Monday, December 10, 2012

What to do When You Blow Your Lid


I was moving around some quart size jars that have pressure canned chili in them which were sealed up a few weeks ago when I noticed that the lid on one of the jars was no longer sealed. This reminded me to write about the importance of checking your jars, and cans for that matter. Lids pop up when the seal has been broken, or when bacteria that did not die during processing have filled the space with their gaseous byproducts. Either way, this is bad news.

If a jar does not seal within an hour or so of removing it from the canner, you can sterilize everything again, use a new lid, reheat the food, and completely reprocess the jar. Or, as frequently happens at my house, I put the unsealed jar in the fridge and use it within a week. Since my chili was canned a few weeks ago, and all of the jars sealed at that time, I can only say that the specific jar in question got contaminated at some point during the process, or the lid got knocked pretty hard by something which broke the seal. Regardless, I emptied the jar into the garbage disposal and cleaned the jar with bleach water after inspecting it for cracks and chips. This will happen on occasion, and while it is annoying, it should not stop you from canning.

Jars and home-canned things are not the only things susceptible to this type of spoilage. As a prepper, I usually try the sniff test on cans (store-bought) which may be a little past the expiration date. But take a good look at the can as well. If the can itself is rusty or degraded in any way, or the seal is popped, throw it away!  Botulism is a nasty disease that you can get from eating improperly sealed food. When in doubt, throw it out is a good motto to live by. In a TSHTF scenario, having food poisoning from unsealed and tainted food can kill you.

Light, air, humidity and bugs can ruin dry goods, which I keep in 5 gallon buckets. I am working on a post with pictures about storing dry goods that I hope to have posted within the next few days.

Thanks for reading, and Happy Prepping!

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