User login
Kitchen Tip Tuesdays: Sealing canning jars
While I am not a canning-expert, I do have some experience with (and have had good success!) canning tomatoes. It's so rare that one of my jars doesn't seal, I'd have to guess that about 97% of my jars of tomatoes do seal. (I'm including all tomato products in this generalization.)
So, here are my tips for jars-that-seal! :)
1. Check the jar for cracks or nicks on the top rim. The top of the jar, where the canning lid goes, should feel completely smooth.
2. Fill jars of tomatoes (or pizza sauce, etc.) about 1/2 to 1-inch from the top.
3. After filling a jar, wipe the top rim with a clean dishcloth to remove any spilled tomatoes or smudges of sauce.
4. Use canning lids that are new. They can be a few (even 5) years old, but don't use the ones you found in your grandmother's basement when you were helping her clean. The rubber gets old after a while. :) And don't re-use a canning lid that you used on your food last summer! :)
5. Tighten the ring over the lid snugly, but not as tight as you can make it. The ring should give some resistance when you try to unscrew it, but it shouldn't require a lot of effort to take off again.
6. Follow the directions on your recipe for canning (usually for tomatoes, a boiling water bath). After removing the jars from the canner, place them on a folded towel or on a wooden cutting board. Don't touch or disturb the jars until they are cool! :)
Does anyone else have tips for successful jar-sealing rates when canning? I'd love to hear them! :)
To participate in Kitchen Tip Tuesdays: Post a kitchen tip in your blog, with a link to this post. Then come here and add your name, tip subject, and URL to this post! Links must be family friendly, as always. If you don't have a blog but would still like to share a tip, just leave a comment here with your tip! Everyone's ideas are appreciated. :) Note: Please link to your individual post, not your blog's main/front page! Thanks for participating! :)
Kitchen Tip Tuesdays Participants
| 1. Brandy 2. AmyG(meatloaf) 3. Mrs. Brigham (Cleaning Kitchen Appliances) |
4. *Michigan Momma* 5. Shirley (Wonder Cleanser) 6. Mrs Pear (Zip Top Freezing Method) |
7. Stephanie (Keeping Track of Recipes) |
Using our Amazon.com search boxes when making purchases helps support this site. Thanks for your support!
Using our Amazon.com search boxes when making purchases helps support this site. Thanks for your support!
New Recipes
Poll
New Recipe Reviews
Recent comments
- These recipes make me wish
1 day 3 hours ago - I've used Rum
1 day 5 hours ago - I never knew...
1 day 5 hours ago - bar keepers friend for cook ware
1 day 13 hours ago - Excuse my kitchen
1 day 17 hours ago - Thank you so much! :)
1 day 17 hours ago - Kitchen scale: faster or slower in the kitchen?
1 day 17 hours ago - Debating on one.
1 day 23 hours ago - I read through the comments
2 days 1 hour ago - I love my kitchen scale!
2 days 1 hour ago
I recommend SwagBucks as a simple way to earn money while doing your normal Google Searches. Read my full review -- Tammy
Who's online
There are currently 1 user and 46 guests online.
Online users
Organic bulk ingredients at excellent prices! -- Tammy
To add a link to Tammy's Recipes copy and paste the below HTML into your website:
Comments
My first time
Please excuse my lack of a subject--my post is about making panini's without a press and keeping a cool kitchen during canning season. Whoops!
Brandy
Sounds like we follow the
Sounds like we follow the same guidelines for canning. :) I do have one question that maybe you can help me with. If a jar seals before you begin the canning process, is it necessary to can it still? It happened to me to the other day but I still stuck it in the canner just to be safe. :)
Yes!
Some of my jars did this yesterday, as I was waiting to can the second batch. Basiclly, when you fill a jar with hot food and put the lid on it, as it cools, the food shrinks (or whatever you'd call it!) and creates a vacuum, so the lid seals. But it's necessary to actually process the jar in the boiling water bath so that all the bacteria/germs are killed... because just a sealed jar doesn't mean it won't spoil! :)
Yes....
Yes, I still can them too. :)~Tanya
Okay, good to know that. I
Okay, good to know that. I have one more question...can you recan(is that a word??) a jar that didn't seal? I was just wondering but then thought it might turn the contents to mush.
Re-canning unsealed jars
I think the *mush factor* probably depends on what you're canning, but I know my mom has re-canned jars that didn't seal. She puts new lids on them and then re-cans them. I haven't looked to see if this is recommended/okay safety-wise, I'm just telling you what my mom has always done. :)
I know we've done that with green beans, tomatoes, applesauce, and apple pie filling (which gave us the MOST trouble with sealing, so we gave up on canning that!!).
we have done it here too
My mom has re-canned jars that didn't seal and I have done it too. ~Tanya
sealing jars
i just canned pear perserves and I am not sure on the sealing process..
will the water boil around the jars and how long do you keep it in the water
so that it kills bacteria/germs?
Another canning tip
I love canning tomatoes! It's such a satisfying project to see all those jars. I have one more thing to add to what you wrote, Tammy... I also slide a knife down into each jar in a couple of places to remove any air pockets.
Shirley
Choosing Voluntary Simplicity
Tammy, In freezing jam and
Tammy,
In freezing jam and pizza sauce, I have found I can use a lid twice with no reduction in my sealing success rate. So the first time I just put a little dot on the jar lid, the second time I put a second dot or write on the lid, that way I know how many times a lid has been used.
We discovered this when we got more pizza sauce than expected, and did not have enough lids.
Kristy
Phil 2:9-11
http://mrspear.blogspot.com/
I reuse lids...
I reuse lids all the time. Just check them first to make sure they are not dented around the edge. ~Tanya
How do you keep the lid from
How do you keep the lid from getting dented when removing it for the first time?
Good question....
Good question! I just remove them carefully I guess. :) I usually use the a butter knife when removing the lid.... ~Tanya
Okay, that should work for
Okay, that should work for me too then. :)
Helps Seal Jars Better
To help seal the tomatoe jars a little better, we turn them upside down for a few mintues. We have a lot of trouble getting the pizza sauce to seal. I am not sure if it is because we open kettle or not, but turning the jars upside down seems to help. It is just for about 2-3 mintues. I am not sure what it does.
Canning jar lid/sealing
Kristy, that's great! Maybe sometime I'll be brave enough to try your idea... the cost of canning lids does add up, and they all end up in the trash, so the more use, the better, right? :)
Anonymous, I've never open-kettled pizza sauce... mine is so thick, when it boils, it splatters everywhere!! Plus, we're usually doing a large pan of it (10+ quarts) and it's hard to boil that much and keep it from sticking to the bottom of the pan. I bring it to a boil to add my thickening, and that's it... then I do the boiling water bath. :) I wonder if turning the jars upside down puts moisture near the seal, so that air can't get back in?? :)
Upside down lids
We do 10+ quarts. We did 9 quarts and 20 pints last night. I am not sure what the upside down thing does, but it helps. We had 100% seal last night. We did have to give some whole and juice a second bath. We bath them and open kettled the salsa and sauce. We are doing BBQ sauce today and that is open kettle too.
Teresa
I keep forgetting to add my name
Air pockets in my Sealed jars?
I have a question. I am canning tomatoes, I do all of those steps that you mentin, but have heard that pressure canning is better for tomatoes so that is what I am doing. However, I have found that although my jars are sealed, they have leaked a bit in the processing and now have air pockets in the jars. What am I doing wrong.
Recanning
i have several quarts of canned apple butter. I would like to recanned the apple butter into smaller 1/2 pints and use them for gifts. i do not want to make anyone sick. i would reheat the applebutter and use sterile jars and new lids. Can i do this or should i just toss the apple butter?
Recanning
I have never tried that myself. I have been canning for just about a year, and got advise from several friends on how to's. I just make so much apple butter at a time I do pints, half-pints, and 4 oz.
Why didn't my Jars seal?
I have been canning for 20 plus years. And the the only time I had trouble with Jars not sealing is when I used ball lids. this year Kerr are now made by ball and last night I did 27 quarts of pickles and 7 did not seal. Has anyone else had this trouble and what do you think I should do?
lids popping
what happens if the lids get pressed down before they can vacuum seal themselves? does that inhibit the jellification process when making jams?
rachel
Pears that didn't seal
I canned pears (in light syrup) four days ago and just noticed that they didn't seal. I noticed today that foam and bubbles were collecting in the jars and there was a leakage from the jars. I think I propably did not leave enough head space when filling the jars. Did the pears begin to firment at this time and is it ok for me to bring them to a good boil again and put them back into sterilized jars and reseal. I hate to lose the pears but I don't want
anyone to get sick either. They were only canned in sugar water. Any info on this would be appreciated.
Karon
You are correct about not
You are correct about not leaving enough head space. That is generally the most common reason for jars that don't seal. The contents boils up and gets under the lid, leaving a path for air to re-enter the jar as it cools.
Canning Beets
I canned some beets earlier today , my mom was helping me and she said to turn the jars upsidedown, everywhere ive read says thats a no no but can i still turn them upright and boil them or just cool them upside down as well?
air pockets
last night I canned some apple butter I made, but I forgot a step. I forgot to run a spatula around the inside of the full jar to allow air pockets to escape. All of my lids seem to be sealed as of now, should I recan or is it safe with the air pockets as long as my lids are sealed?
Post new comment