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I had trouble with some canning lids sealing (mostly metal lids with separate seals from Tattler, but often with Ball lids, too), so I have been tightening the rings immediately after removing the hot jars from the canner. I wear oven mitts or other gloves to tighten the rings. That pushes the seal onto the jar strongly and seals well.

The usual process taught for canning is to let the jars cool and let the lid seal as a vacuum is pulled from the cooling. Since I've thought of tightening the rings while they're hot, I've wondered why my new practice isn't commonly taught. It seems to work very well. I think I can't be introducing contaminants since the ring covers the seal, and the can is hot, so it has positive pressure coming out.

I've been doing this to can chicken and beef stock, processed for 25 minutes at 12 psi.

aswine
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1 Answers1

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By the time your pressure canner is open, the pressure in the jars has dropped enough that they should have sealed firmly. If any haven't, that means they've been sucking in air since the pressure dropped, and are not sterile. You can replace the lids and reprocess them, but it's not safe to simply screw them down while they're kind of hot; they are no longer hot enough for that to be safe.

Canning instructions should be taken from a reliable source and followed exactly. Do not try to improve on them. Instead, concentrate on why your lids aren't sealing. That's the actual problem you have.

Sneftel
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