Canning Mistakes: What Should You Do?

Canning can be tricky, especially for beginners. Ever found yourself frustrated and uncertain about your canned goods due to common canning mistakes? No need to stress, you’ve got options.  

In this article, we’ll address common canning errors and guide you on how to salvage your precious jars, emphasizing safety and quality. By the end, you’ll confidently rectify canning mishaps, with an emphasis on safety and saving your hard work. 

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Examples from the Canning Chat Video. 

She used the wrong canning method.

Let me talk about a common mistake. The first question in the video above, said that it had been five days since she water-bathed her green beans from the garden. They were still all sealed, but she did not know they needed to be pressure canned. She wondered if she could do it at this point.

No, unfortunately you can’t.

These under processed green beans have been in the jars for five days without being properly processed. There’s a possibility of botulism, because she used just a water bath. Green beans have to be canned in a pressure canner.

My recommendation in this case would be to dispose of those green beans. Consider it a learning experience. We all learn from our mistakes!

She changed the recipe.

Another person in the video above said that a week ago, she canned sauce using the correct procedure. However, she learned afterwards that it required bottled lemon juice, not the fresh-squeezed lemon juice she had used. (She also added onion, garlic, celery, basil, and carrots in quantities that were more than specified in that tested recipe.) 

With all the changes she actually did not use the correct procedure.  In her e-mail, she wondered if she could go ahead and just use it anyway, or maybe put it in the freezer.

In a case like that, there were errors in her processing that were not going to work. So really, her food was not safe. 

Remember there is more to the ‘correct procedure’ than just picking the right canning method.  Packing and ingredients matter.  

Now, at this point, it had been been a week since she did it, and I always hate to be the bearer of bad news. But I recommended that she toss the food. Throw it away. It’s not worth the chance to risk making anybody sick! Again consider it a learning experience! Don’t give up.

What Can You Do With Canning Mistakes?

If you find your mistake soon you can often save your food. But you must act quickly.  You’ll have the option of 

• reprocessing
• freezing
• putting the food in the refrigerator

I want to emphasize that for any of these options, it has to be within 24 hours. After that, you need to throw your food away. It’s just not safe.

Reprocessing

Reprocessing your food is only possible if there is a hot pack option. You could not do a raw pack because… the food is no longer raw. Whatever the regular hot pack canning directions are, you would follow that.

To reprocess, you’re going to empty all the jars, reheat the food according to directions, and then fill all the jars again.

Some foods handle being reprocessed but some don’t. 

If you’ve made a mistake with green beans, for example, and notice it right away, you could reprocess them. However, your green beans are going to get pretty soft and mushy if you process them again. Quality-wise, they’re not going to be very good.

Other foods will be similar: green beans or carrots or beets, fruit like apples or peaches. These are foods that just won’t hold up to that kind of cooking.

There are other foods that are soft anyway, like applesauce. Applesauce handles reprocessing pretty well, because it’s a soft food anyway. Apple butter, or other sweet spreads, often will work with reprocessing.

Freeze the Food

For food that won’t hold up to more processing, you can go ahead and freeze that food.  I don’t like freezing in jars, so I’d take the food out of the jar and put it in freezer bags, label, and freeze. IF you want to leave it in the jars you’ll need to empty some out of each jar.  There needs to be room for swelling as the food freezes.  

Put It In The Refrigerator

It just depends on whether you’ve made a mistake with a whole batch of something or just a few jars. Ask yourself, “What am I going to do with seven jars of something?” But if it’s just one or two jars that didn’t seal, for example, put them in the fridge.

What to do if you are not sure.

Long story short? When you make canning mistakes, look at the food and the end quality. And of course always, always look at the safety of whether it can be reprocessed or not. That’s the most important thing.

Better safe than sorry. If you are not sure of the safety of your food I suggest you do not eat it. I know there are many situations and you may be wondering about your particular mistake.

I’ve had to turn off comments to this post. There are far too many variables and too many questions coming in.  I recommend you contact your local extension service for any specific recipe or situations that you may have. Then you can make decisions without trying to wait until we’ve got time to get back to you.   

Resources
https://nchfp.uga.edu/questions/FAQ_canning.html#1
https://nchfp.uga.edu/how/store/store_home_canned.html
https://food.unl.edu/saving-home-canned-food-jars-did-not-seal

Relate Pages

Misunderstandings in canning usually come from the older methods and practices of past generations, as explained on this page. SimplyCanning.com explains the science!

Canning methods come down to two styles: water bath or pressure canning. Learn which one you should be using for different kinds of foods. SimplyCanning.com uses USDA safety methods, with good reason!

Liquid loss in home canning is very common. It happens to all of us on occasion! What could be considered extreme? SimplyCanning.com answers common newbie questions about liquid loss and safety.

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