Freezing home canned tomatoes

[glyncor]

I just canned my first tomatoes and they are cooling. There are 5 quarts done in a water bath canner. Now I just re-read the instructions and found that I only used 1 tablespoon of lemon juice per quart instead of 2 tablespoons. Now what? Does this mean my quarts will spoil and I will poison my family if I use them? Can I put the jars in the freezer to prevent this? Help, please!

Thanks.
glyncor

[TZ -OH6]

Do not put the jars in the freezer, the expanding ice will usually crack them. You could dump out the contents into ziplocks and freeze them, or recan them. I am not familiar with canning so I can't comment on the acid level.

[rainbowgardener]

TZ is right (as usual!) about the jars bursting in freezer.

But tomatoes are naturally acid. I have canned them without the lemon juice and they have been fine.

[nes]

As long as you seal your cans properly you'll know if they go bad if the tops pop!

[crobi13]

Never, ever freeze glass. It's dangerous.

Try this page for more than you ever wanted to know about home canning:

[url]https://www.uga.edu/nchfp/publications/publications_usda.html[/url]

[glyncor]

Thank you for your quick responses. It is time to do something with the cooled, canned jars, so your responses have helped me decide what to do, and also informed me that freezing the jars would be a very bad thing. Again, thank you for you quick replies. I do appreciate it.

Glyncor