…… How long home jarred food safe?
- Thread starter Satanta
- Start date
If it was canned correctly, it's safe as long as the seal is intact. Quality may be iffy (flavor and texture)
Summerthyme
DIMDAL
Contributing Member
What was Found (and Still Edible) Inside a 150-year-old Sunken Steamboat
Well I cant figure how to get the post to insert here. The article tells about a 150yo Missouri river steamship that was dug up and how well the items were preserved, including canned goods that were taste tested and declared still tasty.
I think about this article when I see questions like this.
Canned goods are like schrodinger's cat, they are good until you open them and find they are not.
If I remember correctly, you have low/no vision, but general rules for opening canned goods are:
*Visual check, lid still sucked down, no spillage around lip.
*Listen for jar still being under vacuum when removing lid.
*Smells edible
*Taste
*Some advise you to boil canned goods for 10 min before eating, but I personally don't follow that rule.
Hope this helps answer someone's question.
Well I cant figure how to get the post to insert here. The article tells about a 150yo Missouri river steamship that was dug up and how well the items were preserved, including canned goods that were taste tested and declared still tasty.
I think about this article when I see questions like this.
Canned goods are like schrodinger's cat, they are good until you open them and find they are not.
If I remember correctly, you have low/no vision, but general rules for opening canned goods are:
*Visual check, lid still sucked down, no spillage around lip.
*Listen for jar still being under vacuum when removing lid.
*Smells edible
*Taste
*Some advise you to boil canned goods for 10 min before eating, but I personally don't follow that rule.
Hope this helps answer someone's question.
Last edited:
We've found that, even stored cool and dark, "appetizing life" varied widely. Meat products seem to store nearly indefinitely... I used a canned "Tortiere de Viande" base... it's a French Canadian meat pie made of a mix of ground pork and ground beef, with onions and spices. You mix the cooked meats and onions, with fresh breadcrumbs, then out into a pie crust and bake.
I figured out I could can the "base", and then only had to grind up some fresh breadcrumbs and make a pie crust to finish the dish.
Anyway, I had a couple quarts from 2003. I opened one the other day, and it was still perfect... made a great supper.
But things like green or yellow beans start tasting "flat" or a bit stale after 5 years. We try to keep them down to 3 years or less in the rotation. In fact, we had so many canned in 2020 and '21, I only grew one row of beans this year. We used them fresh, but they're all ripening for seed saving in a few weeks. I feel better having several pounds of fresh seeds for both varieties going forward.
And if you try to can "low sugar" products... plan on using them within a year. Low sugar jams and jellies lose color, flavor and texture very quickly. Sugar is a preservative, and it functions as such in canning. Peaches or pears canned in heavy syrup keep much better and longer than those canned in light syrup or fruit juice.
Obviously, if you're actually hungry (something few people experience these days), "flat" tasting beans will be more than welcome. This is also an area where your stored spices and fresh herbs can be used to improve "tired" foods.
BTW, We recently used the last cans of fruit cocktail in heavy syrup, purchased from Aldi in 2014. These were in the pop top cans, and i bought them in part to see whether theyd hold up. They lasted as well as regular sealed cans, so while I still don't like the idea, I'm no longer leery of storing food in those cans if it's all we can get.
Summerthyme
I figured out I could can the "base", and then only had to grind up some fresh breadcrumbs and make a pie crust to finish the dish.
Anyway, I had a couple quarts from 2003. I opened one the other day, and it was still perfect... made a great supper.
But things like green or yellow beans start tasting "flat" or a bit stale after 5 years. We try to keep them down to 3 years or less in the rotation. In fact, we had so many canned in 2020 and '21, I only grew one row of beans this year. We used them fresh, but they're all ripening for seed saving in a few weeks. I feel better having several pounds of fresh seeds for both varieties going forward.
And if you try to can "low sugar" products... plan on using them within a year. Low sugar jams and jellies lose color, flavor and texture very quickly. Sugar is a preservative, and it functions as such in canning. Peaches or pears canned in heavy syrup keep much better and longer than those canned in light syrup or fruit juice.
Obviously, if you're actually hungry (something few people experience these days), "flat" tasting beans will be more than welcome. This is also an area where your stored spices and fresh herbs can be used to improve "tired" foods.
BTW, We recently used the last cans of fruit cocktail in heavy syrup, purchased from Aldi in 2014. These were in the pop top cans, and i bought them in part to see whether theyd hold up. They lasted as well as regular sealed cans, so while I still don't like the idea, I'm no longer leery of storing food in those cans if it's all we can get.
Summerthyme
LYKURGOS
No Surrender, No Defeat!
We ate some green beans my grandpa canned 20 years after his death and they were not even mushy. Mom has inherited his knack for green beaning and has snapped and canned thousands of qts. I figure we will eat her beans for 25 years as long as there is no zombie apocalypse. I think it was 2010 she put up her all time record of 435 qts.
We also had blackberry cobbler made two weeks ago with frozen berries she picked the summer her little brother died in 1988. Not even a hint of freezer burn .
We also had blackberry cobbler made two weeks ago with frozen berries she picked the summer her little brother died in 1988. Not even a hint of freezer burn .
SouthernBreeze
Has No Life - Lives on TB
I made taco soup using tomatoes I canned back in 09 this past winter. We're also eating green beans that I canned back in 2013. Both are still good. Home canned peas from 2017 are still good as well.
coloradohermit
Veteran Member
It makes a big difference how they're stored.
Stored on shelves in laundry. Widow with blinds givez some sunlight but never direct.
Gotten little warm but nothing unbearable.
Not concerned about sweets like jellies or pickled stuffbut was about meats and beans. I boil down thanksgiving turkey and can the meat, juice. Canned bhrver too.
Gotten little warm but nothing unbearable.
Not concerned about sweets like jellies or pickled stuffbut was about meats and beans. I boil down thanksgiving turkey and can the meat, juice. Canned bhrver too.
oops
Veteran Member
I’ve had bread n butter pickles go so soft as to be inedible within a couple yrs...but hubby’s grandma’s canned tomatoes from late 70s was still good almost 30 yrs later...n reminded my why I used to hate workin up tomatoes...whole tomatoes n wouldn’t shake out of the jar...stuck my finger in n hooked one to pull it out n immediately let out a yelp...holy hannah...finger went in mouth n still took several minutes to stop hurtin...Tomatoes today are nothin like the old tomatoes acidity wise...eyeyeye
I regularly check the seals on my home canned foods and check store bought cans for any hit of rust. I've discovered that the store-bought cans with the pull tops are more susceptible to rust so I watch them carefully. Home canned lids can also rust to I check for that as well as checking the seals.
I store in my basement that is semi-heated in the winter and has a dehumidifier in the summer so dark, cool and lower humidity all the year. The only jar I've had go bad in many years was canned rhubarb so only financial loss was the lid which was purchased with lids were under a dollar a box.
I store in my basement that is semi-heated in the winter and has a dehumidifier in the summer so dark, cool and lower humidity all the year. The only jar I've had go bad in many years was canned rhubarb so only financial loss was the lid which was purchased with lids were under a dollar a box.
skwentnaflyer
Veteran Member
Carrots don't taste good after 10 years, but the chickens ate them just fine.
I found a couple cases of various kinds of meat and chili canned in 2011 and 2012 a few years back. I decided to keep them for hard times. They still look just as good as they did the day they were canned.
I quit canning and gardening for several years. For the first couple years after I started the garden back, I only grew what we could eat during the season so all my current canned stuff isn't over around three years old.
I have a can of green beans my mother must have canned about twenty years ago and they have been in the worst of conditions outside including exposure to sunlight, extreme heat and extreme cold. They are still the prettiest color of green and show no signs of degrading.
I quit canning and gardening for several years. For the first couple years after I started the garden back, I only grew what we could eat during the season so all my current canned stuff isn't over around three years old.
I have a can of green beans my mother must have canned about twenty years ago and they have been in the worst of conditions outside including exposure to sunlight, extreme heat and extreme cold. They are still the prettiest color of green and show no signs of degrading.
Cag3db1rd
Paranoid Pagan
There is a storm shelter in a field near my parents' house. I think I was 12 or so, I remember there were still jars of corn and green beans sitting on the shelves inside that I could see from the stairs. They looked fine. Dusty, but fine. I never had the guts to go any farther than the stairs, though. It's still there. I'll go look n see if the jars are still intact next time I am in Grove.