[Sca-cooks] OOP canning adventures

[Stefan li Rous]

Alex asked about canning jars cracking or imploding:

<<< Really? We re-used jars for years, and pressured canned all the time
without any such breakage.  Wouldn't the flaws show up the first time
they go under pressure? >>>

Not necessarily.  If the problem is a weakness induced during  
manufacture or initial shipping, then yes, most likely. However it is  
possible for something like a jar to survive the first canning and  
not crack till later. I think though that the problems that might  
appear later are more likely to be due to stress caused by uneven  
heating or a scratch or something happening during its use.

I'd say go ahead and use any jars that don't show a definite injury.  
In a pressure cooker/canner any fragments are likely to be contained  
and since the jars are going to implode, not explode they are  
unlikely to cause a chain reaction of exploding jars, unlike what can  
sometimes happen in brewing. I think the biggest problem would be the  
waste of the contents that were in that jar and some cleanup to do.  
Once a jar has cracked or imploded, I wouldn't take the risk that you  
got all glass slivers out.

Stefan
--------
THLord Stefan li Rous    Barony of Bryn Gwlad    Kingdom of Ansteorra
    Mark S. Harris           Austin, Texas           
StefanliRous at austin.rr.com
**** See Stefan's Florilegium files at:  http://www.florilegium.org ****