This makes great chili!
Cook this all together until heated through before you add the salt, then put through colander, then heat juice to boiling and can in jars.
By Robin from Washington, IA
Here are the questions asked by community members. Read on to see the answers provided by the ThriftyFun community.
The canned tomatoes that were all done at the same time, but my daughter has stored hers in a warmer environment than I have. When she opened a jar tonight the canning lid was all black. The tomatoes taste OK, but I'm afraid that there could be a problem with them. She says she can see other lids (through the jar) that also have black on the inside lid.
By BevM
I remember an old saying; When in doubt. Throw it out!
I don't know if they would be any good or not. Did you can them together or did she do hers at her home? I do know that I was brought up that home canned goods should be stored in a cool place like an unfinished basement, you don't want it to be cold enough that the stuff will freeze, but cool.
Throw away like Keeper said when in doubt. There could be so many reasons why this happened that I wouldn't take the chance of someone becoming ill because of using.
I use to do a lot of canning. Sometime I would get some jars with black on the lids. If I remember right it was mostly tomatoes or peppers. Things with high acid. Can not remember if they had been canned for a while or not, but I always toss them out.
I canned tomatoes and I didn't put lemon juice into the jars. Is that going to create a health issue when I open the jars? The tomatoes were boiled, then put into sterilized jars and have sterile lids. I also put them into a boiling water bath for ten minutes.
By Susan F
I have never used lemon juice when canning tomatoes. The only thing I have ever added is salt.
You will know if the tomatoes smell sour or the jars don't seal. You should be fine if you boiled them for ten mintues though 20 would have been better.
The issue with adding lemon juice tomatoes is acidity. High acid foods do not spoil if canned properly in a water bath canner. However, modern tomatoes are not usually high in acid and need added acid (lemon juice, citric acid, or vinegar) to up the acidity. Low acid foods when canned in a water bath canner are at risk for botulism poisoning, an often lethal illness. I suggest that you cook the tomatoes that you canned for a minimum of 10 minutes at a full boil to kill any possible toxins before you eat them.
I've never heard of putting lemon juice in the jars for canned tomatoes. Used to can tomatoes all the time and had no problems.
Can anyone suggest some ideas for an over abundance of tomatoes? Any relishes or canning suggestions? Help please!
jspcoolbeans
OH MY! How I would LOVE to be in your shoes! Or in your tomatoes I should say. ha ha
You can buy spaghetti sauce mixes and salsa mixes in the canning supplies at Walmart or other similar stores or grocery store but you don't even have to use those. Make your own and can them. If I am not mistaken, tomato-based products can be done in the water canner due to the high acidity.
You can also make your own barbecue sauce, ketchup, stewed tomatoes, tomatoe soup, etc.
This is only related to abundance of tomatoes. I found that some American Indians would dry tomatoes and them crush them into powder. This year I'm trying another one of their planting procedures. Put a tomato plant in a small trench, leaving a few leaves out. The plant will root all along the stem. THEN, put a corn cob near the end of the plant - when the roots hit the corn, the tomato plant will go wild producing. (I can only container garden and have one tomato plant - did this as an experiment. This geographic area is not producing a lot of tomatoes this year, so this is a spectacle that I'm proud of).
People don't realize that you can use tomatoes to make jams, jellies and chutneys. There are lots of recipes on the internet. I know because I have several in various cookbooks, so the net will have them for you. I also tried something a elderly lady told me that was really bizarre, but worked. She said to peel and seed the tomatoes if you want, but you don't have to, and then add a flavored Jello gelatin powder.
How long do you leave the jarred tomatoes in the boiling water in the canner?
By iamjc
You need to get a BALL canning book. It is like the Bible of canning. It will give you the details of just about every canning process that exists from "hot water bath" to pressure cooker.
My mom cans and has like three of these books (she misplaces them alot). But even she has told me , "everything about canning is in this little book". She has been canning for over 30 years and has this book to help her the whole time.
You must have the Ball Canning book! You cannot go by what someone else does on how long to leave the jars in the canner. You must follow canning guidelines for everything you can.
I have made a mistake in canning home made tomato sauce and would appreciate it if someone can tell me if I can correct this or if it would be safer to throw it all away?
I made plain sauce and canned most of in in pint jars. However it is many years since I have done this sort of thing, and did not process it properly. Can I open and re-boil the sauce and add the lemon juice and salt I should have put into each jar?
Then using new lids and processing it in the proper way with the longer processing time required? I only did it for 20 min. and also the jars were NOT covered with water as they should have been. I used to can lots of different fruit and even salmon, but I have never done tomatoes before. We had a great tomato crop this year so I did try, but I only had a large pot. It was not deep enough, but I plan to buy a new canning pot tomorrow so I can do it the right way. Also I will check out methods before I try to do any more home canning; I do not want to make any one ill with improperly prepared home preserving. Thanking you in advance.
It's hard to know if the sauce is still good when you weren't clear on what you did. Processing pints of tomato sauce/juice for 20 minutes is fine. Not adding salt and/or lemon juice is OK too--I rarely add them when I can mine. Not covering the jars with water probably won't matter (since tomatoes are high acid); even in my canning pot, sometimes my taller jars aren't covered with water. My grandmother and mom occasionally had the same problem with taller jars, and none of us have ever had a problem with tomato juice going bad. As long as the juice was boiling when put into the jars, the jars were processed in water that had a full rolling boil the entire time, and the jars had sealed properly, they should be fine. A problem might arise if you added other items to the sauce, like onions, green peppers, etc, which would increase the processing time. But you stated that you made plain tomato sauce, so I'm assuming that you meant tomatoes only. Personally, I've made some tomato juice that was thicker than my usual home canned sauce, so if the sauce isn't exceptionally thick, I think it would be OK.
I am canning less than 7 pints of tomatoes. If you don't have a full canner of jars do you reduce the processing time?
By C Dehlin
NO, NEVER reduce processing times.
One of my tomatoes turned black in the jar after I processed. I have never seen this before, can anyone give advice? Also, no matter how tight I tighten the lids the juice is siphoned in the canning process. I followed the Ball canning book recipe and the lids sealed, should I be concerned?
By Michelle Y.
All the years that I canned a wide variety of things, I never had a tomato turn black in the jar. I would definitely toss the stuff in that jar. If I remember right, you do lose some liquid in the processing time, but most of the liquid should still be in the jar.
I need to know the processing time for 2 qt. jars of tomatoes. My old Kerr canning book (1960) had this in it, but not the later ones. I also need to know the amount of time adjusted for altitude. I am about 5,000 ft. I haven't been able to find this in the Ball canning book. I would appreciate the information.
By Ellie D. from Springville, UT
My books only have directions for pints and quarts. I have lots of the old half-gallon jars, but have never canned in them. You can still buy the half gallon jars. The Ball company has a wonderful website; they make the Kerr jars too.
I'd suggest that you get on the site ( www.freshpreserving.com/ ) and e-mail the company with the question. Lehman's is a company that sells to the Amish. They sell lots of large sized jars. While I've not been to their site in quite a while, I'm sure they'd be a wonderful source. Best of luck.
My pints of yellow tomatoes turned dark on top. What would cause this?
By Karen M.
How do you can tomatoes and other fresh vegetables?
By nancy from Jacksonville, FL
Hubby and I always can cherry or Roma tomatoes. Wash all tomatoes to make sure they are dirt free. Boil a med/large pot of water. Fill one part of sink with cold water. Drop tomatoes into boiling water for approx 15 seconds, take out and put in sink of cold water. Get a big bowl to put all of tomatoes in after you peel the skin from them after taking from cold water.
The skins should comes off easily, sometimes by even pinching them at the butt. Fill bowl up with peeled maters, then stuff in canning jars. Once each jar is full, add 1/4 tsp. of salt and can as normal. Hubby and I have a sytem down on doing this and it flows so easy. Have fun.My jars sealed but they are only 1/3 full, can I reprocess? Can I empty jars and combine into new sterilized jars and reprocess? Any suggestions?
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