath. I then tried an open pot canning and had another Ball jar break, this one cracked while sitting on the counter. These Ball jars I'm using are maybe 50 years old so I expect breaks from time to time. After 2 in a row, I may just retire the Ball jars and use the new Mason jars I bought.

[gbrown]

I canned with my grandmother and mother for 20 years. When my dad quit farming, I had no supply of tomatoes, so got out of it. Have used hotwater bath canning in making salsa, pickles and jellies in the past year. I have had jars break on me, both Ball or Kerr or re-cycled jars (mayo & such), but never a ring. One other thing I thought of--removing a jar from a hot water bath and placing under an A/C vent can unduly stress the wall. One of the things I have to pay attention to!!

[Jailer]

Both grandmothers and my mother always sat the hot jars on a towel on the counter and then covered them with another so they wouldn't cool too fast. They never had one break that I remember of.

[snuffy]

By ring do you mean these?

http://www.amazon.com/Rubber-Parfait-Canning-Replacement-Gaskets/dp/B001B6F8A4/ref=pd_sim_k_3

They refer to them as rubbers. Or these;

http://www.amazon.com/Ball-Regular-Mouth-Lids-Bands/dp/B000BWY314/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1344215271&sr=8-1&keywords=canning+jar+bands

Hot packing in an open tub, once the jar comes out of the boiling water, it begins to get negative pressure almost immediately. I leave the lids loose while in the hot bath, then as soon as they come out, I tighten the band/ring to aid in the sealing action the negative pressure creates.

I've never had a jar crack AFTER taking out of the hot bath. I HAVE had it happen when adding hot brine into cold jars. Mom always had the jars sitting in hot water before filling the jar with boiling brine. That gave them time to acclimate or normalize to the hot brine.

Mayo jars are not as thick and are not made for extreme heat temp. change like Kerr, Ball, or mason jars.

Mom used the zinc lids with the rubber gasket for tomatoes. Tomatoes back then were higher in acid, you didn't have to have a hard vacuum for them to keep well.

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

well done this for many years and many have too.
today I canned some tomatoes
took out of cannier and sat on counter to cool.
a ring blew and got 1/2 jar of 250* tomatoes on me . look like a spotted tiger.
just a warning they were new rings

I assume you are using a pressure canner.
I've processed 100 or so jars every year for more years that I can count and
I've never had a jar break/crack in the water bath method processing, But I have had several crack with the pressure canner...It's the higher heat I suspect.
BUT I 've never had one blowup outside the canner :shock:
I hope you didn't get burned too bad.
was it a ring failure ? or glass jar/neck failure ?
Jon

[GREENCOUNTYPETE]

I have had some break , some on the way in others while in and some dunp the bottoms as soon as i lift them

had it happen in hot water and pressure canning

won't be happening any time soon to me i gave up watering a few weeks into the drought they would have been some very expensive tomatoes , so i suffer with store tomatoes this year.

i last mowed my lawn in june , only a few spots need it now i will mow them and the rest may go till September

i wash my jars them put them in the oven at 170 then hot pack i hate pealing tomatoes so i sauce them or don't bother canning them , that reduced breakage , that and i turn off the fan when i take them out.

my time was valuable and for 89 cents a can i can buy petite diced ready for chilli and other things i cook

i get more satisfaction form other things i can.

[1Shirt]

Canning is (unfortunately), like many other things that were common in the past becoming rare today!
1shirt!:coffee:

[MathGuy]

On another note, has anyone canned bacon? I've been looking into this as a way
of long term storage of perishable high calorie foods

[Chihuahua Floyd]

Mathguy,
Never canned bacon, but have canned venison and chicke/turkey stock. Need pressure canner for them. Venison is excellent. I need to shoot more deer.
CF

[camotruck]

I put up some peaches last week. One didn't seal and my boy polished it off in short order. Then I did a batch of jam and another 1/2 bushel of halves and found him the next day pushing on tops to check for a seal. I lost three jars .... to him.

I told someone at work I had put up peaches and their response was put them up where? LOL

Camo

[shotman]

this was in a pressure canner. I have several jars over the years break in the canner. This one I sat on counter to cool. I am guessing the ring didnt fit to let the heat out in the jar. I most of time use tongs to lift out but happen to have welding glove as there were only 4. as I turned loose of jar ring blew the glove saved face. I have never had that happen in 30yrs . I guess it was good the jar didnt blow . for the glass would be much worse

[waksupi]

Pressure canning usually doesn't work well with bacon, because it is hard to keep all the grease off the rim, preventing a good seal. A way pork sausage was kept, was to fry up the patties, put them in a jar, and completely cover them with the lard that was cooked from the sausage, and adding more lard if necessary. You need to be sure there is a complete layer of the lard over the meat. I've kept them for a couple weeks like this, just digging out what I needed, and then making the grease seal again. The sausage is supposed to stay good for months, I just didn't have the need to keep it that long.

[MathGuy]

waksupi,

Didn't think about the grease problem-it would definitely cause a sealing problem.
Would maybe leaving some additional headspace solve this problem,
but then cause spoilage problems because of the headspace?

Also, has anyone used the supposedly reusable Tatler lids? Just bought
some but haven't tried them out yet.

[gbrown]

I had an old friend--he died in 1978--also, a pure Cherokee, who would cook sausage patties and store in lard. He also canned them this way, as well as tamales and fried pies. We enjoyed many this way at the old camp. Have no idea how they did them, except, they had no pressure canner. Not pushing this idea, I have no idea how he actually did it. Follow all USDA guidelines, is all I can say. It is like all those situations you can get in--OH! $#!+ ! One good bout of food poisoning or worse will convince you. Been there, done that!

[MathGuy]

Chihuahua Floyd

What pressure did you use-something like 5 or 10 pounds (as you are at sea level in NC)
& how long? Any particular spices that you'd recommend?

We're here in se WI & had one nasty summer. Fortunately our garden has made it
through the drought, heat & storms. When the tomatoes/peppers/corn/sunflower/potato
etc are ready, it's going to be a really mad rush to can, dehydrate, freeze & vacuum seal.

[MathGuy]

gbrown,

It's funny how a lot of the old timers have lost/forgot a small amount of their knowledge,
but that small amount is way more
then I'll ever hope to acquire. What they have retained would be volumes of
valuable knowledge. It seems that our society is completely
oblivious to the tremendous knowledge that our elders, both family & friends
have/had.

In my quest for learning about food preservation, continually coming across pearls
of wisdom from previous generations.

[garbear]

We can everything. We have a pressure canner, boilign water and a steam canner. I have had some bolltes already broke in teh hot water canner. I made a mistake the first year using the pressure canner and a bottle of venision exploed in my face. I'll say this I had a guardin angel becaseu I had one tiny cut on my ear and no burns.
Garbear

[oneokie]

Any particular spices that you'd recommend?


One I will recommend that you NOT use is Sage. Canning does something to sage that makes food containing it almost inedible.

[wgr]

sage is one of the spices that just keeps getting stronger with age.