When SWMBO is occupied elsewhere and I must feed myself, the flat oval tins of Herrings In are tempting but, when opening these and peeling back the lid of the tin, how does one prevent a rainstorm of tomato sauce when you take your finger away from the loop opener and the lid springs back?
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.
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.
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.
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
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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>
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.
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The ring-pull can opener mentioned elsewhere is no longer a problem with this one in the kitchen drawer.
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These two gadgets have saved me endless painful fingers and cuts.
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.
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