Last year was the third year in a row that I had a particular item on my holiday wishlist. I’d given the idea to a different person each year. I’d decided that if I didn’t get it this year, I was buying it for myself.
Look what I got from DH2U’s mom.
I normally don’t read the back story or how to sections in cookbooks in order to skip right to the recipes. For some reason I slowed myself down this time, and I’m so glad I did. There was a short three page chapter on using Tattler lids.
For those of you not familiar with the product (i.e. 99.9% of everyone, and that might be a low estimate), Tattlers are a reusable lid system with two parts: a hard plastic lid and a separate rubber ring.
Unlike normal canning lids, which cannot be reused, with the Tattler system, both the lid and rubber rings are reusable and can last up to 20 years.
There is some controversy about these reusable lids: the USDA has not approved them as safe. Canada and the EU have. I asked DH2U if he’d be comfortable eating foods sealed that way, and he was. He even gave me some of the lids a few years ago. I hadn’t tried them out, though, since I had heard they were persnickety.
And here is where the chapter in the Amish Canning Cookbook comes in. Not only does the author give three different ways of thinking of how tight the bands should be, she also gave the excellent idea of doing a test run with just water in the jars to learn how to seal them without risking the precious goodies inside. We decided it should be called a “wet run” (instead of dry run), and I loved the idea.
I did three sample jars, one for each of the different tightening descriptions. I processed the jars, let them cool, then I gingerly removed the bands. There is no pinging with this type of lid, so I cautiously picked each jar up by the plastic lid, and the seals all held.
I’ll do a few more trial runs before I use them for real, but then they will go into my for home consumption stash.
Would you feel comfortable using Tattler lids? or Have you ever done a trial run on a new-to-you skill?
Grown Up, Now What? 
I do trial runs with quilt systems, tools, patterns, new ways of piecing, etc. I so admire you for the canning and home grown skills. I love that. I have a guy leasing a property of mine in Colorado who has grown and cultivated a beautiful garden in the back yard and the last time I visited he was making his own sausages too. You’d never guess it from him – a very professional, career, entrepreneur business man – and he has these homesteading skills and beliefs about the world we live in. Self reliance will become, I’m quite sure, more and more valuable as our crazy world spins.
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It makes sense with quilting to try out the stitches, how to make the pieces fall together. It sounds so complicated. I finished a novel that has quilting as a small part of the background (Keeping the House by Ellen Baker – I’ll write about this soon), and the main character is thrown into it and gets a quick single stitch example of what she was expected to do. Her frustration is palpable.
I’d love to learn how to make my own sausages. We always throw out the casings anyway, so it would just be the grinding and seasoning. Hmmmmmmmm….. You have given me an idea!
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