soo, first off, the beans im pretty sure are bad by now even though they still look ok, jarred like 20+ years ago.. my question, if I cleaned them out and used new lids, would the jars be safe for future canning?
a bit of backstory: most of my family has been farming/ canning since forever, and after my grandpa passed over a decade ago, a bunch of his stuff (mostly just canning equipment) along with these and quite a bit of other jarred foods like this were put into a storage unit and left untouched since.. a couple days ago, I got tasked with cleaning it out because no one else wanted to, and they got tired of paying for it, though they said I can just keep anything in it if I did.
I grew up in the city, soo I dont have too much knowledge on all this, but im wanting to start.. would I be able to reuse all these jars, like 100+ jars (of course after cleaning), or would I just be better off buying them all new?
by ImpossibleJelly3838
8 Comments
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As long as the jars aren’t cracked or pitted and the top lip has no chips or cracks, no reason why not.
I recommend new lids and bands LOL
Jars? Yes
Bands? No
Lids? Never.
Yes the jars will be fine as long as there are no cracks or chips. Empty them out and run them though the dishwasher (sanitizing cycle if yours has one. If not, no worries).
tangently related but r/grandmaspantry would love these lol
4th Gen home canner here: I use jars from the 1880s through the 1980s from my family, and purchased jars from the early 40s to the early 60s, all the way through modern jars. What Blackstrider said: dump contents, toss lids, check and clean the jars thoroughly, sterilize, and they are as good as new. Rings can technically be re-used so long as they aren’t rusty which in your case I am assuming from the picture is right out.
Fun fact: so long as the seal isn’t compromised and the lid didn’t rust through, technically the beans would still be “safe”, but most likely inedible. Canned wet food has a top life of up to 4 years unless it is rich in vitamin C, which breaks down no matter what and turns from an anti-oxidant into a radical oxidant. Low-C foods like beans would just go mushy, and any actual vitamin content outside of minerals would degrade to nothing.
My 75+ year old jars hold up better than my new ones. They’re just made better.
Only 2000?!? We had some from 1984 when we moved in hubby’s grandparents’ place. Damn skippy I washed them out and added them to the rotation.