Canning Question of the Week

Canning question of the week:
So I was out thrifting and seen these and they reminded me of a canning question a neighbor called me with recently.
Can these self sealing jars be used safely for home canning ?
The answer is not really.
They are made for commercial processors that get the temperature quickly high enough. They are sold in boxes much cheaper than mason jars often. So they are attractive to the home canner. But they shouldn’t be considered safely sealed when used.

Although they will sometimes seal in a water bath canner (the little indent in the top of the lid is pressed downwards and not able to be moved) it’s not always. They are not considered shelf stable and I wouldn’t waste ingredients and time on using them for home canning.
However if I was making a batch of jam, as my friend was, and giving a jar of it right away to family, I would tell them to refrigerate it and use right away. In that case these would be perfectly fine to use. I wouldn’t bother wasting time water bath canning it, as the jars are really just for storage.

Now you say “Jennifer years ago, great grammie used any good jar and lid she could find for canning” and yes she did. Sometimes it worked but they had lots of sealing fails too. They smelled or it went off tasting. Again, not something I want to play around with for safety or waste my time and ingredients on.
I use a two part lid system (ring and lid) that has a really high success rate, which you can see on my Spicy Red Pepper Jelly I made yesterday. We know a lot more now about food preservation.

Here is what I find ironic: we have so much more access to information about food preservation than great grandma did …..but we preserve less food than her.
I think that’s changing though. I see a lot more interest and I love sharing those skills with people.
Happy canning !

Love Jenn xx