I purchase a few things in jars, but not very many.....because most of the stuff I use I can myself. Then I take those rings off after a day or two when the seal is fast. Of course, I don't do my own maraschino cherries, olives, or the occasional odd and end. I find that nine times out of ten, when the vacuum seal is broken, the lid easily twists off. So, I take a church key (one of those old fashioned type things you puncture something like evaporated milk with) turn it over and use the pointed triangle to slip under the lid just a bit, and lift and you can hear the air whoosh in. Then it untwists easily. I've nothing against kitchen gadgets, or any other appliance when it helps with a disability. But I hate cheaply made kitchen appliances and most of them are anymore. Yes, I get frustrated as well, with safety rings, pinch/twist/and bear down locks, the whole nine yards. That's why my drawers are filled with all sorts of kitchen shears. The sad thing is I can remember when you could buy an article of food and not have to worry about somebody fouling it for the fun of it. I think it points more to something being a lot more wrong with society than lids.

Sorry, didn't mean you needed to list them all. :) Just meant give us a couple of specific recipe examples where your results have been way off so we could look up the recipe and maybe help ID what may be the cause. Surprisingly, based on posts in the past, most seem to find they get more jars than less and so prepare more jars rather then less. But some examples of general causes of a big difference between the recipe's predictions and results of much less: 1) as with coralb's post above - using the wrong size of jars 2) accidentally leaving out an ingredient and not realizing it - happens more often than you might think especially for new folks and some recent posts here on just that issue 3) mistakes in measuring as Linda Lou mentioned 4) chopping/grinding/dicing - all those terms mean very different things to some folks and particle size can make a BIG difference in the end result. This is especially common with chutneys and relishes. Chutneys are typically a very coarse chop while relishes are a very find chop or a grind. So if you grind chutney ingresients you'll get less jars. 5) over-packing the jars with solids and not enough liquid (the most common cause by far and the only one that poses a potential safety issue). People tend to over-cram either to make it look like store-bought to to avoid having left overs. Especially common when doing tomatoes whole or in halves. 6) over-cooking before jarring results is softer, more compact food particles - BIG effect on tomatoes. 7) the food quality/juiciness controls the amount of liquid A point about Sure Jell vs. the other pectins. Sure Jell is a much harder set than the other brands, especially the Ball Brand pectins. So with Sure Jell's rock-hard set you will often get less 1/2 pint jars. One reason why many of us don't like to use Sure Jell and prefer Ball or Pomona. Personally I'll use Certo if I have to before I'll use Sure Jell. But the important issue is safety of the foods and when done properly the foods should be safe even if it is a jar off. Hope this helps some and if you haven't, consider purchasing the Ball Complete Book of Home Food Preserving. Dave PS: is your BBB the new edition? There have been many changes.

I have canning directions from a number of universities, Ball, Kerr, Presto, etc., dating back for over 20 years to the present. There have been many changes to the recommendations given by the various sources over the years. Example: pressure canning tomato juice in "Presto Cooker Canner, Directions and Recipes, 1978" lists no requirement for adding lemon juice or other acidification, and a recommended processing time for both pints and quarts is given as 15 lbs - 0 minutes. We've used that recipe over the years with no problems, but have since changed to other processing methods (processing time, acidification, pounds of pressure). It was only until a few years ago that we could find an "approved" method for preparing and canning vegetable tomato juice (V8?), but we've been canning quarts and 1/2 gallon jars of our own "V8", using our own directions which I've published here a number of years ago, for over 30 years! Jeez, did I get the nasty comments after posting that. And, the person that posted that the large canneries monitor the temperatures of each container in a batch, and conduct lab tests on products from each batch has certainly observed canneries other than the 10 or so I've visited. Getting back to recipes for half gallon jar recipes, I know it would be no big deal for a University that routinely conducts food safety testing and publishes "safe" recipes to conduct tests and provide recommendations for canning at least a limited number of recipes they standardize as to type and amount of each ingredient, etc. Heck, I can't believe that a great number of grad students haven't wanted to do just that!

Oh, gosh! I thought I was copping out today with this tip because it's more of a nifty gadget tip than one that I came up or stole from a friend, I'm so glad that so many of you will find it useful. They come in different colors, I have a red one and a navy one and I reach for the red one every time. The beauty of this opener is that once you've released the pressure/popped the seal, the top unscrews with ZERO effort, no straining, no gripping, just give a gently twist and it'll come undone instantly, just as easy as putting a lid back on. Casey, I like the look of yours, too. I like how it does the deeper sizes, I'll be on the lookout for one of those, too. And the knife tip is great, in case I can't find one like Casey's! I can see where the Gilhoolie would come in handy, too. Nothing like some good lever action to help open a jar. Some jars are just too big for my hand to fit around, this would help enormously. Great tips, everyone, thanks so much! (And I just want to bop Woody when he scuffs the linoleum, SheilaJoyce, so I'll remember that and maybe spare his life the next time!) lol