My students at canning classes frequently express concern about botulism. I ease their fears about that rare occurrence by assuring them they should worry about burns instead. Hanging around boiling water, hot jars, and simmering sauces is a recipe for a brush with hot stuff, one I experienced today.

My friend Kate of Kate On The Way and I were canning sauced tomatoes in quarts. During the water bath phase, one of the lids loosened and tomato sauce seeped into the boil. No problem, we kept the other jars in there to finish processing.

Kate removed a jar after the finished time. As she went to tighten the ring a bit (a necessary step for Tattler lids), the lid flew off, creating an explosion of tomato. We both were covered in the spray of boiling sugary puree.

We ran for cool water and eventually made our way outside to harvest, chew, and apply plantain poultice. Our left arms have a series of first and second degree* burns with Kate suffering more than me.

Alex was kind enough to pull the remaining jars from the canner after they cooled a little. By then, three of the remaining jars had also lost their lids, the contents mingling with the water bath.

Learning From A Canning Accident

Since neither of us were hurt badly, we moved pretty quickly into the "how did this happen?" phase. Kate and I have each canned hundreds of jars of food before, if not thousands.

We referenced a canning book and filled the jars to the right head space. We heated the canning bath to a simmer so the jars weren't rattling in a raging boil. We used a proper canner with a rack on the bottom. We have done all of these things many times.

We concluded that the lids must have been the issue. Although they were tightened according to directions, and Kate and I both have used them before, the Tattler process failed this time. Will we ever use Tattlers again? Kate says yes, I'm less sure.

Additionally, I experienced why it isn't a good idea to hover when someone else is pulling jars out of the water bath. I can't remember exactly why I was near - I might have been getting ready to grab something out of the fridge - but I shouldn't have been so close. While the Tattlers might be responsible in this case, glass failures and drops can also occur when jars are moved from the water bath to the cooling place. Someone standing nearby can be in the line of fire.

Finally, we were reminded that even experienced canners must remain vigilant to the risks at hand. We feel fortunate that the liquid exploded onto our bodies and not our faces, and that no pets or children were caught in the splatter. We lost some home-grown goodness and in a little bit of pain, but ultimately realize this could have been much worse.

We'll continue to put up food using water bath and pressure canning, with these lessons learned:

Use caution if you use Tattler lids with liquidy sauces
Stand back when removing hot jars from the hot water bath
Keep children and pets at a distance when canning
Have a plan in place for treating burns
*Identify some plantain in your yard. By all accounts, we should have blistered burns but thanks to plantain we don't. Kate details a little more about using plantain to heal.

What's your worst canning disaster? What did you learn from it?

During nearly every canning class and many weeks at the farmers' market I am asked about Tattler Reusable Canning Lids. I bought some to try at Lehman's an age ago and finally canned my first 2012 batch of strawberry honey jam using the lids last week.

How Tattler Lids Work

Tattlers are a three piece lid system consisting of a plastic lid, rubber ring, and metal ring not included but reusable from the standard metal ring and lid system. The plastic lid and rubber ring must be cleaned and warmed in a simmering pot of water before placing them on the jars.

The glass jar rim must be completely clean and dry for the rubber to seal. The ring is tricky to retrieve from the boiling water and more difficult to center on the rim than the metal lid. Once the ring is placed, the plastic lid must be placed directly on top and the metal ring secured but not totally tightened.

Then jars go into the waterbath as usual. Immediately upon removing them from the waterbath, the rings must be tightened fully, an additional burn-risking step to the standard metal ring and lid system. There is no characteristic 'ping' sound, so seals must be tested manually by picking up the jars with the edge of the lid after jars have cooled completed in twenty four hours. Raised letters on the lid prevent labels from laying flat and most would not want to write on the lid because it is reusable.

Tattlers are reusable, made in the USA and BPA free, claims that standard metal lids cannot make. For people who can often to feed their family the best local food, investing in lids that do not contain a dubious chemical and are reusable makes good sense.

My Tattler Lids Review

One out of seven jars with Tattler lids failed to seal in my first experience. Using metal lids for hundreds of jars in the last decade, I have only had two seal failures. Other canners seem to experience more sealing issues with Tattlers than regular lids too.

I wish the three part lids were easier to use. I scalded my fingertips with boiling water trying to get the lids on center and I still failed with one. Perhaps with practice and a tiny set of tongs, I could learn how to set the lids more quickly and accurately.

I also desperately missed the ping noise. Canning is a multi-sensory experience for me and without the auditory signal that my work was complete, I felt unfulfilled. I didn't like having to wait to test the seal for 24 hours, not to mention that the unsealed jar could be growing bacteria during that time.

To use Tattlers more regularly, I would need to find a new labelling method. I'm against labelling on the jar because labels are hard to remove and difficult to see when organized in boxes on my larder shelves. I'm curious how other Tattler users label their jars.

At nearly a dollar each, Tattler lids are five times as expensive as metal ones. I would not be willing to give away a jar with a Tattler lid except to my most-trusted friends whom I know would return them.

Tattler lids used to only be available with a lengthy drive or by mail order. City Folk's Farm Shop will begin carrying them early next week. City Folk's is offering Hounds in the Kitchen readers a special price of $9.75/dozen regular mouth and $10.50/dozen wide mouth on one package through June 10th. Just tell them you heard about Tattler's here.

Conclusion

Pro: BPA free, reusable, made in the USA

Con: more difficult to use correctly, risk of not sealing, expensive, no ping, harder to label lid

I don't see myself using Tattlers regularly for jam canning, especially as I love to give a jar of jam as a gift. I will reuse the ones I have with highly acidic foods like tomato sauce that are most prone to leaching BPA.

Have you used Tattler lids? What do you think?

Disclosure: I paid for my own Tattler lids to review. The first link in this article is an Amazon Affiliate link. City Folk's Farm Shop is a social media client.

Added to Simple Lives Thursday #98.