I canned (water bath) this cooked chicken back in September, along with another jar, and they both sealed. I moved to much lower elevation mid-December and all was good when I unpacked, all my canned food was still sealed. I just noticed today that one of the cans of chicken is now unsealed? The lid is expanded and I’m not sure what happened. I’m assuming I need to toss this now? Why would the seal break/burst (close to it) after 5 months?
by adventure_gem
12 Comments
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I thought meat could only be pressure canned safely?
Water bath canning is NOT adequate to safely can meat! Meat should always be pressure canned and use a rigorously tested recipe. I would throw all the cans of chicken out if I were you.
What others said, you can’t water bath any meat. This is NOT safe to eat. You need to dispose of it carefully and not get any on you.
Pressure canning is the only safe method for meat, water bath canning is not hot enough to make the food safe.
You also should NEVER store your jars with the rings on. It can create a false seal and you want to know if the seal is bad.
The reason it would go bad is because it was water bath canned. Meat should only be pressure canned. Also it is recommended to store your jars with the rings removed for exactly this reason– if a seal breaks, it will be obvious. If any of your jars come unsealed, 100% throw them away. Not only are they then exposed to oxygen and sitting at room temperature for an unknown amount of time, but a seal breaking can be a sign that something is going wrong inside the jar, like bacteria growth, causing the seal to fail.
Edit: also, as others have mentioned, all these jars of meat that were water bath canned should be thrown out. Personally, I would dispose of the whole unopened jar to avoid exposing myself or anything in my kitchen to the botulism toxin.
Water bath canning chicken means you absolutely should not eat that, or any other meat you preserved that way.
That’s a jar of death. Do not eat it. Dispose of any and all meat you canned this way.
I appreciate everyone’s responses and will be sure to toss them, jars and all. I read a few places and watched some videos on canning meat using the water bath method and was under the impression that this was safe and how it was originally done before the introduction of pressure canners, so long as they were canned for ~3 hours, despite people (and the CDC) advising not to do this. I now see that though people did it this way back in the old days, many died of botulism. Many thanks, I’m still learning (evidently the hard way).
Meat must be pressure canned. DO NOT EAT THIS!
It’s bad.
First, you didn’t pressure can. No.
Second, unsealed is a no.
It’s not worth even the chance of botulism.
Bad way to go.
Hope your not planning to eat the “good” ones either. Throw it all out and look up how to can meats.