I just saw this tip on another site and one of the comments said something like "I wouldn't trust my canning information from just any blog". So I decided to go to the source. According to the manufacturers of Ball canning products, it is not necessary to heat the lids before placing them on the canning jars.
I found this page which talks about canning lids and how it is unnecessary to simmer them before using. This is not new information. It has been true since 1969, when the chemical composition of the sealing gasket was changed. As many of us learned to can from our older relatives, it is not surprising that this extra step has been passed on for so many years.
The Ball Corporation manufactured home canning jars and materials for over 100 years before spinning off the home canning manufacturing part of their business in 1993. The Jarden Corporation manufactures brands such as Ball and Kerr today. Their home canning site, freshpreserving.com, has information about all aspects of home canning.
This page contains the following solutions.
I store my emptied canning jars in the garage. I found that if I store the jars upside down, it saves a lot of time cleaning them up to use. No more dust or dead bugs inside.
It costs a bit the first year to get set, but you could just get a boiling water bath the first year and use next year's savings to buy a pressure canner.
Don't let your canning water go to waste. You can blanch green beans or other fruits or vegetables for freezing in boiling water bath canner water after you remove the jars of, say, tomatoes or fruit from the canner.
So many people are asking about canning foods or freezing them. I have an old Kerr Canning guide that is so old the pages are falling out, but I love it.
This is just a tip for non-USA residents that I have finally managed to work out! Canning, for all of us Europeans, means preserving or bottling! Not a tin in sight!
Thanks For The Nice Comments On Canning And Gardening. May I respond to all the nice people who commented on my home food canning tip?
When I was canning pickles this summer I would take a cut off cucumber end and put it up on my stove top to let me know each time I had put 1 cup of cucumbers in the pot.=
When I make jams or jellies using the Sure-Jell method, my recipe calls to bring it to rolling boil that cannot be stirred down for exactly one minute. Instead of trying to guess or use a kitchen timer, I just use my microwave timer.
Here are the questions asked by community members. Read on to see the answers provided by the ThriftyFun community.
I'm searching for information on recanning foods from #10 cans. I purchased several #10 cans of garbanzo beans that I'd like to recan into pints. I wasn't sure if I needed to reuse the thick liquid already in the cans, or if I could can the beans in water and discard the liquid. Any info will be appreciated.
By Talitha from Payson, AZ
I agree-I would not recan something that is already processed, but I would freeze. Just put your beans into freezer zip bags and label them. You can even freeze them flat to take up less room.
When you freeze garbanzo beans I believe you will find they turn mushy so decide how you wish to use them first. Open 1 can at a time and freeze the left overs. Your extension service will be able to tell you the most about canning and recanning. If you do decide to freeze them I would drain the juice off and just freeze the beans in separate bags....leave them frozen until use and put in recipe frozen to make better use of them.
Some canning jars have a residue around the lips of the jars after the hot water bath. The lids appear sealed. Is the product safe to eat?
You may have overfilled the jars. You need to give headspace. I would use the jars with the residue as quickly as possible. Refrigerate them.
Is the residue the color of whatever you canned--like it was overfilled? If so, I would not use those as there is no way to tell if the seal is complete since there may be residue under the seals and even if they popped, they could be not sealed properly.
Since it has probably been at least 24 hours since this was done, I personally, would toss it. I got very sick from improperly canned items once and really preach a huge dose of care and safety in canning.
If it is white residue (like water spots)--it could be from hard water and the canning process itself and it is not harmful, but I would open, wash it off, and then store in the fridge and use within a week or two.
To prevent the white residue, some people use vinegar in their water. I can't tell you how much...that is based on how hard your water is...start with a few tablespoons and increase until the problem goes away.
This can happen if the jars are overfilled or the tops are not cleaned off. This should not be an issue, but to be on the safe side store the few jars you have in the refrigerator and try to use them up in the next few weeks.
The seal is compromised, meaning they will not last a season, therefore time for creative meals within the next couple of weeks, providing you keep refrigerated.Time for good eating!!!
The canning process can be tricky sometimes and if not paying close attention to '"everything" (or fairly new to canning) something can go wrong and we may have to consider - should I chance it??
I would say to refrigerate these jars and if what is canned can be placed on high heat for several minutes then consider using it but check it carefully.
Is there a simple, inexpensive way to can that doesn't take all day to do? If I have something I need to can, can I do it without spending tons of money to set up?
By Jamish
You have to buy jars, and you will either need a pressure cooker or a hot water bath canner. You will need a special pair of tongs to get the hot jars of canned goods out of the canner. Then you will need a cool place like a unheated basement to keep the canned produce, or a corner of the basement that isn't heated. By the time you prepare the produce for canning, until the time it gets done, you do spend a fair amount of time doing it. Once you get the filled jars in the canner you can do other things, but you do have to keep an eye on the processing time. It isn't hard to can, but it is time consuming and to get started it does take a fair amount of money.
Canning does take some start up money and a good chunk of time. I asked for the items I needed as gifts for Xmas and bdays for a few years. eBay is a good place to look too.
Less expensive is freezing items. I started freezing strawberries, peaches and zucchini while getting equipment. You need preserving agent for peaches. When freezing strawberries, clean, cut and freeze on tray individually. After throw in ziplock freezer bag. Great for smoothies and strawberry sauce later. Zucchini is cut in bite size pieces and frozen same as strawberries or food process it in certain measurements for recipes you use then freeze. I do the later for zucchini bread recipes I have.
I recently began canning food, water bath canning, dry canning, oven canning, and so on. After much thought I decided I would like to begin to store food long term incase of an emergency situation. I did some reserch and figured that oven canning food in mason jars would be appropriate as I don't have a food saver, and wasn't sure I wanted to invest in one just yet.
Now I have oven canned 20 jars of food about two weeks ago and am eager to know if it's possible and safe to remove the food from the mason jars and store them in mylar bags with oxygen absorbers. I also have some mason jars with oxygen absorbers and want to know if those could be transfered to mylar bags as well. I am down sizing in living space and desperatly want to do this before the move. I hope this is possible and need help urgently since I have no previous experience and would hate to mess this up. Please help! Any input would be so greatly appreciated. Thank you. The crazy canning lady.
What do you do with jars that don't seal properly?
By Linda H
If they haven't sealed right away, some times it takes a few hours. (I'll here mine popping in the night). You either need to try and reheat the lid or get a new lid. If all fails again, use product right away. You should be able to get it sealed on 2nd try. Make sure the jar opening is clean/free from anything that would prevent the lid from sealing.
It seems many commercially canned foods use jars that are deliberately just a bit different from traditional canning jars, and the rings and lids will not fit.
Is there someplace to buy those items? Can I buy in bulk the original covers the commercial companies used?
By Muriel S
This is a page about water bath canning advice. A popular and time tested canning method is the water bath. Following the process carefully helps to ensure the quality and safety of your canned foods.
