How do you open canning jars?

[Jstpssng]

I remove the rings after the jars have cooled, as when I'm in canning mode I don't have enough for every jar that I use. When it comes time to open them I grip the jar and pop the lid with my thumbs. I've never thought about reusing the lids, having had a bad case of food poisoning once (from a restaurant) I don't take chances of it ever happening again.

 

[TnAndy]

Maybe it's self defeating but my wife cans a bunch and we leave the sealing rings on. When it comes time to open a jar of say spaghetti sauce or pickled beets or Kraut (we make a lot of kraut here, I do the work on that), I take a pair of needle nose pliers and grip the rolled edge of the sealing ring and wind the pliers up (just like an old ham can key) from the bottom of the ring to the top and that removes the ring from the jar and then I use an old school can opener to remove the lid. Wife is very particular about her jars and she has many very old blue glass Ball jars.

Works every time and I've never broken a jar. Sealing rings and lids are cheap anyway. Wife buys them in boxes of 50 each.

We reuse the rings until they start to rust, then toss. Don't guess we've ever bought new rings, as we've bought lots of jars over the years that came with ring/lid. Now LIDS, have bought lots of them.....probably have thousands 'in stock', along with 600-800 quart jars and maybe 200-300 pint and half pint. We do a lot of canning.

Cabinet I built for empty quart and pint jars in the garage. Filled go in the pantry.

Sweet potatoes:

Heat/eat stuff:

Beef stew

Bacon

Green beans

Pears & apples

 

[Alan W.]

TnAndy seein the dates on ya jars reminds me how the local extension service use to always tell people that home canned food was only good for a year and was suspect after that.

I write the year with a Sharpie on the lid.

Never had a problem with a stuck ring cause they always came off after the jars cooled.

Gotta go peach cobbler is comin out of the oven.

 

[Kyle_in_Tex]

Why go cheap, when you can go BIG?

EPIC Bottle Cap Challenge - 16 IPM CNC Machining DMG MORI DMU5 - YouTube

 

[Kyle_in_Tex]

TnAndy,
I've never seen a home setup with that many mason jars. That is awesome. I love it.

 

[Deere Dude]

TnAndy seein the dates on ya jars reminds me how the local extension service use to always tell people that home canned food was only good for a year and was suspect after that.

\. ��

My wife watches for expiration dates in the stores but some home canned stuff we used is 2-5 years old and still fine. We try to keep it under 1-2 years but get carried away canning at times.

 

[MossRoad]

Broken record here:

I remove our rings after the cans are all sealed. Any that are tough get warm water run over them and that always frees them up. We don't store them with the ring on.

On another note, I bought some plastic canning jar lids like these, and once we open a jar, we use these plastic lids on them until we finish the contents. Works great for things like salsa, applesauce, apple butter, jams, jellies, etc.... pretty much anything that won't get used up in one sitting.

https://www.amazon.com/Ball-Regular-Mouth-Storage-Caps/dp/B0000BYC4B

 

[5030]

Why not just buy lids and reuse rings. Even if they are cheap every dime saved over time can buy a new tractor.

Take a helluva lot of saved rings just to equal a tank of diesel in my big M's. The other issue here is, we have a lot of dissolved calcium in the water and my wife cold packs so as the jars cool the rings get 'glued' onto the jars by the calcium so the only way to get the rings off once they cool is the needle nose plier method.

been doing it that way for 30 years now.

At least when I squeeze cider I don't have to deal with jars and rings though we do freeze apple cider, keeps well that way. Last fall I ran enough apples for 75 gallons of cider and it vanished as fast as I made it.

Everyone around here loves my cider, even the cattle who get the squeezed mash. I bought one of those big screw presses but I mechanized the mashing/pulping process. Bought an antique English pulper at a flea market, machined all new bearings for it, cut the hand crank flywheel for a belt drive and I drive the pulper with a 1/2 horse electric motor and that sucker eats apples as fast as you can feed them.

Takes about 45 seconds to fill the cheesecloth bag lined tub with pulp and then the squeezing begins all to thedelight of the kids and the bees who congregate around the cider press. I wash them in 5 gallon buckets and the apples, worms and all go in the pulper and get squeezed. The worms give the cider good flavor and no, I don't tell people I squeeze the worms too....lol

 

[buckeyefarmer]

I need to fix up dad's old cider mill. It was originally his dad's, very old.

 

[Alan W.]

Deere Dude I have older home canned goods also, and its still good. But most of the time its gone.

MossRoad Those plastic caps are the best. We use them on all our opened jars. For freezing in jars also.