# what did I do wrong?



## swbuckmaster (Sep 14, 2007)

I decided to try and can home made chili for the first time. Never canned before! -O|o- 

I took 5 lbs of read beans and soaked them over night. 
I then took two beef roast and cut them into chunks, salted and pepered them and then put them in the oven for 7-8 minutes a side on about 450.
I then cut up about 30 tomatoes and about 15 onions. Then trough them in a big pot and started cooking them down with some chili seasoning. 
Then though in the rest of the ingredients and cooked it for about 3 hours.

This part worked out great! tasted great look great, kids were happy. :EAT: 

The canning part screwed up every thing.  This is the reason I even tried to make this stuff was so I could can it and save it. I boiled the jars, and the lids. I then packed in the chili and scraped out the air off the sides of the jar. Then wiped off the top of the jars and checked to make sure I had 1" of head space. I then cooked it under 10lbs of pressure for 90 minutes. It boiled out the chili and gunked up the lids so none of my jars sealed. Now I've eaten 20lbs of chili in the last week or so. Now I don't know if I can ever eat chili again! Kids and wife wont even sit by me anymore. :O•-: 

Why didnt my lids seal?


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## Holeinmywaders (Sep 28, 2011)

Did you screw down the lids tight when you pressure canned them? My personal opinion is that the pressure you used was a bit low for our altitude but that wouldn't affect the sealing.


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## wyogoob (Sep 7, 2007)

C'est la vie. Sooner or later the wife and kids won't sit by you.

One of the most common causes of jar leakage when canning is "siphoning". It is due to fluctuation in pressure during processing and/or not waiting the 10 minutes or more between removing the weight and removing the lid. 
Even tiny adjustments of the heat once pressure has been reached can cause internal changes in the pressure and liquid and ingredients in the jars literally gets sucked out of the jars. 

Once the required pressure is achieved, don't touch the stove knob. It is a more common problem when using a gauge canner; people try to nail that 10 lbs. mark and fuss with the stove knob too much. With weight-gauge canners it is less of a problem.

The lids could have been lose, but I doubt it. It's usually not every jar leaking if the lids aren't screwed on tight.

Slight chance the beans weren't cooked all the way causing them them to expand considerably during processing.


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## swbuckmaster (Sep 14, 2007)

Should I tighten the lids down tight? I just barley tightened them down
My thinking was if I tightened them down to tight the jars might blow up. 
Also how long should I pressure cook it and at what temp or lbs should I use. 10-15


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## adam1228 (Mar 3, 2011)

A couple things here...pressure depends on the altitude. Here in Salt Lake, 13-15 lbs should do it, for 90 minutes. Lids should be fairly tight, but not cranked down all the way. Make sure you have enough water in the canner...if it boils dry, you're in trouble as pressure will definitely drop, the heat will bake rather than steam and bad things can happen, like blowouts and possibly breakage, not too mention you can warp the canner itself.


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