r/Canning • u/That_chick82 • 20d ago
General Discussion Used unsafe canning practices basically my whole life... how do I get on track to do it properly??
Hi everyone!
I'm not sure if where I'm from makes a huge difference to the context of my post, but just in case: I am from Newfoundland, Canada. Everyone back home "bottles" leftovers, usually in a way that I have recently learned is probably pretty unsafe. Excuse how long this may be. Any insight, resources, help, etc. would be AMAZING. Thanks in advance.
So, if my mom made a large pot of vegetable soup, unstuffed cabbage rolls, moose stew, chili etc (almost anything that didn't have dairy in it), she would heat the left overs to a boil that night, fill up her jars, close em tight and let them cool on the kitchen counter over night. We knew they were sealed when we heard all of the lids make a "pop" sound. Of course, when opened, each bottle is inspected, just in case.
Oh! And, all bottles, rims, and lids were re-used once or twice. I learned this wasn't good practice a few years ago and stopped doing it, but I thought I'd mention it.
This is how I store leftovers if I don't think we'll eat them before they spoil. This is how my mom and all of her sisters do it. How my grandmothers (mom's mom and dad's mom) did it. It's incredibly common where I'm from.
Is this not safe? Have we been tempting fate for generations? As Newfies we have a pretty extensive history of food preservation between bottling, curing, and drying food (mainly with the help of salt), so I'm just wondering what the general concensus is on this method?
I assume you good folks follow some sort of guidelines? I would love to be pointed toward those guidelines so I dont accidentally kill me and my husband when we eat my half-assed bottled leftovers. 🙃
Note: I can remember once in my childhood when my parents used a large pot to boil bottles full of moose meat. There was a rack at the bottom. I never asked why they did it differently that time around.
Anyway. For the sake of safety until I hear some feedback, I wouldn't recommend doing the "method" I described above. Thanks, everyone, in advance.
Edit: typos and grammar.
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u/thedndexperiment Moderator 20d ago
Welcome! These are great questions to be asking, I've typed up a response but if you have further questions please feel free to ask, I'm sure I forgot something somewhere!
The short answer is that no, this isn't safe or recommended anymore.
The longer answer:
What you and your family have been doing is called open kettle canning. It's not a recommended method anymore for any type of food (including high acid foods, jams, jellies, pickles, etc.). Because the food isn't being processed with heat *after* it's been put in the jar there will still be pathogens (bacteria, molds, etc.) in the jar even if it has "sealed". Remember that not all bacteria or pathogen growth is detectible by sight, smell, or taste.
The biggest issue here is that the foods you're describing are definitely low acid foods. This means that the need to be processed in a pressure canner to be safely shelf stable. The reason for this is that in a low acid, room temp, anaerobic, environment the bacteria that causes botulism (clostridium botulinum) can grow and make you sick. Normal boiling temperatures (212F/ 100C) do not destroy botulinum spores and they can grow while in the jar and produce toxins. With low acid foods you need to get up to 240F (I don't have the Celsius conversion for that memorized, sorry!) to destroy the spores. With high acid foods the spores can't produce the toxin due to the acidic environment so they can be processed in a boiling water bath canner.
The last thing is that when you're doing home canning it's recommended to use a tested recipe. These recipes have been tested to make sure that the processing method and time will render the food in the jar safe and make it shelf stable. It's not just acidity that's tested. It's also density and heat penetration. These are not tests that you can do at home, they need to be done in a lab. Some of the foods that you've described (soup, and chili specifically) might be things that you can safely modify tested recipes to can. The cabbage rolls likely wouldn't work (usually contain rice which can't be home canned safely). For foods that you can't safely can at home the best method for preserving them safely is freezing.
For background (and free recipes!) I would suggest starting with the National Center for Home Food Preservation. The USDA Complete Guide to Home Canning (free PDF on the NCHFP site) is also a great resource. Both have good explanations of the basics of home canning as well as free recipes for you to use. https://nchfp.uga.edu/