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I will never again . . . (Part 4)


Darienne

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7 hours ago, JoNorvelleWalker said:

I shall never again turn off the wrong burner and expect my peas to cook.

 

Sure you will.  We all will.  :raz:

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Darienne

 

learn, learn, learn...

 

We live in hope. 

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On 8/27/2021 at 8:08 PM, Margaret Pilgrim said:

Question:  I realize that it depends on the variety of tomato because of differences in acid content. but can you tell us why you are choosing pressure as a method for canning tomatoes.   i have for years used water bath with good results.    Sauces and simple whole or quartered tomatoes, brought to a boil then jarred and bathed.  

So sorry!  I didn't see this until this morning.

 

No specific reason except for it seems to keep the kitchen cooler and it's faster--25 mins vs. 45 mins in the water bath.

 

I've since switched back to the water bath method.  Too many failures using the pressure canner.  I do great with green beans ....I don't know why my tomatoes fail at times.

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43 minutes ago, Shelby said:

I've since switched back to the water bath method.  Too many failures using the pressure canner.

 

What part of the processing is failing?  Not sealing?   Just tomatoes? (how weird)   I bought a pressure canner last year and have yet to use it.  I do steam canning mostly now for the easy high acid stuff.

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42 minutes ago, lemniscate said:

 

What part of the processing is failing?  Not sealing?   Just tomatoes? (how weird)   I bought a pressure canner last year and have yet to use it.  I do steam canning mostly now for the easy high acid stuff.

Yes, not sealing.  My first batch this year did great.  All six sealed perfectly.  The next batches had at least two fail.  SO frustrating.  And yes.  Just tomatoes.  

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12 minutes ago, Shelby said:

Yes, not sealing.  My first batch this year did great.  All six sealed perfectly.  The next batches had at least two fail.  SO frustrating.  And yes.  Just tomatoes.  

 

Personally, I think there's an industry wide issue with the lids.  Lots of pissed off canners.  First there's still a shortage and huge price increases due to shortage, and lots of issues with not sealing under "normal processing".  It may be the pressure canning is pushing the limits of the current lids.  Water bath may be within the tolerance of the current lids.   Also, big issues with counterfeit lids off Amazon (Amazon Marketplace sellers mostly).  

 

Conjecture is there's been a change to the seal element, or the lids are stamped just out of normal tolerance.   Personally, I think something changed in the seal element manufacture.

 

Probably all related to supply chain base materials issues, which I hear dozens of times a day for everything work related now.

Edited by lemniscate (log)
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12 minutes ago, lemniscate said:

 

Personally, I think there's an industry wide issue with the lids.  Lots of pissed off canners.  First there's still a shortage and huge price increases due to shortage, and lots of issues with not sealing under "normal processing".  It may be the pressure canning is pushing the limits of the current lids.  Water bath may be within the tolerance of the current lids.   Also, big issues with counterfeit lids off Amazon (Amazon Marketplace sellers mostly).  

 

Conjecture is there's been a change to the seal element, or the lids are stamped just out of normal tolerance.   Personally, I think something changed in the seal element manufacture.

 

Probably all related to supply chain base materials issues, which I hear dozens of times a day for everything work related now.

Wow.  I knew there was a shortage but I didn't know the rest.  Makes sense.

 

I saw some off brand lids and jars at the store the other day but I was too skeptical to buy any.  

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My never again is to boil beans in a pot with the lid askew.  I started boiling the beans for my recent lobio in the flimsy Cuisinart pot in which they had been soaking.  I adjusted the lid position for the rate of boil I wanted and stepped into the next room.  OK, three rooms away.

 

The lightweight lid slid into the seated position and the bean liquid boiled all over the stovetop.  And, no, I didn't use the Paragon to set a boiling temperature because the Cuisinart pots don't work with induction.

 

 

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Cooking is cool.  And kitchen gear is even cooler.  -- Chad Ward

Whatever you crave, there's a dumpling for you. -- Hsiao-Ching Chou

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We've had two close calls with kitchen fires over the last month or so.  Never again.  And we are the folks who have lived through two major house fires.  

 

So I've ordered a Cookstop stove guard.  https://stoveguardintl.com/about-us-1/  We had one years ago but then it stopped working.  Had it repaired once.  And then finally gave up.  But now the situation has become dire.  And we are back with this safety feature.  These units are easily plugged into electric stoves and there are also units for propane and gas stoves which take a professional to install.  

 

Let's hope that's the end of fires for us. 

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Darienne

 

learn, learn, learn...

 

We live in hope. 

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3 hours ago, Darienne said:

We've had two close calls with kitchen fires over the last month or so.

@Darienne

I had a bread roll catch fire in the toaster oven and things could have gotten out of control really quickly.  I luckily saw the flicker out of the corner of my eye from a different part of the house.  I cannot believe how something so innocuous as toast could be so dangerous.   Really, who stands there and watches toast, well, toast?  I ordered a bunch of these (eG-friendly Amazon.com link) new style fire spray cans.  Easier and more accessible that traditional fire extinguishers (which I also have in the kitchen).  Can get you out of trouble quicker hopefully.  

 

I have noticed my induction hobs have built in safety shut-offs, 1) time limit on being turned on (some are 2 hours, others longer, can be a pain if you are doing a long simmer) and 2) can sense if the pot gets hotter over time signifying a dry pot condition and shuts off.  I have seen both of the these safety shut-off scenarios on my old Burton hob personally.  

 

Good luck and stay safe.

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We had already purchased one of these: https://www.amazon.ca/Fiberglass-Emergency-Suppression-Retardant-Fireplace/dp/B07KP5RD9Y but it wasn't used for the two frying pan fires.   But I knew it was there. 

 

Needless to say, we have fire extinguishers all over the house and fire and CO detectors.  We lost our first dear Rottie many years ago because we didn't have a CO detector in the cellar of the farm when we first moved in and the hot water heater was improperly installed.  Oh, and illegally.  Our house was a money pit without one straight edge in it anywhere.  And why did we buy it?  Do you have an hour or so?  

 

Our stove guard can be set anywhere from 1 minute to temporarily off.  And it takes a key to change the setting.  I will have the key.  The guards are mostly used in institutions for the elderly (which we now are.)

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Darienne

 

learn, learn, learn...

 

We live in hope. 

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4 hours ago, Darienne said:

We've had two close calls with kitchen fires over the last month or so.  Never again.  And we are the folks who have lived through two major house fires.  

 

So I've ordered a Cookstop stove guard.  https://stoveguardintl.com/about-us-1/  We had one years ago but then it stopped working.  Had it repaired once.  And then finally gave up.  But now the situation has become dire.  And we are back with this safety feature.  These units are easily plugged into electric stoves and there are also units for propane and gas stoves which take a professional to install.  

 

Let's hope that's the end of fires for us. 

 

Wow, the stove guard costs twice what my stove cost.  How does the stove guard prevent a fire?  An apartment in the building next to mine was destroyed by careless cooking.

 

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Cooking is cool.  And kitchen gear is even cooler.  -- Chad Ward

Whatever you crave, there's a dumpling for you. -- Hsiao-Ching Chou

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19 minutes ago, JoNorvelleWalker said:

 

Wow, the stove guard costs twice what my stove cost.  How does the stove guard prevent a fire?  An apartment in the building next to mine was destroyed by careless cooking.

 

It turns off the electrical connection to the stove if no one is moving in front of the stove for more than the number of minutes to which the stove guard is set.  So, the other day, when Mr. Ed went out and left the empty frying pan on high...yes, he did...the entire stove would have shut down after whatever number of minutes we decide to set the unit to.  Factory setting is 5 minutes...but I think we'll go for 2 or 3.  

Also...JoNorvelle...don't forget we live in Canada where the cost of just about everything can easily be double. 

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Darienne

 

learn, learn, learn...

 

We live in hope. 

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We just moved into a condo.  Natural gas bbqs permitted.  The hookup to the natural gas has a timer on it.  You can have the gas on for 3 hours at a time.  Then you have to reset the time.  A nice safety feature.  I like it.  A similar device for the gas stove would be comforting.

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My GE electric oven has a firmware option to turn off after a certain time.  First time that happened I thought the stove was broken.

 

Above some temperature my Paragon will shut off after about half an hour, unless a key is pressed.  As I remember the CSO has a maximum running time of two hours.

 

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Cooking is cool.  And kitchen gear is even cooler.  -- Chad Ward

Whatever you crave, there's a dumpling for you. -- Hsiao-Ching Chou

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2 hours ago, JoNorvelleWalker said:

I shall never again splash my face with boiling potato water.  Worry not, everything is OK save for a small spot on my lower lip.

 

Clearly the problem is your face. It's in the way.  Get a really long spoon so that the beans have a chance to cool down before you can figure out how to turn it around toward your mouth. As for the splashing, well, just move your face to somewhere less dangerous. It makes me a nervous wreck whenever I see you have posted on this thread. Calendula ointment is excellent for pillowy lips, for burns, for diaper rash, for almost everything. Glad you are okay!

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Given my various and sundry mishaps over the decades, this topic was made for me, but I also don't want to lie* -- "never again" would be an empty promise. :S

 

*unless it'll get me out of a lot of trouble or into a lot of money, but that's a whole 'nother matter

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"There is no sincerer love than the love of food."  -George Bernard Shaw, Man and Superman, Act 1

 

"Imagine all the food you have eaten in your life and consider that you are simply some of that food, rearranged."  -Max Tegmark, physicist

 

Gene Weingarten, writing in the Washington Post about online news stories and the accompanying readers' comments: "I basically like 'comments,' though they can seem a little jarring: spit-flecked rants that are appended to a product that at least tries for a measure of objectivity and dignity. It's as though when you order a sirloin steak, it comes with a side of maggots."

 

"...in the mid-’90s when the internet was coming...there was a tendency to assume that when all the world’s knowledge comes online, everyone will flock to it. It turns out that if you give everyone access to the Library of Congress, what they do is watch videos on TikTok."  -Neil Stephenson, author, in The Atlantic

 

"In questions of science, the authority of a thousand is not worth the humble reasoning of a single individual." -Galileo Galilei, physicist and astronomer

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On 9/22/2021 at 2:47 PM, Alex said:

Given my various and sundry mishaps over the decades, this topic was made for me, but I also don't want to lie* -- "never again" would be an empty promise. :S

 

*unless it'll get me out of a lot of trouble or into a lot of money, but that's a whole 'nother matter

 

It's the good intention that counts, Alex:  I shall never again shake my evening Mississippi punch without the lid.

 

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Cooking is cool.  And kitchen gear is even cooler.  -- Chad Ward

Whatever you crave, there's a dumpling for you. -- Hsiao-Ching Chou

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