NEVER Run Out of Canning Lids Again -- My New Secret!

so this canning lid shortage is no joke and it is almost impossible to find canning lids the shelves were empty last year and i don't think it's going to be much better in 2021. i have been getting so many emails from folks who cannot find lids i ordered a giant package last may and they are still back ordered however i think i may have found a solution so every once in a while you'll hear someone say oh just use your metal lids more than once but this is actually not a great idea because this compound that's around the edges of the ring is really only good for one use and it weakens so as tempting as it is don't use these kinds more than once but there are reusable canning lids that are made from different materials that are specifically designed to be used more than once so i had experimented with some of these reusable lids like a long time ago eight or nine years ago i kind of used them once or twice and then forgot i had them and just kept using my same old lids because you know we're creatures of habit so i decided to try them again and that is what is in this box all right i got my nice safety scissors that's all i can find so as you can see these look a lot different than your typical lid they have two parts they have this plastic flat part and then a rubber gasket these are a brand called harvest guard i think the ones i used a million years ago were a different brand but from my research these are very very similar i got a set of regular mouth and a set of wide mouths let's give it a shot if these little guys work it's going to be a game changer if they don't well i guess we're back to square one so i have no recollection of how to use these so we're going to be on this adventure together my friend and i'm going to use the handy-dandy instructions that came in the box all right number one wash and clean lids and rings prior to use never clean with bleach or strong acids not a problem i hate bleach anyway always follow proper usda recommended canning practices always do use standard metal mason jar band so we're still going to use our regular rings don't over tighten them okay i think i can do this so admittedly there's not a whole lot to can right now so i was kind of scratching my head thinking what i could use for this lid experiment and then i remembered something i have been procrastinating about in the freezer sometimes if i'm overloaded with tomatoes at the end of the season i will freeze some in ziplocks stash them in the freezer and then deal with them later i grow mostly paste tomatoes these are either amish paste or san marzanos and when i put them in the zip locks what i'll do is i'll wash them trim the end off and then i squish the seeds out very unceremoniously and just get the bulk of the juice but i don't worry about like every last bit i just kind of close counts looking good you can see it's cooking down a little bit skins are kind of floating to the top we're just gonna let it keep doing its thing and in a minute i will pull out the blender i think even the pickiest either is going to be hard pressed to find any skin in there it's pretty well disguised want to soak the rubber rings it says in simmering water immediately prior to use to soften the rubber and adding a small amount of vinegar to the water can be helpful especially if you have hard water which we totally do so now that the sauce is getting closer i'm going to move it over to the other burner because this is my favorite burner you all have a favorite burner too right [Music] i like to sterilize and heat up my jars in the canning pot while the water heats up i'm gonna get that going [Music] just checking in with my directions do not tighten the metal band as tight as you would with traditional metal lid so it's really important with these guys it sounds like that we do not over tighten so we'll see how i do with this fishing is out of here so i'm burning my fingers okay i like how the lid has this lip so the gasket just fits right in there don't worry about it sliding around and then put those in the middle [Music] so if the lids are all on i think i did okay we'll see only time will tell the lid's centered the gasket's on i did not over tighten them i actually maybe tightened them even a little bit less than i normally would with a regular lid so fingers crossed the other big thing that's important is that when i pull the jars out of the canner i'm going to have to tighten them down which you never would do with a regular lid so that is a fairly big difference and one you don't want to [Music] [Music] forget all right so now they're out and the good thing is is i don't see any doming of the lids because the instructions said that's not good it means you over tightened the rings so i think we're okay there's no doming and i'm gonna put a towel over the top and do one more tighten down [Music] i could feel definitely some movement when i went in there the first time but now they're all pretty tight so i'm gonna leave these alone and wait for them to cool completely down to room temperature before i attempt to remove the rings and see how my seals are it's the next day i decided just to let them sit overnight to be completely cooled before i did my little test so here we go okay sweet one two no that one didn't seal dang it okay i'm gonna set that one aside to see why [Music] okay that one's okay dang it okay another one didn't seal that's two all right we'll see if we can do some detective work in a second how about this guy okay that one's okay so two of the seven didn't seal which isn't horrible i mean it's not fantastic i'm guessing part of this may have been user error and honestly sometimes with metal lids you'll still get one or two jars in a batch not ceiling for various reasons so let's see if we can figure out why this happened so the first thing i want to see if there's any issue with the lid or the gasket as far as i can tell it looks normal i'm going to see if there's any sort of imperfection here in the glass oh oh there it is there's a little nick well that you can see it there's like a chip in the glass right there and i should have checked for that before i started and i didn't so all righty that would be why that one didn't seal so this wide mouth actually feels good i don't see any nicks or imperfections so that lack of sealing could be caused by user error on my part i potentially didn't get things centered properly maybe i tightened it incorrectly so i'm gonna go ahead and reprocess to see if i can get it to seal just for my own curiosity you know what i just realized something i don't like about these lids they don't make the popping sound they're not supposed to and i kind of miss it so it's a few hours later i processed the jars again i let them cool and i'm going to see how we did still no go so we've had some developments since the first canning run for my third attempt on those two problem jars i used completely new gaskets and i also reduced the amount of sauce in the jars just a little bit so there'd be a little bit more head space and lo and behold process them again and they sealed perfectly so i'm conducting another experiment i'm going to can a batch of water and try a bunch of different tightnesses on the lids as well as the two gaskets that originally gave me some trouble see if i can figure this out [Music] so for my experiment i have two jars that i'm using as a control two jars that will have the gaskets that caused me problems in the previous batches one jar where the lid will be very loose one jar where the lid will be extremely too tight and one jar where i blew past all recommended headspace requirements and filled that baby all the way full with water [Music] oh my gosh this has never happened okay so which one is that the loose yep the loose one completely blew its lid now obviously that wasn't the harvest guard lids fault i thought i had screwed down the ring enough to get a couple bites into the threads but i'm wondering if the rattling of the pot just loosened up even more so obviously you're not going to do that in a real life scenario but it's kind of interesting to see what happened [Music] check this out see the tight guy with the t on it i over tightened it you can see it's domed that is not a good sign you don't want to have that massive doming that means you overdid the tightness which we already knew but that's just more proof just give these one last bit of tightening i'm not going to tighten down the one that was already too tight we're gonna leave him alone okay these have cooled to room temperature and now comes the moment of truth did our tests work okay start with our control jars to see if those are going to work harder to do this with one hand yay okay good news both control jars are sealed all right next up is the full jar that i filled excessively full zero headspace whatsoever just for fun i have a feeling this one probably won't work because these lids do need plenty of head space whoa it still worked that might be because this is water and not a food item i still would not overfill with food but interesting that it works water okay now mr tight jar this one i'm guessing is not sealed because tightening the lids too tight is a definite cause for failure oh whoa it's seal you guys i truly did not expect that last but not least we have our two jars that have the gaskets that gave us trouble on those tomato sauce runs these would be gaskets that have been used several times and failed several times [Music] and that one is still no good that one is [Music] just fine time for me to stop playing mad scientists and get separate preparations but overall i'm really impressed with the lids i mean i still don't know why that one lid just wouldn't seal but honestly there's lemons even in boxes of metal lids so that doesn't concern me that much and i'm really impressed that i tried to sabotage the rest of the lids in that water batch and they still worked by the way these are the potatoes i showed you guys last fall they've been living in the basement still look pretty good just a few sprouts but anyway i'm a fan i can avoid the price gouging that's happening with the few vendors that do have lids in stock and i don't have to throw the lids away after one use so it's a little more green and a lot more cost effective oh hey guess what i talked to the owner of harvest guard and he has agreed to give you guys a coupon code if you use the code homestead when you check out you'll save 10 on your entire order of canning lids plus the shipping is always free check out the link below to go shopping

Channel: Jill Winger - The Homestead Mentor

Views: 381,291

Rating: 4.932292 out of 5

Keywords: NEVER Run Out of Canning Lids Again, canning supplies, canning lids, canning lid shortage 2021, canning lid shortage 2020, I found a solution to the current canning lid shortage, the prairie homestead, prairie homestead, Jill Winger, home canning, pressure canning, mason jar lids, never run out of canning lids again, mason jars, ball canning jars, how to can, food preservation

Id: rFBwPVN-Ye4

Length: 14min 28sec (868 seconds)

Published: Wed Feb 24 2021