Friday, April 16, 2021

Canning oopsie

I picked up a couple of gallon jugs of barbecue sauce last time I was in the city, specifically for purposes of re-canning into pint jars.

We don't go through a whole lot of BBQ sauce, but we like it in meatloaf or on a hamburger. Having some canned up in the pantry would be convenient.

And re-canning BBQ sauce is easy-peasy. Pour it into clean jars, pop on the lids and rings, water-bath it for 15 to 20 minutes, and voilĂ .

So that's what I did. I got the jars filled.

I scalded the Tattler lids and gaskets.

I got the pots and racks ready.

And then I realized..........I had no rings.

Seriously, I must have hundreds of canning rings (they reproduce during the wee hours of the night, I'm sure of it), but I remembered they're all packed away in a storage unit in our old town. I'm so used to having all my canning supplies at my fingertips that it didn't occur to me to look for rings until all the jars were already filled. Crud.

You should have seen me after that, tearing apart the pantry for any stray or random ring I could find. I stripped rings from spice jars, honey jars, and dehydrated foods.

In the end I had to re-pour some of the sauce into wide-mouth jars because I found more wide-mouth rings than regular rings, but at least I had enough to cap all the jars.

Those two gallon jugs of BBQ sauce filled 17 pint jars, certainly enough to last us a long time.

I have some other things I want to put in jars in the future, but you can bet I'll check my rings first. 

It will be nice when we finish moving. Having our household goods scattered in distant locations gets awkward at times.

10 comments:

  1. I have been there - the thing you have more than enough of, until that moment that you realize you did not actual bother to make sure it was right there.

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  2. Do you heat the BBQ sauce before putting in the cans?

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    Replies
    1. Not in this case. I literally just poured it into jars and water-bathed it. After I found the durn rings, of course.

      - Patrice

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  3. Heard anything lately from Lehman's on when the lids might make a comeback?

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    Replies
    1. No. In fact, I doubt Lehman's knows when lids might make a comeback. I'm sure it's intensely frustrating for them.

      - Patrice

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  4. They straggke in on occasion. Yesterday, I got 2 boxes Kerr wide mouths at Walmart (last 2) and a 12 pack of small rings and lids. There were about 5 more of those left and the shelf was empty. I glanced up and there were 5 more cases (10 -12 packs) of Kerr small mouths and rings. I am not too bad off so I left the rest and called a friend. She came in later and scored a case. She was HAPPY! This was at a Midwestern Walmart. I just try to check everytime I am there. I have found some 2x since Christmas.

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  5. After my cans are sealed, I take the rings off and wash the jars. I have a large plastic container (used to hold animal crackers) and all my rings go in there.

    When I first started canning (learned as an adult, no family history), I was told to take the rings off to make sure moisture didn't get under the rings and rust the ring or lid.

    kathy in MS

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    Replies
    1. No worries, I always remove rings from sealed jars. All the random rings I dug up were on jars that weren't sealed -- spices, honey, etc.

      - Patrice

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  6. Can you do Ketchup the same way?

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    Replies
    1. Yes. It's high acid, so you can re-can it in a water bath. I recommend 20 mins at a rolling boil.

      - Patrice

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