My pressure canner gave me an error about a leak in the pressure while canning october beans. It took an hour for the pressure to release after I unplugged the canner. The beans look cooked and the jars sealed. Do I still need to reprocess them? If so, do I need to unseal the lids and put new ones on?
1 Answer
Beans will look cooked and jars will seal in an unpressurized boiling water bath, so if you're doing a recipe that requires pressure canning, that does not tell you anything useful about the safety of your food.
Stock official advice is generally that if you're uncertain that the required pressure was maintained for the entire required time, you should start over from the beginning, or refrigerate within 24 hours, or discard the food. We certainly can't tell what actually went on inside your canner, but if it's throwing an error message about leaking, it seems unwise to assume that it was at the required pressure for the full time.
Stock official advice is also to use new lids. I consider that one a bit extreme if using proper safety lids, as you can verify the seal, but that is the official advice in most places. A past question turned up official advice about double-boiling-water-bath processing from Germany where jars are processed, left 24 hours, and re-processed with the same lids. You could perhaps consider that.
You should probably verify correct operation without any food in it after going through any suggested cleaning and maintenance procedures in the owner's manual.
