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3:31 am
August 13, 2009
OfflineI canned green beans today, pints and quarts, and the jars have lost lots of the liquid. I measured the 1" headspace recommended, filled with near boiling water,and I used my plastic thingy to release air bubbles before placing lids and rings. I did use the hot pack method, and I did use canning salt. I timed the pressure(10lb) release, to make sure it was 3 to 4 times per minute, and the flame on the stove was not adjusted but once, at the very beginning (and very little adjustment). I haven't canned in some time, but I'm familar with my giant Mirro pc. (22pt) Does anyone have any ideas why I would loose so much liquid? They are tightly sealed, but will the lack of liquid affect the shelf life? I'd appreciate yall's input.
8:59 am
December 14, 2010
Offline1:22 pm
August 13, 2009
OfflineI didn't remove the weight until it didn't hiss anymore. I left the canner on the stove, under the ventahood until the latch in the handle released. No drafts, just the ac, but vent is directed away from stove. I did notice that they were bubbling still a good bit when I removed them from the canner. I am so perplexed by this. Any idea if it will affect shelf life?
7:00 am
June 16, 2011
OfflineI looked this up on National Center for Home Food Preservation. It said that a small amount of liquid lost would cause discolor of food above the liquid line. If more than half the liquid is lost during processing to refrigrate and used with 2 to 3 days.
You said you did pints and quarts. I assume you did them in the same canning. If you did that may be your problem. Never mix pints and quarts in the same canning. This is a guess but maybe you did not tighten the rings enough. One other thing you might have packed the jar too full and not had enough liquid. The beans will absorb liquid during canning. The drier the beans the more liquid they will absorb. Look up the National Center for Home Food Preservation. A good site to help with canning questions. Hope this helps.
1:05 pm
August 13, 2009
OfflineI didn't can them together, I did quarts first and wide mouth pints second. I did the lids and bands finger tight as per the BBB. I even hot packed. But in reading more, I think the beans being fully mature, some I just shucked for the beans, might be the reason. I was so careful with the fill liquid, water. They aren't half empty, but maybe a quarter empty. We could never eat that many green beans in two or three days. Could I reprocess them? Take them all out, reheat them, add to clean jars, etc.? It looks like I may have to discard all of them at this point. Thank you for website info, I will go there now.
4:47 pm
June 16, 2011
OfflineIf the liquid level is only a quarter down they should be fine. The beans above the liquid line will get darker than the others but should not spoil. I had things I canned lose some water, but it never hurt.
I just canned some pinto beans. The first batch took less water than the second batch. The second canned about two weeks later. It had some semi dry beans.
I have a question. Your title said you have air in the beans. Does that mean the top did not seal? If the top sealed your jars will be a vacumn not air. Just wondering.
7:24 am
December 28, 2008
OfflineThe most likely reasons for loss of liquid in the jars is either changes in pressure during processing (yep – that happens here a LOT trying to adjust on the confounded electric stove!) OR releasing the pressure inside the canner too quickly at the end of processing.
I can't do anything here about the difficulty in maintaining proper pressure because of the difficulty with the electric burner, but have MUCH fewer "blow-outs" since realizing that I'd missed the part about letting it cool sufficiently before opening the lid. There should NOT be a lot of steam venting when you open it and the gauge should be at zero.
Not sure about your Mirro, but if it has a weight, when you remove the weight there should not be steam venting vigorously. (If it works as other canners do.)
Getting that balance sounds worse than it is. My understanding also is that as tempting as it is to just let it sit there and cool down over a long period, that is not good either.
Whether to reprocess or not is entirely your decision. I probably would not because I like beans which are crisp. But most people like green beans cooked until mushy. Processing them again will make them, well, even more cooked than they are now!
As others have said, the beans above the liquid line will darken but that is not dangerous. If you can store those jars away from as much light as possible, it will delay the darkening process a little. Less light means less darkening.
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