To Put It Mildly, I Feel Cheated

I thawed out the Thanksgiving ham bone to make a big pot of beans on Friday. Great Northern beans, soaked overnight, simmered for two hours with a spoonful of minced garlic, a little ground black pepper, and three little Sweet Cherry Peppers and some of their juice. 

SWEET GUMMI MARY! Those are some of the best beans I've ever made!

When we have beans, Farmer H and I like to dice an onion to add, along with some Mild Banana Pepper Rings, which I also dice. And of course some corn muffins, part of which we crumble into our bowl of beans. I made the beans before I went to town. When looking for the Mild Banana Pepper Rings, I noticed we had none. So I got some in 10Box as I was getting bananas.

I couldn't find my regular jar, which is tall and fat. But they had a tall and thin jar. I started to get two, but then I saw a squatty jar of the same amount, but the store brand. It was about 40 cents cheaper. I decided to get one of each, to see if we liked the store brand. I knew we'd go through both jars. That pot of beans was enough to last us over three meals.

Everything was ready as I prepared to slice the peppers. I took the store brand and opened the lid. WAIT A MINUTE! I didn't get that WHOOSH sound from the vacuum seal. That lid just turned like it had been in FRIG II for a week, already opened. I saw the problem right away. A piece of a pepper ring had been stuck between the glass and the lid. It was dried out and stuck on the outside of the jar. Just a few millimeters of it. But noticeable, if I had inspected the jar for such an anomaly before putting it in my cart. I've never had such a problem, so that never entered my mind.

"Hey! This jar of peppers didn't have the vacuum seal! Do you think we should take a chance on eating them? It's not like somebody tampered with it. There was a piece of pepper stuck between the lid and the jar."

"It's probably okay."

"Are you sure? What about botulism? That jar wasn't sealed! Any kind of bacteria might have gotten in. I have another jar we can use."

"Well. Maybe."

"Okay. I'm not using it. I'll get another jar in a day or two. We'll use the other one now."

You never know. I didn't feel like dying over a couple of dollars of peppers.