Thanks much for the tips!

Years ago, when a voluntary tomato came up in the yard and ended up producing inordinate amounts of tomatoes, I decided to make tomato sauce, and canned it.  Without any input, I just ground the tomatoes in the blender, put them into quart jars then did the hot water bath.  They worked fine, but did separate.  Had to go ask someone if that meant they were spoiled!

Ahh, the spaghetti sauce that came later from that "sauce!"  But, that was when I decided there was no reason to peel the tomatoes.  And no one could come up with a reason to loose all that nutrition.  Yes there were tiny bits of tomato skin in the sauce, but not enough to notice, or make getting rid of it worth the effort.

Forgot to mention that pressure canning salsa is an alternative to worrying about the acidity.

I'd rather not, but some do.

Dede

The thing with the tomatoes is fairly recent.  As they develop more and more low acid tomatoes you could end up with less acid than necessary just because the tomatoes aren't like the old ones we used to can.  If there is any doubt, I add vinegar.  Especially in salsa you wouldn't even taste it once it was canned.

Actually I was surprised to learn that the low acid tomato varieties developed in the '70's are pretty much gone – because they just didn't taste good at all! But the USDA upon doing studies and finding that the pH levels of tomatoes showed they were close to the pH 4.6 breaking point between low acid (pH above 4.6) and high acid (pH below 4.6) led them (USDA) to stipulate adding acid to all tomatoes.

Ripeness has more to do with pH actually. And some tomatoes that folks swear are low acid are really just higher in sugar content and therefore taste less acidic/tart.

So even though there are practically no low acid tomatoes around anymore, I still add acid to my canned tomatoes because they are too important to take a risk with LOL. AND a lot of work puttin em up …….

sorry for the science lesson…….

but it is interesting.

I am still waiting for the powers that be to explain why we can't can tomatoes from frost killed vines…..

especially since green tomatoes are very high acid.

dede

Pete said:

Hmmm.  Do we have canning police patroling around looking for home canners?  

I'm going to can everything I can find!  That's why we bought the pressure canner.  Maybe I'm just stubborn (ya think??), but we are going to can anything we want to here!

We did have a problem a couple of year ago with a friend who just could not grasp the concept of water bath vs pressure canning.  She made lovely salsas, which I generally threw out because she simply would NOT pressure can anything with tomatoes in it, no matter how low the ratio was of tomatoes to peppers etc.  They tasted good, but were just not usually worth the risk, unless I knew that they had been made that day and we simply refrigerated the salsa and used it quickly.

LOL I can anything I can get my hands on too and that's why I push the "limits" of USDA UNtested statements. Like, Clearjel – is only approved for pie fillings?? Well, only because that's the only use they have tested it for! And Clearjel doesn't thicken upon heating as does cornstarch, but thickens as it cools, which is why it is perfect for canning…

So why not thicken canned soups with Clearjel? Works great!

I have a coworker who still water bath cans ALL her canning even though she knows it's not recommended and can be a game of russian roulette. She was offended when she brought in pints of homemade pork sausage patties to share and I declined – I knew they had been water bath canned months prior. Others ate some, but not me. I didn't say anything except 'thanks, but I brought my lunch', but she knew – and was still offended…..

Nope, no canning police

dede