Brand new jars keep breaking

[PoorMusician]

I've bought 2 sets of Ball half pints in the last month and 4 jars (so far) have all lost their bottoms within the first minute of processing the Ball bruschetta recipe. They break off all the way around. I've never had that happen to me, so I'm wondering what's up?

 

What are the odds I've just gotten a bad batch? They don't seem to be cracked.

 

Aaaand any idea what I can do with my quickly growing collection of broken jars?

[Cat]

Wonder if they're Chinese-made?

 

I once had a batch of Golden Harvest jars do that. I never bought that brand again.

 

Call the manufacturer and explain it to them. Tell them you're an experienced canner; you know what you're doing. Maybe they'll replace them...?

 

They can be recycled, but you might need to show them to someone to get them replaced. Might want to hang on to them till you talk to Ball???

[Violet]

That is thermal shock. What temperature is the water in your canner before you put the jars in ? Are you raw packing or hot packing the foods ? Buy an instant read thermometer if you don't already have one and check the temp. before you put the jars in the water.

 

When raw packing the water in the canner should be 140 degrees.

Hot packing, 180 degrees.

 

Both kinds of packs use boiling liquid in the jars, of course.

 

Normally this is what you are doing, not the jars themselves.

[ScrubbieLady]

When I hot pack foods, I put the jars in the canner and heat up both. Then take the jars out, fill, and put back into the hot canner.

 

Correct me if I am wrong Violet, but can't thermal shock also happen if you put hot foods into cold jars?

[Violet]

Yes, if they are cold, but room temp. jars don't seem to be an issue normally. Also, sitting hot jars on a cold counter, like granite can do it. So can sitting hot jars in a cold draft or water splashing on them.

[PoorMusician]

In my defense I followed the Ball recipe exactly, it just didn't tell me not to heat up the water as much as the other recipes.

 

So for future reference, anyone using the Ball bruschetta recipe - put the jars into 140 degree water to process, not 180. I've contacted them and we'll see if they offer that handy hint in the future.

 

:-)

[Jeepers]

Let us know what they tell you...please.