How much weight do you put on having the highest pitch lids on canned salmon?

[Rain City]

I'm doing more canned salmon, and like every year, I'm sitting here wondering how many people I'm going to kill. Question for you guys... assuming I've done everything right (that's not what we're debating here), after it's all said and done, how much do you insist on the highest of high rings with the spoon tap? Also, do you always insist that they're "boiling" in the jars to consider them sealed? I have 16 jars out of this first batch, 7 are money (and were boiling), 6 are pretty good, and 3 are junk. But even the 3 junk ones don't retract at all when I push down on the lid. I'm obviously going to eat those three first, but the other 6, would you consider them as good as the best 7? Are there supposed to be varying degrees of vacuum pressure? Does a lot of pressure mean SFA? Or is this an "if they're sealed, they're fine" situation?

Video attached for reference.

 

[Chasin' Dreams]

Have been canning salmon for over 30 years. Never killed anyone lol and never heard of anyone getting sick from any I've canned. I don't remember any of the cans not boiling inside even if it's smaller bubble boiling. Pretty sure they all, always boil to some degree. As for the lids I've never done a tap sound test. I look for a well indented lid and good suction. You shouldn't be able to pull the lid off easily. It should take prying up on them with a knife, end of spoon or fork or what have you. Can hear the lids popping down into firm place as they cool. If a lid is not dented down and solid then it didn't seal properly. Anyways that's how I've always done it.

 

[Newf]

I have never done or place any value in a tap test. If the lids sucks down and “snaps or pops” when cooling you should be golden. If when you open it, weeks or months down the road, and you had suction on the lid when you opened it, you should have no reason to be concerned. IMO.

 

[Alex_c]

If they’re not tuned to exactly 420 Hz I throw them in the trash immediately.

 

[Keith Brown]

I'm doing more canned salmon, and like every year, I'm sitting here wondering how many people I'm going to kill. Question for you guys... assuming I've done everything right (that's not what we're debating here), after it's all said and done, how much do you insist on the highest of high rings with the spoon tap? Also, do you always insist that they're "boiling" in the jars to consider them sealed? I have 16 jars out of this first batch, 7 are money (and were boiling), 6 are pretty good, and 3 are junk. But even the 3 junk ones don't retract at all when I push down on the lid. I'm obviously going to eat those three first, but the other 6, would you consider them as good as the best 7? Are there supposed to be varying degrees of vacuum pressure? Does a lot of pressure mean SFA? Or is this an "if they're sealed, they're fine" situation?

Video attached for reference.

I wonder if the fill level of the jars has something to do with the tone?

 

[Rain City]

I wonder if the fill level of the jars has something to do with the tone?

No there doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason. I think the seals just didn't take as quick so the heat dissipated and in turn didn't vacuum as hard. It might be that I had the canner outside and opened the lid too quickly after the pressure has fallen down to zero. It was a chili night and I left the canner open outside while I was working inside.

 

[wildmanyeah]

thats odd,

I may have one out of each batch that don't seal but the ones that do its pretty dang hard to pry the lids off with a spoon. The jars are usually boiling for like 20 mins after the the pressure has came down and ive taken the lid off.

 

[Rain City]

Whelp, as suspected, the 6 that had a lower tone opened a little too easily for my liking. They still "popped" and it took a good amount of finger tip force. But by no means did I require a mechanical advantage to open them. My new question: what to do with them now that they've been sitting on the counter for 16 hours. Reprocess them? That's what the recipes say to do. I would imagine that thwy become severely overcooked though, right? Not that they're properly cooked as it is. Does that fact that they're boiling in their own oils mean that they won't dry out? Would you freeze them instead? Decisions, decisions.

 

[wildmanyeah]

Make them into salmon cakes, if they poped with a weak seal when you-opened them I’m sure they are fine to freeze or keep in the fridge and use over the next day or two

You could probably can then again too i never done it but people cann smoked salmon and that’s already processed

Might work as prawn bait too

 

[Rain City]

Make them into salmon cakes, if they poped with a weak seal when you-opened them I’m sure they are fine to freeze or keep in the fridge and use over the next day or two

You could probably can then again too i never done it but people cann smoked salmon and that’s already processed

Might work as prawn bait too

The last edit though.

 

[Rain City]

I would say this was a good test to know that a high pitched and solid tone actually is a good indicator of a REALLY proper seal. I bet those jars would have been fine for a while, but they wouldn't have been going in the Zombie shelter, that's for sure.

 

[Alex_c]

I think re-processing is fine. You already cooked them at like 160°C for an hour, doubt they can get any more cooked than that.

 

[Keith Brown]

No there doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason. I think the seals just didn't take as quick so the heat dissipated and in turn didn't vacuum as hard. It might be that I had the canner outside and opened the lid too quickly after the pressure has fallen down to zero. It was a chili night and I left the canner open outside while I was working inside.

Hmm that makes sense now that you mention that. I have two 16 quart pressure cookers and I have a kitchen in my shop (one explosion in the house and I was banished to the driveway until I put a kitchen in my shop). I always do at least one or two quick turn arounds on my canners because I'm in a hurry. So once the pressure is equalized I remove the pressure cooker lid and remove the jars with jar tongs and put them on a towel on the counter then reload the canners and start cooking again. Two mitigating factor is that my kitchen is fairly warm by the time I remove the jars after two hours with to canners on and I do put a thick towel down to ensure the bottom of the jars don't cool to fast and break (Cause of my explosion) I have never considered the amount of vacuum on the cans. I have noticed that some cans click down long before the others. I haven't every given it much thought to the amount of vacuum. If the lids don't click when you press down then they pass my quality control test. On that note I seldom have a jar that doesn't seal. In your experience what is the best way to handle jars once they are cooked? I am going to change the way I can because of this post. Maybe I will have to find more pressure cookers and slow down the cool down.
Thank You

 

[Keith Brown]

Whelp, as suspected, the 6 that had a lower tone opened a little too easily for my liking. They still "popped" and it took a good amount of finger tip force. But by no means did I require a mechanical advantage to open them. My new question: what to do with them now that they've been sitting on the counter for 16 hours. Reprocess them? That's what the recipes say to do. I would imagine that thwy become severely overcooked though, right? Not that they're properly cooked as it is. Does that fact that they're boiling in their own oils mean that they won't dry out? Would you freeze them instead? Decisions, decisions.

One last thought. I canned 7 dozen jars this year. Not one broken jar or one lid that didn't seal. Albeit some sealed tighter than others using your scale. Like I said before I'm always in a hurry when I'm canning so I know that my quality control could be better. However there is one thing that I am fastidious about, I never use old lids. This is to say that I go to the store each year and buy new lids before I can. I do reuse the rings, but I never use new unused lids from previous year/s. I can never remember not having a very difficult time prying off a lid, even in the fruit and Jellies that I hot pack the lids are impossible to get off. I literally have to take the back of a knife and pry against the thread closest to to the lid. I also only use Bernardin Lids and Jars, I don't even know why I only use Bernardin. I suppose its because my mom did. One last factoid, I have a friend from Port McNeil whose grandfather, a life long resident of Port McNeil won't consider eating canned salmon until it is at least 5 years old. I've had a few of his vintage jars and they were spectacular. I realize that this fly's in the face of anything we read about canning today.

 

[Rain City]

One last thought. I canned 7 dozen jars this year. Not one broken jar or one lid that didn't seal. Albeit some sealed tighter than others using your scale. Like I said before I'm always in a hurry when I'm canning so I know that my quality control could be better. However there is one thing that I am fastidious about, I never use old lids. This is to say that I go to the store each year and buy new lids before I can. I do reuse the rings, but I never use new unused lids from previous year/s. I can never remember not having a very difficult time prying off a lid, even in the fruit and Jellies that I hot pack the lids are impossible to get off. I literally have to take the back of a knife and pry against the thread closest to to the lid. I also only use Bernardin Lids and Jars, I don't even know why I only use Bernardin. I suppose its because my mom did. One last factoid, I have a friend from Port McNeil whose grandfather, a life long resident of Port McNeil won't consider eating canned salmon until it is at least 5 years old. I've had a few of his vintage jars and they were spectacular. I realize that this fly's in the face of anything we read about canning today.

I have read that the new old lids, especially the ones that come with jars can be problematic. That's because they can be at the bottom of a skid with pressure and heat acting on them. I had two brand new flats this time around. I agree with you and will from now on only buy new ones.

 

[Alex_c]

I have read that the new old lids, especially the ones that come with jars can be problematic. That's because they can be at the bottom of a skid with pressure and heat acting on them. I had two brand new flats this time around. I agree with you and will from now on only buy new ones.

I have definitely experienced this too. I inspect them for a depression in the rubber ring. If there’s a prominent one, I switch out for a new lid out of a packet.

 

[getbent]

I have read that the new old lids, especially the ones that come with jars can be problematic. That's because they can be at the bottom of a skid with pressure and heat acting on them. I had two brand new flats this time around. I agree with you and will from now on only buy new ones.

Do you sterilize/preheat your lids?

Clean rims and that hot rubber, screwband, process to what and where, let pressure drop and jars out to cool. Always boiling. Take your bands off when storing.
Like Chasing said, the lids come off with the twist of a knife and they pop. Has always worked for me.
Get the odd dud. They can sit on the counter for 24hrs and I just make a sandwich…

 

[Rain City]

Do you sterilize/preheat your lids?

Clean rims and that hot rubber, screwband, process to what and where, let pressure drop and jars out to cool. Always boiling. Take your bands off when storing.
Like Chasing said, the lids come off with the twist of a knife and they pop. Has always worked for me.
Get the odd dud. They can sit on the counter for 24hrs and I just make a sandwich…

I don't sterilize when pressure canning but I do keep them in warm (not boiling hot) water