D-I-Y catering with Herrings In?

wear appropriate PPE

I once spent half an hour on the 'phone to a charming lady on 111 who was advising me how to stop myself from bleeding to death after the lid sprang back and nearly chopped a finger off.

use a tin opener

I’ve not seen herrings in tomato sauce. Can I ask where you bought them, please?

I recommend pickled herrings - they come in jars. A bit of a strong taste - they are wrapped with onions.

Just had some this evening. Initially releasing the lid (there's a vacuum inside) can sometimes be a bit of a bugger. You need to find the sweet spot between the rim of the glass and the edge of the lid where you can insert a suitable tool (usually a spoon handle) to release it.

The assistance of a spoon handle through the ring-pull helps you control the leverage,

Not a problem I’ve noticed.

That said, for jars etc which are ‘tight’, we have a gizmo which is like a VERY thick rubber band with rubber teeth / nobbles on the inside. You slip it over the lid and it helps you grip as well as increasing the distance from the centre of rotation a bit. I’m not sure where we bought it- it looks like something IKEA would sell.

I make my own pickles etc and use those safety lids you seal using a boiling water bath. Sometimes they can be a pain to open. The gizmo is perfect.

Anchovies are supplied the same way in the larger packs and I have never needed to insert anything. They have a thick glass body and a thick glass lid and a rubber ring between them and a galvanised steel wire clip.

I have a plastic tool a 'Jarkey', which is designed to easily break the vacuum without damaging either the lid or the jar. Mine was a gift, but I've seen them at Lakeland and on Amazon.

Ignore the ring and peelback feature; treat it a as a trap for those who do not have the proper tools.

Use a can opener...

Thomas Prufer

Only yesterday I bought, for the first time, a couple of jars of Duer's marmalade with "Easy Open Lids" (Duer's were the lowest pence per 100g of the "nice" marmalades).

I haven't opened one yet, but there is a somewhat freely rotating screwed ring around the main lid which seems to meet a screw thread.

After a quick search ("Duck Duck Go" doesn't roll off the tongue in the same way as "Google" does), I've found this:

From

The simple mechanism, developed by Crown Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: CCK), a world leader in metal packaging, reduces the effort required to get the jar open. The appearance of the OrbitTM lid is very similar to a normal twist-off lid, but it is actually in two parts: a central panel is sealed to the jar by vacuum, and an outer ring is screwed in place to provide further protection.

To open the jar, the user simply twists the ring in the same way as opening a normal twist-off lid. Twisting the ring firstly loosens the ring, then smoothly pushes the panel away from the jar to break the seal. In this way, the ring acts as a tool to break the seal. As the panel is free to move within the ring, the sound made by breaking the seal is accentuated, assuring the consumer of the contents’ freshness. Once opened, the jar may be reclosed and reopened as usual. </cite>

Popping the tin in the fridge for a bit or even a freezer - long enough to chill the contents and reduce the internal pressure - may help.

Lidl do a small range (and probably Aldi), there's also John West herring fillet in tomato sauce from other shops.

Yes, But I prefer pilchards.

Ocean Spray brand of tartare sauce has similar - we were much impressed. For other normal types of jammed screw top jars, this handy vacuum/lid releaser is a life saver for those with dodgy hands.

Thank you. I will have a look, a new Lidl opened near us not long ago.

I thought I’d checked the Aldi range - we have a good one nearby- but maybe I missed them.

We tend to stock up on tinned fish in France, the French seem to do a wider range and the prices are normally very good.

Now all I need is a mechanism to pop the daily pills out of the blister packs....

My gizmo is a 5 inch disc of slightly 'tacky' rubber (very flexible), which works well. It allows you to apply loads of twist - but you still have to be super-human to break the vacuum.

These are the ones (warning: link contains fish):