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Testing and Demonstrating Using Reusable Canning Lids (Tattler and Harvest Guard)
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May 21, 2024
When emergencies and upheaval change the status quo, things like canning supplies quickly disappear from the shelves. That's why I decided it was time to try out some reusable canning lids. I bought both Tattler and Harvest Guard lids to try out and in this video, I demonstrate how to use them properly. Here's where I got my lids and how much I paid for them at the time. Harvest Guard: https://canninglids.com/ - We got the standard reusable rings in a pack of 50 for $34.20 ($0.68 per lid) Tattler: https://amzn.to/3OHqnsW - We got a pack of 12 for $18.70 ($1.56 per lid) The link for Tattler is an affiliate link so I earn a commission if you use it. Also, this pricing is not necessarily the current price, it's just the amount I paid at the time I bought my lids in 2023. Pantry Preparedness is a trademark of Income School LLC, an Idaho Limited Liability Company
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How's it going, my friends? Welcome to pantry preparedness. Today, we're going to talk about using
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reusable lids for canning. It's something that I hadn't done until this year, but I decided it was
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time. A couple of years ago during COVID, we weren't able to get a hold of lids. Every time we
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went to the store, every time I looked online, the good brand, the ball, the cur, they just weren't
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there. And so what we had to do was order a big, like, order of just no name brand
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ones from overseas and we had a very high failure rate when it came to those actually sealing and
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it just made us really uncomfortable. So from a preparedness standpoint, we wanted to be able to
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ensure that we would always have lids. And these are supposed to be able to be reused many, many
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many times unless they just become damaged at some point. Even the rings, the gaskets themselves
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that are the actual seal, are able to be reused many times. So you just kind of watch for them and
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if you see that they're damaged, you just get some more gas. but the lids themselves, I don't even know how many times you're supposed to be able to use them
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They don't really say just an infinite number of times I guess until they get damaged
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So, first of all, in order for me to actually use these, I didn't want to just get one
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I wanted to do a bunch of research and my wife did a bunch of research. Julie, she went out and looked to see what people were talking about, what they were using
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And we found two different brands that seemed to be reputable and seemed to be recommended a lot
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One of them is Tatler and the other one is Harvest Guard
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These just came in bags because I ordered a much larger quantity
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So anyway, so we have Tatler and we have Harvest Guard. Now when it comes to the shape and just kind of using them, I couldn't hardly tell a difference
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Unless I looked at them and actually saw what was written on them, I mean they're not quite exactly the same shape but they're very, very similar
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They both have a little lip. So this actually goes down kind of into the jar just a little bit
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You can see. So that's where it's a little bit different than the disposable ring
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And then also, of course, another key difference is that the seal is this gasket that's
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actually a separate piece, whereas on a disposable ring it's just kind of attached
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It's stuck to the lid itself. Now another big difference that I saw between the two is the rubber gasket itself
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This one here's the Tatler. This one here is the Harvest Guard
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Tatler one looks, the rubber itself looks nicer and it looks cleaner. With the harvest guard
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this kind of just looks a little, I don't know, discolored and stuff. And I just don't
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it makes me a little bit less trusting of it. But we went ahead and we used both. And in the
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process of using them, functionally, I could not tell a difference. They basically worked the same
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Now, what I'm curious to see is what happens over the next year or so. So in the next year
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in the next 18 months as we're using these peaches. I'm curious to see sort of how well
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the seal on these holds up versus just a regular disposable one and comparing these side by side As of right now I can really make a strong recommendation for one over the other unless you can find a good difference in the pricing
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I'll link to where I got both. The tatler I was able to find just on Amazon, but I was able, like I said, to get a big batch of these
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from another website. So I'll look that up again and I'll put a link to it in the description for this video
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All right, let's talk about how we actually use these because, again, I tested these side by side
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and as of now I can't tell a real difference. I maybe lean a little bit toward the Tatler
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Actually, okay, here's one thing. The Harvest Guard, it does kind of dip in a little bit more
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And so it felt like as the jar kind of sucks inward to get the seal
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it felt like this was being pulled in more. The Tatler felt just a little more rigid and a little bit flatter
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And so, I don't know, it feels like the Harvest Guard ones might end up just a little bit more deformed after each use
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So that's the other thing we'll test in the coming years. is just the reusability of these
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How many times can I get away with reusing them? So that'll be a fun test to do
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Keep an eye out for that if that's something that interests you. Okay, let's talk about actually using these
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First of all, it starts out very much the same as you would with a normal disposable lid
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We put them in a little pot full of water. We boil that pot. That serves two purposes
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One, it does soften up the ring itself to make it seal a little bit better
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when you first put it on that lid. but more importantly, it sanitizes everything
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It gets the lid right there, completely sanitary, so you're not putting anything into that jar
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that's going to potentially grow over time. Okay, we're minimizing the risk
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It's a food safety thing, okay? So we boil them exactly the same
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Now, with the disposable lid, I'm then able to use one of these magnets to just pull a lid out of the water
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and just set it right on top, put on a ring, and voila, we're done
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When it comes to these, they're not magnetic. So I had to use some tongs
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and I had to pull out one of these and then I had to pull out one of these and it did take a little bit longer
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it was a little bit more of a hassle. Then what you do is you actually set the ring
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right on the top of the glass. Just get it aligned the best you can
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set it there. Then you take one of the lids and you set the lid on
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to the top. I think you don't attach it here and then put it on just because
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I don't know, then it'd kind of fall off as you're trying to set it on maybe. I don't know, but that's what they recommend is actually to set the ring on first and then to set the lid into place
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Now, the next step is really important. The next thing that we're going to do is we're going to take a ring, a normal ordinary canning ring
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and we're going to start to, we're going to set it on there and get it started. I like to kind of push down on the center of the lid and start screwing the ring around it
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But then take your hand and just put a finger on the side of the jar, just to give it a little bit of friction and keep turning the ring
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Once the jar starts to want to turn past your finger instead of just the ring
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turning you know that it's tight enough for the canning process. Over tightening
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here will cause problems Most likely it going to cause the jar to break Pressure going to build up inside that jar as you heat it up and it just going to shatter the jar If it doesn shatter the jar there still a really good chance that it not
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going to seal very well. The reason for this is the jar is intended to actually vent air out
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during the canning process. As everything inside heats up, it pushes that air up and out of the jar
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We want that to happen. Then when we pull the jar out of the canner and we let it cool
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As it cools, as long as we have a decent seal there, it's going to kind of suck downward
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And that's going to pull this lid hard onto the top of that jar
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And it's going to create a really good seal. So be very careful and do not over tighten
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Next, we're going to put them in the canter and we're going to process our jars exactly like we normally would
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So for peaches, I just did a bunch of peaches and quartz. It's a 25 minute water bath with the water boiling
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Once that's done, we pull these out. and this is where the next difference happens
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With normal lids, disposable lids, at this point, I usually don't worry about tightening them down further
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I mean, you can, and it's maybe helpful to tighten them down a little bit more. With these lids, it is absolutely critical that you tighten them down a bunch more
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I followed the steps that are written on the box, and I pulled them out, I tighten them down
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Now, if you're wondering, how do you do this without burning yourself, just use a rag or a hot pad or a towel
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Okay, so you want a section of towel that you can see. set on the ring with your hand and then another section where you can kind of grab the jar and
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really tighten it down. I did this the very first time, but I apparently didn't tighten them down
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enough. I tightened down as much as I thought I would probably need to. And yet about half the
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jars, probably more. You can see here in this video actually, you can see that a bunch of them
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lost a bunch of syrup. The reason is that as it started to cool down, it started to vent out more
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and more syrup and we lost a bunch. So then the jars ended up with a whole bunch of airspace at the
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top. And now to have a bunch of oxygen in there that's just going to ruin my peaches. So, what did I do
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I pulled those lids back off. I added a couple more peaches to fill some of that space. I added more
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syrup and I reprocessed them. The second time I did it, though, when I pulled them out, you can wait
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one to two minutes with peaches or other fruit in syrup. It says you can wait a couple of minutes
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I did it pretty much right away. I pulled all of them out, then I grabbed the towel, and then I tightened them down
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When it comes to jams and jellies, it's recommended that you crank them down right away after you pull them out
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Okay, so have that towel ready and just be ready to go. I might even pull one out, tighten it down, pull the next out, tighten it down
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This time, what I did was I used the towel exactly the same
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but I basically tighten them about as much as I felt comfortably like I could without breaking anything
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and given how hot they were, I tighten them down a lot
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And this time we had no problems. They stayed looking exactly as they should
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You can see just how good these peaches look now. No problem
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And they all sealed fantastically. The next thing we have to do is we just have to let the jars cool to normal room temperature Let them sit for a good 24 hours Once 24 hours have passed this is the next time where it different With normal disposable lids you can just kind of look at them or touch the lids and you can see
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did they pop. If they popped inward, we know we're good, we know we've got a seal and we're done
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With these reusable lids, what we need to do is actually unscrew the ring and then try picking
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up the jar by the lid. Grab it at the lid. and try to lift it. If you can pick it up and it doesn't pop off, you know that it's sealed
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That's the test. And I did that and 14 out of 14 sealed just fine. Had 100% hit rate
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We also have 100% hit rate on our disposable lids too. As long as we use the good ones
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ball or Kerr work great. Now the next thing is this, and this is the one I question a little bit
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It says NCHFPP does not recommend. leaving screw bands on jars during storage. I wonder about that. Is there a reason to not leave
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the screw bands on the jars when you're storing them? I know a lot of people are choosing not to
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leave them on. Here it says they don't recommend doing that. What I'm wondering is do they recommend
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not doing that or is it one of those things where it's like they're just not needed? So anyway
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I usually leave the screw bands on because I feel like it would kind of protect it. It would prevent anything
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from accidentally kind of knocking the lid piece itself and causing it to maybe come loose
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Not that that happens often. I also actually store my empty jars
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I store them with a screw band on as well, mostly to prevent chipping along that ring
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If the ring, the top of the lid, or not the lid, if that top ring of the jar gets chipped
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you're no longer ever going to be able to get a good seal. And so in order to prevent anything like that from happening
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I just keep a screw band with each jar basically all the time
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So if you know of a good reason why not to put those screw bands on the jars and leave them on during storage
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I'd love to hear about it. For me and at this point in my life, that's what we're doing
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We leave the screw bands on and we store the jars just like that. But apparently it's not necessary and apparently not even recommended, according to the NCHFP
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If you know why, I'd love to hear about it in the comments below. Also, if you are interested at all in preparedness, that's what this channel is all about
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Being able to can your food is an important part of preparedness because it's one of the
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really, really good ways that we can preserve the food that we grow to be able to be used
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year round and even in years to come when we don't have such a big crop
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But this channel is not just about that. This channel is all about being able to have the skills, the knowledge, as well as the
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supplies needed to be prepared for whatever it is life's going to throw at you
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And if that's something that's important to you, I hope we'll see you in our next video
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