Hey expert canners... I've canning a variety of things here and there but I'm by no means an expert. I was canning turkey broth in a pressure canner. Followed some instructuctions on canning for 25 mins with 15 lbs pressure. When the lid of the canner was safe to take off I removed it (safety tab down, pressure rocker thing was off with no pressure left). The jars then starting releasing pressure in the form of seals popping on and off and shooting broth put of the seals. No lids popped off the jars, but I obviously lost broth in some jars. When they went in, jars had about an inch of headspace.

What went wrong?

I'd say there was a thin film of oil between the mouth rim of the jar and the lid, causing them to not seal.

Secondly, should I just reprocess the jars?

My wife asks why you used 15lbs of pressure, does your altitude require that much. She said what happened is called siphoning, you can get some but it shouldn’t be excessive, she also mentioned how much water did you have in bottom of canner.

how much head space did you leave before processing?

leave about 5/8 to 3/4" of head space

put the broth in a pot while you wash the jars and bands , use new lids. 5/8 to 3/4 head space

do you boil the lids to soften the seal before placing the lid on the jar and do you wipe the rim before placing ?

are you putting hot or cold broth in the jars when packing ? if cold more head space because it expands , if your broth is near a boil then 5/8" should be enough.

oil on the rim of the jar can make them not seal well

too little head space can when heated force fluid out the seal then causing it not to seal

your goal is let expanding gas out but not liquid then when they seal the vacuum is created sealing the lid down tight

When you shut the canner off,,did you leave the rocker on until the pressure tab went down on its own,,or did you pull the rocker off to make the pressure tab go down faster.

Wheather your hot bathing or pressure caning this Is the procedure you need to follow.

Unless one lives at elevation in the mountains, 15 pounds is too much pressure. I'm at 900 feet in MO and only use 10 pounds. And screws over lids are only screwed down finger tight. Enough to let the expanding air out of the jar as contents heat up under pressure, but then suck down tight and seal as pressure drops when you cut the heat.

Nothing to do with mountains...just need to google elevation for his town and go by that. Anything over 1,000 ft is 15 pounds...and 1,000 ft is far from being considered mountains.

Ive reprocessed the broth in the mean time. The headspace is all now 1" or slightly more (making up for the lost broth the 1st go round. I used all new seals as well.

When we googling how many lbs to use, it was in between 10 and 15 so I rounded up to the 15 lbs to be on the safer side. Second time around I went with 10 lbs. We are pretty low in elevation, around the 700' mark.

I was starting the process with hot broth. I always wipe the rims before starting the process. I did not preheat the seals. I typically do that for anything I'm hot bathing but can't say I've done that for pressure canning every time.

upstate, the rocker did come off before the tab dropped. I waited for the rocker to quit for a bit then let off till the tab dropped.

Never take the rocker off till the pressure tab has dropped on its own.That extra time it takes for the tab to drop is equated into the canning process.The pressure dropping too fast like that could be what caused your problem.

I too bet this was your problem. Everything else you did seems okay.

Yup, trying to hasten the process by venting the canner results in unequal pressure in the jar vs canner with the jar having higher pressure. Guess where it goes? Had to learn that the hard way myself.

Let everything come down in pressure and temp equally, ie don't touch anything other than cutting off the heat.

Try this site for more information- https://nchfp.uga.edu/publications/uga/using_press_canners.html#gsc.tab=0

Update. Round 2 did the same thing. 10 mins with no rocker to let it fill with steam, 25 mins @ 10lbs pressure. Let it the pressure go down on its own completely. Popped the lid (no pressure release when I did so) and the jars did the same thing. Cleaned rimmed, plenty of head space. Only thing I didn't do was pre heat seals.

At this point we are freezing it but it has me pretty frustrated.

Also, if they seal even after they lose some broth, are they safe to keep canned?

what brand of lids

there was a lot of china lids post covid that have not sealed well

Ball could not keep up production to meet demand in the covid canning craze.

That's exactly what happened, you let off the pressure too soon.
I don't have a pressure tab, have no idea what it is except from pictures of newer electric canners.
I have older canners, that I rebuilt to have a dial gauge and a weight gauge .
I'm guessing that's what you're calling the rocker, the weight gauge.
The weight is 15 pounds , so I use the dial gauge to lower the heat until I have a pressure or 11-13 pounds.
It depends on a few different things as to why 11 sometimes and 13 others.
I let the dial gauge go to zero and wait another little while, like about 5 minutes.
Then I slowly remove the weight, if it hisses, I leave it on a little longer.
Once it doesn't hiss anymore, I remove the weight.
Let it set for another little while about 5 minutes.
There's times I leave the canner with the weight on over night if it's the last batch.
Once cooled, take the jars out, the contents are still boiling, so don't tip the jars, keep them straight up , then set on your counter to finish cooling.
It's better to let the canner set as long as you can ,to allow it to cool enough that it prevents siphoning .
I run two sometimes three canners at a time , it allows me to let a hot canner to set longer to cool.
I use propane turkey fryer burners to can outside , as most canning in done in warmer weather , it helps keep the house cooler, and I get to be outside more.

I have Ball brand seals.

I would say test can some water and see if you get it to seal

something is off you shouldn't be blowing that much head

Only thing Im wondering now is if your putting the lids on too tight before putting in the canner,,not allowing air to escape while in the canner.They should just be finger tight,,not cranked down.

If they seal you are good- Sometimes I found that I have to handle jars very carefully. If I set them down a little to hard or tip them sometimes they will suddenly expel a lot of what ever is in them. You don't have to move them very aggressively at all - sometimes just lifting jars makes it happen or like if mentioned above taking the lid off a little too soon can do it too. Tipping the top weight to make the pressure go down faster will do it too.
I went to canning liquids in the evening and when I get to the end I just shut off the stove and go to bed. I leave them in the canner all night and in the morning all are sealed and cooled off. I'm pretty impatient ... this works for me so I don't try to do two batches when I only have time for one. Just did 14 quarts of chicken and this is how I did it.
You can re-process them- it won't hurt anything

Maybe lids to tight. But 15lbs is to much for your elevation. I would remove all lids clean jar edges with white vinegar with new lids and re process at 10lbs.

I agree with Ohio wolverine. Removed pressure to soon. Re process at 10lbs

I've done just about everything you can do wrong while canning and never had this happen. Seems like, you might have some bad lids?

I bet the lids are fine. If liquid is coming out (likely due to releasing canner pressure too soon), then I would think the grease that rises to the top of the broth is coming out along with the broth, getting between the lids and the jars, and preventing the lids from sealing. I suppose try to take off as much of the grease that comes to the top when you are heating up the broth before actually putting it into the jars. I've never canned meat broth, so no actual experience with that.

Using 15 lbs of pressure MIGHT be more than your elevation requires, but it still won't hurt a thing. It will just make the processing temperature somewhat higher. If your elevation is higher than the highest elevation for 10 lbs, then you must use 15 lbs on a weighted guage, to ensure killing any botulism or other nasties that might be in the food being canned.

With a dial gauge and a weight gauge both, you'll have better control of your canning.
I tried the three way weight gauge, and at 10 pounds it's spitting , shaking , and rattling drove me to changing back to my 15 pound weight.
Also once I shut off the heat , it lost pressure very fast.
I had siphoning real bad , IMHO because I'm used to the 15 pound weight, and it's quieter , while holding the pressure longer and releasing it slower.
I will not use the three way weight again.
Already gave them away.

Well, now you know. That's why they siphoned. You need to let the pressure come down to zero on it's own.

Exactly , and the very reason ( one of them anyway) I use both a dial gauge and a weight gauge.
The dial tells me when the pressure is zero, and I still wait about 5 minutes before tipping the weight to see if there's any pressure left.

Did y'all miss his later post where he re-processed, doing everything right, with the same result? I think bad lids.

I’m guessing that grease bubbled up and compromised the seal of the lids.

Possibly it. My guess two possible or both together solutions. Chill the broth until the fat congeals then skim if off before canning or leave more headspace.

While I know there's bad lids out there, even Ball lids are made cheaper than they were20 years ago.
He also stated later that he did remove the rocker to help the tab fall!
Thus causing the jars siphoning .
All three times he missed a step !
IMHO he's getting frustrated , and not following the procedure correctly .