Sevitz's secret method for opening jars that for the bloody life of you, you can't open.
- Take jar and place on firm surface (kitchen counter surfaces are good)
- Take sharp strong object. A corkscrew is the business. Don't use a knife as it will probably snap and you'll end up hurting yourself and suing me, and we don't want nasty law suits do we.
- Hit the top of the jar lid with the corkscrew.
- Voilą [
someone tell me how to spell this properly and I'll fix it]
Jars are sealed and airtight. So by puncturing the lid you break the seal and pressure equalise with the normal air pressure. Ergo, no suction holding the lid on, ergo easy to open.
You can thank me later.
Note: This brilliant (yes I don't mind you calling it brilliant either) technique is not so good, should you wish to reuse the lid later on to reseal the jar to put in the fridge or anything. This is a one way function.
1. Julius
My favourite method is to get a teaspoon and insert the tip of the bowl of the spoon into the gap at the bottom of the lid, where the thread is. When you lever the side of the lid away from the jar, the air rushes in, and Bob’s your uncle.
2. Adrian
Nice one. Although I suspects that means I will be destroying spoons now instead of lids.
3. Green Fairy
It’s voila! (With accent, but I can’t work out how to do that) My favourite Big Girl’s Method involving no violence is to run the metal lid under the hot tap for a minute.
4. Adrian
Thank’s, I’ll fix it when I can figure out how to do the accent.
The problem with the hot tap method, is it gets the jar wet, heats up the contents, and doesn’t always work. Maybe it does always work but isn’t quite the same enjoyment as breaking things with a sharp pointy thing.
5. Julius
I must leap to the defence of my spoon-based method. In all my years of using it, I’ve never lost a spoon yet.
Admit it, you just like stabbing stuff.
6. pix
I’m told that another way of opening the jar is to tap the side of the lid against a hard surface, like a door jamb or a counter top, as this releases the pressure, and lets you open the jar.
I’ve never actually tried it, so can’t comment, but it was told to me by an older lady who’s a mum and a grandmum, so I figure she might know a thing or two.
7. D
Hold down Alt, type 133 on your Numberpad (with Numlock on, release Alt.
Voilą.
Wait, am I supposed to be in a pub in Chelsea in less than an hour? Bugger, better get dressed.
8. Lisa
I’m with Julius - I use the same technique with a butter knife and it works a treat. (learned many years ago when I worked in a restaurant and had to get industrial-sized jars of pickled beets open).
9. zed
i’m with pix on this one, although it’s a good idea to put a cloth or something on the kitchen surface before you start whacking jars to pieces against it.
10. Adrian
OK OK, I concede their are other less destructive ways to open a jar.
But not as much fun …
11. razorhead
But because you can’t re-seal the jar, it means you have to eat the entire jar of pickled eggs
12. Adrian
I’ve never done pickled eggs, but I have eaten pickled cucumbers to the point I felt ill.
In this case it was a jar of Doritos Extra Hot Salsa, and the jar didn’t last that long anyway.
13. Crystal
I do the teaspoon thing (as mentioned above), levering the suction away - that way little, mean bacteria things don’t get into my precious jellies. :)
14. Jessica
Seriously…I have this pickle jar that I bought like a month ago and I have tried every single one of your methods and I can’t get any of them to work.
I didn’t really understand the Teaspoon one but I still tried and it didn’t work.
I really want a pickle…Damn.