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Post by Deleted on Sept 7, 2007 6:41:43 GMT -5
I had an...incident  when I was canning beans earlier so I had to waterbath my tomatoes (quarts). I cut them small enough to fit through the neck of the jar (halved or quartered), smooshed them down with a wooden spoon, then added more and smooshed more until the tomatoes were covered with their own juice and I had ½" headspace at the top. Then I re-read the directions and realized that since I had cold-packed, I would have water bath for 1h 25m  Okay, fine. I set it to boiling and hunkered down. This morning, I looked at the jars on the counter and see that there's about an inch of juice at the bottom and the tomatoes have risen about that far up in the jar so that the top inch isn't in any liquid. I have never had my beans do this to me so I'm at a bit of a loss. - Should I reprocess my tomatoes? - What did I do wrong to make them float up like that? /Via |
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Post by Kathy on Sept 7, 2007 6:46:39 GMT -5
I think you're just fine!!!  That's one of the reasons I don't cold/raw pack tomatoes-I like the tomatoes to be all the way from top to bottom instead of separating so there's that layer of 'plasma' with floating tomatoes. I'm sure others who raw/cold pack will weigh in but from what I've seen at fairs and friends homes-yours sound just like theirs. So how many quarts did you do? |
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Post by Deleted on Sept 7, 2007 8:00:05 GMT -5
 Thank you thank you! I'll post a pic this evening when I get home just in case you notice anything wrong. I have to say that I am *not* impressed with my floaters. I'm going to do up another batch either tonight or tomorrow so I'll give hot packing a try. It was only 7 quarts But how much can a person do in the evening if you have to let it bath for an hour and a half!?! Good grief, that was a loooong time. I called the extension office a few minutes ago and I'm going to take my gauge back over during lunch to have it re-tested. Once she gives me the thumbs-up, I think I'll pressure can some. Thank you for answering so quickly  /Via
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Post by Deleted on Sept 7, 2007 8:27:45 GMT -5
Via... I have never cold packed... but it's MUCH easier (for me) to simmer a kettle of maters and hot water bath em for 30 min, as opposed to the over an hour cold pack. This year, I used a pressure canner... (8 min fer quarts; hot pack)
Kaza
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Post by Deleted on Sept 7, 2007 8:55:21 GMT -5
EIGHT minutes?!? Gee, what I could do with all that free time... /Via |
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Post by Kathy on Sept 7, 2007 9:56:18 GMT -5
EIGHT minutes?!? Gee, what I could do with all that free time... /Via Post more or follow Lannies lead and join more message boards.   Lannie, you know I'm j/k!!  |
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Post by nan on Sept 7, 2007 11:57:30 GMT -5
Via....the floaters are no big deal...after they have been sealed for at least 24 hours...just tip the jar back over upside down...give it a little shake gently...and the maters will fall back down into the "water". They won't be separated anymore! I don't know exactly why they do that when you cold pack them...but my guess is that tomatoes are fairly light weight and when the vacuum is sucking out the "air" in the jar the maters rise to the tops of the jars above the "water" line! Just give them a shake and see if that doesn't fix your floaters!
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Post by Deleted on Sept 7, 2007 12:02:49 GMT -5
Okay, I have a confession, Kathy...when I was posting here last evening, I was sitting on the back steps with my laptop, watching the canner. I sure do love my wireless router!  nan, I will DEFINITELY give them a shake to see if it will convince them to go back down where they belong. Thank you for the tip! /Via |
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Post by nan on Sept 7, 2007 12:27:12 GMT -5
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Post by Deleted on Sept 7, 2007 13:36:50 GMT -5
Boy, I am NEVER going to live that down, am I? I only regularly visit and post on TWO of those forums, but I'm registered on all the others because at some time in the past, I posted there regularly. Some of them I've grown out of, so I only check in to see the silliness once in a while, and one, actually (and it shall remain nameless), I only joined so I could "snoop." Never posted there. But the websites are still in my favorites folder, so that's why I counted them. I AM registered at all of them. As to the tomatoes, because I raw-pack mine, they float, too, but I just try to smoosh as much as I can down in the jars so there's not so much empty space at the bottom when I'm done. Plus, I dice mine, so they can be smooshed maybe a little more than whole or quartered ones. Believe it or not, the bits sticking out at the top are just fine. There's no air in there, so they don't dry out. The first time I did them, I didn't smoosh at all, just spooned the diced maters into the jars and canned them. What I got out was hysterical! LOL! There was only HALF a jar full of tomatoes at the top - the rest was juice. So I had to use two jars instead of one for everything. But then I learned to smoosh. That not only saved time by not having to do twice as many loads, but also I used less jars.  I water bath my raw-packed diced tomatoes for 35 minutes. Since (as I posted in another thread) I couldn't remember how long I did them before, just to be on the safe side, I added a tablespoon of lemon juice to each pint this time. I KNOW for a fact, I've never had anything in the waterbath canner for an hour and a half, I think I probably did something like 30 or 40 minutes (that's what my dusty brain is trying to tell me) before with no lemon juice and they were just fine. ~Lannie |
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Post by Deleted on Sept 7, 2007 14:05:19 GMT -5
I thought that sounded like a long time, also. Maybe I read it wrong - I took the times from this year's Ball book so I'll check it again when I go home.
The good news is that I took my gauge back up to the extension office and asked them to retest it. Now it's only 1½ pounds off instead of 2! ;D
/Via
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Post by nan on Sept 7, 2007 14:46:07 GMT -5
VM...could be that their testing thingies are off too! You might take it to the hardware store and see what their's says! You might be right on "plumb" or whatever they call a gauge! LOL! Hmmm...a plum? When I weigh at our house I am 5 pounds heavier than when I weigh at the doc's office! You never know about those scales and gauges and such...I figure it is all just a guess anyway!  |
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Post by Deleted on Sept 7, 2007 18:55:19 GMT -5
Okay, here's a pic of the tomatoes (post shake, lol):  See the green arrow? That's how far down the "water" line is. Is this okay or should I reprocess? I seem to have lost a lot of the liquid during my marathon boiling session because I only had ½" of headspace when I put them in. Please be honest. I'd rather do the work to fix them if they need it than to die a long, slow painful death by eating poison tomatoes. /Via |
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Post by Deleted on Sept 7, 2007 19:00:03 GMT -5
VM...could be that their testing thingies are off too! You might take it to the hardware store and see what their's says! You might be right on "plumb" or whatever they call a gauge! LOL! Hmmm...a plum? When I weigh at our house I am 5 pounds heavier than when I weigh at the doc's office! You never know about those scales and gauges and such...I figure it is all just a guess anyway! nan, it occurred to me that their tester could be off. My colleague offered to use some something or other at work to test my gauge for me next year so I may take him up on that. As for the weight thing, I turn into a whale when standing on the doc's scale.  /Via |
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Post by Kathy on Sept 7, 2007 19:30:05 GMT -5
Via, I've never had the liquid level go down that much. I'm going to see if I can find any info on the web about the liquid level. My concern is for the ones above the liquid; would they mold or not? I don't know if that's natural for cold packed tomatoes or not.  |
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Post by Deleted on Sept 7, 2007 19:36:41 GMT -5
Thank you for your help, Kathy. Maybe I should play it safe and redo them. If I put them in the fridge as is tonight, would it be okay for me to redo them tomorrow? Or will I have to redo them tonight in order to stay within the 24 hour window?
/Via
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Post by Kathy on Sept 7, 2007 19:43:50 GMT -5
Thank you for your help, Kathy. Maybe I should play it safe and redo them. If I put them in the fridge as is tonight, would it be okay for me to redo them tomorrow? Or will I have to redo them tonight in order to stay within the 24 hour window? /Via Put them in the fridge, they'll be fine till tomorrow. Just to be safe, you might want to redo them. I'd hate to say they're fine and then have you get sick. Just put them all in a big pot, bring to a boil & simmer for 10-15 mins. Fill the jars and process for hot pack. Sorry you have to redo them but better safe than sorry. |
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Post by Kathy on Sept 7, 2007 19:45:31 GMT -5
I keep forgetting to ask-what was the 'incident' with the beans?? You know, I was driving to the bank this morning thinking about your comment and then I forgot to ask when I got home.  |
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Post by Deleted on Sept 7, 2007 19:47:18 GMT -5
Thank you - I'll do just that. I don't mind reprocessing them because safety is at the top of my list.
I'm grateful for your quick help; you saved my tomatoes!
/Via
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Post by Kathy on Sept 7, 2007 19:54:05 GMT -5
I reread my comment above. You can put them in the fridge untill tomorrow and Then reprocess them. It was kind of confusing the way I posted it before. |
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