Can you let your jars cool in your pressure canner?

8 years ago

Being very short and having a low vent hood it is difficult for me to remove the hot jars from the pressure canner after waiting the suggested 10 min after opening. I have let the jars cool as long as an hour before removing them. This does not seem to impede the sealing process as I can hear the jar lids pinging sometimes even before the first 10 min are up. Is this safe?

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digdirt2

8 years ago

We have had several previous discussions here about similar situations and I'm sorry but no it is not considered safe to let them wait that long. A few extra minutes is fine but no longer than absolutely necessary as It interferes with the creation of the full vacuum in the jars - it pops and releases, pops and releases - and the jar contents can be exposed to bacterial contamination. If would be safer for the jar contents for you to carefully slide the canner to an adjacent counter surface where you can remove them more easily before opening the lid.

Some folks used to run the canner before going to bed and then let the jars sit in the canner all night until it was established that heat-tolerant bacteria can quickly grow in the warm moist environment.

Dave

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Comments (7)

charjo4
Original Author
8 years ago
Thank you. I wanted to be sure before I canned quart jars. Pints I can get out but quarts I always get burned, I remove the lid as soon as the pressure drops and let it sit with the lid off, it's removing the hot jars after the lid is off. I'll clear up counter space next to stove and slide so I can unload. Chicken stock here I come.

I'm new to this site so I'm not very good at useing the search feature yet.
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Thanks for clarifying Linda Lou! That's what I did last night and it worked well. Only problem was, with Shirley's vegetable juice cocktail only 3 jars of 8 sealed. When I opened the lid, I noticed some were boiling in the jars, so I removed those last to avoid causing siphoning. Only later did I realize that they were boiling because they were sealed, and had lower pressure inside the jar and therefore a lower boiling point of water than the unsealed ones. I know all the things to check, and I will investigate the problem (the canning water was perfectly clear with just two tiny strands of tomato fiber that probably came from the outside of a jar). Not trying to hijack the thread toward seal failures or anything. Just puzzled...last time I made this recipe I had a high failure rate too. I will compare the sealed and unsealed for headspace, check for food in the failed seals, and recan today I guess. So much for not spending hours in the kitchen today. ;-) Thanks for the help. Melissa
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There are plenty of tomato recipes you can water-bath too, however. Some of us who have only water-bath canners manage to put up quite a few tomatoes! But the good news is you can use your pressure canner as a BWB canner if you decide you want to can some recipes that can be done that way. The resources you mentioned (BBB and the NCHP) are great ones, with up-to-date safety guidelines. They'll tell you for each recipe whether it should be pressure canned or BWB canned or whether you have a choice. BWB is used for high-acid things: fruit in syrup, jams and jellies, pickles, some tomato and other recipes that have appropriate acid amounts. Pressure canners allow you to do low acid things like beans, other vegetables, prepared soups and stews, even with meat in them, and a wider range of tomato recipes. Try both approaches! See what you like! Z
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Can you clarify a few things? Did you thicken your pie filling with ClearJel as directed? I've found it's a good idea to use less than the directions call for as the mixture tends to expand and you can end up with spurting jars. It also is thicker than I care for in a pie. You do need a full 1-inch headspace. My second question is why were you pressure-canning apple pie filling? I've only seen instructions for BWB for apple pie filling. Did you use 10 pounds pressure? It definitely isn't necessary for a high-acid product like this. Finally, if you are using a pressure canner, let the jars rest in the canner in full 10 minutes after the pressure has returned to zero and you've removed the weight. After 10 minutes, remove the lid. If the jars didn't seal, you can certainly re-process. I doubt you'd see much difference in quality and it's better than the alternative. However, I've seen a lot of jars with this kind of seepage that do seal anyway. It's kind of surprising how often they do. I hope this helps. Carol Here is a link that might be useful: Apple Pie Filling - Boiling Water Bath
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Dare I say something in defense about a steam canner? I have used one for many years now and it uses about the same amount of water a pressure canner uses. It has proven it worth here by giving me many canned items that are not overcooked. I especially like it for jellies and pickles. Neither are difficult to can, or process. Because I add extra acid to both, safety issues are not a big concern. I had done many temperature tests on these, and have found that the recovery temps are quite fast, when it comes to the canning water coming to a boil again. As everyone knows, heat rises, cold drops. With room temp, water filled jars inside, and the canner water previously boiling, it can take at least 10-15 minutes for the canner to reach boiling again, even though the jars are not even touching the water. Also, the measurements I did were done with thermocouples and a device that is able to chart out 6 locations within an area. These temperature measuring devices are very accurate and when I had jars filled with water only, and measured the internal temps, they came up faster in heat than a boiling water bath. I am not saying a pressure canner is in the same class, as it is not. Pressure canners are used for low acid foods and offer higher processing temps above 212 degrees of boiling water. This is the reason for the high pressure used in a PC. The steam canner has a slight pressure when boiling, as it jets out a strong steam from just two tiny holes down near the water level. This indicates to me that the jars inside, are in fact exposed to something that is at least 212 and is under slight pressure. I measured an internal temp of 212 degrees inside a water filled canning jar after 10 minutes. That jar was filled with boiling water prior to the test however. I would never consider using this canner for any low acid products. For pickles, I prefer full 5% strength vinegar too. The jellies get an added acid blend of malic, tarteric, and citric acid.
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floral_uk z.8/9 SW UK
8 years ago
I have no experience with canners but I'm wondering if you could siphon off the water rather than remove the jars? Would that be acceptable? Obviously you would have to be very careful siphoning hot water.
digdirt2
8 years ago
< I remove the lid as soon as the pressure drops and let it sit with the lid off, >

Suggest some reading on the current guidelines about the depressurizing steps. Note steps 8 and 9 in the link below that explain the canner sit for 10 min after the weight is removed but before the lid is removed. Plus I need to correct myself when I said "slide" I meant lift and sit rather than slide.

http://nchfp.uga.edu/publications/uga/using_press_canners.html

You could siphon floral - with great care - but there is only about 3 inches of water in the pot anyway. In this case the problem is the clearance height. The stoves with the low-set vent hoods or the ones with the microwave right above the range top just aren't at all convenient for canning. They work fine for normal pan heights but not for 12-16" tall pots. Plus most of the weight in moving a canner is from the filled jars inside rather than the water itself.

Dave
annie1992
8 years ago
I think floral may have been thinking that if you siphon the water out of the canner, the jars could sit in the canner with no water until cool. I just can't think of any way to siphon the hot water out of the bottom of a canner...

Annie
tim45z10
8 years ago
Stick your hose all the way into the water. Put your thumb over the end. Put your end into a lower pan. Release your thumb. This should start a siphon.
floral_uk z.8/9 SW UK
8 years ago
Yes, Annie. That is exactly what I was thinking. I have to clean out a large fish bowl sometimes and it is too heavy for me to lift. I siphon the water out. Get a length of tubing. Fill it with water at the tap. Put a finger over each end. Submerge one end in the bowl and put the other end into a lower container. The siphon will start up.

Can you let your jars cool in your pressure canner?

digdirt2

Comments (7)

charjo4
Original Author

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Can you let your jars cool in your pressure canner?

digdirt2

Comments (7)

charjo4Original Author

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charjo4
Original Author