The Hazards of Canning Vegetables

Canning your own vegetables is not without its risks.

Food-borne illness is only one risk.

Take for instance the random exploding jar.

Every so often a jar in the canner will unexpectedly self-destruct.

Whether it is due to a flaw, glass fatigue or internal pressure build-up is hard to say.

All the better to keep a lid on your canner to avoid the launching of molten tomatoes or hot, hurtling pickles about the kitchen.

Then there is the matter of lifting the jars from the canner with a jar grabber to transfer them to the counter-top so that they can cool.

This is like removing the detonation device from a bomb.  One slip and splat.  Glass shards, vegetable napalm and screaming hot juice all over the floor.

I work in bare feet and shorts so this concerns me.

Observe the two jars. The jar on the left is a modern Ball jar. The jar on the right is an old-school model obtained at a yard sale.  If you look closely the jar on the right has a much more robust ring on its neck.  It is under this ring where you position your jar grabber to lift.  Alas, the modern jar has a smaller diameter ring to grab under. With less shelf to fit your grabber beneath the greater the risk of dropping a jar.

I suspect that the smaller ring saves glass thereby making the modern jar more profitable.

That doesn't make it safer though.