Thursday, February 18, 2010

Reusable canning lids?

For those that have read my blog for a while, you'll know that I do quite a bit of canning.   In the past few years I've become concerned about a few things.  First the lids are not supposed to be reused.  I know that many people still do reuse them, but I'm not very comfortable with it.  Second, the lids have a coating that contains BPA.  I'd really like to avoid that if at all possible. 

Today I was reading a canning forum and saw a thread about some reusable lids.  They're called Tattler reusable lids.  They're made of plastic and have a separate rubber ring that is also reusable.  Have any of you heard of these or used these?  I still have tons of lids that I bought in bulk, but would be thrilled if there was an alternative.  They wouldn't rust and destroy the seal either.  Moisture wouldn't be such an issue.  I'm going to have to think about these a bit more. 

7 comments:

farmwifetwo said...

If you can get some antique jars and lids you can still buy rubber rings to go in them.

Karen Anne said...

Whatever happened to glass lids? I think I'll scout on ebay. I had no idea there was BPA in the current metal lids.

The Mom said...

Farmwife, I have a few of those, but not enough to do anything with. They hold dry goods around here.

Karen Anne, the only glass lids I've heard of are the old fashioned ones that farmwife was referring to. It would be perfect if the reusable lids were glass instead of plastic.

farmwifetwo said...

I have many of them, but the few I use are for dry goods. Family hand-me-downs.

Scout on ebay or a flea sale/garage sales etc. I've seen them at pretty cheap prices.

kitsapFG said...

I guess I would be wary of anything that is made from plastic - most of plastics also have chemicals that leach out AND I would be surprised if they would hold up to the high and prolonged heat needed to properly can items to destroy bacteria.

While I don't like buying new lids, I worry more about safety with canning and prefer to have a new lid and one that will show me it is sealed easily (finger test on the lid). I don't think there is a good way to check for a proper seal on the old style glass lidded jars.

The Mom said...

Kitsap, very good points. For now, I have so many lids that I bought in bulk, that I have no need to buy any for a few years. I'm hoping that Ball gets rid of the BPA by then.

Daphne Gould said...

I'm really hoping that Ball gets the BPA out of the lids too. I've been told the old time canning jars aren't safe. You can't test the seal anyway so shouldn't be used. Though I use them to store my dried beans.