It's a party!

My experience with Tattler Reusable Canning Lids

At the recommendation of my friend Mrs. Mac, I looked into Tattler reusable canning lids. They are food-grade white plastic lids combined with red (silicone, I think)* gaskets. You use standard bands to hold them on, and I have tons of those. Now these things are an initial investment. Including shipping, they are roughly 70 cents per set. BUT the payoff comes in that they are supposed to be reusable indefinitely, like many, many times. Years and years. (I saw some comments on a blog saying that the gaskets have to be replaced each time and that's not true, as long as you don't lose them down the garbage disposal.)

I'll say right now that I am very happy with the lids. I used them to make quite a bit of jelly this summer and had a 100% seal rate. My initial experience was not so happy, though, as I pressure-canned a lot of beans (refried and baked), and had a failure rate of about 50% on the seals. I was so mad I wanted to return the bunch of them. But Tattler's customer service is excellent; they encouraged me to try again and to make sure I was leaving adequate head space. I am guessing that's part of what I did wrong, I fudged on the head space. Also the instructions tell you to hand-tighten the bands and then back off about 1/4 of an inch. I think I backed off too much. Being more careful about these things, I did great. I still need to pressure-can something and make sure that's not really a variable in the equation.

One final caveat is that if you share your canned goods, you may want to use partly the old lids and partly the reusable ones, so that you have some to give away without losing your expensive lids.

* Correction: Rubber. I just checked the site again and the gaskets are rubber. Now that's a concern, as rubber will break down with repeated heatings. I guess that's why they sell spares.

Red Currant Jelly recipe

Red currants, 2-3 quarts, rinsed if they have been sprayed (otherwise no need to rinse) - a 5-quart ice cream bucket full made 2 batches of this jelly *
1 c. water
7 c. white sugar
1 box powdered Sure-Jell fruit pectin

Sterilize about 10 half-pint canning jars and lids. Keep them in simmering water while you prepare the jelly. When the jelly is nearly done, up-end the hot jars on a clean towel to drain before filling.

Place the currants and water into a heavy bottomed saucepan with plenty of room for expansion. Use a potato masher to break up the fruit while you bring the pot to a boil, then reduce the heat to a strong simmer for 10 minutes. Remove from heat.

Strain the fruit and liquid through a fine strainer, then strain the juice through cheesecloth. Measure out 5 cups of the juice. If you don't have quite enough, make up the difference with water.

In a large heavy saucepan, stir the sugar and pectin together, then pour in the juice while stirring till the sugar is mostly dissolved. Place the pan on high heat, bring the juice to a boil, and boil hard for 2 minutes. Immediately turn off the heat. Skim off the foam and discard it.

Pour the hot liquid (carefully) into the prepared jelly jars, leaving 1/2 inch of space at the top. Wipe the rims of the jars with a clean, damp washcloth to remove any spilled jelly, then place the lids and caps.

Process the filled jars in a boiling water bath for 10 minutes. Remove and cool. Label jars. Jelly will set up over the next few days and should be fully set within about 2 weeks.

Yield is about 9 half-pints (I always boil up a 10th jar just in case).

* Never double a jelly recipe. Make two batches instead. It ends not to set up right if you double it. Don't ask me why. It just does. You CAN make your currant juice all at once and then do the actual jelly-making in batches; that's what I did.

In the crock pot...

supper is simmering happily away. It's French dip courtesy of Nicole Reed's blog here. I'm also going to make onion rolls to serve as the bread portion of the sandwiches.

New recipe posted on the Keepers page: Crock Pot Tapioca

My sister in law Roseann served a delicious tapioca pudding that cooked while we were all away at church - in the crock pot. She got the recipe from our husbands' grandmother Emma Jean originally. It's now posted on the Keepers Page.

Check the Resources page: I added...

Gene's Sewing Machine Repair of La Crescent, Minnesota.

WTG Netflix

Thanks for spoiling the whole thing before we even get the disk out of the sleeve.

Hey Dave! Yeah, I'm talkin to you!

At Famous Dave's.