Hello. After planting way too many tomato plants, I had to buy a pressure canner.
I spent a few hours yesterday canning and have a couple of questions.
1. I put lemon juice and salt in the jars, but in the bottom. Will this be a problem?
2. After processing, all of my tomatoes are floating at the top of the jars and the bottom 'half' of the jars are liquid only. What happened here, and does it means they're ruined?
Thanks for all of your help.
You're not really saying much about how you processed the tomatoes for canning.
I've canned them in the past and what I do is cut a cross in the skins of the tomatoes on the bud end, place them in boiling water for a couple minutes to loosen the skin and remove the skin. Once the skins are removed I'll cut the tomatoes in half and remove the seeds by squeezing the tomatoes over a bowl and put the pulp in a separate bowl till all tomatoes are done. Then I'll cook down the tomatoes with my seasonings of onions, bell peppers, garlic and other seasonings to the desired thickness----usually very thick for me.
Then I'll place the tomato sauce in the jars and process them. Let them cool and make sure they form a vacuum to seal the jars then store in the pantry.
I've canned them in the past and what I do is cut a cross in the skins of the tomatoes on the bud end, place them in boiling water for a couple minutes to loosen the skin and remove the skin. Once the skins are removed I'll cut the tomatoes in half and remove the seeds by squeezing the tomatoes over a bowl and put the pulp in a separate bowl till all tomatoes are done. Then I'll cook down the tomatoes with my seasonings of onions, bell peppers, garlic and other seasonings to the desired thickness----usually very thick for me.
Then I'll place the tomato sauce in the jars and process them. Let them cool and make sure they form a vacuum to seal the jars then store in the pantry.
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Ohio Tiller
- Green Thumb
- Posts: 463
- Joined: Wed Jan 11, 2012 11:39 am
- Location: Ohio
you said you pressure cooked them? High acid fruits like tomatoes don't need to be pressure canned. All they need is the water bath canning (boiled) And the space under them is normal when pressure canning it happens with green beans all the time.
here are some of my canned tomatoes fresh out of the water bath with some canned sweet corn.
[img]https://i80.photobucket.com/albums/j176/Johnfor3/canning-1.jpg[/img]
here are some of my canned tomatoes fresh out of the water bath with some canned sweet corn.
[img]https://i80.photobucket.com/albums/j176/Johnfor3/canning-1.jpg[/img]