Putting Food By - Janet Greene [33]
FITTINGS FOR BAILED JARS
Discard any lids that have rough or chipped rims, or whose top-notch (which holds the longer hoop in place) is worn away.
Sometimes the wire bails are so rusted or old or tired that they have lost their gimp and can’t hold the lid down tightly. Please don’t go in for makeshift tightening by bending the wires or padding the lids. Retire the jars.
Jar closures: No. 1 (and down)—two-piece screwband lid seals modern masons on the rim; No. 2 (and down)—bailed lid. No. 2, can still be found (used) but have not been made for years, thus their fittings (and safety) are suspect.
(Drawing by John Devaney)
Rubbers are still sold in boxes of twelve, and come in standard and wide-mouth sizes. Look for the rubbers in online canning-supply stores. One source is Kitchen Krafts, which markets them as “regular rubber jar rings.” Call 1-800-776-0576 or go to www.kitchenkrafts.com. Never re-use rubbers, or use old, stale rubbers that have been hanging around for years. Stretch rubbers gently and only enough so they’ll go over the neck of the jar.
To sterilize: boil jars and lids for 15 minutes, and let them wait, covered by the hot water, until used. But don’t boil rubbers: wash well, then put them in a shallow pan, cover with boiling water, and let stand till used.
—But Don’t Use These
Protect your family by using only the jars and fittings that are GRAS, as the Food and Drug Administration might put it (meaning “generally recognized as safe”). Don’t be stampeded into using unreliable or makeshift closures (see Checklist for Safe Canning-Jar Closures, in a minute).
1. Any jars imported from Europe or Asia for which you don’t have full and explicit directions that live up to USDA or Agriculture Canada standards of safety. They’re charming—as cannisters—but they’re too bulky for safe processing of many dense, Raw-packed strong-acid foods; in addition, they are not OK’d as heat-tempered for Pressure-processing low-acid foods.
2. Very old jars for which new fittings/closures are not gettable. There are a number of books about antique canning jars—like the ones for collectors of old bottles—and you may have some real prizes (to keep or to sell, but not to can in). Look in the Readers’ Guide to Periodical Literature, at every library, for articles in antiques magazines. There are also many sources for antique canning jars on the internet.
Jars In and Out of the Canner
Don’t put cold jars of food into very hot water; don’t fill a canner with jars of boiling-hot food and then slosh cold water into the canner. Don’t clunk filled jars against each other—especially if they’re filled with boiling-hot food.
After processing time is up, remove jars at once from the B–W Bath. However, let the Pressure Canner return to Zero naturally and rest for up to 5 minutes before you remove the lid and take out the jars. Often you have an “after-boil” bubbling in the jars as you remove them. Great: your seal has already started. Take care that you don’t knock the jars against each other as you unload them. Complete seals if necessary. Then set them on a rack, a wooden surface, or one padded with cloth or newspaper, and be sure it’s not in a draft of cold air. And never invert processed jars in the mistaken idea that you’re helping the seal—quite the contrary!
Cooling. Jars must cool naturally: don’t drape a towel over them with the idea of protecting them from air currents, because keeping them warm will invite flat sour. Let them sit undisturbed for 12 hours before you check the seals and perform the other chores described in Post-processing Jobs, later in this chapter.
Checklist for Safe Canning-Jar Closures
In the mid-1970s there was a scary shortage of canning-jar lids—scary, because it brought forth a number of fly-by-night producers in addition to some new and conscientious ones. In case such a crisis occurs again, here are the things to look for in a new product; and they apply to equipment other than jar lids.
Good Directions for Use?