I recently canned tomatoes using the water bath method and realize now that I didn't boil them long enough, only 10 minutes. Can I put them back in the water bath and redo them. I used an old canning book that called for only 10 minutes. I did pack them hot in sterilized jars and and the lids are sealed. Help!
I've recently been canning tomatoes too, so I can completely understand your concern. I looked in my Ball Blue Book of canning, and I couldn't find anything about reprocessing the food if it wasn't in long enough. It does say this however; If a lid does not seal within 24 hours, the product can be immediately reprocessed. To reprocess the product, remove the lid and reheat the food and/or liquid as recommended by the recipe. Pack food into clean hot jars. Place a new, heated lid on the jar and adjust band. Reprocess the product using the canning method and full length of processing time recommended by the recipe. I don't know if this helps or not, as I know your lids sealed, but the hardest part may be getting the jars reheated. You could always put the tomatoes in new sterile jars and redo them. I did mine yesterday in a water bath for an hour and a half. Good luck!
Thanks for the feedback. I realized I had goofed after buying a Ball Book and saw the new USDA updates. After Googling this subject I did find out I could take the tomatos out of the jars and boil them for 30 minutes.
My grandmother taught me to 'put foods by' when I was very young and I have been doing it for close to 40 years now. I never use a pressure canner. I used to water bath all kinds of veggies, but now most of my veggies go in the freezer because processing destroys most, if not all of the nutritive value. But I do can sauces, relishes, pickles of all kinds, condiments, etc., and even jellies and jams (instead of using wax) in the water bath. My grandmother never killed anybody or made them sick and neither have I. My advice is to start counting your time once the water has come to a full, hard rolling boil. When in doubt, process for 10 minutes longer. Also, once the jars have been removed from the water bath and start to cool listen for the caps to 'pop' when you take them out of the bath--this is the lid sealing down.
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I hot packed and processed tomato quarts for 40 instead of 45 by accident. Heavy boil the whole time and plenty of citric in the jars though. Think I'm good?
Side note, I froze the tomatoes whole and thawed, removed skins, and cooked them at a boil as prescribed by the blue book before adding to jars.
I know that if jars are improperly processed or don't seal, you have to reprocess them exactly the same way you did the first time: open the jars, dump out the tomatoes, reheat it, resterilize the jars, and reprocess.
Process time for pints is 40 minutes, for quarts ' 45 minutes, but this is for 0 - 1,000 ft. You need to check how high above sea level you are:
I'm not sure what steps you decided to take but IF you have not reprocessed your tomatoes then please DUMP the lot as it is not safe to reprocess home canned tomatoes if they have been sitting for more than 24 hours.
Reprocessing. Jars of tomatoes or tomato products can be safely reprocessed within 24 hours of the initial processing.
From CDC website:
"Home-canned vegetables are the most common cause of botulism outbreaks in the United States. From 1996 to 2014, there were 210 outbreaks of foodborne botulism reported to CDC. Of the 145 outbreaks that were caused by home-prepared foods, 43 outbreaks, or 30%, were from home-canned vegetables."
There are many sites providing directions for reprocessing canned foods but always remember:
You CAN NOT taste food spoilage/botulism, so DO NOT taste for spoilage.
If in doubt - DUMP the lot.
I am reprocessing my tomatoes because I didn't water bath can them long enough. The tomatoes are still very hot in the 4 jars. Do I need to add more citric acid to the jars or will the original amount be enough?
I have poured all 4 jars together in one pot to reheat again.There should be no need to add more citric acid to the tomatoes if you need to reprocess them again. it is recommended that you open the jars, throw away the lids, dump the content into a pan, and heat again.
It is probably too late and this is already done. I am not a believer in reprocessing being safe because I got very sick from doing this.
The lesson I learned is if things don't can right the first time, use what you are able to use (meaning put it in the fridge) and freeze the rest.
Safety first!! If you are in the US and are in doubt about how safe what you did is, contact your local home extension office. If you tell me where you are, I can give you a number to call.
I made strawberry jam and did a water bath canning method. I only processed them for 5 minutes and now days later I see it was suppose to be 10 minutes.
Will they be alright to eat or what do you recommend I do now?Undoubtedly you did not put these jars in the refrigerator because you thought they were "canned".
About 4 months ago I canned quarts of halved peaches, but did not add water bath time for our high altitude. Since I didn't realize this until about a week afterwards I was advised to throw it all out, but have been avoiding throwing this work down the drain.
Could I take the peaches out and cook them into jam? Wouldn't cooking the actual fruit kill any bacteria? Looking for any solution to not waste the fruit. Any suggestions?You need to throw them out. The time to cook them longer would have been immediately. Bacteria could have time to grow. Better to be safe than sorry.
Having gotten sick from a failed canning project, I strongly suggest you toss it.
Safely first! I hate waste too and feel guilty, but food poisoning is very scary!
I highly recommend you toss all the jars, sad as it is. Here is a link from the government about the dangers of home canning. Botulism is a very real concern.
www.foodsafety.gov/
Good luck and be safe.
The only thing I would suggest is to dig a deep hole (deep enough where an animal will not dig it up) and dump your peaches; bleach/scald your jars; buy new lids and try again next year.
I do not like to waste food either; especially something that I have worked hard to prepare, but this could be a very real safety thing so please, close your eyes and dump the peaches.
I have read that canned peaches is one of the kinds of food that is sometimes difficult to tell if it the food has spoiled so do not take a chance - even with a "taste".
Sorry. Safety first is hard, but so necessary with food. Take care!!
I didnt process my tomatoes long enough . They were still quite warm and I put them back in the very warm water . Is this okay . I processed them for 45 mins and some of jars have made the popping sound. Was this safe to do ?
I didnt process my tomatoes long enough . They were still quite warm and I put them back in the very warm water . Is this okay . I processed them for 45 mins and some of jars have made the popping sound. Was this safe to do ?
I just did the same with snap beans using a pressure cooker. Only cooked for 10 min at 10 lbs. when I realized that my timing was short the jars were still hot to the touch but had sealed. I put them back into the pressure cooker and reprocessed them
At 10 lbs for 20 minutes. I hope this is okay to do. I would think that bacteria cannot grow in hot jars. I did not take the beans out of the jars or reheat them or use new lids as the beans were still hot to the touch.
I made salsa using my sister's recipe. She makes huge batches. She boils her jars for an hour in her roaster. I have an old stock pot for canning and I make small batches.
I boiled mine for an hour. I saw the lids were stressed when it was done, but once cooled I could press them and they moved. What am I doing wrong?
