Rant: The way I used to can tomatoes vs. how I do it now is two different worlds

Back when I started canning about 8 years ago in my little kitchen in Boise, I would boil jars for 20 minutes, dump in hot tomatoes, and hope for the best. I never checked the lids right, and I lost maybe 3 or 4 jars a season to seal failures. Then two summers ago, my neighbor Martha told me to invest in a real pressure canner and use a pH strip on every batch. I thought she was being over the top, but after one batch of watery salsa went bad in the pantry, I listened. Now I test acidity every time, run the pressure canner at exactly 11 pounds for 40 minutes, and I haven't lost a single jar in over a year. The flavor is brighter and I don't worry about botulism every time I open a jar. Has anyone else had a old method that just stopped working for them?

3 comments

3 Comments

ray3565d ago

Man, I hear you, @michael669. It felt like overkill at first but that acid test saved my bacon more than once after a bad batch.

piper7795d ago

Honestly, just grab a basic pH meter from Amazon for like 15 bucks, it's way easier than messing with strips every time. I learned the hard way that anything over 4.6 pH can mess up your whole batch of canned tomatoes. Quick dip in each jar before you seal them and you'll catch any troublemakers right away.

michael6695d ago

Hold up, what did you say about testing acidity with pH strips on every single batch? I didn't even know you could do that for tomatoes. That sounds like a whole science experiment, man.