Making canned food is the easiest and healthiest way enabling us to enjoy the freshness of colorful and deliciously aromatic summer fruits and vegetables on our table also during wintertime. You should try canning fresh foods, which ripen and reach their most delicious condition in the favorable summer temperature, in order to consume them for a long time in winter. Stewed fruits, jam, breakfast spreads made of paste, tomatoes and peppers, and many other canned products will allow you to bring the off-season vegetables and fruits to your tables with the freshness of the first day. The crucial point of this effort is the preservation of the canned goods that we have prepared with hours of work in the heat of summer. So, what should we pay attention to when we close the twist-off cap and vacuum seal the jar so that our delicious canned food filling our kitchen with ambrosial scent, preparation of which requires tremendous efforts, do not spoil and our works do not go to waste? What are the false facts about it?
Proper vacuum sealing of the twist-off cap is the most essential point for handmade canned food and thus choosing the right twist-off cap is one of the most important steps to consider. For the best preservation and healthiest consumption of our canned goods, it is necessary that we use brand new twist-off cap which is not vacuum sealed before. While you can use the non-vacuum sealed twist-off caps for years in any way you wish until they are oxidized, the vacuum-sealed covers are single-use only. If you try to can any food with a twist-off cap that was used before, it would not vacuum seal the jar, leaving air and causing bacteria growth inside, and your efforts would be in vain. You should definitely not use any twist-off caps which are not brand new or if you are not sure of their quality. The hygienically packed Sarkap twist-off jar caps, which are produced for the first time in Turkey, would prevent your effort from going to waste as long as you follow the right steps. Furthermore, you will be pleased with the quality of the twist-off caps both in vacuum sealing for canning and in regular daily use.
One of the false facts about twist-off jar caps is that tighter it is, the better the vacuum sealing. On the contrary, tightening the twist-off jar cap too much would cause expansion of the lugs, which then come off the indents of the jar, and you cannot use that cap anymore. The worst, in such a case, is that air may potentially enter the jar and increase the likelihood of spoiling your canned food. Using the back-and-forth method while making canned food will reduce the likelihood of air getting into it after closing to almost nothing. After twisting the jar cap twice backward, you will hear two clicks, and you can be sure that the twist-off cap is properly seated on the indents of the jar. Afterwards, you can close the cap by twisting it in the closing direction, that is, in the clockwise direction. When you close the twist-off cap, you can see the lugs of cap and the indents of the jar from the bottom. When the lugs of the twist-off cap come to the middle of the indents, you should not tighten any further, because it is the right point for the best vacuum seal of the jar.
In canning, after filling the jar with food and tightly closing the twist-off cap, it is important that you should turn the jar upside down while the content is still hot. Because contrary to common belief, while closing the twist-off jar cap tightly prevents air from getting into the jar to a large extent, the air bubbles remaining in the jar would exert pressure on and force the twist-off cap, causing air to enter. By turning the jar upside down, the intention is to direct the hot and expanded air to the closed part of the jar, not the open part, until it cools down and reduces its volume. It is necessary that the jar stays upside down until the air and food in the jar cool down, in other words for 2 to 3 hours. If you see after 2 to 3 hours that the twist-off caps are dimpled inwards, it means your canned food is made and ready to be enjoyed.
As long as you use your twist-off jar caps according to the foregoing correct method, the likelihood of experiencing undesired results will be minimized as much as possible and you will enjoy the handmade canned food that you have prepared using the most delicious vegetables and fruits with great effort.
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