Food ate through jar lid?

[Buffy in Dallas]

I'm packing my storage food to move and picked up a jar of pickled jalapenos. As I picked it up my finger went right through the lid like it was tissue paper. I looked and there was rust around the lid and the lid looked like lace. These jalapenos weren't that old, maybe 2-3 years and were stored in the back of a top kitchen cabinet.

Has this ever happened to y'all? How do you keep it from happening?

[johnrawdon]

The salt and vinegar. I have seen that happen plenty of times.

[MullersLaneFarm]

Did you dilute the vinegar used with water?? Sounds like the peppers were a bit too acidic for the lid. Another reason I like using Tattler lids.

[Buffy in Dallas]

I'm not sure what the recipe was. It was a gift. I may have to get some of those tattler lids for future use.

Whats the longest that something like this should be left in a jar with a regular lid? 6mo? a year?

[sriston]

I have jalapenos that are several years old. They are canned with the traditional canning lids. I've never had any problems. If I do not remove the rings, they will rust. I do not leave the rings on any of my jars of canned food.

I don't like vinegar, so I use as little as possible in my jalapenos. In recent years, I have been salt brining them and then canning them, no vinegar used at all,

[MullersLaneFarm]

I have dill pictures in vinegar/water that are 7 years old (with regular lids)

[simi-steading]

I had a jar of shine someone at work gave me... the lid had some corrosion bumps on it that appeared to start from the inside. If you scraped down the bumps of black corrosion you'd end up with small pinholes..

Kinda makes a person second guess drinking home made stuff, but it was still pretty tasty none the less..

After seeing that, I could imagine some high acid food doing the same.

[joebill]

This is chille country, and there are a lot of sub-species, some with so much acid in them they will burn blisters on your hands when picking them. Maybe you got some high octane peppers......Joe

[kentuckyhippie]

sometimes a lot of humidity in the air will rust the tops thru. I had that problem with some canned stuff that was in a cabinet over my stove. boiling stuff on the stove caused the cabinat to stay damp

[Harry Chickpea]

"I'm not sure what the recipe was. It was a gift."

...


...


Not goinna say it...


...nope. Gotta say it. Throw away any gifts of canned food from this person for your own safety. They could be using cheap canning lids, or re-using lids, or canning incorrectly but the bottom line is the same. Food like that is not safe. High acid food might be safer than some other foods, but there is still dissolved metal in it.

[Paquebot]

The answer is in Reply #2, salt and vinegar. That's why a lot of things in older forms of canning called for zinc dome lids with a glass liner. Sauerkraut barely lasts a year here before the lids start rusting away. Certain pickles also will do it. In both examples, nothing wrong with the product.

Martin

[snowcap]

Thats why you need to rotate your food.

[Emily*Knight]

No to hijack the thread but is there a way to tell if a Tatler lid has sealed?

[MullersLaneFarm]

I always remove the rings on all my jars. The Tattler lid is sealed if you can't open it with your fingers!