For a couple of weeks, I was canning nonstop. I’d say that I’m really into canning, but that would not be telling the truth. The truth is that I am really into eating, and I really like supporting local farmers and good food. To preserve much of this food, I can, freeze, and sometimes dehydrate it.
After the weeks of canning ended recently, I discovered that I had a few jars that didn’t seal properly. I also had some jars that had lost a lot of liquid. What happens when you suffer a canning mishap? You pick yourself up, and you figure out how to recover your food.
First, you’ll want to avoid mishaps by using a good, modern canning book. Make sure that all of your goodies have enough head room at the top. Make sure that you’ve removed as many air bubbles as possible before you can. Use good quality jars without nicks out of the glass, and make sure that your screw caps are not twisted.
If your canning fails, you can reprocess it. However, you need to be very food safe about this. Change the jar if required, and add a new lid and screw cap. Process the food as you did before. No cutting corners!
If you can’t reprocess, you can always place the food in the fridge. Eat it within a week of canning so that it doesn’t go bad.
What did I do when my pears went awry? I could have placed them in the freezer whole, after removing 2 inches of liquid from the top to account for freezing. However, I don’t really like whole frozen pears. I turned mine into some lovely vanilla pear sauce and placed that in the freezer. This used fewer jars, freeing some up for future canning.
What’s your strategy when your canning doesn’t seal? Have you ever had a whole batch of canning fail to seal?
Image Credit: Andre Watia