I decided to take advantage of what is probably one of the last cold, windy days this season to run the pressure canner and get some dried beans out of my pantry. I avoid having the stove on for over an hour to pressure-can anything when my kitchen is 80 degrees, you see, but yesterday the house could use the heat.
I thought I only had 11 new jar lids, though*, and I had more like 15 pints of soaked beans. Since I still had room in my giant pressure-canner for the extra jars, I stuck some already-used lids on the extra jars and put them in with the jars I was canning for storage. I figured I might as well at least use the space to cook the jars of beans, even if they went in the freezer afterwards.
And then every single jar lid sealed.
I was somewhat shocked by this. I mean, EVERYONE KNOWS those lids are single-use. They're not supposed to seal with a second use! Sometimes they don't even seal with the first use!
But they did. And it was a serious seal. I tried to pull the lids off with my fingers and couldn't. Just like with the jars I keep in my pantry for months at a time, the seal was tight enough that I had to use my can opener to pop off one of the lids.
Huh.
So, of course, I had to do some research on this. The first results for a search on re-using jar lids are pretty much ,"DON'T DO IT. BOTULISM AND CERTAIN DEATH WILL ENSUE." Or at least the wrath of USDA will descend upon you.
Further scrolling, however, revealed a whole cadre of canners who explain how to re-use lids. Always with the disclaimer that EVERYONE KNOWS you're not supposed to re-use these lids. But these people do. And they'll tell you how, with handy tips and everything.
I guess the takeaway here is that what EVERYONE KNOWS is not actually what everyone practices.
I am not suggesting we all wantonly re-use lids and blithely ignore safety practices when canning, I just thought this was interesting.
* And then I found three more boxes of wide-mouth jar lids in the cabinets when I was searching for masa, so obviously my organization is not what it could be.
8 comments:
My sister and I were canning jelly this weekend. We needed to reuse a couple of lids, which sealed fine. Two of the new ones failed. Go figure.
Oh man. If only you were on the facebook, I would prompt you to join the group We Might Be Crazy But We Aren't Stupid Canning and Preserving. The food science is phenomenal. No one there is a rebel canner and lots of people (worldwide, not the same) talk about safe practice. And they're awesome people. No trolls. Only half a dozen places on the entire internet have no trolls.
I've reused lids in a pinch and they all sealed. I've even reused commercial jam jars (metal lids with that little bit of rubber stuff near the rim), they all sealed too. I used those jars first. No one died.
I haven't canned anything in years, but my mom does some canning several times a year, mainly things like jam/jelly, fruit juices for upcoming batches of jam/jelly, and applesauce. I'd guess more than 3/4 of the lids she uses are reused. Some are regular canning lids with rings. Others are reused commercial jars and their associated lids that screw on fully -- the smaller salsa jars, in particular, are a great size and seem to work well. She's quite careful with cleanliness, sterilization and processing. It's rare that she has a jar that doesn't seal (it does happen on occasion). None of us have gotten sick or died from the food in those jars. While that could still happen, my mom is 76 and going strong, and I've been eating her food for 45 years, so I feel fairly confident at this point that this method is OK, despite what EVERYONE KNOWS.
If the lids are bent or rusting or have holes in them or are otherwise damaged in any way, don't use them. Otherwise, sterilize and process properly and everything will be fine. And if it makes a person feel safer to use brand-new lids every time regardless, then that is what they should do.
A lot of the things EVERYONE KNOWS are bunk. If they weren't, we wouldn't exist. Our ancestors would've died from the issues caused by all the things EVERYONE KNOWS before everyone knew them.
--Karen.'s sister
Another still alive canner here that probably NEVER used a new lid. I generaly just collect and reuse commercial glass jars from pickles, jams, mayo... pretty much any that has a metal lid that would reseal. I actually prefer those over the standard canning jars plus lids because I find them so much easier to open. And from my experience more than 90% of them seal properly even after several uses.
I have NEVER re-used a canning lid because EVERYONE KNOWS you will die of botulism if you do. I guess I'll have to re-think that! Live and learn.
A few years ago I read a couple of blogs from England that published photos of jam and relishes canned in reused jars and lids. Huh. Now I save commercial jam jars and lids for re-use. Occasionally they don't seal but those jars go in the refrigerator. And I am a very careful longtime canner.
I've been hearing more and more from people who reuse lids successfully. I wish I'd tried this in 2020 when I couldn't find lids anywhere.
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