I just saw this tip on another site and one of the comments said something like "I wouldn't trust my canning information from just any blog". So I decided to go to the source. According to the manufacturers of Ball canning products, it is not necessary to heat the lids before placing them on the canning jars.
I found this page which talks about canning lids and how it is unnecessary to simmer them before using. This is not new information. It has been true since 1969, when the chemical composition of the sealing gasket was changed. As many of us learned to can from our older relatives, it is not surprising that this extra step has been passed on for so many years.
The Ball Corporation manufactured home canning jars and materials for over 100 years before spinning off the home canning manufacturing part of their business in 1993. The Jarden Corporation manufactures brands such as Ball and Kerr today. Their home canning site, freshpreserving.com, has information about all aspects of home canning.
This page contains the following solutions.
I store my emptied canning jars in the garage. I found that if I store the jars upside down, it saves a lot of time cleaning them up to use. No more dust or dead bugs inside.
It costs a bit the first year to get set, but you could just get a boiling water bath the first year and use next year's savings to buy a pressure canner.
Don't let your canning water go to waste. You can blanch green beans or other fruits or vegetables for freezing in boiling water bath canner water after you remove the jars of, say, tomatoes or fruit from the canner.
So many people are asking about canning foods or freezing them. I have an old Kerr Canning guide that is so old the pages are falling out, but I love it.
This is just a tip for non-USA residents that I have finally managed to work out! Canning, for all of us Europeans, means preserving or bottling! Not a tin in sight!
Thanks For The Nice Comments On Canning And Gardening. May I respond to all the nice people who commented on my home food canning tip?
When I was canning pickles this summer I would take a cut off cucumber end and put it up on my stove top to let me know each time I had put 1 cup of cucumbers in the pot.=
When I make jams or jellies using the Sure-Jell method, my recipe calls to bring it to rolling boil that cannot be stirred down for exactly one minute. Instead of trying to guess or use a kitchen timer, I just use my microwave timer.
This is a page about water bath canning advice. A popular and time tested canning method is the water bath. Following the process carefully helps to ensure the quality and safety of your canned foods.
