Canning and Leaking Lids

by Linda H
(Rogue River, OR)

Hello,

I'm new with canning with a pressure cooker. I have canned beef veggie soup. I pressure cooked it for 10-15 lbs for 20 minutes. When I removed the cans, there was food seepage along the lids. The lids seem to be well sealed but I'm not sure if I should reprocess the soup.

What is your experience?

Thanks for your help.

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Linda, you have obviously had a problem with your seals. Either you have a nick in the top of the jar, or perhaps you didn't leave enough headspace or even too much headspace. Difficult to assess without being there.

However, any food that has to be reprocessed will be poor quality. And when you are canning meat products you have to be really careful.

My suggestion is that if you made this food less than 24 hours ago either place it in the fridge and use it within the next 2 days or take it out of the bottles and freeze it.

When canning one of the central issues is making sure that you get a good seal.
Therefore:

* Your seals should be new
* Your bottles should not have any chips on the rims
* Don't reuse the lids
* Don't screw the lids down too tightly
* Make sure that you leave enough headspace so that all the air is sucked out of your jars
* Finally, another problem for novices is that they forget to bang the jars on the counter a couple of times before placing the lid on to remove any air bubbles that may be lurking.

Finally, if you are using a weight gauge canner I would have used 10 pounds pressure for 60 minutes for pint jars and 75 minutes for quart jars. 20 minutes is definitely too short.

Countryfarm Lifestyles

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Jan 25, 2012
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canning - Baking bread
by: John W.

I'm glad we are on the right track. Practice makes perfect or as good as it can be to perfect.

I, like you, made mistakes with my first loaf using a bread machine. I no longer use one, but do it the old fashion way.

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Making homemade bread the old-fashioned way is the only way to go. Have to confess though, I too tried the old bread machine, but no matter what I made in it, it all tasted the same - and not very good at that. A little like a Slow Cooker! :)

Jan 20, 2012
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leaking lids in home canning
by: Linda h

Thanks so much for your answers on my home canning leaking lids.

I don't think I left enough head space in the jar. I probably screwed the lids down too tight. AND, your right, I did NOT smack the jars to remove excess bubbles.

Thanks for your responses. I will try to do it better later.

Linda H.

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Linda,

Really, with everything in life, practice does make perfect.

I made my first loaf of bread at about 13 and the recipe said regarding the dough; "Place in a cool place to rise". Well, it was the fault of the recipe, because it really should have said "warm place", but knowing no better I stuck the dough in the fridge!

Surprised that it hadn't risen, I thought that it would do so while I baked it, so into the oven it went. Needless to say, that first loaf of bread could have been a prototype for building material!

However, so determined was I to succeed that I revisited several recipe books and discovered my error. And I am so pleased I did, because baking my own bread is one of my life's pleasures.

So I am very pleased to hear that you are going to try again. All the very best with your home canning, and power to you for looking to having a more sustainable life.

Regards
Kathryn
Countryfarm Lifestyles

Jan 19, 2012
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Canning
by: John W.

That answer is right on. Not much else to answer on the point. Great job

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